THE MONTH THAT WAS (as smooth as a baby's bottom)

Last week I led a team of ten people in the second half of the field study that I`m conducting for WaterAid. We have been visiting a random sample of Machinga`s waterpoints to verify the data that is being collected by health workers within the monitoring system that Enam and I have established in the district. WaterAid is very interested in the quality of the data, as the system will be scaled up into other districts very soon. The data that we collect in the verification exercise is incredibly simple. We go to one group village at a time (village headmen are all organized into group villages, each consisting of anywhere from about three to ten villages) and find out how many waterpoints the group has. Is each waterpoint a borehole, a tap, a shallow well, or a spring box? Does each waterpoint function properly or not? Done. Rather straight forward right? I, for one, assumed so. But you can’t be making these assumptions in Malawi. I’m going to take you through the week in timeline format (a few things from the preceding weeks are worthy of mention too) It may seem like a pessimistic account of the activity, but how interesting would it be if I told you about things that went as planned?

FOUR WEEKS AGO.
My proposal to WaterAid for the project and its budget is approved. It is agreed that I’ll receive K130 000 for the first week of fieldwork and K130 000 for the second week.

THREE WEEKS AGO (1^st week in field)

Monday. The whole group of guys meets in town near the bank and we wait for a WaterAid employee to withdraw the 1^st week’s funds. We wait. And we wait. K119 500 comes out of the bank at around noon. That’s strange, I thought we had agreed on K130 000. We scrape by with that amount – allowances are paid and the three different teams depart for the week to their assigned regions for verification. What was intended to be a full day of work has somehow shrunk down to only a few hours. The rest of the week. The activity goes rather smoothly and I’m confident with the quality of data that my own team is collecting. However, a lot of budget money evaporates (is essentially stolen) but there’s really nothing I can do about it. For example: I budget K3500 per team for contingency – this money should only be used to do necessary repairs/maintenance of the bikes, or for any other emergencies that come up in the field. A team comes back from the field with a receipt from some nondescript mechanic shop that reads: “bike repair/maintenance,” its amount – precisely K3500. This is one of many examples of how government workers in Malawi can pull strings to suck all of the available money out of a given job – legitimate or not.

TWO WEEKS AGO (week-long break between field weeks to deal with some things at the office)

Monday.  I sit down at my desk to go over the data that was collected in the past few weeks. My team’s data is solid. The second team’s data is solid. Oh boy... the third team’s data is looking a little bit suspect. I recall that in my directions for the week I had mentioned that teams should aim for about 16 waterpoints per day. This figure was merely a suggestion in hopes that at the end of the activity, I’d have a 10 – 15% sample of Machinga’s waterpoints to report on. It was emphasized that teams should complete as many group villages as possible each day. If finishing the day’s last group village meant coming in at slightly below or above 16 (on one day my own team verified 82 waterpoints in one day – 16 is not a tall order), so be it. Doing the activity group village by village, not waterpoint by waterpoint is key. Completeness is everything. But here’s how the third team, we’ll call them team lazy, interpreted all of this: We had a late start on Monday due to the funding taking some time to come through – let’s call it a half day. One half of 16 is 8. Let’s verify 8 waterpoints on Monday. Since Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are all full working days, we’ll verify 16 waterpoints on each of those days. Lastly, because we’re getting tired by Friday, let’s call that one a half day too – 8 waterpoints.

I find it amazing that the team was able to locate two group villages with exactly 8 waterpoints, and three more with exactly 16. In to the garbage go that team’s forms, and into thin air goes all of the allowance and fuel money that I (WaterAid) paid team lazy. Maybe I should reconsider the teams for next week.

Tuesday – Friday. In hopes of getting next week’s fieldwork started earlier than noon on Monday, I start to pursue WaterAid for that week’s funds. Perhaps I could get the money before the weekend, organize it over the weekend, and we could set off early on Monday morning. In one of these conversations, WaterAid asks “How much do you need?” “

Well, I thought we had agreed on K130 000 per week, but since I only received K119 500 last week, I am asking for the remaining K140 500.”

“Since you’re asking for more than originally proposed, we will need a new written proposal before we can process that amount.” This goes on for some time, until we agree on K140 000 for the second week, with no new proposal. The deposit gets pushed to Thursday, and then pushed to Friday. It still doesn’t happen on Friday so we agree that it will definitely happen on Saturday, and if something goes terribly wrong, then early Monday morning is the backup plan. It doesn’t happen on Saturday, so it looks like Monday morning is showtime, just like the last week of fieldwork.

LAST WEEK (2^nd week in field)

Monday. 9:00AM.
It’s oddly cold and raining. I have called for the entire team to meet in town to wait for the money to come from the bank then set off for the field. (just like last week) This week I have hired 4 teams of 2 guys, plus 2 supervisors... so we’re dealing with a 10 person group. Conveniently, one of the supervisors (my boss) decided to go to Blantyre today – thanks for the heads up. I call WaterAid to check on progress with the money. It still hasn’t been deposited. There has been a mix up at the office and the cheque still hasn’t been signed by a key player – don’t worry though, the money will be there by 2:30 this afternoon.

OK team, come back at 2:30. We can get the money then and at least make our way out to our assigned regions... it’s not perfect but we can deal with it.

Monday. 2:30PM.
The guys are growing impatient as I phone WaterAid for what should be the last time. Sorry Ian, that guy wasn’t around today so the cheque didn’t get signed... tomorrow you will certainly have your money. O my goodness. I have no choice but to dole out a handful of allowances from my own money, to pay the guys for all of the hard work they’ve done today. (That’s the system though, I called them to work for me, they’re here, I need to pay them allowances) OK everyone, meet here again tomorrow morning.

Tuesday. 9:00AM.
The money has been deposited. We wait a while for a WaterAid employee to withdraw it from the bank, then it’s go-time. As I’m organizing the money, (it should noted that the biggest denomination of money that comes from banks is K500, or about 5 dollars... K140 000 divided by K500 = a ridiculously fat wad of bills to deal with)a few of the guys tell me about a European Union project that’s going on just down the road. “Can we change the assigned regions around so that a few of us can do your project and the EU project at the same time?”

“No, team lazy member #1, no we can’t.”

“You know, they’re paying a K3700 allowance for one morning’s work.” (WaterAid pays K2000 for a full day of work and overnight stipend, which is still more than enough in my opinion)... I sense problems.

All four teams set off.

Tuesday. 7:30PM.
I’m eating dinner with my teammate who suddenly groans in frustration. “I have forgotten some of my drugs back in Liwonde!” Recently he has been having some stomach trouble, and in fact, he was in a lot of pain for the duration of last week’s fieldwork. He went to the doctor and got prescriptions for a barrage of different drugs that he was to take throughout this week. He claims to be missing 2 out of 5 prescribed pills – this seems serious. That afternoon alone, we visited 82 waterpoints – blowing any world records right out of the water. With that productivity in mind, I decided that we would work the next morning until noon or so (when we finish the group village that we’re verifying) then my teammate could go back home to get those drugs, and I would go home to sleep for the night as well. We should reconvene in our region the next morning.

Wednesday. 12:00PM.
After getting our waterpoint count up to 113 in the morning both I and my teammate have gone home for the afternoon. I have almost reached my village when I receive a phone call from my teammate: “Yeah Ian, I’ve actually joined the EU project down the road. Alex (the District Water Officer and my boss) said it was OK. We will finish your programme on Saturday and Sunday.”

“No we won’t. This is my project, not Alex’s... you’re going to have to get your behind back to Chamba (our region) tomorrow. I’m going to call Alex to see what’s up.”

I call Alex and no, he did not approve my teammate joining the EU project, in fact my teammate just called him to say that I had approved and we could finish my programme on the weekend. We have a good laugh... Oh **insert teammate’s name here**... completely blindsided me for a bigger allowance.

Because we have already visited 113 waterpoints (way more than expected for the entire week), and because I do like my teammate and I do want him to support his family the best that he can, I decide that EU can have him for Thursday... we’ll finish our job on Friday.

Thursday. Sometime in the afternoon.
I’m chilling out at the office all day, which wasn’t in the original plans – but we’re rollin’ with it. It seems like a good time to do a phone call check-in with each team/supervisor to see how everyone is doing. I learn of some awful news – one of my guys has just lost a brother in Lilongwe; he has gone there with the team’s motorbike to attend a funeral. Of course I have no problem with that, it’s the fact that his teammate is now sitting at home, still “earning his allowance,” and no one had informed me. After a few phone calls, I have arranged for one of the supervisors, also the District Environmental Health Officer (DEHO) to join this hardworking home-sitter to finish the job on Friday.

Friday. 8:00PM.
Alas, the activity is over. 2 of 4 teams have returned with data and receipts for me. The remaining 2 are still in the field, and it’s been dark for a few hours. I have arranged to meet them at a filling station in town (a 30 minute journey from my village, and definitely breaking an EWB rule, as it is dark and potentially sketchy). Amazingly, both teams get stranded in the field – one for getting caught with an uninsured bike, and the other for a bike breakdown. Back home in the dark I go.

Saturday. 8:00AM.
The uninsured team has managed to sway the police into letting them off (that is the DEHO’s team, and the DEHO has some serious authority), and the broken down team has fixed their bike. We meet at the filling station to exchange data and receipts and... what? Money? Oh that’s right, the allowance system requires me to pay them extra allowances, because they stayed in the field for an extra night. I love allowances.

THIS WEEK

The fieldwork is done. Most loose ends have been tied up, aside from some non-legit allowances and stolen fuel money from drivers that I am still hunting down. This week I will be compiling the data and writing a big report for WaterAid on the weaknesses/challenges/future of the HSA waterpoint monitoring system.

So why the flip were those four weeks as aggravating, exhausting, and at times downright silly as they were? It all comes back to my last post. There is nothing driving this system to operate smoothly. There are no players in the system who have invested something of their own, expecting to gain from that investment when good work is done in the field. There is no one demanding accountability from anyone. There is no difference in outcome for anyone in the system whether they do good work or bad work – they get their allowance either way. There is no competition to encourage my guys’ work quality to be better than someone else’s. There is no baseline to which any work that is done can be compared to and measured against. Nothing happens when someone steals money. Nothing happens when people sit at home, earning allowances. Nothing happens when something that should take one day takes one week. There are no consequences. You see?

Please note, the quotes used in this blog are not direct quotes and are only intended to convey a general message.

THE FIELDWORK IN PICTURES.

Neither I or my teammate have motorbike licenses, so this was the view from the back of hired bike taxis for two weeks. 

My teammate is much lighter than me, so a mandatory question each morning was "Which one of you is stronger?" ie) carry fat Ian.

We saw our share of bridges. Some sucked.

Some were pretty baller.

We also saw our share of strange taps. Standtaps are the last step in the gravity fed water systems... fresh water is captured from springs high on a mountain, then funnelled and cleaned until it is distributed to a huge number of taps throughout a community. Often, the bibcocks are gone (stolen or broke)... the one seen above is actually producing good water, only there is no "stand" to this "tapstand" = waste of good water.

Who needs a tapstand when you can just rip the line right out of the ground and make it our own never-ending tap?

We met lots and lots and lots of people, and took lots and lots and lots of group shots. This is a group of school children. Obviously.

Data collection - field style.

Another group shot. In then foreground you can kind of see (despite an awful angle) the standard borehole pump in Malawi.... she's called the Afridev. When EWB volunteers get together for a night of dancing at clubs in Lilongwe or Blantyre, the goto dance move: the Afridev. Imagine.

Breakfast in the field: eggs, chips, and salad.

The Domasi rice scheme. These shots don't do it justice... it's absolutely gigantic.

Skies in Africa are pretty blue, but rice fields and circular polarizing filters help.

A tree on a gloomy day.

Only a few more weeks! This is off the meat rack!

Take er easy,

Ian