So now we're doing evaluation in Burundi. Based on the data I've entered so far (about 20 percent of surveys), my impression is that the sample of people we are interviewing is going to be the youngest of all the places we are surveying. Which makes sense when you go to a village and see tonnes of kids running around and lots of young adults. I suppose I could look up and see what the stats are on average lifespan etc, or you could, but either way I know it's overall a young country, demographic wise.

Final tally on trip duration was 29 hours 28 minutes. This is from arrival at first airport to arrival at destination hotel early Monday morning. Sorry for not updating sooner, but it's been kind of busy with prepping for the evaluation here. Not getting enough sleep caught up to me today though and I fell asleep in the truck in a village while surveyors were out collecting data. One can only go so long on determination alone.

I'm now at 22  hours 46 minutes and counting. Fortunately I nap on the plane so there is some relief in little spontaneous bits. Still one more flight to go. I think I'll stop the clock when I arrive at hotel

The guy at security check told me I was the second person today with a "very, very, long day". Which I found amusing and strangely encouraging somehow.  So  I've decided to set my stopwatch and see exactly how long. Hopefully on the other end I remember to hit stop. So far the day has been 28 minutes and 43 seconds.

And it's done. Here's all the surveys for the DR completed and recorded. Now the analysis begins. And we only have to repeat this same process 5 more times in 5 more countries. Beginning next week in Haiti.

On the hill in the background you can see some bare fields and a small forest in the middle. That small forest is a shade-grown coffee farm. It is far less vulnerable to erosion than the field on the left which is showing bare rocks. The trees help produce better quality coffee, protect the soil and also add nutrients which actually improve the soil.  From a distance you can see that it looks like a natural forest. The local organization here, Floresta, is helping farmers  to improve  these coffee plantings by  providing them with better quality coffee  seedlings which can  produce more  and are resistant to disease.

This is what Canadian companies do. The first photo shows a mining operation in the DR. If you look closely at the mountain tops especially on the right you can see the removal operation. For comparison I've added a shot of mountains in a national park

Here's what we were doing today:

That is discussing with farmers the biggest changes in their communities over the past few years. The top one is that people are being more conscientious about saving money. This is having a lot of positive effects as listed in the photo. The table you see in the photo is the input provided by the focus group consisting of farmers and community leaders. Well, the majority present were mostly farmers who also happened to be community leaders. Or maybe leaders who also happened to be farmers.

This afternoon we had some very animated conversations about this graph. Which was very exciting for me. Normally I expect people to be at the very most underwhelmed by charts and graphs. But this information really meant something to everyone around the table today and it was fun to be a part. Without explanation I'm not sure if you can get much out of this, but maybe take a shot at your own interpretation. Maybe in another post I can explain.

This afternoon we had some very animated conversations about this graph. Which was very exciting for me. Normally I expect people to be at the very most underwhelmed by charts and graphs. But this information really meant something to everyone around the table today and it was fun to be a part. Without explanation I'm not sure if you can get much out of this, but maybe take a shot at your own interpretation. Maybe in another post I can explain.

This afternoon we had some very animated conversations about this graph. Which was very exciting for me. Normally I expect people to be at the very most underwhelmed by charts and graphs. But this information really meant something to everyone around the table today and it was fun to be a part. Without explanation I'm not sure if you can get much out of this, but maybe take a shot at your own interpretation. Maybe in another post I can explain.