A Field Day in Vayots Dzor Armenia

I am catching up on my blogging due to intermittant internet connectivity and travel to Malawi. Last Friday was my trip to the field. We drove 2 1/2 hours south of here. It was stunning. We had to rise up to a mountain pass of over 6.000 feet. All was covered in a light powdery snow with a brilliant blue sky and much warmer temperatures than down in Yerevan where I have been. Still, it was below freezing. Not many trees on the mountainsides, but plenty of rushing streams of freezing water.

The team traveled in separate vehicles since there were five of us – a pretty tight fit in one SUV. We were going to test the two forms that the team built in the Marz of Vayots Dzor. We first stopped in the village of Saravan and entered a building which appeared to be the village administration location. There, we were introduced to several workers in the program here including the Deputy Mayor. Not long after we began the PDA surveys, the Mayor himself came to observe our activities.

Each team member had a PDA with the forms that I had pre-loaded the night before. I had reviewed each form for any logic errors. There might have been a few minor changes I might have made, but these would be learning lessons for our review when we reassembled on Monday. Each team member paired up with a respondent as I observed. Sofik seems to have an innate skill to position herself in a body-language friendly position for the interviews. Each member was adept having the respondent being able to see the screen of the PDA. This is important and differs from using the traditional paper-and-clipboard method.



Not only during my work with the Save the Children, but I have always noticed that interviewers unconsciously place the clipboard between themselves and the person being interviewed. This always seems to engender at the least a curiosity, and at worst mistrust between the two parties. It can form an inanimate barrier between people. On the other hand, I have noticed continually that they PDA, because of its small size, allowing the interviewer to more easily come alongside the respondent. Always, the respondent will at first be drawn to the technological device. This can cause a concern, as I have seen respondents in remote villages ask if their voices are being records, or are their pictures being taken. In Uganda, the PDA team had decided that they actually informed the respondent that their responses would be private and nothing other than their verbal responses were being record in a written manner.



Again, after the initial curiosity of the respondent, invariably I have observed that the respondent and holder of the PDA release from the technical aspect of the PDA. Then, there seems to be a great trust involved and the respondent soon loses interest in the PDA. Then, the respondent is able to maintain eye contact in the absence of the clipboard barrier to concentrate on the questions being asked.



Additionally, the interviewer is largely freed from interpreting the logic of the questioning because of shuffling papers or trying to determine which questions should be advanced based on the respondents answer. This latter is designed into the form through the use of simple scripting. The team later comment on this that they simply had to tap the screen and the PDA question logic was enacted automatically.



We then traveled a short distance to an art school that had been renovated for the community of Vayk. We did not conduct any interviews here, but after a brief session with the staff, we walked into a large dance practice hall. Here were young children, probably eight to ten years of age practicing during their dance class. There were both boys and girls in the class and soon after the music started we began to clap our hands to what Margarita told me was the national dance of Armenia. Well, with all of those children whirling around the dance floor to the lively music, soon I also was whirling around the floor arm in arm with Margarita. How can one resist – life is short.



On Sunday, Margarita and her husband (whom I met upon our return from the field yesterday) picked me up early this afternoon to do some shopping. She has been great giving me background on Armenia, so I am really looking forward to it. The highlight was a surprise visit for an Armenian dinner to their apartment in an area on the outskirts of Yerevan called Bangladesh. Since I have made three trips to that country, I was curious as to its name here in Armenia. Margarita explained it was named such because it was so far away from the city center (just a few kilometers in actuality).

They had a beautiful apartment filled with books (both Margarita and her husband attended university) and two young daughters, the youngest of which was quite shy at my arrival. The older daughter showed off her PDA phone with connection to local television, internet, SMS and email. I had never encountered this particular device in my PDA reviews. Margarita husband informed me that it was a model that would not be available to a non-U.S. market. These I have reviewed from Asian retailers, but never available in the U.S.



It is always such an honor to crosss the border across cultures whenever I have the opportunity to enter a staffers household. These are most dear experiences for me.
We dined on cheeses and sliced meats and a wonderful rice dish. They table was filled with other dishes and especially the bread that I have learned to love. I am not much of a drinker, but we did toast ourselves with Russian vodka. Lastly, I was poured a small glass of Armenia brandy. Armenia is famous for its brandy with the Ararat brandy factory having been established in Yerevan in 1887. Winston Churchill so enjoyed this brandy that Josef Staling would send him bottles of it while the two countries enjoyed good relations. When my glass was poured from across the table, I was suffused with the heady fruity aroma of the brandy. It was delicious and gently warming. Later, Maragarita explained and adressed me as David Jan. I was no longer simply the visiting consultant, but a friend of Armenia. this is truly a wonderful country of warm people.

On Monday, the team reassembled and we reviewed our field activities. Everyone agreed (as I always hear) that the forms functioned quickly, and in the case of our two forms – flawlessly. There was concern over the slower input method of the onscreen keyboard when recording qualitative responses. This was commented on by Guram in the field, which I showed him how to change the keyboard to one with larger keys. Still, paper is easier to write on, but totally lacks the added values of automatic answer progression (skip questioning) and restriction of inaccurate or out of range answers. Plus, the additional time of using the PDA keyboard is more than made up for with the elimination of post-interview hand transcription.

Over the weekend I had synchronized all of the data from the team’s interviews form the PDA’s to the Pendragon form software. I exported the data from the native Microsoft Access data base to more easily viewed Excel spreadsheets. All of the data looked good except for one curious record for each form. Again, you never see these things in the field, but only after post interview data review. The PDA records two additional fields in addition to the questions of PDA device name and date and time to the hundredth of a second. These two fields serve as composite keys in database parlance. It ensures behind the scenes that all records are maintained as unique records and that no data is lost. It was evident from the date/time stamp when the interviews took place – a little after noon and later after 2PM. But one record for each form had a date a little after midnight. Ah, this was my mistake. Those consultants - I had neglected to reset the PDA date and time from West Coast U.S. time. It was recording data exactly 12 time zones earlier. Databases, including mobile databases, do not lie.


Even though I do not consider myself a dancer by nature, it seems I always find myself dancing. It happened on a stage during a school presentation in La Paz Bolivia just a few hours after my arrival at the 13,500 foot elevation of that city. When a natively-costumed dancer spied me in the audience I knew that afterwards I would either have a lifetime memory, or pass out from oxygen-deprivation right there in front of the whole community. The former happened. This experience has been repeated for some strange reason all over the world, especially in Latin America. I just must look like a dancin’ fool!

So, I will spend a couple of days here next week finishing the assessment, then onto Malawi.

The Richness of Armenia

Friday, the team and I left Yerevan in two vehicles to travel for a little more than a couple of hours southeast to the Marz of Vayots Dzor. Exiting Yerevan saw us slowly emerge from the fog and cold of the plain surrounding the capital. Heading south at first, we then took a turn that led southeast which gradually had us ascending to foothills. As we gained elevation, the fog lifted and a brilliant blue sky appeared. the snow began to recede in southern-facing slopes and the sunlight felt warm on my right-passenger side of the vehicle facing the sun.

Before I describe the field testing of the PDA forms, I will tell about what happened later that afternoon after out visits to the village of Saravan and the municipality of Vayk. It is not that the testing did not go well, nor the delight of being entertained by young dancers performing the national dance of Armenia. But, as you can see, the detour to the churches at Novarank was stunning.




After we finished our testing, Margarita asked if I would like to see a church. I figured that I was in for a treat. During our drive to Vayots Dzor, I learned that Margarita had studied geography and tourism during university a few short years ago. This became evident during our travel, since she had printed out a few pages of narrative of the history of where we were traveling to. Thankfully, during our ride, she provided narrative of all that I saw. We now could drive a couple of kilometers to the south towards the border of Iran to view the churches and mausoleum at Novarank.



Soon after we left the highway, we entered a narrow gorge with surrounding cliffs rising hundreds of feet above us. The road was in good shape as Margarita explained that it was in good repair due to the large number of visitors during the summer months. Not far, we emerged into a large bowl-shaped valley that opened up to a cathedral-like view. High to our left, was the church complex situated on a promontory.



I was so entranced just with the view of this valley before me. But I also knew that my life-long delight with history was to be satiated soon. This church was founded in 1205.

When Are We Leaving??

This is how I am feeling at this point - are we there yet?. Tomorrow we will drive a couple or so hours to field test our two forms. The time of training with the PDA's and form design software is completed except for our post field test review. During the training I emphasized repeatedly that what works here in our training sessions will behave differently under field conditions. It always happens that way. Try as we might, something usually pops up that does not function as anticipated until you place the application in the actual context of where it will be used. Part of the reason of this plague of developers and project managers for computing applications is the the designer is expert on how the application works. I recall when I designed and conducted application testing for mobile inventory applications for the Boeing company, I would send out a call of invite to the organizations that eventually would use the application for testing volunteers. Almost without exception, I would receive the expert person who knew how to run the prior version as a super user.



This never made sense to me since they already knew how it worked except for the changes to the application. I frequently would politely smooth over their bruised egos when I declined their offer. I would then make an unannounced call down to the factory floor looking for better, less expert users of the application. I knew that I had found success when I discovered the old codger who must use the application in his/her daily work and who, after some prodding, would vocally declare that they hated the program and it was a waste of their time. These testers were invaluable and would quickly - and loudly - tell you what did not work. Usually this person was as close to the actual process and was indeed the the true expert. Free cups of coffee and donuts did not seem to bias the results.



I am not entirely sure where we will proceed, but Margarita assures me that we will be able to visit areas where both the Community Self-Help Fund (CSHF) and the NOVA programs will be present. The latter is a partnership funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a five-year initiative designed to improve quality of and access to reproductive, maternal and infant health care in rural areas of Armenia. The Project is managed by Emerging Markets Group, Inc. in partnership with IntraHealth International Inc. and Save the Children, and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Republic of Armenia. I am here in support of Save the Children in order to assist them as emerging as an innovator in use of mobile technology.

Now here is the nuts and bolts of the issue in my largely ignorant and simple understanding. After the economic collapse in Armenia due to the pull out of Soviet Russia in the early 1990's, things became rough for everyone. No jobs, no taxes for infrastructure upkeep and improvement. Around 35% of people in Armenia live below the poverty level, while 6.5% are very poor living on less than $1 a day. The last time that we experienced anything akin to 35% unemployment in the United States was the Great Depression! From reading the success stories (I dearly love them, especially the Save the Children's Directors comment at the dedication of a renovated youth sports facility in Artik town in the Shirak marz, I wish that the Sport School gives many champions. Champions indeed - of the future of the community). I have seen the world over how people, especially women and children, spend much time and effort hauling firewood for heating and cooking fuel, as well as water for cleaning, cooking and hygiene over long distances.



I recall how busy I was with my four young children at one time going to work, coming home to do the laundry and cooking meals. this is not to mention the other tasks of transportation to soccer (football) games, etc. Well, I was plenty busy without having to haul stacks of wood on my head while carrying a bucket or two of water a few kilometers in the dead of winter. I sure enjoy hot showers at the turn of the faucet and electricity upon demand. I will not describe latrine situations in developing countries - flush and go for me! Now where is that secure donation website link?

So very little relatively goes a long way. I will post pictures and narrative in a couple of days so you can see the exceedingly fine work being conducted for the children and families of Armenia by Save the Children and the partners. The newsletter that was produced by the staff of the Armenia CO of Save The Children before I left the U.S. was delightful and very informative.

Accelerated in Armenia

It must be the cold weather for the PDA team of Guram, Nune(1), Sophik, Margarita and, last but not least, Nune(2)are about 1/2 day ahead of schedule. This is day three (Wednesday) of my visit to the Save the Children office here in Yerevan Armenia. At this point, I have shrugged off most of the effects of the jet lag (I am awakening at a decent time in the morning now). Also, by experience, I can tell how successful we are as a team based on where we are along in the training outline and how involved I am in the training.



The latter is much more indicative of our progress. I know we are ahead of schedule from several aspects. I spent about 1/2 hour at the beginning of our session today conducting a review of yesterdays efforts, asking for comments or suggestions (in case I need to adjust the agenda). I also felt they were ready to take a look at a pretty sophisticated form built by the Uganda Save the Children team last August. We first looked closely at the paper form and then at the construct of the resulting PDA form. This gave the team an idea of some more advanced methods of form construct, but I could tell that they were anxious to return to the form that they had nearly finished late yesterday.



I am continuing to see a development in my training sessions at our different country offices. The challenge is not in understanding how to use the PDA's, nor how to use the software. The challenge is always in first understanding the structure and logic of the paper form. Again, we are building mobile databases. Peper forms just do not automatically insert into a PDA and begin to work. Weaknesses and failings in a paper form become amplified and evident on a PDA.

I am beginning to develop a severe mistrust of paper survey forms. They are just sitting there deceptively winking at me with those big blue textual eyes saying, I am really so simple..... Emphatically NO. I am finding that even the simplest form has hidden, non-articulated instructions and meanings. As an example, yesterday it took the team a couple of hours until the two-page form of forty-two question was agreed upon. Until I observe all of their heads nodding up and down do I encourage them to lay their fingers on the keyboard and hands on the laptop mouse to begin designing the form. I will attempt to describe this subtle deception on the part of the paper form later.

For the balance of the morning, I stood at the far end of the room and simply observed their form design progress on the projector screen. Actually I am actively engaged in watch their team discussions. I am hesitant to interrupt their decision-making process except where they reach a stalemate (even then I usually do not intrude), or see them proceeding down a wrong path. The team made excellent progress. I can tell, because even when I thought I should reinforce my trainer ego by suggesting a change, I received a polite wave-off, and they promptly solved the problem. I am proud of them.

A pleasant surprise is with Nune(1), who is the technology focal. This means that everyone is happy with her until their computer misbehaves or emails ceases to function. Ah, I remember those days of adrenaline. Nune not only constructs Microsoft Access databases, but she also has recently received training in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. This office is well-poised for managing data and presenting in an intelligible easily retrievable manner. The Country Office Director, Irina Saghoyan, discussed this priority with me on my first day.



Another distinguished advantage for this office is the incomparable Vera. Vera cooks and hosts the lunch time meal here on the office premises. This not only spares an exit out onto the frozen suburban tundra at noon (even at midday, it is below freezing), but I have the chance to sample something other than see-it-is-just-like-in-America hotel food. Vera cooks and presents delicious meals which make me feel like I am at her home. Everyone sings her praises and I will add myself to that chorus.

Tomorrow, on our fourth day (Thursday), we will have finished the second test form. I will then have them role-play as interviewer-respondent with their PDA-installed creations. This activity is intended to extract them from their technical activities and to prepare for the human interaction during our field visit in Friday.

This is NOT the Tropics!

I checked into my room at the Hotel Congress in Yerevan. This hotel is only five years old, and even though it is a small room, it is very clean and well maintained. I will like it here. I have only been able to connect to the internet for a brief time. My hotel bathroom has an interesting device to warm the towels. I noticed a ladder like device made of tubular steel hanging on the wall adjacent to the shower stall. It actually had a plug in the bottom with a power light. I turned it on and I did not notice it blink or emit any sounds. Later, I found that it had heating coils in the contraption that gently warmed the two towels hanging on it. I like this idea.

Of course, due to the 12 hours of jetlag that I am experiencing, I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 2:30AM. It will be Wednesday before I am close to adjusting to a normal circadian rhythm. I spent Sunday resting and making the final touches to my introductory Power Point presentation and training plan. I also took the opportunity to continue work for my visit to our Save the Children Country office in Malawi. I will depart a week from Wednesday and fly down to that small country in Africa. I will need to connect with a flight to Kenya through Heathrow airport in London. Even then, I will not be able to fly directly to the airport outside of the capital city of Lilongwe. I will arrive there via a brief stop in Lusaka, Zambia directly to the west of Malawi.



It is very cold here in Yerevan. During my meeting with Irina Saghoyan, the Armenia Country Officer Director, she mentioned that it was unseasonably cold even for here. I do not feel that it is very bad, but I think it is -10 degrees centigrade overnight. I brought along plenty of warm clothes so I will be fine.



My driver Karen (a warm friendly man about my age) picked me up promptly at 9AM. I have just finished my 1st half day of training. I found that I needed to adjust my training schedule. Delightfully, the PDA’s that I scattered throughout the conference room table came quickly into the hands of the team. I had to give them a good ½ hour just trying the PDA’s out and inputting data in the test forms that I provided. We then agreed to a schedule for the next six days which included a field visit on Friday. Margarita, whom I met during a Design, Monitoring and Evaluation (DM&E) conference in Istanbul back in October 2005, offered to take me to the crafts market here in Yerevan this weekend. The Armenia culture is rich and the people very friendly.

A Paris Regression

I am here in the capital city of Yerevan and is it cold here. There will be more on that later. When I met my Save the Children driver upon my exit from Immigration at the airport here, I could see on his face that I was not ready to encounter the sub-freezing weather outside the terminal clothed in my light cordouroy coat. Ah, but I came armed with my heaviest down coat, Thinsolite gloves and woolen pull-over-the-ears hat.

I neglected to finish writing about my return trip from the Save the Children USA offices in Mali and Guinea last December. I was pleased with the outcome of the assessment of whether our Country Office there, collectively called Sahel, should go to paperless data collection in some of their programs. I am looking forward to hear the reports of how they will implement the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s).

During the second week of my trip, the team traveled to the neighboring country of Guinea, specifically the city of Kankan. I really enjoyed working with the group there. The Save the Children office was superb but, I will not describe the general hygiene in the city at large, specifically the toilet facilities. Several times my meals were offered warm which I politely refused. This is why I always bring small packaged snacks with me especially during trips to field locations to test our PDA forms.

Well, sure enough, I picked up a virus. This is actually the first time that it was viral and not a bacterial opportunist in my alimentary system. I was actually feeling fine until I departed from the plane at Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Paris on my return from Mali. I was hurrying to another terminal for my connect flight. Suddenly, while standing on a moving walk way, my last meal was urging to exit from the upper reaches – right there on the walkway. This is how you know it is viral, since if it is bacterial, it will want to void itself from lower down. I want to you spare any other descriptors, but at the time I was struggling not to make myself a spectacle right there in the airport. I recovered slightly after a safety net trip to a handicapped toilet facility to achieve some privacy just in case I involuntarily became a human fountain. I still had a couple of hours until my flight back to Seattle. I needed to determine my flight gate before I vainly traveled to another terminal.

Somehow, I found myself on the relatively deserted upper floor above the main terminal. The large expanse of this floor was empty except for a column surround by a low tableau which allowed me to sit my briefcase on and at the same time to lean against. Instead of an opaque wall In front of me, there was what must have a 40 foot glass wall extending down to the ticketing/security area below. Behind this glass was an equally high departing flight reader board. My flight was still too far in the future to be displayed, but here I found refuge. I attempted to return to this location on my visit to this same airport yesterday enroute to Armenia, but I was stopped by a security guard.


My nausea had now subsided, but I was struck by an overwhelming desire to sleep. In fact this after effect of the virus extended for the next three days. Afterwards, I was fine with no ill effects, which was confirmed by my personal doctor. But here, I struggled to remain awake. I wrapped my fanny pack harness into a Gordian styled knot with my briefcase. I set my PDA alarm to the highest decibel level just prior to the time I would have to reach my gate. But would unfold was far more interesting to my bodies need for rest. During the next couple of hours, other sojourners of airport catacombs would find themselves approaching me. I would first hear their footsteps which would arouse my from an uncomfortable doze. Looking up I would find a person obviously lost. Well, I found myself on my feet and asking them for their boarding pass. Then we would jointly scan the huge reader board from our vantage point to determine their gate. I spoke with a young Vietnamese man (my assumption, since he arrived from Ho Chi Minh City). There was also the young Iranian lady, and several others with that look of panic on their faces. Of course they each warily approached me for want of directions and solace from another traveler. Still, I must of presented a suspicious visage. I was anticipating a visit from security based on my image showing up in some distant control room via the ubiquitous cameras overhead.

I got onto my flight and promptly fell asleep. Imagine me, the person who loves flying and takeoffs asleep as we lifted off of the European continent! Once, I stirred from my slumber. The lady sitting a couple of seats from me suggested that I could probably get something to eat in the galley since I had missed the meal. She subtly leaned away from me as I told her I that I was just returning from a Third World country and that I had picked up some intestinal virus. This was too much information that I hoped would not result in a quarantine for me when I arrived in the U.S.

Armenia and (where is?) Malawi

I am preparing to depart out of Sea-Tac airport from my home state of Washington (West Coast). I am on my way to conduct training for paperless data collection for the Save the Children USA country offices (CO) in Yerevan, Armenia east of Turkey and Lilongwe, Malawi in southern Africa. My flights will total over 26,000 miles. My two flights to Armenia, a ten hour segment to Paris, then 4 ½ hours to Yerevan, will go quickly. The 12 hour jet lag will be not so easily accommodated, but I will arrive one day early so that I am not totally incoherent on the first training day.

My return flight from Malawi will be much more exhausting. I need to fly south to Johannesburg prior to a ten hour flight back up to Paris. Then, there will be another 10 hour flight to Seattle. That will be a 50 hour set of travel days. Enough of my whining. It is the hot and humid summer in Malawi, but I will be fortunate to see the thermometer hit above freezing while in Armenia. I love it!

The airport is just 10 minutes south of Seattle. In order to see my wife Heidi just before I left, she dropped me off at the airport shuttle at 5:15 AM, even though my flight does not depart until 2:05 PM. I did not mind, as if I took the appropriate shuttle in order to arrive the suggested three hours prior to departure, I would of only gained a couple of hours.

Also, I love arriving early at the airport in order to avoid the frenetic pace and admittedly entertain myself with the antics of late arrives. With most humor, we are amused, because either it has, or could conceivably happen to ourselves. Yes, I have raced through airports more than once. Plus, it can be rewarding to be in a more relaxed disposition to be available to assist someone near in line that may not be in similar attitude.

To risk banality, airports are interesting places. For instance, most everyone by necessity must go to the grocery store due to the obvious. However, not everyone needs to go to the airport. I first noticed this years ago in almost a cruel observation. I was at our local Department of Licensing office needing to renew my driver’s license. This is bureaucracy at its best. All the while I am thankful that I do not enjoy such a secure job. I try to be very patient both with the clients as well as the people behind the counters. The employees know the processes backwards and forwards. Yet, continually they are confronted with people like me, who have either forgotten the process, or just mentally stutter from having to endure it again.

Remember, this is a potential Pass/Fail scenario and even though the latter rarely happens except for the distal points of one’s’ driving career. The employees are almost always without fail courteous and thoughtful. It reminds me of the continual reoccurrence of questions that I answered a multitude of times during computer application or PC support. “Why doesn’t the screen come up?” “My printer does not print?” “Do you think that it is my mouse?” You must pass on your knowledge with a smile and wisdom – always.

Anyway, while sitting in the licensing department, I would see persons walk in the door who evidently had not left their household environment since the last bureaucratic venture. You could see the look on their pale faces encountering persons of presumed authority so that they could continue their enfranchised right of driving on streets that pale in relation to those in the capital cities of emerging countries. The social skills often had deteriorated, and the individual reaction to stress varied according to the person’s demeanor. Some would become angry, while others shrank back towards the water fountain. It was a display of classic “fight or flight” syndrome. I enjoyed watch for the elderly, in particular, and offer to guide them to the right form or line to stand in. Perhaps I should have remained quiescent since I recall the glare from an elderly woman when I had mistakenly directed her to the line for a Class II long haul license. The bureaucratic experts soon rescued her from my ill-placed intentions.



Airports, on the other hand, are different. Most people are frequent flyers and are accustomed to getting out of the darkened spaces of a domestic refuge. Still, and I still share this, there are many who have that deer-in-the-headlights stare. I am confident that someone at the Yerevan airport in Armenia will be waiting to amuse – and to gently and wisely assist – themselves when I arrive not knowing the process in an unfamiliar setting. It always comes around…