Hopefully Last post from Kovalum

This older fisherman was talking with me and describing the kind of fish they used to catch when he was younger. He was quite friendly. I felt sad for him to have his way of life diminished so dramatically.

In India you can buy ready made clothes, but you are more likely to have something tailored for yourself. They have stores everywhere. This was one waiting for business back behind our hotel in a labyrinth of paths. He agreed to have his picture taken. The sewing machines are all pedal operated (not electrical pedal).

Ahh, Anna exists. I forget to pop into my photos, but here I am. Leigh and I went on a little adventure at dusk, winding our way through back paths away from the beach. It is a bizarre mix of beautiful, ill-kempt, new and homey.

India is the home of the squatty potty. At the German Bakery where we have eaten almost every day for breakfast, they have this fabulous sign explaining how to use it. Hilarious.

I am feeling pretty sick again and have reinstated my cipro regimen. But, Leigh and I are planning on traveling all day tomorrow to go back to Rajakkadu. We have the diary finished!!! It is beautiful, truly we are quite proud of it. I finished the facilitation manual yesterday and there is just data capture pages and the spreadsheet left to pump out today. Oh, and our three powerpoint presentations on programs, evaluation and ILS diaries. It feels good to have some of this finished. Wish us luck on the training portion of it. Ideally, we'll have our laptops running, but given the monsoons, we are printing all the slides now so we can present off of them just in case.
Graham is coming to me so soon. I can hardly tell you how excited I am to see him. I really had no idea how hard it would be to be separated for so long. I'm really looking forward to his arrival with me in Kochi on August 2. He'll be in Rajakkad with us for the final week of training before we all go our separate ways.
That's all for now. Keep the email coming, I like hearing about the summer I'm missing state-side.
Anna

The best part of Kovalum

10 years ago Kovalum beach was a small fishing village, it has since become a resorty, tourist town, but yesterday morning it showed its true colors. We started by noticing men out in the water, and then heard chanting. The men were pulling the ropes in as they chanted a rhythm, it was really cool.

There was a lot of net to be managed and probably there were 40 men or so working on the effort, both in and out of the water.

A crowd kept growing on the beach and when the nets were finally in everyone gathered around to see what was brought in.

Unfortunately, for all that effort, the catch was mostly anchovie size fish, nothing to write home about. Apparently it's become increasingly difficult for the fishermen here who fish on a subsistence basis. There have been laws that during this off season there are to be no trolling ships or big merchants doing commercial fishing, but I'm unclear how much that helps.

I think you like the pictures best

Just a little British remanant, hahaha

Everything, everything is made from concrete around here, we're not really sure why, but this picture epitomizes the construction. It's concrete. and there are 7 men, 7 whole grown men working on this tiny section. India's whole economy is based on surplus labor. Have I mentioned this before? It is. Efficiency means nothing, employing as many people as possible is everything.

This building says "Cooperative Service Examination Board". I have two things to say about it. First, my colleague Katrina commented that, "India has a way of making even legitimate operations look illegitimate." I think that encapsulates it perfectly and succinctly. YOu start looking around the cities and it's true. YOu can stand in one spot and the longer you stand there the more notice, but at a glance you'll miss most of it because our western eyes don't register what doesn't look clean and in good repair etc. So this building is a good example. It probably is exactly what it says it is. WHICH, lead me to my second thing. Speaking with the men from the handloom weaver's, we learned that one of their wives if a government typist and what an honor and security that was for their family because she can never be fired and she has a lifetime pension, plus the job pays well. What they also told us was that she competed against over 100,000 other people for the job. Incredible! We next learned that Anhil two weeks earlier had taken a civil service examination test because he had applied for a government job. We asked why the test? He said that's how you get any of the government jobs. They're all roughly the same test. He wasn't sure if he had gotten some of his answers correct so he wanted to double check with us: "What is the national animal of the United States?", "Who abolished slavery in the United States?" "Who said, 'A government for the people, by the people and of the people' (?? did I get the quote right?)"? These questions just to be a typist or any other government position. Pretty interesting.

THis is the lighthouse on Kovallum beach, I felt like I owed you another beach picture since I am staying beach front.

So Sorry for the Absence

I was busy avoiding rash driving, so as not to "reduce" my life! This is a bus station stop. The signs in India, I swear, are almost the best part!

Douglas Martin, no more Dr. Ramaswamy for you. Check this out! This is a 260 year old Hindu temple in Trivandrum named Sri Padmanabhaswamy! Whoa.

Mr. Ganesh with a fuzzy beard from a temple which was all black. We're not sure why.

A detail of Sri Pasdflk jfdaghjk; swamy Temple. Each column looked to be about my height, it's enormous and beautiful and still very much in use.

So. I'm still at the beach. The rains are unusually strong this time of year and the landslides and lack of electricity keep happening. Currently, I am in Kovallum which is near the capital Trivandrum, of the state Kerala. I don't really like it here all that much because it's so touristy, but we're at the mercy of good working conditions and so we must stay.
My professor was here for a little bit and our boss came south from the highrange to consult with us. Helzi clarified our work for us, gave us direction and under no uncertain terms told our boss where our efforts needed to be focused. It felt great. and then we got ill. Fever and the runs galore. oof. It took us off track and now we are starring at computer screens with post-fever glazed eyes wondering how we are ever going to get this much work done before we're finished August 9th. (Leigh leaves India August 15th and needs time to travel back up to Delhi for her flight, so we have no wiggle room on the end date). Essentially, HPWDS still needs help with mission, vision, funding proposals and strategic planning - but these are all things that future consultants can provide for them. While, Helzi has trained Leigh and I specifically in ILS diaries and HPWDS has been asking for a diary for 11 years now. Helzi told Mohanan we were the last students she was sending so if he wanted ILS he better let us focus on ILS and not do other things. Which, as it turns out is 100% true. It became clear that along with the diary for the women participants, you need a diary for data caputre, and a diary facilitation manual and a codebook and a data entry spread sheet and an overview manual AND then you have to train all the staff. So as soon as is humanly possible we will finish the production phase, return to Rajakkad and train our little hearts out. Beginning from a very basic concept of program evaluation, moving into editing the diary, training facilitation, then sampling and data capture. PHew. We are ambitious, I"m not sure it's possible, but we're giving it a good go.

Rajin, Kumar, and Satish are the brothers who started the HLWDS (NOT HPWDS)

The raw dyeing materials, all organic, ayurvedic medicinal products. Here they are in bulk waiting to be pulverized and then put into vats of water to dye the handwoven fabrics

This is the machine used to do the initial dyeing

Everything is done 100% naturally and organically, so in order to bleach some of the fabrics they do not want to use chlorine or chemicals. This is their method which has been used for 1,000s of years. This rock is always exposed to the sun and so by late afternoon it is very hot. They lay the fabric on it and turn on the shower head to sprinkle it with water and the fabric will steam and it becomes bleached from the sun. Cool, huh? No chemicals.

HandLoom Weavers' Development Society

This is an organization which is based 20 minutes from Kovalam where we are staying and which my professor has advised for 11 years. They have organized the traditional handloom weavers of cotton clothes here in Kerala and have revived the ayurvedic use of medicinal dyes to dye the fabrics for use in medical clinics, massage clinics etc. Two years ago they were given grants to build a large ayurvedic dyeing compound that is open for use to all of their weavers that are organized to recieve micro-loans and training and marketing help. We toured the compound and learned about the different dyes and some of the ayurvedic beliefs. I am in the process of learning more about the method and will write when I figure out a basic understanding of ayurvedic medicine. It is 5,000 years old and stems from a Hindu understanding of the world and is somewhat akin to Chinese acupuncture, but is even less invasive and relies on natural herbal rememdies and treatments. By using natural herbs and barks to dye clothes, they take on medicinal qualities and can be sold as such. It's a pretty neat thing and really represents the ancient craft and traditions of this region.

The top of a Hindu Temple in Varkala, I am not sure what any of it means, but it's painted and elaborate and quite fun, I'll try and do some research and get back to you on meaning.

This is a Sandalwood tree. It is in a cage because the wood is soooo valuable here that robbers come and chop it down, even though it is illegal for anyone (including the owner) to harvest sandalwood

Babu and his friend at the Funky Art Cafe in Varkala. They are hilarious and quite talkative. Leigh and I became good friends with them, even though they are quite mischievous. The beach culture is pervasive and the same everywhere in the world- Ya Mon!

So, I am still at the beach. Leigh and I have moved farther south of Varkala and are now virtually directly on the tip of India in Kovalam. We have met our professor and the other students here and will remain here for at least another week. This is unexpected, but our professor is in too poor of health to travel to the highlands and so our boss Mohanan will travel to the beach at the end of this week to meet with her. ALSO, perhaps more importantly, the monsoons have been particularly brutal this season in the highranges and they are experiencing terrible landslides and loss of life as a results. The HPWDS participants are so far all safe but many have had their homes wiped out by landslides. Therefore, it is too dangerous to travel back and we would be wholly unable to work since the electricity has been out for days on end now. We'll have to keep checking the weather. We are also a little bit leary about returning because there is a Chitunkunga (sp?) fever outbreak in the Idukki district that is being exacerbated by the rains. All and all, we'll stay at the beach a bit longer.

Collage of Photos

Out hiking in Rajakkad area you run into all sorts of friendly people. This woman laughed and chattered with us in Malayalum for the better part of 10 minutes. She was so excited for this photo, you'll notice how small she is, the people are very tiny. I have no idea what she said, but she was delightful.
Our neighbors came by and gave us a cooking lesson in making Chapati
This is Adimali, our internet town one hour away, and this is the massive waterfall visible from town. It's gorgeous AND they say that it only exists during monsoon season and is completely dry at other times.

Varkala Beach Town

Leigh on the balcony of our hotel room

The Santa Clause Resort, huh.

Boys on Sunday with nothing to do. "Boys on a wire"

Our first beer in two weeks! And nursing a Scrabble addiction.

Varkala

We have escaped Rajakkad. The electricity was going in and out over a dozen times a day and sometime was out for 48 hours at a time (this also means we had no water since the pump is electrically powered). Part of our usefulness as outside consultants is our computing power and skills, so electricity is crucial to our work.
We spent a full day traveling by bus and train and have arrived on the coast much farther south at Varkala. It is a tourist town and I will admit a relief not to be stared at and constantly stopped. Being at the edge of the Indian Ocean is truly thrilling, I can imagine myself on a map of India. The weather has been gorgeous, I’ve been getting a tan and we have found an ideal hotel room with a balcony over-looking the waves for $4.50 a night. Now, lest you think we are living it up too much, we HAVE been working 8 hours a day since we got here. Ahh, but the electricity is consistent, the ocean is mesmerizing, the people are used to foreigners and the lack of meetings is a breath of fresh air!

International Work

An example of a "dream scene" from the diaries. This is meant as a teaching element, to help the women imagine what the possibilities for their future might be and what goals they might set.

There are a handful of guaranteed items that you can count on when working internationally;
Communication will go awry.
Assumptions you didn’t even know you made will be proven wrong
Everything will take longer than you think it “should”

All of these elements are present in my current project. Between the head bob, the language barrier and vastly different experiences, communication can be quite a trick. One of the hardest tasks has been this first week of assessment where Leigh and I have tried to navigate meetings and get a clear-ish picture of what is going on and where we are needed. I enjoy the challenge, but it does make one a little nervous because you don’t want to create an inaccurate image in your head and then make decisions based off of it. Especially with the kind of deference that we are being given, and weight to our opinions. I think we have managed to conclude that HPWDS is very good at collaboration, community networking and program participation. They are very weak on organizational structure, evaluation, strategic and future planning and decision-making. This actually matches quite well with the skills we are offering the organization.
On Wednesday of last week Leigh and I suffered through an interminable 6 hour meeting during which we were paraded before a variety of community members (in a show of status) and then sat silently while waiting for Mohanan to take charge—which he never did. The main topic of discussion was social indicators (or at least I think so, it was so muddled). We wanted to know the social issues specific to the region that the survey tool we’re designing should make sure to address. Instead, the staff spent time discussing how to pictorialize each item they brought up, I would say 20 minutes an item with sketches and everything.
PAUSE Let me briefly explain the nature of an ILS diary (which we were commissioned to create). All social service programs need a component of evaluation to (1) prove externally that they are working and (2) identify programmatic strengths and weaknesses in order to use the most effective interventions. The most used method to collect this kind of data is via surveys of relevant stake-holders, including participants. Surveying quickly becomes interviewing (which is very extractive in nature) when you are interacting with an illiterate population. Therefore my professor, Helzi Noponen, has spent years developing a method of pictorializing a social/poverty indicators survey for illiterate populations primarily taking part in micro-credit programs. This is the nutshell version of what an ILS diary is.
So, when the staff is not discussing what questions they want to know about and are instead busily drawing pictures for us (which we cannot use), you can imagine our frustration. Their expertise is the area, the participants, social needs and their programs. Our expertise is in survey design, ILS diaries and strategic planning. Arghhhh! As the meeting continued and continued and continued we came to the conclusion that although HPWDS has been asking for an ILS diary from Helzi for over 5 years, they do not truly understand the purpose of the tool. This fits with our other observations that they are unduly focused on outside help and expertise and seek out whatever they can. The implications of this are fairly large because in order for us to design and present a useful diary to the staff we must be able to have meaningful interactions about the issues at hand for the organization and evaluation—NOT picture drawing.
Therefore, this week Leigh and I are putting together a basic and somewhat specific ILS diary for the organization. But, I am also working on a half day basic training for the staff on evaluation. HPWDS has operated since 1995 without a single piece of evaluation and seemingly without the notion to even ask, “Are our interventions working?” We will try and spend a day on the training to get everyone close to the same page before attempting to introduce the diary and do any group editing. Send us good vibes that it is successful!
[P.S. I hope this work talk did not bore you. I’ve been getting emails that people are interested, if this is not true just correct me and I’ll stick to the travel portions.]