Being Adminator

Like Weaver, I try to make my posts about non-work things, since a good chunk of what I do is interesting to me but would make for a horrendously boring blog post (e.g. creating the perfect staff payment tracker). However, since McManus and I don't have a lot going on in our lives besides work (and people who aren't as in love with dogs may want a change of pace), I'm going to give an update on my work life.

I recently-ish left Jeff's Voters project (although I still manage the finances, in exchange for on-demand data analysis and Stata lessons). I'm now splitting my time between Double Fortified Salt("DFS")/Immunizations and a new training program that JPAL's starting up.

For the training program, things are still very new, but I'm actually in Delhi right now to plan out the next few months of work (there's a lot of it!) - and to visit with Mr. Weaver and the rest of the JPAL Delhi team, of course. In general, I will be helping to prepare curricula for a training in basic field operations, for a mix of JPAL and non-JPAL folks (and then other stuff after that). It's really cool - I'll get to apply my curriculum-writing background to my neurotic love of systematic processes, in order to build capacity both within JPAL and for other folks (NGOs, govt officials, researchers) doing data collection in India. Not typical RA work, but I'm really jazzed. And it's great to spend a few days in Delhi - I've already had a burger and fries, I'm planning on sushi tonight, and I went to a very classy, delicious but also creepily ex-pat-filled restaurant last night with Weaver - such things do not exist in Patna.

For DFS, JPAL is evaluating whether making salt that has been fortified with both iron and iodine available to villagers will reduce anemia prevalence and increase work productivity. That's the very, very short version. There's two other (kickass) RAs on the project, and between the three of us we're running price experiments (to see what the ideal price of DFS would be) and planning for a baseline survey, to get a sense of what health and productivity levels are like prior to distributing DFS, so we can see what the impact of DFS is later. Although there's a lot of overlap in what the three of us do, in general I've taken over the HR/finances/logistics work, which has earned me the title of "Adminator," because I'm doing the finances at least for all the Patna-based projects. Hence the pursuit of the perfect staff payment tracker...

Our study is operating in a rural district right next to Patna (about 2-3 hours away), so last week I spent several days there, meeting with our field supervisors and the Project Assistant and Field Manager who are overseeing field operations, to go over, you guessed it, administrative stuff. I took a train to get there and back, and despite a thousand million warnings about how uncomfortable it would be to be in the general compartment, it was great - I happily worked on my laptop until it died and then spent the rest of the time reading my Kindle, studiously oblivious to the curious stares I attracted. New rule: only paper-backs allowed on trains.

I suppose it should be obvious, but life is really different in the rural town where we set up DFS headquarters. I stayed overnight with the team in a dharmshala (धर्मशाला- an "inn" or a community center of sorts that rents out rooms to visitors, esp. for weddings), and very quickly noticed that I no longer had the protection of the industrial-strength mosquito net from my dad that Jeff and I set up in our apartment.*  After a bit of experimentation (thick sheet over face = no mosquito access), I slept just fine. And on the plus side, it costs about $2 a day.

In the morning, when I wanted power to print some forms and charge my laptop, Nikhil our Project Assistant asked a neighbor for a key to the basement, filled up a bottle with gasoline, poured it into the generator outside the building and hand-cranked it to get it going. Viola, one hour's power.

Next time I'm there, I'll take some photos - it's difficult to get myself to do, since everyone is staring and it's insanely awkward, but I know it's really difficult to accurately convey in words what it's like. I did manage to snap a shot of the train station near where we're working:

Of course what you can't see is the crowd of no fewer than 40 young men and boys watching  me read my Kindle while I waited for Nikhil (rule #2 - no Kindle anywhere in rural areas); I took the picture in a vain attempt to get them less interested. And don't worry - it was purely friendly curiosity, and Nikhil arrived a few minutes after I did.

So in sum, my work right now is taking me all over the place - rural districts, cosmopolitan Delhi, our home base in Patna - and I'm getting to do a variety of tasks. The trick, of course, is trying to keep everything balanced while also sleeping, planning for our wedding and taking care of Lalu. But things are going really well right now; thank goodness!

Next up, what Jeff's doing...

*Unlike in other states, the mosquitoes in Bihar are invincible and somehow continue to reproduce year-round, rather than going away in the winter. I haven't seen a single mosquito in my 2.5 days so far here in Delhi.