Lost track of the days....

This last week was a very busy week and with all the work, traveling, data analysis and general sickness I did not get around to posting by day so I will give a general overview of the week, everyday was about the same so you haven't really missed anything.

Me doing a key informant interview

From Monday until Thursday was data collection- focus groups, key informant interview, and household surveys. On Monday we went to two barangays-one in the morning and another in the afternoon. We did household surveys first by walking around with the Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) and trying to interview every 3rd house. This gave us a chance to see the community and find out what the community thought about water and sanitation. It was very interesting to see the communities and see how each barangay was different and had so many different problems. After we did the surveys we would move into doing focus groups and key informant interviews. In the focus group we had them do a community map, prioritize the problems and a problem and solution tree. So we did this in the morning for 4 hours had a short break and then went and did the same thing all over again in another barangay in the afternoon. I will just say that we were incredibly tired the first day and we made it home by 7pm after being out all day. As a side note: I've already discussed how humid and hot it is here--now think about that but you're in a small room with ten people and one fan. Lets just say that we were all very very sweaty and gross by the end of every day. Monday was a very hard day and on Tuesday we decided to break up our little group and do two barangays at once in the morning so we could be done earlier in the day-- it meant less woman power but getting done early was worth it. So Tuesday to Thursday we split the group up and went to separate barangays-- it was lots of work but so rewarding and interesting. I really feel like I can do a focus group now, and successfully implement the other skills I have learned. 

Julie, Jennifer and Helen doing a focus group

The group finished data collection on Thursday July 19th and then the task of data analysis began. We spent the better part of Friday analyzing data and then writing reports of the results by barangay. The nutrition group left on Friday to head to Boracay- one of the islands. I was a little jealous to say the least, but there was no way I could go because we had enough work for the whole weekend. Saturday and Sunday were work days...with little breaks in the afternoon. Saturday I went to the local mall-SM to get an actual coffee that wasn't instant for Nescafe. Walking into Starbucks was like being at home, it was a very comforting feeling. The coffee did wonders and so did the mango shake later. Unfortunately the food that came with the mango shake was not what we were looking for- green mango salad with some fish paste just doesn't work for me. Sunday was a paper writing day with a short break for swimming, and the Silang market. Even though we had lots of work to complete it was a relaxing weekend free of stress. We were getting our work done and not having to stress about it was nice-everyone did their part and got it done. It was a very long week but I learned so much and am glad I had the experience of working in the field and understanding the challenges and rewards that come with it.