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.
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.
2 comments:
Sounds like you guys are doing better than we did last year and at least know there is an end in sight.
Funny Indian signs: have you checked out some of the menus on Kovalum Beach? One of my favorites was "Diet Cock" instead of Diet Coke.
Have you met the fruit ladies?
I recommend getting an Ayurvedic Massage while you are there. It is definitely something to write home about.
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