Fast and Light

Upon our return to PNG three weeks ago we got suited up and buckled back into Team Survey’s Research 4WD. The most rugged of the terrain has been methodology meetings with team members. The team is hoping to become more ‘fast and light’ than before. We want to be able to maximize our resources by avoiding the temptation to “collect all the information you can, because it might be your only chance!” By asking only the questions we must ask we’ll spend less time analyzing information which might not be useful to anyone. Optimal ignorance.

With one survey coming up in a week and half and another in April, discussing methodology is ever-so-relevant, though that doesn’t always keep it from getting dull. The first is the Silisili Survey in Morobe Province, named after one of the villages in the area. Hopefully none of us will get sunstroke and get too silly-silly in the head.

I’ll be going with four other team members while Katie and Tikvah hold down the office. We’ll be visiting 12-16 villages, more than I’ve ever done in one survey, but we hope to get them all done in about two weeks. We’ll fly be chopper to the head of the Watut River valley, where we anticipate hiking through some narrow gorges. We’ll follow the river down to where it slows in the flatlands. Because it’s the rainy season there have been some deadly mudslides in mountainous areas and I imagine the flatlands will be pretty swampy. Something to keep in mind for us.