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Beginning of the End aka Project Time

By lizzhart

Its finally come for project time over here in Thailand. After months of extensive class time, less than minimal free/travel time, and only short homestays, the program is just starting to become enjoyable. Last week we submitted our research proposals. My groups project will be in Gai Na and will center on municipal solid waste management.

Last week we did our first round of primary research in Ban Samran Gai Na, a rural community just outside Khon Kaen. The community receives a municipal trash service, which is supposed to come 3 times a week to collect trash. The service costs just 20 baht a month (less than $1) and seems like an ideal waste system. However, the trash pick up is highly unreliable with interviewees stating it comes anywhere from every day to once every two weeks. The service also supposedly doesn't pick up foliage and yard waste so villagers are left to burn these forms of waste, which poses health concerns, especially when they include a plastic bag or two. Additionally, the waste bins are constantly overflowing, and some of it isn't bagged, which invites animals and vermin to the area.

Though we are still continuing our research with more homestays and data collection, we are starting to think about what interventions might be appropriate to help this community. Today we are meeting with the municipality to talk about problems the community is having and get their side on the collection time issue. Then we will be interviewing more villagers with a focus group to get some feedback on how they would like the situation improved. Hopefully we can come to some conclusion on an intervention that might address bin size and number or alternatives to burning waste that wont be excepted by the municipality.

Though I'm excited to finally do a project to help Ban Samran Gai Na, its also disappointing that it took this long in the program for us to take action. Most of the semester was spent studying Thailand's healthcare system with a lot of class time and no real time to explore Thailand and understand it from a different lens. The second course allowed us to spend more time in the communities getting to understand issues from a villager perspective and learn research tools. Now in just the last 3 weeks we are spending 2 weeks researching for a project and then have only 1 week to design and implement one. It feels like a rushed job. I am happy that now have some experience with semi-structured interviews, developing questionnaires, and facilitating focus groups. These are important skills for future projects to help future communities.

However, as far as this program and this experiences, maybe the intentions were there but the program design could use a lot of improvement.