Pick Your Poncho!

I really misgauged rainy season here.

Poor assumption #1: In India, the monsoons run from early summer through August, and meterologist I am (not)... I assumed the same would be true for Cambodia. Silly, silly me. Once I arrived, I started hearing about how rainy season was just beginning. And how it lasts through September, no wait, through October, well actually it went into November last year... I'm still pretty unclear on how long the rains will last, but they have begun. It usually rains every day, and this can start mean a light drizzle, a solid rainfall, or a downright white-out pour. Luckily for me, I love it when it rains. I've noticed that listening to raindrops on a roof and watching the earth become washed is one of the most comforting things to me. I got this feeling the first time I was experienced the monsoon in Delhi, and now I get the same feeling everytime. I think it stems from the fact that with eyes closed, rain, the sounds and smell, is the same everywhere in the world. So when it rains I could be at my parents' house in Minnesota, or up at Lake Superior, or in a field station in Nigeria and my sensory memory triggers the same way... and I weirdly feel like I'm at home. Wherever that is.

Poor assumption #2: In both India and Nigeria, when the rains came, no one went outside. It was accepted that if the heavens opened, you would stay in your home/office/shop until it subsided. How long depended on the length of the pour; it could mean 15 minutes or a whole day. And because the rains would flood the streets and make travel nearly impossible, sometimes trips to the field would have to be rescheduled for another day. Again, I assumed Cambodia would also follow this unspoken rule and that I would never really be exposed to rain that much. People have often asked me if I take rainboots with me to monsoon-prone places, and I never have because I don't really venture out into deep puddles. So this time, I also didn't bring a raincoat or umbrella (this is also because I needed to make room for Skittles and extra gummy snacks, which I deemed more useful/necessary than rain gear). Silly, silly me. Cambodians' motto: Rain? Rain, shmain! When the showers begin here, most people really only seek shelter if it's raining so hard you can't see the road in front of you. And because I tend to walk/cycle everywhere, I am often caught in the rain while in transit. Knowing that weather isn't really a valid excuse for tardiness, I have been pedaling/strolling to arrive at my destination, soaked but on time. After lamenting my poor choice of candy over an umbrella, I decided to follow the local custom here and pick up my new best friend: my poncho. Everyone here has one. They cost about 25 cents, come in almost every shade of the rainbow, and have the consistency of an extremely thin garbage bag. When drops start to fall, everyone pulls theirs out, crawls in and carries on. The roads begin to look like a watery Monet of easter eggs, with motorcyclists blearing by in lilac and baby pink, bicyclists in sunny yellow and lemongrassy green, and me in my own sky blue version, all puffed up with air gusts. Which color egg would you be?

Field Sentiments

This past week I took a trip to one of the regions where The Org is operating its agricultural/nutrition program. Along with a fellow barong (foreigner) co-worker and Thida, a Cambodian program officer, I made the 4-hour car journey to Pursat province to monitor and observe various aspects of the program. Over the past month, I've read countless studies, bulletins and reports, and to see the farms in action took my breath away... Working in development, or public health in general I should say, I have often been part of programs that are innovative, exciting and that on paper should work perfectly. But in the field, whether that be New York City public schools or a village in rural India, challenges pop-up in the most unexpected places and programs have to weather these bumps in the road. So as we zoomed through the countryside, I held the picture-perfect version of the program in my head, but also kept an open, curious mind for what the challenges would be in this setting.

As we hopped out of the car and walked up to meet the first Village Model Farmer, I got a feeling in my gut that this visit was going to be different. His face stretched wide with a smile as he saw Thida, who visits all the farms each month to see how things are progressing. Thida has a background in both agronomy and management, and over the course of two years of field visits she has built an incredible rapport with each farmer. They greet one another as good friends, discuss how all the crops are coming along, and Thida gives suggestions for increasing production and planning ahead for the next season. The farmer took us on a tour of his land, pointing out different crops, animals and explaining his plans for the next planting. His farm was flourishing, with lush rows of mustard greens, morning glory, bunching onions and trellises crawling with gourd and bean vines. In another section, he showed us all the seedlings and saplings he was growing and saving, to be distributed among the other household farmers in his community. As a Village Model Farmer, he serves as a source of agricultural knowledge and support for the 20+ women farmers also participating in the program. If someone's sweet potato plants aren't doing so hot, they'll come to him for tips on how to turn things around. He also talks with the other farmers, most of whom are mothers of small children, about the nutrition of these crops and the benefit of including them in daily meals.

I left his farm overwhelmingly impressed by the food production, his pride in his work, and his commitment to supporting others in the village. As we moved on to visit household farmers and more Village Model Farmers in other villages, I continued to see a pattern.... Beautiful, successful garden plots, farmers beaming with pride, and women saying over and over again, "Yes, we get all our vegetables from this garden so we don't have to but at the market. And whatever is leftover we sell at the market, and then we spend this money on meat and school fees for the children." When we asked if they also spent some of the money on healthcare for the children, only a few said they did... The rest said that since they began feeding their children more fruits and vegetables they had actually been sick less often, so no, they didn't need to spend the extra income on healthcare.

Part of me knows that I am probably still a bit naive, and haven't seen all the ins-and-outs of this program. We were visiting a program that had been operating in Pursat for almost 2 years (and the program has been in Asia for over two decades now) and there were most likely some hiccups throughout during implementation, but overall this program is working in Pursat. Numbers show increases in food production, income generation and after endline data is gathered we will see if there have also been increases in consumption of micronutrient-rich foods and improvements in child health and nutrition. The program is ending in October in this region, but every farmer we met was preparing beds for their next planting, planning their next harvest, and collecting and saving seeds for the next season... When we asked if they would continue their farms after October, all responses were the same and the answer was evident in the success of these farms, the smiles and energy of the kids, and the stories of how lives had changed over the last two years, "Yes, of course we will continue."

A Brief History of... The Program

With work getting busy and field visits happening, I have a feeling that more and more of my blog posts are going to be work-related... So I thought it would be helpful to give a bit of a primer on the program I'm working on for the next 6 months. This was taken from a bulletin by The Org and sums up the programs operations and objectives quite nicely!

"The Homestead Food Production Program targets women from poor households as the primary beneficiaries, placing farming inputs, knowledge and skills in their hands. The Org works in collaboration with local partner NGOs and government structures to establish Village Model Farms (VMF) and also helps household to establish home gardens (cultivation of vegetables and fruit crops around the house) and small animal husbandry, mainly poultry... The Org and partners promote 'developed gardens,' which produce a wide variety of vegetables and fruit on a fixed plot of land throughout the year. This model relies on the dedication of participating households, particularly owners of Village Model Farms (VMF). The model also builds linkages with local health and agriculture structures to provide additional services to participating households and builds capacity of local partners to provide sustained technical assistance on both agriculture and nutrition to both VMF owners and beneficiary homestead food producers after the life of the three year project cycle.

The VMF serve as a place for training and demonstrations on improved agricultural techniques, technologies and poultry production activities for households participating in the program. The VMF is also used a a production center, as it is a source for inputs, like low cost quality seeds, seedlings, saplings and chicks. VMF owners are responsible for sharing these new practices and low cost inputs with other households in the village and providing ongoing support in collaboration with The Org and local partners. Typically about 20 households are supported by one VMF and households are divided into two smaller groups (women's groups) to best facilitate collaboration.

Nutrition education is a core component of the Homestead Food Production Program. The Org and local NGO partners train health staff and volunteers working at the village level, who in turn host nutrition education sessions for mothers. These sessions emphasize the importance of eating nutritious food during pregnancy and lactation, as well as educate mothers on optimal feeding of infants and young children, including breastfeeding and complementary feeding. Mothers learn how to improve their household's dietary diversity and micronutrient consumption through cooking demonstration sessions using locally grown foods. More recently, the basic nutrition education component has been enhanced to include essential nutrition actions and behavior change negotiation for improved nutrition practices among mothers.

The Org and local partners provide all necessary inputs at baseline to VMF and households, including: 10-14 vegetable and fruit seed, seedlings, and saplings, chicks, poultry vaccinations, and training on optimal crops and cultivation, composting and organic pest control, water management and conservation, garden fencing, chicken shelter construction, vaccines and feed production."

Food Round-Up: August

Phnom Penh is delicious. Someone recently asked me what I've had here that has been especially good, and after rattling off everything I've tried so far, I realized it's probably a lot easier to just say what hasn't been good (which was only a grilled cheese on Day 2 made with liquid nacho cheese). Because I love food, and I know lots of you do too, I am going to try to share a few of my favorite discoveries with you each month. A lot of my eating has been spontaneous, so unfortunately I don't have original pictures for this post but will try my hardest to start keeping my camera attached to my hip for such occasions.

Near my house, there are two insanely yummy, cheap Khmer restaurants. One is more of a mom-and-pop establishment, with Khmer boxing playing on a giant TV and kids racing around the tables. One of my first days here, a friend introduced me to Lok Lak. This is a very common, traditional Khmer dish of marinated, grilled beef served with rice and a salad of cut up raw veggies. Not only is the meat incredibly tender, juicy and flavorful from soaking in soy and oyster sauce, you get a dish of ground up Kampot peppercorns and salt, to which you squeeze in lots of fresh lime and use as a dipping sauce. The combination of sweet meat, intense salt, fragrant pepper and zesty lime is absolutely mind-blowing. Definitely one of my favorites.

The other neighborhood restaurant is a bit more happening, with a younger, more rambunctious crowd and parked motorbikes fill the street outside most nights. "Beer girls" quickly ask you what type of beer you'd like for the evening (Angkor, Anchor or Tiger?) and keep your glass constantly full. Sidenote: people often drink their beer on ice here, something that I snobbishly resisted at first, but now find totally refreshing on a hot steamy evening. At this place, I tried Pleah Saiko, which is a cured beef salad of raw beef, lime, lemongrass, red chilies, cilantro and basil. The flavor was incredibly fresh, spicy and the beef had a nice mellow taste.

Another one of my favorites here is actually one of my favorite meals in general: Som Tum and sticky rice. This salad is a mixture of raw julienned green papaya, mint, green beans, red chilies, lots of lime and peanuts. In Cambodia, this is called Boklahong, and it's also served with lots of tiny dried shrimp and chunks of black river crab that you eat shell and all (these actually hurt my teeth, so I have to extract them). Back in NYC, Asian cuisine is usually my go-to for dinners out. I love pretty much all things Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, etc. Here in Phnom Penh, I get to try out my favorites and have been exposed to countless other dishes that I never knew existed.

One day for lunch, I ventured into a Vietnamese restaurant and when I realized everything was in Khmer/Vietnamese I was at a loss for what to order. I knew I wanted something new, so picked out something unfamiliar and the restaurant owner took me into the kitchen and showed me what went into it: vermicelli rice noodles, fresh chopped lettuce and cucumbers, grilled pork bits, peanuts, chunks of fried spring rolls and bean sprouts. All in one bowl, this is Bun cha. I added a thin, sweet sauce loaded with more red chilies and it was a scrumptious lunch.

Finally, I had read about this Chinese restaurant called Fisherman Quay on a Phnom Penh food blog I recently began following (Nyam Penh). I dragged a group of friends along last Friday night and we sampled some delicious Peking Duck. I've actually only had peking duck once before, in Flushing, Queens, in a bun, which was also delicious. Here, the duck comes sliced and you put a piece or two inside a crepe-like pancake, along with cucumber, green onion, pickle and a dollop of hoisin sauce. The duck was fatty and yummy and excellent paired with the fresh veggies and light pancake wrapper. Will definitely be back for more.

That's it for August. Quite a delectable month.

Combatting the Distance... with an Egg?

Despite how excited I am to be here, how much I am loving work, and how amazing Cambodia is... the distance from home stinks. I stumbled upon this and had to share. Do you think it would still work between NYC and Phnom Penh? :)
Created by the Design Incubation Center in Singapore, "Roly Poly is designed to enable two individuals to “sense” the presence of each other even though they may be physically apart. The mirrored movements in a pair of Roly Polys is such that a soft tap to rock one will simultaneously rock its partner to the same degree, creating a corresponding reaction in the other instantly."

A Flair for Khmer

Yesterday morning, I had my first Khmer lesson. After living in Montreal for 5 years and never learning French until 8 months ago in NYC, and then living in India for 1.5 years and only picking up enough Hindi to get around in an autorickshaw and bargain hard at the markets, I have resolved to make my way to at least conversational Khmer while in Cambodia. Khmer is the official language here, and a quick Wikipedia search revealed the following fun facts:

- It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language, after Vietnamese, with over 10 million speakers

- It is heavily influenced by Sanskrit and Pali

- Unlike other languages in this part of the world, Khmer is not tonal, meaning that pitch does not change the meaning of words (thank god for me!)

Granted I've only had one lesson, but I love this language. For one, it's so much fun to speak. The intonations and speech patterns are so dissimilar to any language I've ever spoken before, so I feel like my voice is breaking out of a realm I never new I was in. The pace is sort of a rush of the first few words and then a drawing out of the last... and there are a lot of nasal tones (which makes this Minnesotan feel right at home). It almost reminds me of learning tennis as a kid; I would keep swinging my arms and placing my feet in the hopes that eventually these awkward motions would produce the desired stroke, and eventually my body's phyiscal memory kicked in and it just became automatic. As I learn Khmer, my lips, tongue and mouth all keep working awkwardly and, hopefully, soon the words will flow effortlessly.

And then there are the actual words. My teacher taught us some basic nouns this week, and when she directly translated them I knew I was hooked on Khmer. Here are two of my favorites from this lesson:

- puah wian kang = intestine of a bicycle (bike tube)

- teuk dah keo = liquid from the breast of a cow (milk)

Finally, here's a little video so you too can hear and enjoy Khmer:

Phnom Penh City Timelapse

This video has been popping up all over here in Phnom Penh, and I just love it. I don't know who actually shot it but here is what they posted on YouTube:

"Phnom Penh is a city moving into the 21st century at an astonishing rate. Western technological and social influences are creating a highly contrasting society between those who embrace change and those who can't or won't. Where the west had decades for society to progress in parallel with technology, Cambodian people are trying to squeeze that progression into just a few years. This video represents the pace at which the city is changing."

Remora Cyclist

On my bike ride to work today, I had a further realization about my cycling pattern. Building upon my comparison of traffic to a living organism, I think I am a Remora Cyclist. What is a remora you may ask? It is known more commonly as a suckerfish. According to Wikipedia, remoras are most often found attached to whales, sharks, turtles or manta rays. Given that they are usually 1-3 feet long, they basically attach to anything way bigger than them. Wikipedia also states that remoras attach for the purpose of transport, and also benefit from the protection of their large, intimidating hosts. This is me in traffic. I sidle up to giant SUVs at intersections that because of their enormous presence can just move through oncoming traffic and everyone else stops to let them pass. I sort of slink along as well, completely protected by my knight of shining armor... genius!

Apartment Teaser and Bicycle Bliss

Two exciting things happened last weekend: I moved into my new apartment and bought a bicycle.

While my official bedroom won't open up until September (I'm staying in the other bedroom occupied by a friend who is out in the field for the next two months), it's wonderful to settle into a home and begin to explore the surrounding neighborhood. Everyone's been asking for photos of the place, but I am actually going to keep you all in suspense until I get my actual room set up. However, I am sharing a photo of two of my four adorable feline roommates. That's Morocco in the forefront and Gypsy lounging in the back.

Having a bicycle in Phnom Penh has been an unexpected joy. Before arriving here, I was hesitant to cycle around and assumed traffic would be similar to what I have seen in India, with jam-packed roads and every vehicle imaginable all competing for road space. While the roads are quite busy here, there are few buses and large trucks, no cows and everyone tends to drive their cars/motobikes around 30-40 km/hr. After assessing my comfort level with this traffic, and seeing loads of expats cycling around town, I ventured to O Russei market last Sunday and picked up this gem of a secondhand bicycle. She came complete with basket, fenders, rack, skirt guard and a bell; everything I could hope for to get around rain or shine. Traffic has always struck me as a living thing that has an inherent pattern of ebb-and-flow, so I've started to pick up on how every piece of this organism operates here and how I can safely fit in. Larger vehicles always have the right-of-way and the larger the vehicle the faster you should go. I'm used to zipping around NYC at a fast pace, but here I noticed that if I start peddling hard people don't anticipate it and I end up getting cut off or almost running into people. But taking on the acceptable lazy pace of other cyclists here means that everyone knows what I'm doing, can gauge if they can pass me, etc. and allows me to show up to work sweat-free. Beyond serving as transport to/from work, I decided to cycle as my main mode of transport here and am starting to get a good hang of the city and beyond...

Yesterday, bright and early, a few of us took a ferry across the Mekong and landed with our bicycles in a world completely different from the bustle and sparkle of Phnom Penh. We cycled around on dirt roads through temples and farms, waving and sharing "Hello!'s" with cheering kids. It was amazing to be out in nature for a bit, and to also see the rural side of Cambodia. I haven't had a chance to go to the field yet for work, and so agriculture in Cambodia had just been in my mind until yesterday. Here are a few shots of the sights, and I'm sure I'll be cycling out there again and will take far more photos.

Nutrition Nut

About a month before I left NYC, I spent an evening with some friends at a Brooklyn bar and someone asked me exactly what I'd be doing for the next two years. This can be a tricky question, because if I get overly excited I end up blathering on and on about the organization, the issues, the amazing programs, the challenges.... Or I can just say, "I'll be working on a nutrition program." However, this is pretty vague, and the beauty of a blog is that I can blather on and on. Buckle your blathering seat belts, folks!

A lot of you who know me know that this job means a lot to me. Not because it's my first position after graduate school or because it allows me to pay off my loans, but because this is my dream job. I've pretty much solely worked in maternal and child health programs over that last 5 years, but way back during my first stint in India I began to become really interested in food systems, access to food and malnutrition. What people were able to purchase/grow to eat, what people chose to eat and how social norms affected what got into peoples' bellies was intimately tied to pregnancy, child health and reflected the the gender dynamics within communities and society at large. But I had always envisioned myself as a "gender-person," and thought that my career path would be one straight shot towards work in reproductive rights and women's health. I began reading more about nutrition and health, volunteering with some exciting NYC-based food security NGOs, and gave myself two years during grad school to marinate. By the end of my first year, I still felt the pull towards the nutrition sector.

Fast forward to April, when everything falls into place and I accept a two-year contract with an organization (from here on called The Org) doing some of the most (in my opinion) innovative and interesting work in the field of nutrition. I'll be working on two programs over two years, in 3 countries: Cambodia for 6 months, Mozambique for 6 months and Senegal for 1 year. I've just wrapped up my second week of work here in Phnom Penh and am really thankful for the opportunity to be here.

Cambodia faces some extreme challenges with undernutrition. Around 37% of kids under 5 years of age are stunted (meaning their height is too short for their age), 36% are underweight (meaning their weight is too low for their age), and 7% are acutely malnourished (meaning their weight is too low for their height). 62% of these children under 5 years of age are also anemic, as well as 47% of women of reproductive age and 57% of pregnant women. All these scary numbers translate into kids that are at greater risk for disease and death, women who are at greater risk for death during delivery, and kids who may not develop to their full physical and mental potential. So what do you do about it? The Org I'm working with has some pretty great ideas.

While in Cambodia, I'll be working on a program that supports small-scale agriculture and animal husbandry among households in rural areas. Typically, one of these gardens would be run by a woman, provide a diverse, vitamin-rich diet for her and her family, and any surplus fruits, vegetables or eggs could be sold to generate additional income for her household. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Here's what makes it even more awesome: The Org believes in community-supported, sustainable programs, and that any program must be proven to work. So all operations of the program are delivered by local Cambodian NGO's (non-governmental organizations) and in partnership with the Cambodian government. And The Org evaluates this program to verify that a) it's running as it is supposed to b) the gardens actually are increasing production of food for the household and c) that this increase in production is also leading to an increase in consumption of nutritious foods.

Where do I come in? My role for the next 6 months will be based more in the latter portion of this, in program evaluation. I'll be working on setting up several research projects to answer the following questions:

1) How does this program lead to increased women's empowerment and what effect does this have on maternal and child health and nutrition? This program has been around for 20-something years and has always focused on women's production of food, but has only recently began thinking about how this role and income-generation may affect female decision-making power, and how this in turn may affect what foods are consumed, who consumes these foods, what additional income is spent on, and how healthcare is accessed and utilized. My job is to help clarify this aspect of the program. Additionally, a lot of The Org's research has shown increases in consumption but the link to the ultimate goal, improved health and nutrition, has been more difficult to pin down. Part of this is time (changes in health and nutrition take many, many years to occur) and money (assessing nutritional changes means measuring kids and collecting blood serum to check micro-nutrient levels); so I'll be brainstorming additional ways to measure this impact.

2) What is the cost effectiveness of this program? Program costs as compared to program benefits is a pretty hot topic these days in the world of development. The Org is interested in finding out what impact every dollar of donor money has; I'll be charting out the input costs for the program, and more interestingly, charting out the benefits for beneficiaries. Beyond the income generation that a family may have from these household farms there are other societal benefits that may be experienced, and it will be my job to identify and quantify those. For instance, if a family is consuming a nutritious, diverse diet and children are healthier, they may experience a lower incidence of disease, which may translate into reduced healthcare expenditure. After mapping out all these costs/benefits, we see what the program produces for every dollar spent, both in terms of financial and societal gains for families.

3) Evaluation design for the program as a whole. This is less of a research question and more of a task that will assist The Org in answering future questions related to program operations and impact. As of right now, a lot of the monitoring and evaluation of the program is based on what a donor wants to know. Because different donors fund the program in different provinces, what is being monitored and evaluated differs between provinces. In the last few years, The Org has created a model for the program that details all the inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts that should theoretically occur. Having an evaluation plan that is designed on this model, rather than a few aspects here and there according to donor interest, will allow The Org to streamline their monitoring and evaluation (M&E), collect the same data for every province, and ultimately allow them to answer all questions and compare across program sites. This may all sound pretty technical, but I'm a bit of an M&E nerd and this is part of my work plan that I'm most excited about.

Ok, blathering done... for now.

New to Me

Believe it or not, I've never blogged before. Despite my hip appearance (ahem, ahem), I'm pretty delayed in terms of keeping up with technology. I've shunned MySpace, discounted Twitter, refuse to get a Smartphone, and pretty much only share birthday wishes on Facebook. Part of this may reflect my private nature, but given that I'm going to be far from friends and family for the next two years, it is now time for me to embrace the Blog. I'm a strong believer that old dogs can learn new tricks, and also that if you keep saying you'll do something (repeatedly to everyone you know), you will. So after telling every single person I hugged goodbye that I would definitely keep them updated with a blog, and then having those people email me and pointedly ask, "So....... where's the blog?" I have trekked to the nearest cafe tonight, logged onto Blogspot and have set up my inaugural blog.

I've tried to start blogs before. But the most difficult thing about setting up a blog is that you have to come up with a name before you can post anything... Email me separately if you want a hilarious list of the runners-up for this blog's name.

"Soup's on!" is what my grandma calls out to everyone within earshot when she has finished cooking and is ready to eat. It's sort of like saying, "Come and get it!" Working in food security and nutrition, and given my love of all things edible, I thought this was a fitting title. Plus my life really is going to be like a big ol' bowl of soup for the next two years -moving to three new countries, speaking three different languages, working on two very different programs, meeting countless new people. This will be a whole mix of things all stirred together in one pot and as I sift through all the ingredients, I hope to share them all with you.