It has been a week full of different activities, both educational as well as some leisure activities. For me this first week of the international field project has been about adapting to the weather, starting up the research, doing interviews, managing tasks that needed to be done in the group and contacting the students from STP Bandung.
Research in Waikabubak
Today, my group and I stayed in Waikabubak, which is a place that is more in the south west of Sumba. At this location we worked together with the other team that also looks at the accommodation value chain but focuses on the socioeconomic side. The morning was scheduled for interviews with 7 hotels in the city centre. Working together and mixing with the other accommodation team is an advantage for our research, because in this way we can do more interviews with and observations in the hotels in less time.
The findings from the interviews were interesting. In Waikabubak, the hotels that were interviewed, mentioned that they had no problems with water scarcity. While in the north west this was a big problem. On top of that, the interviewees mentioned that waste gets separated, mostly with the distinction between organic and non-organic, and that waste gets picked up by the government. Although the north west part of Sumba also separated their waste, their waste did not get picked up by the government. For me, seeing this distinction between the two parts is really interesting.
Differences between the north west and the south west
When collecting data, the problem I encountered was that when asking hotels if they were willing to give an interview, most of the time the hotels in the city centre of Waikabubak did not have any English-speaking staff. Compared to the north west of Sumba, this has been a major difference and was sometimes challenging to deal with.
Another difference I encountered between the north west and south west of Sumba was the landscape. The north, is less hilly and the ground is dry with a lot of sand, while the south is more green with a lot mountains and valleys.
Overall, for me this week has been full of new impressions and also some personal growth. I developed new skills while battling against and dealing with the language barrier, as well as with organising the accommodation. I am getting more used to this different environment and I feel far more comfortable managing things now than I did before we left Holland.
I am curious what this International Field Project will bring in the days to come.
Written by: Kirsten
