Weekends are for...
...working!
On Saturday after breakfast, I headed to the office to ask Ronny to show me where to find the SEDS information about their various projects, in particular the biogas project, as I wanted to learn more about the administrative side of things to understand how the project was developed and organised. This will also help me with my own research project that I am designing for this placement, as I want to look into people's experiences of using or not using their biogas digesters.
While Ronny was showing me the shambles that is the shared folder, the SEDS field staff gathered for their almost-weekly meeting. Alex and I joined the meeting along with Manil and Ronny at the start, so that we could all recap how far along our cultural induction tasks we were, what more we could do in the coming week, and then so Alex and I could both introduce our proposed projects to the staff so that they could understand how their help would be needed by us.
The meeting discussion got me quite enthusiastic about my project, and so after our section was done and the staff continued in Telugu (the local language), I went back to the office and began designing my questionnaire. I had already been told that previous students have failed to get decent cooperation and results from their projects which have involved surveys, as they have made their questionnaires too 'westernised'. I wanted to see an example so that I could learn from it to avoid making the same mistakes, but unfortunately so far Ronny has been unable to locate any examples. I did however try to take on board the bits and pieces I have heard from Ronny about the failings of other questionnaires, and tried to adapt mine differently. Unfortunately this means missing out a lot of opportunities for open questions, but the reasons behind this are that people apparently go off-track with the answers, so what you get back does not necessarily bear relevance to your research question. To combat the loss of detail, I did my best to research the use of private/decentralised biogas digesters in rural areas in various countries, I watched some subtitled videos of a couple of biogas users talking about the difference it made to them, and I reflected on the biogas families we have visited so far who do and don't use their biogas digesters. Using this background research, I began compiling lists of possible questions to include, along with potential answers, and started to categorise them into topics (e.g. health-, financial-, social factors etc). Once I am satisfied with my questions, I will show my draft to Manil who can give me critical feedback that she has, before I then show it to Manni, the supervisor of the biogas field workers. Manni does not have the same level of formal education and English language competency as Manil, so Manni will therefore be a good pilot tester for how useable and culturally appropriate my survey is. Once the survey is ready, Manil will help organise for it to be translated into Telugu, and I will give some training to the staff in how to gather the data. I will hand out a few copies of the survey to each staff member in the first week as a pilot phase, before we do a review to see if things went smoothly, or if there are further training needs or tweaks to be made. After the pilot phase the data collection will be carried out over a few weeks, and I will also work to gather some qualitative case studies to supplement the survey data. Fingers crossed it works out!
Saturday afternoon was some more introduction to the local area for Alex and me. We went out with Ronny again to try to find the way up to the windmills on top of Sanipalli Hill, which we had previously visited to see the watershed area that Rajan initially developed. Ronny has been trying since our first trip there to find the road to the top - a canal is under construction around the base of the hill, and this has cut off access from the routes they used to use. After a couple of failed attempts I managed to badger Ronny into following the road alongside the canal - from which we had accessed the watershed area before - and follow it along further to where I had seen the switchbacks begin to climb the hillside. We found the route up along here (although Ronny claimed all the credit for this when we got back!) and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the views and refreshing breezes at the top of the hills. On the way back we were even treated to the sight of a family of foxes or coyotes - in the darkness we couldn't tell which, but they were super-cute either way. It was a really good way to spend an evening!
On Sunday we did a similar thing, this time going to the top of Penukonda Hill in Penukonda. There are ruins there from the Vijayanagara Empire, although Ronny explained that most of the destruction of the historic buildings is relatively recent and due to vandalism by local people who hope to find gold left behind when the empire was conquered and the rulers driven off.
We got back in time for lunch, and then after handwashing my laundry and scrubbing my bathroom floor, I had a wash myself and came back up to the house to cook dinner that night. I am not a great cook and I tried my best to make a casserole with what was available. It wasn't my finest work, but at least we didn't go hungry :)
On Saturday after breakfast, I headed to the office to ask Ronny to show me where to find the SEDS information about their various projects, in particular the biogas project, as I wanted to learn more about the administrative side of things to understand how the project was developed and organised. This will also help me with my own research project that I am designing for this placement, as I want to look into people's experiences of using or not using their biogas digesters.
While Ronny was showing me the shambles that is the shared folder, the SEDS field staff gathered for their almost-weekly meeting. Alex and I joined the meeting along with Manil and Ronny at the start, so that we could all recap how far along our cultural induction tasks we were, what more we could do in the coming week, and then so Alex and I could both introduce our proposed projects to the staff so that they could understand how their help would be needed by us.
The meeting discussion got me quite enthusiastic about my project, and so after our section was done and the staff continued in Telugu (the local language), I went back to the office and began designing my questionnaire. I had already been told that previous students have failed to get decent cooperation and results from their projects which have involved surveys, as they have made their questionnaires too 'westernised'. I wanted to see an example so that I could learn from it to avoid making the same mistakes, but unfortunately so far Ronny has been unable to locate any examples. I did however try to take on board the bits and pieces I have heard from Ronny about the failings of other questionnaires, and tried to adapt mine differently. Unfortunately this means missing out a lot of opportunities for open questions, but the reasons behind this are that people apparently go off-track with the answers, so what you get back does not necessarily bear relevance to your research question. To combat the loss of detail, I did my best to research the use of private/decentralised biogas digesters in rural areas in various countries, I watched some subtitled videos of a couple of biogas users talking about the difference it made to them, and I reflected on the biogas families we have visited so far who do and don't use their biogas digesters. Using this background research, I began compiling lists of possible questions to include, along with potential answers, and started to categorise them into topics (e.g. health-, financial-, social factors etc). Once I am satisfied with my questions, I will show my draft to Manil who can give me critical feedback that she has, before I then show it to Manni, the supervisor of the biogas field workers. Manni does not have the same level of formal education and English language competency as Manil, so Manni will therefore be a good pilot tester for how useable and culturally appropriate my survey is. Once the survey is ready, Manil will help organise for it to be translated into Telugu, and I will give some training to the staff in how to gather the data. I will hand out a few copies of the survey to each staff member in the first week as a pilot phase, before we do a review to see if things went smoothly, or if there are further training needs or tweaks to be made. After the pilot phase the data collection will be carried out over a few weeks, and I will also work to gather some qualitative case studies to supplement the survey data. Fingers crossed it works out!
Saturday afternoon was some more introduction to the local area for Alex and me. We went out with Ronny again to try to find the way up to the windmills on top of Sanipalli Hill, which we had previously visited to see the watershed area that Rajan initially developed. Ronny has been trying since our first trip there to find the road to the top - a canal is under construction around the base of the hill, and this has cut off access from the routes they used to use. After a couple of failed attempts I managed to badger Ronny into following the road alongside the canal - from which we had accessed the watershed area before - and follow it along further to where I had seen the switchbacks begin to climb the hillside. We found the route up along here (although Ronny claimed all the credit for this when we got back!) and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying the views and refreshing breezes at the top of the hills. On the way back we were even treated to the sight of a family of foxes or coyotes - in the darkness we couldn't tell which, but they were super-cute either way. It was a really good way to spend an evening!
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| Views for miles |
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| I fell off a rock... |
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| Kind of mesmerising to lie at the base of the windmill and watch the blades go round... |
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| A green bee eater displaying its bee-catching and bee-eating skills |
On Sunday we did a similar thing, this time going to the top of Penukonda Hill in Penukonda. There are ruins there from the Vijayanagara Empire, although Ronny explained that most of the destruction of the historic buildings is relatively recent and due to vandalism by local people who hope to find gold left behind when the empire was conquered and the rulers driven off.
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| Hanuman |
We got back in time for lunch, and then after handwashing my laundry and scrubbing my bathroom floor, I had a wash myself and came back up to the house to cook dinner that night. I am not a great cook and I tried my best to make a casserole with what was available. It wasn't my finest work, but at least we didn't go hungry :)
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