Downhill, uphill, uphill downhill… done

Ezina and I wrapped up our 11^th interview here in Tansen which makes 69 total which means Team Ashley’s Thesis has exceeded all expectations!

When I was doing last minute planning with my prof in September and all my plans were slowly crumbling apart, I literally couldn’t imagine even getting ten interviews. It seemed an insurmountable task to reach the 60 that I laid out in my thesis plan that was based all around working with this one group my other advisor had linked me in with.  It would have been way easier had that worked out because we wouldn’t have had to sweet talk so many ‘friends of friends’ into trusting us enough to introduce us to the community they work with.  I think that there is quite a lot of writing on the ‘community entry’ part of research, and it’s for good reason.  Each person you meet has zero knowledge of who you are, what you really want, and has zero trust for you.  You have to earn it.

My profs kept assuring me that once I got here, things would happen. I’d meet people, the lay of the land would become more clear and I’d be able to make something happen. And they were right. 

My one contact in Kathmandu turned out to be amazing and the classmate I met just weeks before I left pulled through with a few other solid contacts as well.  Throw in a couple of brilliant and tenacious research assistants to help with translation and logistics and all of a sudden 6 weeks later we have gone to far flung corners to meet with farmers in a commercialized market who had really interesting stories to tell.

Since we only got 7 of an expected 10 interviews Monday and Tuesday, today we took an overpriced taxi out of town to a small village and met with Gopal who works in project coordination for an NGO.  He took us down a short way to a lady farmer who has aspirations of being the president of a yet to be formed women’s group. This Saturday they meet to work out the details.

Then we went back up to the road, and then up--without exaggeration-- the steepest longest hill yet.  We came across a few farms and paused to talk and as I was looking around wondering when the hike was over, it appeared no one was around for most of the farms we passed.  Dread consumed me… were we hiking all the way up here to find out the rice harvest had stolen our farmers once again?

But then, further, further up we arrived at the courtyard of a large house and were invited to sit down.  One by one women and men came out from various buildings smiling, offering Namaskars and pulling up chairs.  We had a lovely group of ten or so people with 4 serious vegetable farmers to interview.

The interviews went really well.  The group was comfortable sharing with us as they had experience with outside researchers because they had had visitors from Bhutan, America and beyond.  One farmer was a rather large seed and vegetable farmer so I think that’s where the interest has been in the past. Seed is a huge issue here in Nepal because of limited supply of quality, local stock. Often farmers buy seed that has been adulterated at the processor or retailer, or they get a good seed one year and can’t get it the next.  To have a local seed cooperative is a huge plus for the surrounding villages.

We stayed for tea after two interviews at the first house, and then we all walked over to the next lady’s place and did the last two.  Then one of the first ladies came out with a new baby to show off, and asked to have her Polaroid taken with him, after which the grandpa also wanted one. 

After those interviews were done, Gopal offered to take us 40 minutes by bus and another 40 minutes walking to another area, but by then it was 2:00pm and we thought maybe that was out of scope for the day. So we took Gopal out for lunch at a roadside stand.  For three ‘mains’ and two boiled eggs with hot sauce it was 170 rupee, or about $1.70.

This time getting back to the guesthouse in Tansen was much easier because we got lucky with a bus ($0.25 each) coming by and then a jeep ($0.60) to take us the rest of the way as opposed to the 1.5 hour uphill hike like the last couple of days.  It was the best 85 cents I have spent yet.