Thursday, December 8, 2011

Back to Finland

Jambo!

One month has passed by too quickly in Zanzibar, and tomorrow night it's time for me to head back to Finland. All the village visits are done, but still some analysing of data is needed and report writing. My computer didn't work for a while, but now it's back to the business again, hopefully for a long time. We were supposed to have a discussion on evaluation results today, but there is another meeting at the office, so Markus will have it after I have left. Tomorrow it will be Tanzania's independence day, so no working at least for the locals.

In general after the evaluation I would say that the LIVE-project has been a good project according to the staff and most of the group members, although there have been some not so succeeded groups. 16 groups we have lost on the way from the baseline to today; this requires some attention. Maybe a little bit better planning of the number of the groups and their possibilities in the project should have been done in the beginning. The evaluation has gone quite smoothly, but the individual questionnaires we couldn't make as many as in the baseline survey, due to the lack of time. I also left out some of the questions.

Yesterday I joined Markus, Niina, Juki and Abbas for their field trip in the research project. It was interesting to see how the fieldwork is done and what kind of forests there are in the island. Mostly there are low forests, almost bushes in Finnish standards, apart from the conservation forests. The most extreme part of the field trip was going to coral rag area, which was very difficult to walk in. Especially because I was wearing sandals that didn't protect my feet at all... not a good idea. Now I have a little bit twisted ankle and some cuts in my feet. On the way back we couldn't find the path back in this difficult terrain full of bushes, and when we finally did, we were so relieved.

It feels a little bit sad to leave Zanzibar and the colleagues in here, but it's also nice to go back home to see family and friends. Maybe, some day, I will get a chance to return.

Tutaonana!

Elina

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Happened in Unguja





Habari za kazi?

Hello, one more week has passed by in Unguja and we have done village visits each day. We had to reduce the visits for one village per day, since the evaluation takes time, and we have also collected some new groups for the next project at the same time. Tomorrow there is the last village to visit, Kandwi, and after that I'm planning to spend the weekend in Kendwa. It's my last weekend and I would love to enjoy sun and some swimming before getting back to cold and dark Finland.

The photos added tell the story of one village visit in Matemwe. During my interviewing and making the questionnaire for the group members, we heard a sudden collapse and some loud noise. It was the collapse of the brand new water container of the vegetable growing group, and for a minute there was a deep silence. Then, everyone started laughing - what else can you do? But for the group it was no good news, especially since it was the second time for the container to collapse. This is just an example what can happen in the field, and almost every day something unexpected happens or I learn a new thing I've never heard about. Everyday is a new adventure :)

Ofcourse field work is also hard, it's hot and one has to pay attention all the time, and try to understand what people want to tell you. Collegues at the office translate the questions and answers, but already I'm catching some most common words. Sometimes the best way is to see the things by oneself, as we did on Tuesday when we visited a family in Matemwe, to see how they use fuelwood in open fire and fuel saving stoves.

The other thing is to write clear the answers in the evenings and try to write the report. Luckily I still have one more week to do it, and even in Finland I can do some finishing. Next week we are supposed to have a seminar on the results, so I need to prepare a presentation of them, and then we can discuss with the forest department staff. So there is a lot of work but also some relaxation hopefully in the weekend :)

Tutaonana!

Elina