Peruvian Journeys

The end of our summer assistantship became crazy as we attempted to finish the education in emergencies report and also complete all of our site visits and interviews in Peru as well during the same week.

Because of scheduling conflicts we ended up with our last scheduled work week taking place in Peru, and the Peru office really wanted us to visit the Cusco office for site visits because that is where many of their emergency responses have taken place. Because of this fact, we ended up flying from Panama City to Lima, Peru on Sunday, from Lima to Cusco on Monday morning, from Cusco back to Lima on Wednesday, and from Lima to Panama City on Friday morning. On Saturday I was scheduled to fly from Panama City back to the US, so even if we had been doing interviews alone it would have been a hectic week.

Enjoying the Starbucks in Lima

Despite the craziness, however, it was impossible not to notice the exceptional beauty and otherworldliness of Peru. In some respects walking around in Peru feels like walking on the moon. The natural features of the country are so exaggerated and there are so many mountains everywhere. Leilani and I were shocked during our only real down-time in Lima to discover that there is a Starbucks at the mall in the downtown area (and many throughout the city, as we later discovered). To see women on the sidewalks dressed in the traditional bright indigenous sweaters and bowling hats before turning the corner to a modern Starbucks with the typical smooth jazz and Carmel Macchiatos on tap was just a bizarre experience.

We had been told that the food in Lima is some of the best in the world, and we were not disappointed. Although I maintain that any meals where someone else (aka the “man”/ the NGO) is picking up the tab is double-y delicious, our first dinner in Lima was especially tasty. I think the trick is all of the flavor that each part of the meal contains, coupled with the fact that they mix so many different food items together in one dish. For example, the traditional Peruvian dish of “causas” is something like mashed potatoes layered with greens and then chicken salad on top. It may sound like a bizarre food combination but it really is very very good. If I had stayed in Peru too long I think I would have gained another ten pounds to add to the ten already packed on during grad school.


Unfortunately, we had to leave for Cusco bright and early the next day. We both were kind of dreading the altitude sickness which we knew was inevitable because Cusco is nestled up in the mountains, but also excited to see a new place. Cusco is gorgeous and actually reminds me a bit of Antigua, Guatemala (probably my favorite place in the world) but colder. It was down in the 30s at night, a fact that we were not prepared for. We met a lot of interesting people in Cusco and were able to journey out to a site visit in Pampa Corral where we saw a community that had suffered a landslide a few months before. We had to spend about 4 hours in the car each way to reach this isolated community but our time there was well worth it because we were able to talk with 3 different age-groups of children for focus groups and also with their parents, who were extremely helpful and insightful about the needs of the community.

Beautiful are near Cusco, Peru

After a brief three days in Cusco once again we were back in the airport, this time for Lima where we had one more day of interviews. Again we traveled to a community on the outskirts of Lima, about two and a half hours from our hotel (Lima is a huge city with 9 million people, almost reaching the status of mega-city). There we met a group of elementary school kids who are learning how to form brigades and evacuate appropriately in the case of a disaster (and their school is in an earthquake zone on a rocky hill so a landslide would not be a complete surprise). They did an example evacuation drill for us and it was really cute.

After a very busy week in Peru I was ready to head back to Panama City and then onward to the US. The summer was an incredible but completely exhausting journey across two continents, five countries, and dozens of cities and towns. All in all we interviewed over 60 people and wrote a 52 page report (255 if you include the annexes) about Plan’s education in emergencies programs in these countries. A summary of our report and findings will be presented at Plan’s regional conference of the Americas this month and our findings will be combined with those conducted in other regions and presented in a published report at a UN cluster group conference in September. All together, a very valuable experience and a fascinating way to spend the summer.

Now back to DC and back to school!

VIP Movie-Going

Nothing beats watching the very guapo man in Captain America at the VIP Theater in Panama City. This VIP treatment means that for $10 (the price of a regular ticket at home!) you get to lay back in a Lazy-Boy, have waiters come to take your order and bring your beer, wine, sushi, caramel popcorn, or whatever your heart desires (my heart desired a hot dog on this particular night), and watch the movie in style. This is the life.

Return to Panama City

We’re back in Panama City and working furiously on our report which we hope to have nearly finished before leaving for Peru next Sunday.

A beautiful Panama City skyline

We took a break from the stress earlier this week to go get my hair cut. The humidity in Panama turns my hair into something resembling Diana Ross’ hair-do, it is truly awful. So I figured now would be as good a time as any to just get as much of it as possible chopped off. I went to a nice looking hair salon in a strip mall, and Leilani was nice enough to come along for moral support.

As I sat down in the chair I asked the stylist how much this haircut was going to cost me, hoping to avoid a surprise charge of something crazy like $100 later. He said eight dollars and thirty-five cents. As much as I could get onboard with that low price I now began to get nervous about what kind of haircut I was going to get for only eight dollars—this was made worse by the fact that he began patting my hair and smoothing it down in a way that did not inspire confidence that he had much experience cutting hair or had been through some kind of school or program. He seemed perplexed by my hair.

Next he took his water bottle, sprayed my hair down, and began to cut large sections of hair straight across with the scissors, rapidly. And I mean large sections. I’ve never seen anything like it. As I saw chunks that constituted at least one-fourth of my hair falling to the ground in one swoop I was about to have a heart attack, but the thing with hair cutting is that there is no good time to tell someone to stop cutting your hair, because I didn’t want him to stop half way through. I ended up with a bit of a duck-tail in the back but avoided having some pretty awful bangs added to the haircut. All I have to say is: it will grow out (hopefully sooner rather than later).

The rain continues in Panama City almost every day, and ruined our planned beach trip on Saturday. But when I hear about how hot it is back home this summer in D.C., I have to say that I would take 80-some degree weather with a lot of rain over 110 degree weather any day. It feels rather tropical here. We have a balcony and a hammock and that is all I need to relax after a long day of typing interviewing notes, coding them, and writing non-stop.

El Salvador Part II

Friday we went out to the field again, this time to Pequeña Inglaterra. This village houses many refugees from another village which was destroyed by an earthquake in 2001. Hundreds of people died in this quake, and those who were left had to find another place to live, as their houses were destroyed by landslides and rubble from the quake. Plan helped them with immediate needs, and a donor stepped in to fund a housing project in a new village that would have a school, businesses, and homes. The original houses in this village all have a Plan logo outside of the door, meaning that the materials that constitute the house were funded by Plan (the people had to help with the construction of their houses in order to qualify).

Village life

We were allowed to spend some time with the young children in the ECCD (Early Childhood Care and Development) programs, split into three classrooms of children 0-3 years, 3-4 years, and 4-6 years. They were absolutely adorable, as you can imagine. Then we conducted a focus group with various people from the community, including teachers, parents, health workers, and young people. All had a story to tell about the earthquake and the rebuilding, and how it affected their lives. One young girl was only 7 when the disaster struck. She is 17 now and is in charge of the “Youth Brigade” which educates other people in the community about disaster risks, preventative measures, and healthy lifestyles. I wish that I could share pictures of some of the teachers and children we met, but due to the privacy policy, no photos of children are allowed to be shared online (and for good reason, obviously).

El Salvadorean countryside

After a very interesting day in the village we drove back to San Salvador, finished up some final interviews at the office, and had one last lunch with our new friends. We finally wrapped everything up and decided to go to the beach at Playa Truncos the next day. The Playa is only about 45 minutes away from San Salvador, making this city an ideal place for anyone who loves to get away to the beach on the weekends. We had a lot of fun (I attempted to learn how to surf!) and met a lot of interesting surfers, most from Brazil (who knew El Sal is the vacation destination of choice for Brazilians?)

With our friend David from the San Salvador office (photographer extrordinaire for the week)

All in all, our week in El Salvador was a raging success. Now we are back in Panama City for the next two weeks to actually write up our report about what we’ve seen in the different countries so far. This is the hard part. On August 7 we leave for our last interview country, Peru, and then the assistantship comes to an end. Time is slipping away, as it usually does. For now, back to work on this report.

El Sal!

Current stop on the summer whirlwind tour of Latin America: San Salvador, El Salvador. This country is truly amazing. This time of year the grass, tress, and mountainsides are all a lush blooming green and the countryside scenes seem to go on forever. San Salvador is your typical city, except that from wherever you are you can look up and see the volcanoes and mountains surrounding the valley where the city is situated. The beaches, too, are a natural wonder that attract many tourists here (those willing to brave the daily news reports of violence and gang murders).

We arrived on Sunday afternoon after a very early flight from Quito to Panama City to San Salvador. The security in the airport was super-strict, with army men in full outfits and with huge weapons dangling from their shoulders sauntering around, looking suspiciously over the arriving passengers. A very cute German shepherd was walking on the luggage belt, sniffing each bag as it went by before jumping over it to get to the next one. It was adorable. Going through immigration I was next to a Latino who appeared to be traveling on business and was unsure what hotel his driver was going to take him to. They were giving him the rundown and asking all kinds of questions, so I was very happy to say yes and move on when the woman took one look at my face, my US passport, and asked “turismo?”

El Salvador has one of the most developed and necessary education in emergencies programs so we have been very busy this week talking to many people who were involved in these programs. There is so much to learn and so many people to talk with. Yesterday we went out to the town of El Zapotal, which was a guerilla stronghold during the Salvadorian civil war from 1980-1992. Similarly to Guatemala, there are murals on the sides of school buildings depicting the government’s attacks on its own people and the names of the dead heroes from each town. According to Ricardo, our guide for the week, Plan continued to work in El Salvador throughout the war, using its status as non-politically affiliated to bring much needed food and clothes to small towns such as this. Even then it was not allowed to work everywhere, only where the government would allow it.

Today we went to a community along the coast (which meant we got to each lunch by the beach!) and talked with a lot of young students who had formed themselves into a “committee” of knowledgeable students who can respond appropriately the next time a natural disaster hits their area. The last time a disaster hit, Tropical Storm Ida, they were out of school for a month while the school was used as a temporary shelter for members of the community who lost their homes. It was really interested talking to the headmaster of the school and the older kids who could describe their experiences. We also happened to be visiting during a “field day” when all 870 kids were playing futbol (soccer) and other games outside, it really felt more like a carnival than a school day.

All in all this has been an exhausting but worthwhile week. Tomorrow we head out to a village called “Pequena Inglaterra” (Little England), presumably because the donors who gave the money to fund this refugee village were from England. I’ll let you know after tomorrow!

Quito & Guayaquil

The last few days here in Ecuador have been quite adventurous for Leilani and me. We arrived on Sunday and started work bright and early Monday morning. A lovely woman named Doris from the Plan Ecuador office is escorting us around to the different interviews and chats that they have lined up for us here. Because our investigation and report will be on Plan’s education in emergencies programs, we are talking with people from Ecuador’s Ministry of Education, from UNICEF and other UN Agencies, and from Plan itself. It’s been an amazing experience because we get to talk with so many interesting people who are doing great work in the field.

Me with the requisite NGO logo-ed Toyota field vehicle

Out of the blue on Monday we were asked to join Plan’s weekly Tuesday morning radio chat with a national radio station that broadcasts out of Quito. Of course we were quite taken aback and a little frightened to have to speak to an entire nation of people in our second language and on a topic that we aren’t quite experts in (disaster risk reduction and the environment). At one point the radio host asked me how I felt about the environment in Ecuador. Having absolutely no clue about any kind of environmental issues in Ecuador, I naturally sidestepped the question with a response which may or may not have made any sense, about how wonderful Ecuador is and how its natural resources in the environment should be protected for future generations. Despite how incredibly nerve-wracking the experience was, we had a lot of fun and I have to say that it was quite an adrenaline rush. Definitely an experience we will never forget.

At the radio station "Fe y Alegria" after our national radio debut. This guy had the best radio voice ever.

Later this week we traveled out to the field “el campo” twice, once to the small town of Cotopaxi up in the mountains of central Ecuador, and once to the field office in Santa Lucia, about an hour outside of the coastal city of Guayaquil. Guayaquil is a huge city and also happens to be the place where tourists come, either to see the city itself or on their way to the Galapagos Islands. It was very strange hearing English spoken (in a southern drawl, no less) at the hotel in Guayaquil where we spent a night before traveling out into the field today. We were able to talk to a lot of staff at the Plan Santa Lucia office and even had the opportunity to conduct a focus group with a group of teachers in a local school.

Tuk-tuk (rickshaw) rides are always more fun when crammed in with your co-workers and flying over bumps at

As always, things are ending too soon. We flew back on a little commuter plane from Guayaquil to Quito yesterday and from Quito to Panama to El Salvador on Sunday. For today, we are going to check out the Mitad del Mundo (“Middle of the World”) where you can stand with one foot in each hemisphere, the artisanal market, and possibly the old historical part of town. After such a busy week a few tourist traps are exactly what we need!

 

Lunch at a local Santa Lucia School with the teachers behind

Quito: Part I

I write this from my absurdly nice hotel in Quito, Ecuador. We arrived here yesterday (Sunday) afternoon after a very smooth direct flight from Panama. It was overcast and drizzling a bit upon arrival but since then has been this wonderful, crisp, fresh air weather and around 50-60 degrees. It feels wonderful, like a preview of fall weather to come. We're up in the mountains so the fog settles around the valley that is Quito and the views are unbelievable.

Today was our first day meeting with the Plan Ecuador office and they were amazingly helpful and insightful into what kinds of programs are going on here in the country.  There are I believe 13 program offices throughout the country and Plan is one of the main NGOs here, along with the UN Agencies of course and World Vision and ChildFund.

The most bizarre thing that has happened to us so far is that we were asked to make a radio appearance tomorrow morning on the NATIONAL radio station "Fe y Alegria". Plan has one hour of radio time every Tuesday morning, and we were selected to go on. I'm not quite sure how we are qualified to talk in Spanish in front of a national audience about the reduction of risks during an emergency and disaster preparedness, but somehow we are. This is what makes the field of development so amazing and bizarre sometimes!

The Modern City

I wanted to take the chance to write a little bit about my perceptions of Panama City and the people here before we begin our travels outside of the country with our first trip to Ecuador this Sunday.


Panama City is a remarkably modern and developed place. I knew that it was going to be more developed than any of the other developing countries I’ve been to before (Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, India, Costa Rica) but still was not expecting the innovative spirit and consumerism that drives this city. The middle and upper-class Panamanians just cannot get enough of shopping and spending their money here—very reminiscent of the United States. That might come off sounding like a negative, but really I’m sure it will drive their economy in the future, not to mention that it implies that people (even the middle class) have money to spend on basic necessities.

Panama’s unemployment rate at the moment is 5%, much lower than the U.S.! It’s also extremely apparent how much people enjoy what we would consider an American/European lifestyle: bagels, Dove chocolate, resort vacations, European clothing and shoes. This is likely compounded by the fact that because many of these goods are coming through Panama’s canal on their way from China or Japan to the U.S., goods that we would consider “exotic” or “high-end” products in the U.S. cost much less here. They can just unload some of the product at the ports and bang, its right here.

Even just walking around our El Congrejo neighborhood here I’ve noticed so many interesting things.

This is “New York Bagel Café”, a bagel and coffee shop right next to the first guesthouse where we stayed in the neighborhood. It’s funny because for me this place is really reminiscent of Tryst Café in Adams Morgan, my favorite coffee shop in DC.

Dry cleaning in 40 minutes at the local Lavanderia "Su Perc Klin" (Super Clean).

"The Cabeza de Einstein" (The Einstean Head), in the grassy knoll in the middle of an intersection. The reason for this rather strange tribute to Einstein in the middle of Panama City was explained to me as such, "Einstein was a really smart man. We honor him because he was really intelligent and created a lot of things." Makes sense to me.

The number of new skyscrapers going up around the city is unbelievable. I wish I had gotten a picture of the new Trump Tower building: it is shaped like a boat, with a skinny sail part of the building at one end. It is almost finished and is very noticable along the skyline.  The thing that is perhaps unusual about Panama City is that the buildings look like their are no zoning laws in Panama: anyone can build whatever they want wherever they want. Makes for an eclectic mix. 

"The Golden Frog" Irish American Pub in downtown El Cangrejo.  We've watched a few futbol games here, a very interesting place where most of the Panamaneans are drinking Stellas or Heinekens instead of the national beers of Atlas, Panama, and Balboa.  Their buffalo wings are to die for.

All in all, this city is very eclectic and modern, but still retains the feel of a modern city imposed over top of a once-poor small town. 

Change of Travel Plans

Bay of Panama, with yachts in foreground and skyscrapers behind; storm rolling in

Change of travel plans: 

Now-July 10 Panama City

July 10-17 Ecuador

July 17-July 23 El Salvador

July 23-August 7 Panama City

August 7-August 13 Peru 

And then I am back to DC and then up to Maine for a relaxing vacation with the family. What a summer!

Work and Such

Now for a little bit about the actual work I am doing at Plan’s regional office.  So far we’ve begun our desk review of many of Plan’s capacity studies and background research on the topic of education during emergencies.  This includes reading Plan strategy documents, past performance reviews, country priority documents, etc.  There are 12 country offices within the umbrella of the Plan Regional Office of the Americas: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, The Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Bolivia, and Paraguay.  We are specifically looking at Peru, Ecuador, and El Salvador for the Needs Assessment/Evaluation of education in emergencies programs.  

 The outside entrance door to Plan's Regional Office of the Americas 

We also conducted our first interview with a woman from the UN’s Panama office of the International Strategy for Disaster Relief (ISDR/EIRD en espanol).  She was very eager to help and gave us a good overview of what the region and what Plan specifically has been working on in terms of disaster reduction and prevention.  Talking to experts I think will really help give us the background we need before going out in to the field. 

Next week the plan is to continue working on translating questionnaires to Spanish, coming up with templates for interview notes, reading background information, and creating a coding strategy for all of the information we will collect.  We also have a tentative travel schedule for our visits to the country offices.  They are planned around when the country staff can host us, as well as what activities such as workshops and trainings are going on during the period.  

So far, our schedule looks like this:

June 17-July 10 Panama City (prepare materials, background, expert interviews)

July 10-17 Ecuador (information gathering interviews)

July 17-23 El Salvador (information gathering interviews)

July 23-August 1 Peru (information gathering interviews)

August 1-August 12 Panama City (to wrap up the research/write the report) 

 Standing along the "Cinta Costera", running, biking, and walking path near the bay in Panama City

Packing

Now, let me just make clear before the ridicule begins that these are not all my bags! They are James' bags as well, from when we were both leaving for the airport on June 17, me for Panama and James headed for Haiti.  This post is slightly out of order but I thought I'd still share this photo in case anyone is wondering what it looks like when two people pack for a collected total of 6 different countries over the course of 9 weeks.  This is the type of craziness I guess we can expect if we both keep working in development.

Gold Cup Games & Ciudad del Saber

Almost a week as passed here in Panama, and not a single day without clouds and/or rain! I had no idea how gloomy rainy season could be here in the tropics. It sure does make the grass and the palm trees grow really green and lush, though.

Our days have been spent at Plan’s Regional Office of the Americas, or ROA in NGO acronym-speak (pronounced “row-ah”). The office is on the outskirts of Panama City, in a humongous office complex called “Ciudad del Saber” (City of Knowledge) that used to be U.S. army barracks back when the U.S. still controlled the canal here. The buildings are a simple beige with the classic Spanish tile roofing, lined up in neat rows across the campus. It seems like every NGO in the world has a regional headquarters here, including the Red Cross, Special Olympics, ChildFund, CARE, all the United Nations Agencies, and Doctors without Borders. Then of course there are the finance institutions, the foreign corporations, etcetera. Not only that, the campus also houses the families of many of the expat workers here, in ranch houses with modest carports and jungle gym equipment out back. The complex also houses barber shops, laundry services, restaurants, and cafes. A private international school is called Balboa Academy is also housed here. The gym and outdoor Olympic-size swimming pool are only about a quarter mile down the road in the complex. Soccer fields and tennis courts also make an appearance. Everything that an ex-pat worker could want or desire away from home (with the big exception of Starbucks—bummer) is here in this ex-pat complex.

View of the Panama Canal (on a hazy and rainy day) from the office window

Plan’s offices themselves are rather small but well-decorated and brand new looking inside, with the same style of plastering cute children’s faces all over the office as in Plan’s DC location. The office has a modern and comfortable feel to it, with new laminate hard wood floors, a nice kitchen with a coffee and espresso machine, and about 20 or so employees. From my office area I can look out over the barges going through the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal. It is surreal.


Wednesday was the Gold Cup semifinals, Panama versus the USA. You can guess the kind of reception we received in the office (as the only Americans here) on Wednesday before the game. I have a feeling people knew that Panama was likely to lose and therefore the heckling wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We went out to the game Wednesday with a young co-worker and her husband. She said to meet them at a bar called (this is what we heard—“Pit Bull”) along the uber-hip and trendy Calle Uruguay. It turns out that instead of Pit Bull the bar was actually (thank goodness) called “People”. And it wasn’t actually a bar; I’d call it a dance club, complete with music blaring, neon lights, fog machines, the whole 9 yards. It was packed. Clearly the it was the true Panamanian way to watch a big game.

Leilani (who is clearly trying to get her passport stolen), Noras (a co-worker) and I at "People"

In the background they were playing the game, and everyone would stop dancing to stare at the TV whenever a play was about to be made or the game looked serious. Occasionally they would throw up their hands after a bad play or a foul, or something they thought should have been called a foul. Afterwards when Panama lost our new friends weren’t too mad at us, thankfully, and they took us out to the “Amador Causeway” for a late dinner.

This Causeway connects three separate islands on the Panama Canal are connected to the mainland by long bridge and the view from everywhere on the islands of the city lit up at night was unbelievable. We sat outside at a restaurant on the water and watched the boats go by in the Canal. It was a great experience, especially with the heat lightening in the humid night air and the lovely $3 chicken dinners. Although I wish Panama had won so we could have see the crazy fiestas that would have followed, it turned out to be a great night.

Now back to work, but more about the actual project I am working on here soon to come!

Arrival

Live from Panama City!


After a very harrowing airplane ordeal, we finally arrived in Panama City late on Friday night. Or I should say, rather, very early Saturday morning.

My flight was from DCA (Reagan) to Newark and then direct to Panama City. Apparently there were awful storms with hail and lightening over most of the NYC/Newark area, and right as we were about to take off from DCA they put a ground hold on planes taking off for Newark. So we sat on the tarmac for about half an hour before they decided it was going to be a long time before we could leave and it would be better to de-board us from the airplane. You can imagine the plethora of angry passengers at the Continental desk trying to figure out how to make their connecting flights—not a pleasant sight. Since there is only one Continental flight to Panama City each day I knew if I missed my connection in Newark, which seemed likely given that at this point the flight was scheduled to take off in an hour, I would have to take a flight out the next day. This was quite ironic, especially given the fact that I had given the only set of keys we now have to our apartment (because the subletter who arrives in a few days has the other set) to James before I went through security, meaning that even though our apartment is approximately five minutes from the airport I would have had to get a hotel for the night. The guy at the desk seemed to think this was the best option but also said that there was a chance the connecting flight might be delayed as well due to the weather.

I decided to risk it, figuring I could always spend the night in the Newark airport if I had to. My crazy optimism paid off, and despite the fact that we waited on the runway through another second ground delay at Newark, arriving a total of 3 ½ hours late to Newark, the second flight to Panama City was delayed even longer and I sprinted across the various Newark terminals to get to the gate, backpack flapping behind me, with what I thought was minutes to spare, but actually turned into about a half hour to spare. Even my bags arrived safely in Panama City. It was an airport miracle!

The poor Plan driver who agreed to pick us up at the airport seemed quite grumpy to be awake at 1 am to pick up two young and bedraggled girls. Finding our hostal/guesthouse was not without drama but once we arrived in the “Casa Cangrejo” we felt right at home. For the moment Leilani and I are sharing one room, but it’s quite roomy for a hostal and has a large desk, mini-fridge, and adjacent bathroom. I think we will be quite comfortable here.

Saturday and Sunday we spent orienting ourselves to the new city, getting cell phones here, going to the supermercados, etc.  Sunday we decided that one of our goals is to stay motivated to work out despite our travels this summer, and we got gym memberships to a local gym. This gym is by far the nicest gym I’ve ever seen in my life! The treadmill can talk to you in 12 different languages. I watched Glee on Fox while I ran yesterday morning. Panama City is blowing me away with how international and modern it is.

We also went to a bar this afternoon to watch the Panama versus El Salvador game on their flat screen TVs. The Panameños were really into the game, and the crowd went wild when Panama won, of course. All in all, we had a great weekend of settling in, and I’m super impressed with the city. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before in Latin America. At least in the El Cangrejo neighborhood, it kind of feels like we are just hanging out in Columbia Heights, DC.

Un Verano de Aventuras

I am going to be working with Plan International on a research evaluation of their education in emergencies programs in El Salvador, Peru, and Ecuador this summer.  Besides travel to these countries for about 10 days at a time for the actual primary data collection, I’m also expected to conduct desk research and regional interviews in Panama City, where I’ll be staying at first for a few weeks.  

This is a great opportunity to get consulting experience on program evaluations and also to get to travel and use my Spanish a lot.  I’m also lucky enough to be traveling and conducting the evaluation with a fellow graduate student from my program, Leilani, who is focusing on education.   It’s always nice to have company when traveling, especially when doing something this complicated and new for the first time! I feel very lucky to have this opportunity, and although I’m sad to be saying goodbye to James (who is going to spend the summer working at Fonkoze’s office in Haiti) and my friends in D.C., I’m confident it will be a great summer. I leave on Friday, so at the moment I'm concentrating on getting final papers for class written and everything that needs to be packed packed. I’ll try to write soon and often and share my experiences with you as I go along!

Below is a snippet from the Terms of Reference about what I’ll be doing while abroad: 

PROJECT:  Evaluation of Plan’s Regional Office for the Americas’ Work on Education in Emergencies

TASKS:

1. Conduct a desk review of previous evaluations, reports etc… that include education in emergencies in El Salvador, Ecuador and Peru.
2. Based on previous mapping exercise conducted, interview key Plan staff at the regional and country levels.
3. Work with Education in Emergencies Specialist and Plan’s Regional Disaster Risk Management Manager to design a detail plan for the research as it pertains to each of the above-mentioned countries.
4. Collect data on the impact of Plan’s Education in Emergencies response in 3 countries: El Salvador, Ecuador and Peru. This will include qualitative and quantitative methods.
5. Compile and analyze data, pulling out key results and patterns for each country and then for the region.
6. Develop case studies on the innovative approaches to education in emergencies within El Salvador, Ecuador and Peru.
7. Other Tasks as required by the regional office.

DELIVERABLE(S):

1.    Report on the key results and patterns for each country and the region.

2.    Short Case studies on Best Practices/Innovative approaches

3.  Short report to present to potential donors