It's almost nine in the morning and I'm camped out at a cafe getting some breakfast. Even though it's still early, the temperature is 82 degrees (28, for you non-Americans out there) and the humidity is 70%. It's bearable now, but it will only be on the rise throughout the day. The funny thing about being in a time zone that's exactly 12 hours ahead of New Orleans, is that the weather is usually about the same at any given time. For example, right now at home it's 78 degrees (26 celsius) with 87% humidity.
So I guess you might have already figured out, since I'm talking about the weather of all things, that things have been moving pretty slowly here. Last Thursday we made it out to the field for the first time. The project that we're working on is a capacity building project with the goal of reducing newborn mortality due to infection. Cambodia has community volunteers that visit new mothers after they give birth, so the project has been working to improve their training and supervision, as well as providing additional trainings within the health centers where women give birth.
Our primary job while we're here is to conduct about 30 interviews with the volunteers, the health center staff, and the mothers themselves. Although this kind of qualitative research seems pretty straightforward, it can actually be very complex. You need to think carefully about how each question is worded to make sure the questions are leading or difficult to understand, and also think about how you'll capture the information. For example, taking notes is less time-consuming than recording and transcribing the interviews, but may not capture all of the detail.
Last Thursday, we went out to the field to pre-test our interview guides. Pre-testing guides is something that we do to see how well the guides actually work in the field. We look for things like whether the questions make sense to participants, whether the interview is too long or too short, etc.
Being out in the field reminded me of working at Medicines for Humanity and all of my visits to different countries to support programs, but with one major difference. When I was at MFH, my visits were usually jam packed so I was running from a meeting here to do some home visits there and finally visit the clinic over there. Those of you who have worked with me know that I like things to be fast-paced (and I like to talk). Doing interviews with a translator requires me to sit still for an hour or ninety minutes and spend most of that time just listening and writing things down. For me, this is a definite challenge.
My colleagues were doing interviews on Monday and Tuesday, but we didn't want to overwhelm participants with too many people so I hung back. Tomorrow and Friday, though, I'll be back in the field doing the real interviews. I've been here for nearly three weeks now, and the waiting to get out and get something accomplished has been a real challenge for me as well. I'm viewing this as a learning experience and a lesson in slowing down, paying attention to detail, and shutting up for once.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Angkor Wat What??
I always worry about traveling to a new place, but once I get there I find that I'm usually able to adapt pretty quickly. I've been in Phnom Penh now for about a week and a half and while I still have a lot to figure out, I'm feeling pretty comfortable here. The weather is pretty much just like New Orleans, just with a bit less rain. You can get anywhere on a tuk tuk for usually a max of $5 and the beer averages in price from $0.50 and $2.00. So, all in all, not a bad place to be.
The research is having a big of a slow start, so my colleague and I took advantage of the lull to go visit Angkor Wat. If you don't know what Angkor Wat is, which I didn't, let Wikipedia tell you all about it. In short, it's a massive collection of Hindu temples, some of which were built as early as the 700s. Interestingly enough, it was just discovered that there are even more temples that haven't been unearthed yet.
So, we hopped on a bus on Wednesday and headed to Siem Reap to check out Angkor Wat. When I say that this place is massive, I'm really not joking around. The traditional day hike starts at sunrise, so you leave your hotel at 4:30 am and spend nearly 12 hours exploring temples. For those of you who know me, I'm usually only awake at 4:30 am if I haven't been to bed yet, so that early start was not exactly my favorite. Seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat was definitely worth it though.
In the first day, we explored about six temples throughout the day. Just to give you a sense of how much ground that is, we walked 11.5 miles and climbed 40 flights of stairs. The most amazing thing was probably how each of the temples was really unique in style. I certainly expected everything to be more or less the same and thought I would get bored quickly, but it was fascinating to see all the variation. The last temple we saw was the one that was used in Tomb Raider and was really cool to see as it had trees and vines all over and it was easy to feel like you were really exploring.
The second day, we explored more temples than I can count, but we got to have an 8 am start so I was happy about that. By the end of the day, I did start to get templed out, but I think it was worth a second day to see a bit more.
The highlight of the temples for me happened on the first day. We had walked through the largest temple and I was sitting on a ledge resting a little bit when a monkey walked by, not more than a few feet away. I could barely contain my excitement. My colleague thought I was being ridiculous, but I maintain that it was AWESOME.
In the evenings, we went out on Siem Reap's aptly named "Pub Street." It was really lively, filled with bars, restaurants, street vendors, and of course, tourists. It felt oddly like Bourbon Street in Cambodia.
I'm back in Phnom Penh now catching up on work and getting ready to start the week. I'm hoping that we'll get out to the field within the next few days to start preparing to start interviews for our research. I think we'll be staying around Phnom Penh for the next week or two, but that just gives me more time to explore around here!
The research is having a big of a slow start, so my colleague and I took advantage of the lull to go visit Angkor Wat. If you don't know what Angkor Wat is, which I didn't, let Wikipedia tell you all about it. In short, it's a massive collection of Hindu temples, some of which were built as early as the 700s. Interestingly enough, it was just discovered that there are even more temples that haven't been unearthed yet.
So, we hopped on a bus on Wednesday and headed to Siem Reap to check out Angkor Wat. When I say that this place is massive, I'm really not joking around. The traditional day hike starts at sunrise, so you leave your hotel at 4:30 am and spend nearly 12 hours exploring temples. For those of you who know me, I'm usually only awake at 4:30 am if I haven't been to bed yet, so that early start was not exactly my favorite. Seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat was definitely worth it though.
In the first day, we explored about six temples throughout the day. Just to give you a sense of how much ground that is, we walked 11.5 miles and climbed 40 flights of stairs. The most amazing thing was probably how each of the temples was really unique in style. I certainly expected everything to be more or less the same and thought I would get bored quickly, but it was fascinating to see all the variation. The last temple we saw was the one that was used in Tomb Raider and was really cool to see as it had trees and vines all over and it was easy to feel like you were really exploring.
The second day, we explored more temples than I can count, but we got to have an 8 am start so I was happy about that. By the end of the day, I did start to get templed out, but I think it was worth a second day to see a bit more.
The highlight of the temples for me happened on the first day. We had walked through the largest temple and I was sitting on a ledge resting a little bit when a monkey walked by, not more than a few feet away. I could barely contain my excitement. My colleague thought I was being ridiculous, but I maintain that it was AWESOME.
In the evenings, we went out on Siem Reap's aptly named "Pub Street." It was really lively, filled with bars, restaurants, street vendors, and of course, tourists. It felt oddly like Bourbon Street in Cambodia.
I'm back in Phnom Penh now catching up on work and getting ready to start the week. I'm hoping that we'll get out to the field within the next few days to start preparing to start interviews for our research. I think we'll be staying around Phnom Penh for the next week or two, but that just gives me more time to explore around here!
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Murphy's Law of Travel
Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Murphy's Law of Travel: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong when you are tired, dirty, jet-lagged, and don't speak the language.
Your favorite public health nerd is at it again, this time for a two-month stint in Cambodia working on some research with my colleagues at Tulane. I have always been an anxious traveler, mostly because of my fear of Murphy's Law of Travel. In most cases, my fears aren't justified and things go more or less smoothly. However, when I traveled to Phnom Penh to start my summer adventure last week, Murphy's Law of Travel rang true.
I left the sweltering heat of New Orleans at 3 pm on Tuesday. My car had developed yet another mechanical problem, so I dropped it off at the mechanics and went straight to the airport. I had a long journey ahead, with my first flight leaving New Orleans at 7 pm on Tuesday and my last flight touching down in Phnom Penh at 10:30 pm on Thursday (although there is a 12 hour time difference, so it would feel like 10:30 am instead of 10:30 pm).
Things started off well enough. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time and even had a meeting over the phone to hand-off some of my work in NOLA before boarding my flight. I arrived in San Francisco, grabbed a little food and settled in for the night. I had opted not to get a hotel since I figured I'd only end up with 6 or 7 hours there by the time I took into account security and transport and whatnot. All things considered, San Fran is a pretty great airport to sleep in: free wifi, some pretty posh couches... So far, so good.
The next leg of my journey was a 12-hour flight to Seoul. It was brutal, but I made it through with limited moments of feeling like I would lose my mind if I had to stay on the plane for one more minute. So far, everything had been pretty smooth and I was about to tackle the last leg of my journey. Aside from general exhaustion, I was alright.
The flight was a bit delayed, so I arrived in Phnom Penh at almost midnight and breezed through immigration without a hitch. Then I went to pick up my bag. My bag had other ideas though, and didn't arrive. So I made my claim and headed out to get a tuk tuk to my hotel.
Key terms: A tuk tuk is a small rickshaw attached to a motorbike. They are the most common form of transportation in Phnom Penh.
After about 10 minutes, the engine on the tuk tuk started to sputter and died. The driver got it restarted and we kept going, but at a much slower pace. After about 20 meters, it died again. It turns out the driver had run out of gas, so we waited for a friend to show up and give him enough to make it to a gas station and then we were on our way again. At about 1 am, we arrived at the hotel, which was completely dark. I knocked on the door and it was answered by a security guard who spoke no English. The tuk tuk driver translated and it turned out that although I had a reservation, the receptionist was gone so I couldn't stay there. Luckily for me, there was another hotel across the road that had rooms. Given, they were triple the price, but the time for bartering or searching for a better deal had passed. The mighty Amelia had struck out.
Murphy's Law of Travel: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong when you are tired, dirty, jet-lagged, and don't speak the language.
Your favorite public health nerd is at it again, this time for a two-month stint in Cambodia working on some research with my colleagues at Tulane. I have always been an anxious traveler, mostly because of my fear of Murphy's Law of Travel. In most cases, my fears aren't justified and things go more or less smoothly. However, when I traveled to Phnom Penh to start my summer adventure last week, Murphy's Law of Travel rang true.
I left the sweltering heat of New Orleans at 3 pm on Tuesday. My car had developed yet another mechanical problem, so I dropped it off at the mechanics and went straight to the airport. I had a long journey ahead, with my first flight leaving New Orleans at 7 pm on Tuesday and my last flight touching down in Phnom Penh at 10:30 pm on Thursday (although there is a 12 hour time difference, so it would feel like 10:30 am instead of 10:30 pm).
Things started off well enough. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time and even had a meeting over the phone to hand-off some of my work in NOLA before boarding my flight. I arrived in San Francisco, grabbed a little food and settled in for the night. I had opted not to get a hotel since I figured I'd only end up with 6 or 7 hours there by the time I took into account security and transport and whatnot. All things considered, San Fran is a pretty great airport to sleep in: free wifi, some pretty posh couches... So far, so good.
The next leg of my journey was a 12-hour flight to Seoul. It was brutal, but I made it through with limited moments of feeling like I would lose my mind if I had to stay on the plane for one more minute. So far, everything had been pretty smooth and I was about to tackle the last leg of my journey. Aside from general exhaustion, I was alright.
The flight was a bit delayed, so I arrived in Phnom Penh at almost midnight and breezed through immigration without a hitch. Then I went to pick up my bag. My bag had other ideas though, and didn't arrive. So I made my claim and headed out to get a tuk tuk to my hotel.
Key terms: A tuk tuk is a small rickshaw attached to a motorbike. They are the most common form of transportation in Phnom Penh.
After about 10 minutes, the engine on the tuk tuk started to sputter and died. The driver got it restarted and we kept going, but at a much slower pace. After about 20 meters, it died again. It turns out the driver had run out of gas, so we waited for a friend to show up and give him enough to make it to a gas station and then we were on our way again. At about 1 am, we arrived at the hotel, which was completely dark. I knocked on the door and it was answered by a security guard who spoke no English. The tuk tuk driver translated and it turned out that although I had a reservation, the receptionist was gone so I couldn't stay there. Luckily for me, there was another hotel across the road that had rooms. Given, they were triple the price, but the time for bartering or searching for a better deal had passed. The mighty Amelia had struck out.
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