Spending some time in the field...

Not quite what I would have meant in Venezuela where I actually spent time hanging out with the farmer's, but today I went out with some guys to "observe" the survey administration. It ended up being very tiring, but a lot of fun. A quick update on things: I have almost 300 surveys done and expect around 70 more, which is far more than I expected. When I found out that a particularly hard to access area had done 170, I responded with "Hoke Lar!," and was rather proud of how far I've come in Burmese. No one was arrested in the process, which is a bonus. I've almost finished the database, which involved a little bit of programming -- the first I've done since graduating college. Who would have thought that it would have come in handy here?

And a quick anecdote: I mentioned the guy from CSI Miami paying a visit. My friend read an article about it, and the actor said that he met a really fun guy from Kachin who worked in the lab at the clinic. My friend said that of the 6 Kachin at the clinic, he's the only one to work in the lab. I think he appreciates his new international notoriety, but can't remember meeting the guy. Finally we found a picture and he said "oh yes -- I ate lunch with him three days!" Later the same guy said in somewhat broken English, "I have heard that Angelina Jolie is coming in December. Everything will be okay."

I didn't really know what we were going to do today, except that it would involve seeing how two organizations were administering the survey. Part of my trouble in setting this up is that I didn't really understand the conditions in the field. I picked up a guy from the clinic on a motorbike this morning. We went out and collected another person helping, and then went to a sort of safe-house where they had been conducting the survey. In the factories, organizations aren't allowed in. They wait around until the workers have a break and then they surreptitiously go back to this house where they can teach classes or gather information. I don't think the workers are illegal, but their papers basically say they can't travel more than a few kilometers from the factory. They live in factory owned dorms that cost 700B/month. Their salary is typically 1500B/month. That leaves them 800B for food and everything else, which is about $25 US.

We just kind of walked around the area for a while. One of the factories had the gate open and people were going in for a some sort of special sale. I was with two guys from Burma. Before I knew it, they were my local guides and I was on vacation and wanted to do some shopping. Easily we were in the factory and walked to the warehouse. As we entered, one of them grinned and said "You should probably buy something." The funny part is that I only have 70Bhat ($2) to my name. We all quietly pooled our money and found enough for a t-shirt. My boss is back in the country now so I'll have access to my survey funding, ending my financial troubles. All-in-all it was an entertaining situation, and I got a t-shirt out of it.

We later went out into a farming district. Getting there was a good test of my motor-bike skills. The dirt roads were wet, rutted, and contained large puddles of soupy mud. I didn't go down, but did slide around (at low speeds of course) a lot. The bike looks like it has been taken off-road, which might cause some trouble for me when I return it tomorrow. The people on the farm are a lot like country folks in TN -- once we were invited in we couldn't leave until we'd been given coffee, cigarettes, and food, and even then it was a fight to leave again. Very friendly.

We then visited some houses run by the clinic for children who are abandoned by their parents. It's unfortunately common for a mother or couple to leave children at the clinic after giving birth. Maybe the mother was HIV+, or the child was born with a defect, or maybe the family just knew they couldn't support another child. At these houses, the kids get an education, medications (including retro-virals) and are taken care of. It's still a bad situation and it's really taxing on the clinic resources to take care of all of them (maybe 45 total?). As I've mentioned before, since these kids have no nationality, they can never be adopted.

In general, I really enjoyed the day. Spending a day out in the communities helped put things in perspective. I also had good companions. Both the guys are about my age and a lot of fun, especially outside of the office. I got a sense of community that I've had in other trips like this but haven't really had here. It was tiring to be around, meeting people, trying to be polite etc, but a good day.