Newlyweds on the Run: Field work

Most people have no idea what it means to go out and collect data in the field. Let me try to briefly explain what I am doing in Tumbes, Peru.

For the project that I'm helping with right now we are trying to answer the question "Did the 1997-98 El Nino have an effect on the growth of children in Tumbes?" In order to do this we need to screen over 2,000 kids to find a 0.2 difference in the age-standardized variation of children who were 0-36 months old during those years. Basically we go to these small towns in the Tumbes district where we recruit one child per household (that were randomly selected from the Proyecto's census records). We knock door-to-door (if there is a door that is) and confirm that the kid lives there. Then we ask to talk to an adult, preferably a parent but older siblings and grandparents are fine too, to answer a 30-minute questionnaire and consent to let us measure the kid's weight, height, triceps skin thickness and percent body fat the following day in school.

There are three local field workers who have been trained to collect the data and work full time, waking up at 5am to go to the field. We meet up with them around 8 to 10-100 miles away go to the schools. Some schools are only elementary school in the morning and in the same classrooms they have high school in the afternoon, and some are vice versa. Some towns are big enough to have two separate complexes for each. Basically we don't know what kids we are going to find until we get there and even then a lot of kids don't go to school everyday in which case we have to come back the next day.

This best park about this job is the kids. They are wonderful! They are so inquisitive and beautiful. They are very polite but love to stare at me. The families invite us in and invite us sit to on their very nice plastic chairs while they stand. Others have 1970 floral-patterned brown couches that are comfy. No one really wear shoes. Everyone has one television and a large poster of Jesus in their living room.

Motocars at one of the major intersections in Tumbes

If you haven't noticed, the entire area here is poor and rural. However, I can't imagine why anyone would want to move to Lima or the USA because they have everything they need here. People who are the richest of the poor have a nice life. Most people who are born here never leave and their entire family (and extended family) live in the Tumbes area. Downtown Tumbes has a church and center square and in total Tumbes is about 8 blocks long. Some "richer" families send their kids to the neighboring towns (that we've already been to the schools) but then we have to go back. The reason we can't do the measurements in the house is that most houses don't have a straight wall for use to set up the height measurements nor do they have plugs that won't blow our impedence machine. It's amazing how quickly you can tell what families are "rich" since their floors are "tile" and they own a horse rather than donkeys and occasionally have motocar (see photos) instead of bicycles. Most families make between 150-300 soles/month which is less than $100/month. I can't imagine but they all seem very happy and that's really what's the most important.

It's very interesting work and I love it!