Another Day in the Field

Today I am not in the field. Unfortunately I can't be out doing interviews every day, either because it is too exhausting, I have to transcribe previous interviews, or appointments fall through. Thus, I have time to blog about one of my research locations.

It is about 1 hour away from my apartment by motorbike. On the way, I pass this sign: It says, "You are Entering and Dangerous Area." The photo is of the volcano exploding.

This is the road I travel on:
Notice the volcano. Sorry about the exposure - in order to get the volcano to show up, I had to take the picture like that.

When I get to my location, I have interviews with farmer leaders and with local government officials. Each interview lasts 1 hour or so, depending on how talkative the interviewee is. Then, if I am meeting with farmers, they generally want to show me their fields or their canal systems since that is what I am asking about.

This week, one of the farmers asked me, "Are you brave?"

I replied, "Sure." The farmer then took me up their canal system to their water extraction point from the river. It is a small dam. The reason I had to be brave, though, was that the path going up was about 1 foot wide and very rocky. One one side was the canal, on the other was a sharp drop-off of between 5 and 15 feet. No need for concern, though. My mad motorbiking skills kept me upright.

Here is the motorbike parked before we hiked the rest of the way:
Along the way to the extraction point, we passed a Salak (snake fruit) orchard. It looked like something from Jurassic Park:When we finally arrived at the extraction point, I could see the damage from the volcanic eruption last fall. You can see where huge boulders have washed down the river and damaged the infrastructure. I saw some old pictures of this dam prior to the volcanic eruption; it was in good repair and fairly new. The government brought some cranes up the river recently and cleared it out enough so water can flow again, but the farmers say that when it rains on the mountain, more boulders and sand flow down the river. Some of the boulders are the size of a mini-van. You can also see a rough outline of the volcano in the background. My camera just didn't pick it up very well.

On the way home the farmers fed me and then sent me away with a few pounds of Salak (snake fruit), which will be the subject of another post. Then it was an hour bike ride back into the city.
On this particular day, I had two interviews and a field visit, making for about a 7 hour trip from the time I left the city and got back. Anyways, so now you know what I do for research. At least on the days I have appointments.