My date of departure approaches. I leave Japan on the morning of December 28th for a three month absence that will have me circumnavigate the planet by airplane – seriously. APU, bless its frosty heart, is doing all it can to make me desperate to leave. Winter so far has been unseasonably cold – we’ve had snow 5 out of the last 7 days, including the current tempest I woke up to this morning. I enjoy snow, very much in fact – but the snow I enjoy falls gently down to earth, accumulating into a beautiful silent white panorama as far as the eye can see. APU snow, on the other hand, on account of our ever-present hellacious winds, *never* accumulates. Instead, it prefers to stubbornly drive itself into your eyes, up your nose, and occasionally even into your ears. I don’t particularly enjoy this…
My remaining work for this quarter, for the next 11 days, consists of finishing my research proposal and submission of the aforementioned document to my adviser and the EPA staff at large. Work has been slow, but consistent, and I should hit the 95% complete mark by Tuesday night – thus leaving me with an entire week to tighten up the overall paper.
How about a research update? I leave for Manila on February 5th, and after taking another domestic Philippine flight, a two hour bus ride, and a two hour ferry ride I will arrive in Camiguin. Upon arrival I will meet with the provincial governor, the mayor of the provincial capital city, and assorted other dignitaries. There may be some pomp, and even some circumstance, but the heart of the matter is these people are going to want to know what a nearly two meter tall Caucasian is doing crawling all over their island for seven weeks.
I have established working contacts in the region, and we’re slowly hammering out further details of my visit. For example, I have been informed that housing is going to cost me roughly $5 a day, although we can negotiate that lower if we so choose. This is of course without air conditioning… that would be an absolutely absurd $10 a day… I will have my own paid private translator who will accompany me wherever I wish in order to conduct my research interviews, order cervesa at the cantina, etc. And, oddly enough, I will have a cellphone. Camiguin is a bit of a tourist spot, so they do have limited cellphone coverage, and this will be my main means of contact back to my research associates on the other islands in the region.
My field work is divided into two main parts – interview and biologic survey. 300 households participated in the program, and I’m shooting for successfully interviewing at least 100 of those. Once this is accomplished, I will assess the current health of the project area with the help of several local members of the original project staff. Tropical forests can have as many as 700 species of trees per hectare. This is not a tropical forest – it is a reforested site intended for timber harvest at a later date, i.e. monoculture. Part of my research is going to examine the level of biodiversity in the project area, as this is a frequent complaint lodged against CBFM practices.
Those familiar with these sorts of things will note that the majority of my research data then will be qualitative and not quantitative. While it’s always nice to have hard numbers to crunch, such numbers are rarely meaningful when assessing policy execution – which is what I’m doing here. Instead, you look for things like attitudes between the participants and the officials, education levels, adherence to timelines, etc… Lastly, my flight returning home to Japan leaves on April 8th, at which point I damn well better be finished with all my field work!
As for this weekend… I’m going to Kobe. That name may be vaguely familiar, they had a bit of an earthquake there nearly a decade ago. I’m taking the Saturday overnight ferry, will be in Kobe all Sunday seeing the sights, and then returning on the Sunday overnight ferry. I’ve never been there but it’s supposed to be pretty great, and the tour package I’m in is taking us to a healthy variety of interesting destinations, not the least of which is a sake brewery… yeah baby.
So check back for the usual assortment of pictures, wry comments, etc. in a few days. Until then, enjoy the holidays — and as they say here in Japan… MERRY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!