The actual field testing occured Tuesday afternoon. The mothers would not be back into their houses until then since like most women in developing countries they needed to transport water and firewood to thier households. I turn on the tap and hit the thermostat when needed and complain bitterly if the power goes out for a few days and the well pump ceases back in the U.S......
The team armed with PDA's fanned out after the two Save vehicles deposited us just a few kilometers from the office. Still, we were in a far different place with small brick or wattle houses separated by a few hundred yards. Each house had a cleared perimeters being well swept. As usual I was drawn to the anxious and inquiring stares of the children, always the youngest standing behind an older brother or sister. I am always cautious in approaching groups of children, not only to not frighten them, but to assess the appropriateness of it. I ask staffer about this and here it was fine, but I do not want ot turn and deflect a rock or a stick thrown my direction. But, as always, the tall, well-fed, blued-eyed, pale-skinned stranger is welcomed. Take pictures of them, then after showing them themselves the exclaim with glee and crowd about me. I love it.
After each interview, I asked the HEW how it went. They all mentioned that it went well with no problems. Now, culturally, it is always difficult to determine if I am being given the polite answer or the true assessment. Probing questions often help, but the consensus was in. They had no problems. Even when it began to rain, the mother took the HEW indoors to finish the survey. People normally do not remain in puring rain to converse. A plastic bag serves as an inexpensive moisture deterrent (this I learned from my managers' daughter while sampling with a PDA on high volcanic slopes).
A typical interviewer is shown in the following picture:
Note the male interviewer on the left of this picture and half of the team (the team split into two different villages) sitting on the right following the interviewer with their own PDA forms. There is an enacted timer on the PDA form and each interview took on an average of 16 minutes. The grandmother (who happneded to be blind) is seated to the mothers right. I have seen this scene so many times all over the world. It is fascinating to see it duplicated in so many different environmental and cultural contexts. We at Save the Children have strong technical advisers who maintain contact with the current trends and methodologies for our programs across other NGO's. They also provide a uniform methodology by remaing in constant contact with our Country Office program managers all over the world. This takes great effort and requires a high cost to do so. Donate to your favored NGO (how pretentious of me!)
What I am accumulating is a trans-CO knowledge of certain programs across many of our areas of program delivery, and not simply from the programmatic view, but actually in the field. Food Security in Save is based on the same model, mostly linked with health provisions (the two are undeniably linked), but I am able to talk to the managers who have to get the food rations delivered by truck over impassable roads to the villages in time. How do tell they communicate to the mothers who are going to carry their malnourished babies many kilometers in hot humid weather the next day that the trucks broke down or that a political demonstration blocked the road. The mothers simply arrive without the food distribution. I have never seen this happen and it seldom, if ever, does, but Food security managers always describe it as their biggest fear - the logistics. If it happens, some of those babies might not have reason to return next distribution cycle.....go figure.
I must finish packing. It is Sunday and I will be picked up in a couple of hours to go to Entebbe Airport to depart to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. A few hours layover (I will be vigilant Lee...), a connection in Bangkok Thailand, then onto Vietnam. This is great.
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