I'm off to the field

I sometimes get a bit caught up in NGO jargon and get brought back down to earth when someone says "What are you talking about? What do you mean you're 'off to the field'? What field?" Forgive me. "The field" is development-speak for project sites. In the case of Orissa, our projects are spread over 5 districts in the south of the state, and are all in very rural, remote areas. I spent four days in 'the field' last week (in Gajapati district) with my colleague Laura, so this is the story of what we got up and what it's like to do fieldwork.

It's Wednesday and the alarm clock asserts itself noisily at 5am. Our train leaves at 6.20am so there's just time for a quick shower and cup of tea before we make our way to the station on the other side of town. The train station is, as ever, incredibly busy and hectic, not to mention confusing. There are four platforms and it is never easy to be sure which platform your train will arrive onto. In theory you can check this on the big board in the entrance hall, which displays train numbers, train names, departure times and platform numbers... only the column for platform numbers is pretty much always blank. Very helpful indeed.

With the help of many a stranger we eventually find our train and then our carriage. The Indian train system is actually great. You book a ticket (easily done online) and you will be assigned a seat in a particular carriage according to what class you have chosen. Standards vary widely according to carriage class, going all the way from what we call the 'cattle cart' (no allocated seating, very much a free-for-all to see who can get on first and scrambles for seats) all the way up to 1st class AC (haven't experienced this one yet so who knows the joys that await). We are in 2 tier AC class which means you get an allocated seat and a 'berth' (bed), along with clean sheets, a pillow and a blanket. It is one of the least crowded classes to travel in and there is even a western-style toilet at the end of the carriage. We find our seats and settle in for the four-hour trip to Pelasa in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.

Identifying your stop is another difficulty while travelling by train in India. There are no announcements, and the combination of small windows and lack of signs at each station make it very hard to know where you are. Luckily the ticket inspector has a list of each person travelling in each carriage, and he will often check on foreigners to make sure they know where to get off. We were lucky enough to have such an inspector on this train, so we bundle off at Pelasa and get picked up by one of our partner NGOs, IWD (Institute for Women's Development). We stop off for a quick breakfast of idli (steamed rice/lentil cakes - one of the few Indian delicacies I can't grow fond of at all) and spicy condiments and then hit the road. We need to cross the border from Andhra Pradesh into Orissa to get to Parlakamundi, so we jump into the jeep and set off. It is actually hilarious how the roads immediately become absolutely terrible as soon as you cross the border into Orissa. Oh dear.

The objective of our trip is to monitor our partners' activities, identify successes and problems, and plan for future developments according to what we uncover on this visit.

We travel to the field office of IWD and after quick team introductions, drive to one of their operational villages. This is the village of Sabar, home to 50 households. We are given a tour of their crop fields and see the new irrigation well that has been constructed to help in times of water shortages.


Touring the crop fields


New well for irrigating the fields

The villagers gather together in their school building to tell us of the major issues their community faces.


Settling in at the village meeting

Water is a big problem here and they are hoping to get another well constructed in the near future. In 2010 they suffered from floods and 2011 brought a drought, so it is not easy for these people to plan for the future when the weather patterns are becoming so unpredictable.


The men sit in one group, the women in another


"Put your hand up if you've experienced water shortages this year"

The people are friendly and welcoming and the children adorable. We stay for about an hour, discussing various issues with the community, and then hit the road.


The villagers gather for a goodbye snap outside their school before we leave

Next stop is a slightly larger village a few kilometres down the road. Despite their close proximity, the two villages are very different. The children here are boisterous and cheeky and lack the shyness or fear that is typical in children here. I have a lot of fun with the kids here, happily making silly noises and doing a giddy dance to make them laugh. It works and is a nice start to this visit.


Giddy children, pleased with my antics

Despite the friendliness and silliness, it is immediately obvious there are serious issues in this village. Malnutrition is easily visible; the children are very small and very thin. Some of them appear to have a deformity of sorts, with limbs and torso very much out of proportion. In discussions it is revealed that these villagers each an average of 2 meals per day, but this can often be reduced to only one meal a day. They suffer a 'food gap' of 2 months per year, which means their supplies run out and they have food shortages during September and October. Healthcare is also a big issue here, with both TB and malaria being very prevalent.

One of the positive aspects of this village was the success of a small-scale kitchen garden programme. Some of the village women attended a workshop in a neighbouring town on how to cultivate sweet potatoes. They show us to their sweet potato plot and dig up a few specimens to show us.


The participants of the kitchen garden programme and their sweet potatoes

The women are incredibly proud of the work they have put into their plot and tell us that their children really enjoy eating the sweet potato curries they make. This is great as sweet potatoes are an extremely nutritious food, very high in vitamin A. Moreover, sweet potatoes are a really hardy crop and practically drought-resistant, so very helpful in this area in times of water shortages.

This village is also home to the drunkest man in the world! It is only around lunchtime but already he is singing and dancing and falling around the place. Tomorrow is a festival day and he appears to have started celebrating early. He takes quite the shine to me and gets a bit carried away, and then is quite literally carried away by a group of intervening men. He reappears now and again, shouting and waving at us for our attention, and is quickly carted off again. Haha.


Mr. Inebriated, doing a dance

It is getting dark now so almost time to push on. At the end of every village meeting we always like to invite the villagers to ask us any questions they like... it's only fair after we have asked them a series of questions over the last hour. They ask us about what crops grow in Ireland, whether everyone in Ireland has my unusual hair colour, and of course whether we are married. We have some hearty banter as they bring us cups of hot gingery tea, then wave goodbye as we return to the jeep.


A couple of the gorgeous kids

It's almost 8pm when we return to Parlakamundi and check in at the hilariously-named "Royal Palace" hotel. Parlakamundi is a very noisy, busy, ramshackle town and this hotel makes no effort to drown out the noise or the chaos from the street. To my dismay I notice that most of the windows at the hotel reception have no glass in them. We check into the equally hilarious "executive deluxe" room, which comprises two rock-hard beds with bricks for pillows and no windows. In the evening there is electricity but no running water but we are assured 'there will be water at some time madam', so we throw up our hands in resignation, get a bit of dinner, and go to sleep.

Thursday starts at 6am, when we clambour out of our beds to discover there is no electricity. The lack of windows mean it is PITCH BLACK. However, the water has miraculously started working; perhaps only one can function at a time?


The only light came from the tiny slit window in the bathroom

There is no handle to turn on the shower so we resort to having Indian-style 'bucket showers' in the grim bathroom.


The slightly worse-for-wear bathroom with our bucket for washing

We dress and pack by the light of our torches and mobile phones in time for a 7am meeting, during which I see my first big spider. He has black and white stripes and is thoroughly engrossed in web-weaving. We make a silent pact to stay out of each other's way and I am happy with that.

At 8am we get picked up by IWD for the second day of our monitoring visit with them. We stop in a greasy spoon-style place for breakfast. Today is is dosa, a sort of crepe made from fermented rice and lentils, which is actually a lot more appetising than it sounds. It comes with shockingly spicy dips and chickpeas and I'm not at all sure about this level of chilli for breakfast.


Dosa with accompaniments

I think about what Martin would tell me to do in this situation, and know for sure that his advice would simply be 'toughen up, Jojo'... so I do just that. I eat every bit of that dosa and then wonder how long my mouth with be on fire. (It was a good half an hour).

We rumble on in the jeep and visit Adagon village, home to 387 people. This is an incredibly dry and dusty place, with clay houses and meandering goats.


A few of the houses in Adagon village

This village was only constructed last year; previously these people lived at a higher altitude up in the hills. They suffered from high levels of malaria and diahorrea but could not access healthcare from where they lived. They were sure if they stayed in the hills they would die out, for already 10 villagers had been consumed by malaria and various other illnesses. Bit by bit, they moved down to the base of the hills where they now live in this small village.

The village meeting is very small as it is market day, so many people have travelled to the nearest town to buy/ sell/ trade their wares.


A small group gathers for the village meeting

We learn that the women of this village have set up two Self-Help Groups to reduce reliance on dodgy moneylenders. Each member of the SHG contributes 20 rupees per month, and this month is pooled together and loaned to members as they require it. It can then be repaid without interest. Previously, when people needed a loan they would have to visit a moneylender in the next town who would charge no less than 100% interest.

We discuss the big issues they now face in their new village. Again, the subject of water comes up and it is really hitting home how serious the drought is affecting people in this region. The other big issue for these villagers was lack of opportunities for making money. This results in many of the male villagers migrating for work for up to 3 months of the year. They travel to Chennai or Hyderabad for labour work which pays approximately 150 rupees per day... the equivalent of about €2.30. It's a shockingly low wage, but one which will help to feed their families when they have no other option.

We again invite questions at the end of our session, and the villagers are intensely curious about why we are sitting out in the warm sun rather than in the shade like they are. We try to explain about Ireland's temperate climate and severe lack of sunshine... they almost fall over when we say it rains almost 70% of the time. They are relaxed now and ask us if we like cricket and how long we will be staying in India. We part ways with lots of handshakes and smiles.

More meetings take place over the course of the day, broken up by an incredibly delicious lunch at IWD's field office. We now need to travel north to Berhampur (confusingly also called Bramhapur), which involves a lovely 3 hour trip on Highway 5. After the terrible dirt tracks and corroded roads of the last 2 days, the highway is bliss with its properly-laid tarmac and smooth surface. This journey was, however, the most terrifying part our trip. We had to cross the border from Andhra Pradesh into Orissa, which in theory means queuing up behind about a thousand trucks and waiting patiently for them all to be checked and permitted to cross. Our Indian driver had a better idea; why not just drive on the other side of the road, TOWARDS ENORMOUS TRUCKS, and avoid the checkpoint entirely? This is what we did. For a hair-raising 3km or so we played a game of chicken, driving towards load-bearing trucks, cars, jeeps and cyclists. There was lots of last-minute swerving, horn-beeping and the occasional squeal (the last one may have just been me) until at long last we got past the checkpoint and could cross back to the right side of the road. PHEW.

We arrive in Berhampur which is thronged with people and brimming with chaos. We find the Kamas Inn where we will be bunking down for the night and are heartened to see it's a step up from the Royal Palace in Parlakamundi. There is a shower that actually has hot water in it, and we are brought clean towels, blankets and even a bottle of mineral water. Wowza. Hilariously, we are charged 20 rupees each for the water, despite the fact we never asked for it and had assumed it was complimentary. This is very common in India and never ceases to be annoying.

I wake up the next morning at 6.30 with five giant mosquito bites. Apparently there was a party last night and my blood was the booze. I try to resist the urge to scratch my flesh off and prepare for the day ahead.

Our time with IWD has finished and today we meet with another of our NGO partners, SACAL, who work on agriculture and livelihood strategies in 60 villages in Gajapati. We meet Najindra, the director, at 7.30am and stop for more hot hot dosa for breakfast. Today's dosa is full of chilli-heavy potato and sprinkled liberally with extra green chilli, just in case it already wasn't hot enough. I again try to toughen up and eat it quickly before my mouth can register the flames.

We travel to the SACAL field office where we have a quick briefing over delicious coffee and have a look around.


Map of our operational villages in partnership with SACAL

It's then time to then travel over bumpy godawful roads to the village of Gobinapur. 53 households live here in a community that is incredibly mobilised, motivated and inspiring. They show us the charts they have made to track their progress in growing various different crops, including maize, silk cotton plants and vegetables.


Explaining their charts capturing a wide range of useful information

They have created a poster to illustrate what crops can be grown in what season, and what crops can happily share a plot together.


Whoops, sideways... this illustrates what crops can be grown in what season

All the children in this village are attending school, the farmers have increased the levels of organic inputs in their activities, and a village committee has been formed to make demands from local government for land titles, water supplies and healthcare. It is really very impressive and it is a joy to be here.

We get a tour of their enormous crop fields with a couple of the farmers. They tell us how much things have changed over the last ten years, in particular how the rainfall has become erratic and unpredictable and how their sightings of wildlife (such as herds of elephants) has reduced dramatically. Stories like this really drive home how climate change is having real and serious consequences for people who live off the land.


This local farmer tells us how things have changed in the last decade

We potter about a bit more and I ooh and ahh over the baby goats and gorgeous children.


Ooh! Aah!

Time to move on so we give our profuse thanks and on we go to Langadurai village. This is similar to our previous stop; again very well organised and inspiring. They sing us beautiful welcoming songs and offer us fresh bananas from the trees.


The village's holy man with people gathered for the meeting

Less than 100 people live here and there is the most welcoming and wonderful atmosphere as we discuss the villagers concerns, ideas and hopes. They explain how they have adopted the SRI (System of Rice Intensification) model for agriculture, and are now using only half the amount of seeds per acre and getting 5 times the yield. They have now opened a grain bank in which they currently have 9 quintals of rice (900kg) which is available to everyone in the village.

The rest of the day is a mixture of long jeep journeys, various meetings and furious note-taking. There is an information overload and it is difficult to keep up! By late afternoon it is time to start making our way towards our accommodation for the night. We are excited by this as we have been told we are staying in a Tibetan monastery tonight. We don't have much information except we know that 600 children are training to be monks at this monastery and there are some 10,000 Tibetan refugees living in the area.

It is dark when we arrive and we can't see much of anything. We check into our room which is surprisingly spacious and clean and beautifully silent. There has been some sort of mix-up and instead of two beds there is only one large one. Well, toughen up Jojo.

Dinner is a welcome break from the fiery chilli of the last few days, with Tibetan-style noodle soup, hearty lentils and fat homemade tawa roti (bread). Exhausted, we fall into bed at 10pm and I sleep like a log, my brain delighted by the silence and lack of mosquitos and my body hugged affectionately by the incredibly warm mink blanket.

The morning brings gasps of delight as we look out the window and catch our first glimpse of the Buddhist temple. It is absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful.


Our first sighting of the temple from our bedroom window

We are at about 1200 metres above sea level and it is FREEZING. The icy shower terrifies us as we are already shaking with the cold, so we pack quickly and head off for a brilliant breakfast of homemade hot crumpets and eggs with hot sugary tea. Najindra and his team join us for breakfast and indulge us with a quick look at the temple before we set off. It is the most wonderfully colourful and intricate building I have ever seen.


The temple from the front

Sadly it is too early for it is be open but we peek in the windows and the inside really takes my breath away. I glimpse a 20-foot high gold Buddha surrounded by dancing figures and intense splashes of colour. Simply amazing.


The front porch of the temple


Beautiful view from the front of the temple

It is our last day and we have a few meetings lined up before we have to head back to Berhampur to catch the train. We meet with a Baptist community who sing us bible sings and get us to light ceremonial incense on a makeshift altar.


Lighting the incense for the meeting to begin

This is all rather bizarre as I didn't even know there were Baptist communities in this area but it is a fascinating place.


Meeting with the Baptist community

We also meet with a self-formed local council who advocate on the part of rural villages to get better road access, water facilities and healthcare.

Lunch today is incredible. We sit outside by the edge of a forest, on tarps on the ground, and are served generous helpings of rice, dahl (lentils), fried cauliflower, beetroot relish, aubergine curry and fresh fish on plates fashioned from dried leaves.


Sit cross-legged on the ground and eat only with your right hand

I meet the friendly fisherman cooking up the fish he caught in the nearby dam and he is wonderfully generous, offering me second helpings and making sure I have everything I could need.


My friendly fisherman friend

Stuffed to the brim, we express our thanks, take some group photos and jump into the jeep for the last time.


Najindra (top left) and his amazing staff at SACAL

We have about 3 hours before our train leaves and are told the journey to the station will take about 3 hours. Hmm, I'm not sure about this. Our driver takes the time issue as a challenge and drives like a maniac; we get to Berhampur in 2.5 hours and managed not to crash or kill anyone on the way. Success. Waiting on the platform we notice that most people are too lazy to use the footbridge to cross to another platform; they simply hop down onto the tracks and walk across.


A relaxed attitude to train tracks in Berhampur

Back on the train, get some tea and feel really exhausted but exhilarated. What an incredible trip. Such amazing, resilient people, with such welcoming hearts. We get back to Bhubaneswar around 9pm that night, and I am sleeping soundly by 10pm. I simply cannot express how much I love my job. Hopefully after this somewhat epic post you will have a better sense of what it means next time I declare I'm 'off to the field'.