Mondays

Our workplace has moved down a couple of blocks, because the last one is under construction. This has a large courtyard and the rooms are more 'open-air' and less (no) air-conditioning, which lends for a good look in the 40 degrees heat. The shine on my face has never been brighter, the number of times I spray myself with whatever body spray/perfume/hand sanitiser is close never higher. The bathroom is a little far away (directly behind the building at the opposite end and a bit of a fun walk by a drain). One of these days I am going to post about bathrooms and sanitation hassles. I used it yesterday and promptly got locked in (the knob is broken and rusted). I banged and banged on the door but it is so far away that no one could feasibly hear me. I figured people would realize I am missing in a while but it started to get claustrophobic and I didn't want to be stuck in it. I could have broken the door because it was so flimsy but how would that look? Everyone would know me as the girl who broke a bathroom door. Did I want to be that person? On the first day of work at what are rooms sub-leased from another company? I wasn't sure. Luckily I could claw my hand out from the lower half of the door, reach the knob and get out. But now I have a new thing to worry about, thank you new office building.

But my bathroom adventures for the day continued. As I was showering, I saw the following beauty two feet away on the wall.

I am proud to say I finished showering and walked out and came back to take a picture to show the front desk staff. This was an emergency, there was no time for my usual miming tactics. Meagan may have scoffed at me but perhaps Meagan and I won't be friends now (are you reading this Meagan). Anyhow, the front desk lady very kindly came, by which time it had started to return home through the giant opening in the wall. She then put some Raid on it and sealed the opening with a regular tape. She smiled a lot and I think she may have been bemused by me. I would have been amused too. I am usually good at slaying my bugs and spiders and roaches (living in a basement apartment in Minnesota which was a bug-fest when 'Spring', cough cough, came b) but this was one fat-legged monster. I suppose I should be better at doing this myself but it truly caught me by surprise. How was your Monday?

The one full of exciting bus rides and dragons

Auto awesome in Google did this!

We decided to actually visit Da Nang this weekend (as opposed to the many weekends that we planned to but didn't manage to leave). I am very glad that we did because this was one of the most enjoyable and fun weekends so far. Many, many exciting things happened to us: bus rides full of chairs in the aisle and sassy old ladies, walks across the Dragon Bridge, lazing by the beach, so many naps, great views of Da Nang from where we stayed and a sky restaurant.

More adventures on a motorbike

Sunday was meant to be the day we headed to either Phong Nha caves or Paradise caves. However, that didn't quite work out and instead Meagan spoke to a motorbike owner to takes us around Hue to visit some of the tombs. Hue is rich in cultural heritage and even though we have been here almost a month, we have barely scratched the surface of places to visit. 9 am came and even though the sun was out in full blaze, it felt early. We sat on the back of motorbikes with Mr. Thang and Thieu (I could be totally wrong about the names) and left for Minh Mang tomb, which is about 30 minutes from the city. Along the way Mr. Thieu pointed out government buildings, the best school for boys in the city (also apparently Ho Chi Minh's school), a park-like area and a lady Buddha (which I swear to goodness I heard as lady Huda, the local beer, at first). We stopped en route and Mr. Thang rather dangerously stood in the middle of the road to take pictures for us. I did shriek at that and also a little when Mr. Thieu answered his phone (twice if I may say) and drove single-handed in heavy traffic. I also saw my first moto accident today and even though nobody was terribly hurt, it was frightening - it happened when the bikes were turning.

Dinosaur hatchling aka
awkward adolescent teen chicken 

We reached the Minh Mang tomb and the lady at the ticket counter told us about a cheaper, combined ticket, which worked out great for us since we planned to visit the three places on Sunday. I enjoy how all the structures here have a lot of greenery and water surrounding them. This is also a UNESCO heritage site and had three halls, which were called Blessings Halls. We walked around the water, through the halls, sat on the concrete slabs and promptly jumped up, having been slightly burned. We ended the visit with (overpriced) sugarcane juice, which was compensated by the entertaining reality of two children hanging from a tree next to us and speaking in a language we could understand nothing of. Once outside, Mr. Thang had kindly arranged for pineapples for us, with salt and chili, which now we had no space for. The pineapple was packed into Meagan's bag (which has housed Durian in the past and really may not survive this trip).

Guess who is taller

More from Vietnam

Go check out Meagan's blog for more on Vietnam and great pictures!

http://meaganrianne.tumblr.com/

Figuring out rattan

A month ago I had never heard the word rattan. Now I am spending my days figuring out how rattan grows, how its value chain operates, how can it be harvested sustainably and provide a source of livelihood to communities for our second project (in addition to the project about identifying community readiness for Payments for Ecosystem Services).

Rattan products at a shop

Rattan is one of the most commercially valuable Non Timber Forest Products. It is a "climbing spiny plant belonging to the palm family". It grows in tropical parts of Asia, Africa and Australia and while efforts have been made to classify and list different species, it doesn't seem like the work is quite complete yet. There are over 600 species of rattan that have been currently identified. Some of these are edible as well. While we saw acacia and rubber trees during our visit to Nam Dong, we didn't manage to see places where rattan is cultivated.

Rattan has several uses including for making furniture, baskets and decorative items. The rattan industry has seen tremendous growth in recent years and this has been accompanied by over-harvesting, exploitation and subsequent yield decline. Many of the countries where rattan grows have tried to set harvesting quotas on rattan. But since information on growth and yield is limited, these quotas are often ineffective.

Sustainable harvesting of rattan would involve identifying annual growth patterns, determining how much can be harvested annually without over-exploiting rattan, having a supportive legislative and policy framework, and having buy-in from the communities, the intermediaries, the non-profit organizations, and buyers.

Rattan falls within the larger category of Non Timber Forest Products and of course the larger problem of sustainably harvesting these. But unlike other products such as bamboo, less information is available about rattan.

If you'd like read more and learn about this spiny plant, check out the WWF page. I will keep posting more as I learn more!

Leaving and arriving

This one is about 'feelings' so you are warned in advance! Specifically about home and homesickness. I wrote this a while back and while I am right now in Vietnam, it still holds true!

There is nothing new or unique about the loss and longing associated with leaving home. It has existed since forever and has been captured in beautiful words and images by authors and artists alike. Some of my favorite books are those about the experiences of those who left or were immigrants (one that just popped into my head was The Prayer Room). If you are reading this, you perhaps already know that I left (a suburb of) Delhi to move to Minneapolis to study last year. It wasn't the first time I was traveling, it wasn't the first time I was going to the States but it was the first time I was going to live away from home and in the Midwest. I think I was as prepared as I could be but it was still a hard, tough first semester in so many ways. I have spent the months after thinking about it, wondering what I could have done to make it better for myself and can I make it better for someone else. I have tried to decode how much of my experience was because of who I am, in terms of character traits, being an international student, being brown (:)) and my gender and how much of it just a rite of passage that any move will always involve. It interests me tremendously and is one of my favorite topics to talk (ad nauseam).

The one where I ask a lot of questions!

This is a post full of questions. Serious questions. So everybody who is reading and has something to share, please do answer (here, email, social media, whatever is your preferred mode of communication :))

1. I am looking for resources about Community Forestry Enterprises, Non Timber Forest Products, sustainable harvesting and livelihoods and to talk to folks. If you know people who have worked in this area, especially South East Asia, and can help me connect, that would be great!
2. I am looking for Indo-German collaborations (organizations/initiatives/non-profit/private/government) that work in the area of education (higher education, internationalization of education), community and youth development, gender focused work. Any names spring to mind?
3. Ideas and suggestions on how a one month period in the winter (mid December to January) can be used best - I mean ideas on volunteer work, one-month internships etc. I don't want to be in Minnesota during winter break this year and am not sure I can do a month-long vacation. So it would be nice to be working or being useful in some way. Any ideas?
4. Project ideas: The Humphrey School has sent out a Request for Proposal for capstone projects for Spring 2015: essentially they are seeking proposals from organizations that want students to work on a sort of consulting project for a specific area around development, social or policy areas. Essentially this is a free project for the organization and a chance for students to gain some experience. More details of the project and timelines are at the following link: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/gpa/globalnotes/2014/04/humphrey-school-global-policy.php. Any ideas on interesting organizations and projects I could connect with?

Putting the field back in the field experience

We started with our field work in Nam Dong, about two hours from Hue city. Needless to say, it has been an exciting and adventurous few days. We left on Monday early in the morning - it takes anywhere between 1 - 2 hours to get there. Some highlights from our trip included: 

1. The motorbike rides to reach different communities - the landscape was mountainous, green and lovely.

2. By standing at the local post office and looking mournful and not understanding the language and pretending to not understand that they did not give prints to people, Megan and I managed to get prints of our updated surveys. The staff person then showed us out and shut the door. Politely but firmly. But it worked!

3. A LOT was lost in translation and a lot of our information is still in Vietnamese. Our poor translators, they were so helpful and their work is still not done.

4. Meagan from the bathroom: "There is a feather here" (in addition to lizard poop and other live and dead creatures). Me: "Be glad it is not attached to something." (okay so this may not be a highlight but it makes me laugh)

5. Our activity charts fell a lot (we need better quality tape next time and a better plan!)

6. Nam Dong seems to get a lot of sudden and intense downpours. Also lightning. It was really cool in the evenings and really nice!

7. Everybody knows I am Indian (by my eyes apparently :)) and at one community there was definitely some good-natured teasing and flirting.

If you have the patience and inclination for more (and pictures!), here's a quick summary of each of our days.

Preparing for our field work next week

Working breakfast during our meeting 
to finalize the survey

Most of this week and today has been spent preparing for our field visits next week. As of now the idea is to meet with officials from three departments that work in the area of forestry and meet with 12 groups in different villages. How much of this will convert into reality will only be known next week. The planning for this trip has been fairly fluid, in terms of dates, people going with us, the groups we are meeting etc etc. We have prepared our questionnaires and surveys and have gone through three rounds of reviews.

Afternoon walks

The afternoon walk around the citadel is different. I head there after a long Saturday at work. It is alive in a different way. There are people but only serious folks. Serious fishermen intently watching the water, waiting for a catch. A few scattered young people, chatting lazily. The sun is glorious, especially after the endless Minnesota winter and cold. Yet the breeze makes my walk bearable. I start retracing my steps and then change my mind about heading home. I go to a big cafe close by where I have seen karaoke performances in the evenings.

The cafe is large and inviting, with no walls and lovely green furniture. Ca phe sua da doesn't lose its charm but the same cafes can. I enjoy trying new cafes, there are so many where we live. I am one of two customers. It is a lazy evening and the waiters are scrubbing tables, hosing the floor, preparing for the lively evening ahead. The boy serving me starts by speaking to me in Vietnamese and then switches to English as I say kong viet (which I want to believe translates into I don't speak Vietnamese but who knows!). The coffee is great and I enjoy the mild breeze. The music starts and I remember how lucky I am to be here in this moment.

Pictures!

These are a smattering of pictures from the last three weeks (one-third of our time here almost over!).

La Carambole in the touristy
district of town

At the restaurant at Bach Ma (clouds floated right into where we were)
Photo courtesy: Dr. Current

Road leading to our office
on a rainy day (almost dried as I walked)

Apropos surveys

Questions and points we have grappled with as we try to design a survey while balancing the need to answer our research questions, keeping to the time allotted to us, and accounting for the fact that everyone has a limited attention span. When we do use this, I know that I am going to have some oh no I should have done that instead moments and learn a lot.

Designing our field visit survey

We are in the process of trying to design a survey for our first field visits planned next week. So far we have been figuring what are our big questions, narrowing them down to themes, trying to collapse the 70+ questions we have into something more manageable and less intimidating for us, the translators and the participants. Another component that we are figuring out it using visual aids to simplify our questions, make them more accessible since language is a consistent challenge and levels of literacy vary. In simple terms our questions will revolve around demographic information, asset ownership, forests, non timber forest products, forestry programs among others. We are considering using charts, stickers, markers and paper handouts at the moment. If you have any suggestions on resources for survey design especially with visual design, please send them my way!

Making friends

I mentioned this earlier and I think it is proving to be true even more as illustrated by today. By ourselves or in pairs we are more approachable. We often leave the citadel area to get meals and I was remarking to Megan yesterday how each meal feels like an occasion. There is a small food shop close to the hotel, a family-run business, that has really tasty and inexpensive fried rice and in the last week, I have been going there every two days or so. Ever since I thought I had made a breakthrough in miming a take-away box, it has been even better, because the portions suffice for more than one meal for me.

Ushering in the weekend (or the post in which I talk a lot about everyday things)

One of the citadel entrances

The birthday celebrations did not end with lunch yesterday. We all got back to our home (the hotel) and at some point made a plan to go to a place called Why Not! after a walk around the citadel (the original plan was probably just to relax but things changed!). We headed out and started to walk along the path by the citadel. We tried to go in but a man on a motorbike shook his hand at us and someone else told us that entry closes at 5 pm. We then walked around it, looking at the lotuses/loti in the water, a man wading in his underwear (I am still not sure why but it was purposeful), several people standing by their scooters and fishing. We got close to the entrance road and just sat and observed people flying giant, beautiful kites with faces, kids rollerblading (which they very cleverly did by walking on the grass to get steady).

Birthdays!

Yesterday and today were and are birthdays for Meagan and Megan respectively! They both got some written wishes from Minneapolis (thank you to everyone who signed the cards and those who intended to but couldn't :-)). We went out for dinner yesterday (Indian restaurant in Hue for the win!) and did lunch today! Here are some fun pictures from the days!

Cards!

Judd Fellowship newsletter

Oh look, the blog got featured in the Judd newsletter :-) (which is one of the fellowships I got for doing the project)! Also, go visit the link and read about what other people, including MDP students in Ecuador, Jamaica and Kenya are working on over the summer!

http://global.umn.edu/funding/judd/newsletters/2014_june.html

Week 2 (the honeymoon period is over and work is on)

A picture with Dean (extreme left)
and Dung (extreme right)

Things are picking up at work. We started yesterday with a presentation by Dean Current (our adviser) on Community Forestry Management. This was very informative and useful, especially for me because of my limited background in natural resource management. He mentioned that the theory behind this is the idea that there is some value that forests represent, that needs to be valued and conserved. Different forms of enterprises in natural forest management include: timber enterprises, Non Timber Forest Enterprises, PES, REDD+ and eco-tourism. We have come across most of these already and it will be interesting to learn more.

We spent the rest of the day with Dean and Dung Ngo from CORENARM, hashing out our final project plan. We have been going a little bit back and forth on this but now it seems like we have two interlinked projects to work on.

Being a clumsy mountain goat on the slopes of Bach Ma (Bach Ma = wild horse)

At the summit 

On Sunday we visited the Bach Ma national park with some of the CORENARM staff. Our day started at 7 am and we got into a 15-seater mini cab for the 1.5 hour long trip to the park. Ten minutes into the journey the driver told us that we needed to switch the air-conditioning off for the engine to work on the steep ride uphill. Oh well, we slowly roasted on the trip but enjoyed some delicious litchis. We got to the park entrance, bought our tickets, used an icky loo (I have of course used many icky loos in my life but Minneapolis and being at the university had spoiled me), and then drove further ahead. We stopped by a restaurant and used an existing trail to walk to the mountain peak, also called the summit point. Along the way we came across a tunnel used by soldiers in the Vietnam/American war.

Structure at the summit

We reached the top, someone in our group discovered a leech in his shoes, we rang the bell for good luck and vibrations and went towards the house-like structure. It is evidence of our madness and bravery that we all decided to walk on the tin roof of the house, ignoring the chain barriers. It had a pretty solid grip and nobody tripped. We walked back, ate lunch (rice + soya sauce for me which was not that much fun), used an even ickier loo with a praying mantis by the door and drove to another trail that led to waterfalls. This is where it got exciting.

Slippery rocks 

First of all, it was very unclear whether the trail was 2 or 5 kms one way. I am also not sure anyone, including those who had been here before, really knew this trail. Finally, it was fantastic fun but there was no warning that it would involve walking on slippery rocks, hanging and sliding down ropes, crossing little creeks (I slipped at the end of one; I definitely had the distinction of falling the most but saving myself), jumping and essentially being mountain goats. It was quite a hike and it was fairly long and arduous. I must say to everyone's credit we all did it. The ropes were incredibly sturdy and as Megan put it 'confidence inspiring'. At one point when I slipped at a rocky edge, I just held on to it and was absolutely fine.

Victorious Meagan and I at the final waterfall

I don't think I am in great shape and I definitely bruised my ego with all my falls (Crocs are not meant for hardcore hiking obviously). But we did it. We reached the rhododendron waterfall and tried to peek down without plunging to disaster. Another trail led to the bottom of the fall but was '689 steep steps' down. By this time we could also hear thunder, were running out of water, and were in general willing to wrap up. There was definitely confusion about how to exit from the trail and which route to follow. We followed the signs and hoped that they were accurate.

Our adviser was the fastest of us all. 

I enjoyed the hike but I will openly admit that this is not my favorite activity. I can do it but I don't necessarily get the same pleasure out of it as some of the other hikers. That being said, knowing where we are going and the plan definitely makes things more enjoyable for me. Oh well. We finally figured that the exit trail was 1.2 kms and not 12 kms (sigh of relief) and marched in a single file. Our cab was able to come and get us and we were on our way back. It was a long ride and almost everyone except the driver napped I think. I ate all the litchis that were left. I was hot, sweaty, dusty and basically just disgusting.

I had a quick shower and was hungry as hell. The first shop I went to pretty much told me they had nothing to eat (it was strange and I am not sure what was happening). The second one, a street restaurant, was great. They packed me food and cutlery and smiled at me. I went to another coffee shop to get mango juice and twice in one evening they served me papaya juice because they didn't have mangoes. I had it the first time and asked for a lemonade the second time. With that ended our super adventurous, exciting, active, hot and unexpected weekend. Have a look at the pictures to see how lovely and slippery the waterfall trail was. 

Parts of our hike

View from the roof at the summit

          

          Calling this the edge of the earth

Being stranded in a lagoon and seeing a shooting star

View from our boat

This weekend has been nothing but full of adventures. On Saturday we went to the Tam Giang lagoon. We left by car from the hotel, took one boat to a restaurant on bamboo stilts and then took another, bigger boat to go out in the lagoon. We went all the way till a temple that the fishermen pray at for safety. We clearly didn't pray enough or leave offerings because on our way back, perhaps at one-fifth of the way, the motor stopped working. The boatmen made many but ultimately futile attempts to revive it. Before that happened, we did start drifting back and another boat and the buoys and ropes sort of worked together to prevent that. The currents had definitely picked up by the evening.

The view from the temple

We were stuck/stranded there for almost two hours and they were made longer by the fact that we were not sure what was happening. At one point I learned that the boatman was cursing the boat owner for taking so much time to send a new boat :). Dusk slowly turned to darkness and finally the engine roar we heard was the one coming to rescue us. The rescue did not involve a transfer as I had originally imagined but the smaller boat pulling our bigger boat by a rope. Of course this was much slower and the journey back felt much, much longer. The weather was lovely, almost perfect, not hot nor cold. We saw an infinite number of stars and I saw my first shooting star. You can imagine what I wished for.

The boat that took us to the temple and broke down

As we were returning, another boat joined us. At this point it was unclear whether it was to support us or to be carried along. Apparently a fourth boat was sighted as well a little later but eventually this daisy chain of boats caused the rope to fray and had to be dismantled. One of the sad or slightly upsetting things on the journey was a young girl who really had to pee (because we had been in the water for four hours by that point). It was an awkward situation and I cannot imagine that it would have been the same for a boy. There was a little bit of teasing and mocking but as I grow older I worry about this and I don't think we should do it. There should be no shaming of young girls for peeing and menstruating and all other natural things. Oh well, that is a story for another time. Honestly by the time we reached the restaurant on bamboo stilts, I had lost all enthusiasm for dinner. We had cancelled and remade plans for a really busy Sunday, which will be a separate update, and I just wanted to be in bed. Plus it was also a seafood restaurant so the traveling vegetarian in me had little hope. But folks must be fed and up we climbed on the bamboo structure.

Their existence was helpful.

I must say that at no point did we talk about safety in the entire trip at all. Our second boat had life jackets but if we had overturned I feel it would have been pure luck if you got one. I do miss speaking a language in which I can ask several questions, even if it annoys people around me. I would have liked to know the depth of the lagoon, how would we rescue the non-swimmers, if the bamboo restaurant had ever collapsed and other such things. But since I was in no position to do any such thing, I just enjoyed myself. I had also choked very badly before starting while drinking water and thought there was more dignity in any other way I died than choking while drinking water. The others had a multi-course meal, while I used chopsticks for the first time in my life to eat vegetarian noodles specially prepared for me. The noodles were nice and I was able to do them justice.

Before we started

We were fairly late and I think we kept up the family that runs the restaurant. The owner apologized to us and then there were musicians in the (connected) shack next to ours, who sang an apology song. From what I understand that was typical Hue music, which puts words to music, and the closest comparison is the blues. We finished a hearty meal, topped by passing around the fruit Durian, which people have a love or hate relationship with. Mine definitely wasn't love. We then got into another boat, headed back to the shore, then to the car, then to our hotel, and then to bed.

En route

View from our boat

More views

Meagan + little kid replicate Titanic

Waiting to be rescued

Dusk gives way to darkness