Check-Up Day

Today I got up early to head out to the old courthouse in Nkumba...where I was charged with stealing corn and sentenced to 2 months in prison.

Just joking.

Yes, so I got up early to head out to Nkumba, where I would be having a meeting with the field promoters I trained on Monday to see how they were progressing with their survey. The meeting was set for 9 am, and Nkumba is roughly 2 hours from Zomba. By the time we were rolling down the high-way, it was 8 am. As it turns out, we were only a half hour late instead of a whole hour, and everyone arrived right around the same time. We even passed by one promoter one her bicycle and picked her up. I let her sit in the cab and I sat in the back with the bike. It was my third time in the back of a pick-up truck (but first time in a skirt)!

One of the hold-ups to getting on the road was that I had to buy buns and a crate of pop for refreshments. Pop is the drink of choice here since it is one of the only drinks that the water is guaranteed to be safe. I loaded up a crate full of Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Fanta and asked the guy how much I owed him. 1,750 kwacha (roughly $13). Oh dear, I thought. I don't have 1,750 kwacha. And that seemed high compared to my memory. I told him I couldn't afford it and walked away. Then Harry, who was driving me to Nkumba, asked me why I didn't buy the pop. I said I couldn't afford it. He said something to the guy in Chichewa, which later he told me was "She's with me," and the price instantly dropped to 800 kwacha. Such is the life of an "azungu" (foreigner/European) in Malawi!

So crate of pop and buns in tow, we were off. The meeting was short, which is a way of saying that the check-up went really well! I asked each of them how many surveys they had completed. How many respondents had refused the survey (I think only 3 out of the whole bunch! Unimaginable response rates for North America...). Then I sat down one-on-one with each of them and looked through their surveys and respondent lists. After addressing a couple mistakes, we were all done. I was incredibly relieved to see that they all seemed to understand the skip patterns (i.e. "If respondent says yes, then go to question #..."), and that ID numbers and consent signatures were all there. Ah - the first project really is in full swing!

And so, I have this next week to get the second project focus group questions and attitude survey together, before pre-testing it in the village the week after. Everything is actually on schedule - the same schedule I made before I arrived on African soil. God has been gracious!

Tslani bwino! (Stay well)