Spring 2008 - 99F and climbing

Suddenly there was a surge of visitors to this site today. It turned out that Google.co.th has What Do I Know? listed second for the search term "First Day of Spring".

That has as little meaning here in Chiang Mai, where it is in the hot 90s (My Computer says it's 99F, but the 30% humidity makes it fine with me), as it does in Anchorage where, according to my computer, it is 22F.

They are all being directed to last April 26 which I dubbed the real first day of spring when the temperature got up to 65F in Anchorage.

I've finally gotten my sense of purpose here - last week actually - and I've been developing lists of outcomes and tasks that relate to the plans the organization wrote as part of getting their grant. It is getting close to the end of the grant and people here are feeling a little overwhelmed with what they all have to do, including writing reports.

One thing I'm contributing is getting them to see that the goals are not just either/or - either you reach the goal or not. Rather, we can look at at how much they've done toward reaching the goal. So, for example, they are supposed to gather information for about ten villages. Rather than saying, "No, we haven't done that" because they don't have everything for every village, I've divided it up into villages. Then for each village we're listing the steps in this process. Set up an intitial meeting, pass out the questionnaires, get official land documents, etc. When they look at it this way, there are two advantages:
1. They can see how much they've actually done as well as what specifically they still need to do. (They know all this, but it is different when it is written down on paper and you look at it.) I've already started with one person to calculate the time he will need to do everything that is left. (At least the things we've identified. It is much less overwhelming than he thought. He's typed it all up in Thai and is already checking things off.)
2. When they report what they've accomplished to the funding agency, they now have all the steps along the way to report. They've been thinking either/or and haven't thought as much about all the work that goes up to getting to complete. So even if some goals haven't been completed, they can show they are 60% or 80% complete with a list of all they've done.

The reaction seems to be pretty positive to this approach. The boss is clearly pleased.

Other activities - I faxed in our absentee ballot applications today. When I asked about using the fax yesterday, E. pointed to a box - she'd just bought a fax machine. So we set it up yesterday evening and I got the forms in today.

Sunday, the organization has a big event up in one of the villages north of here. They have initiated a program of building fire breaks in the mountains with one of the hill tribes that has traditionally used slash and burn agriculture. I'm not completely sure whether the slash and burn techniques will still be used and how the fire breaks contribute. In any case it is a big deal and several people have been out of the office in preparation. I'm trying to arrange for us to stay up there at a small resort Friday and Satruday night where the birding is supposed to be very good. Then we'll get up to the village Sunday morning somehow. Things will work out one way or another.