Memories of Nuwakot Field Visit

Karuna Dangol, a field researcher shares her experience of data collection in Nuwakot 

The experiences related to any specific event is memorable. The field visit with the team to Nuwakot was also filled with many memories. For the task four of us were in one team (Bhim Prasad Neupane, Kunti Rijal, Sangam Lama Tamang and Karuna Dangol) and we were assigned to cover seven clusters. All of us worked together in the first cluster and then divided in two groups to cover the rest.

Every place we visited were interesting and we brought many stories back with us.  We stayed in Samundratar, our first cluster for 4 to 5 days. We stayed in a local house there with five members the house owner, his wife, two daughters and a son. His younger daughter, 15 who is studying in class 8 was very happy because I taught her English for 2 days. Next day when she came back from school she was so happy and told me about her day. She said, “I answered almost all the questions and for the first time the teacher noticed me, teach me all in one day as you are moving tomorrow.” It was such a pleasure to see her so happy.

The next day I and Sangam moved to Betini. We walked for almost 8 hours, and it was worth it as the people were good and helpful. We stayed in FCHVs house, we used to have pure milk, homemade honey and ghee. At many places we visited for data collection we were offered milk and sometimes lunch too. The monitoring team visited us there and we were able to learn new technique to handle the curiosity of the respondents. The monitoring was so fruitful for us but unfortunately the team had to suffer because of landslide and had to walk for hours.

We then moved to Balkumari, it was the easiest cluster compared to all. Whenever we went for data collection, we got to eat orange as orange farming was done there. We are going to remember that place for oranges and of course our FCHV sister who was frank, friendly and helpful. She used to scold people in funniest way. The last day when we were about to leave that place and asked what amount should we pay, she denied to take money stating we were like her sisters. So we bought lemon juice from her house and gave her money more than the mentioned price. She said, “alaxina harule malai paisa diyerai gayo” we all laughed. It still feels good just to remember the beautiful moments who treated us if we were the members of their own family.

Thaprek, last cluster was also good but we had to face difficulties. On the very first day of data collection in Thaprek, we were talking to the first respondent, then a man came and told us to come to the place where the road was being maintained, we could find all the people and we won’t have to roam in each household. We became very happy but as soon as we reached there, he began to speak loudly and asked us to cover each n every house otherwise they won’t let us run the program. Our happiness turned in fear. We tried to convince but no one was ready to hear us. We were scared and fortunately we found two people whom we detailed our purpose after which then they explained it to the locals and we were able to continue our work.

The field visit was filled with memories. I am thankful to HERD Internationals team for providing me the opportunity to grow and enhance my skills.