Fieldwork Conclusions: Potentials for Future Study As the fieldwork period was only two months, many issues opened before us that could not be addressed while we were there. Further, after returning to Norway, the reflections of the class have brought a deeper perspective to the experience, making us aware of areas where further research is possible. Of the many issues found in Sawal Bahal, several demonstrate only a small part of much larger problems in Kathmandu and in Nepal as a whole. Many of these issues should be studied in a larger context to find possibilities for solutions. These issues from the larger context include: Local Governance Education Construction and Earthquake Risk Open Space Water Supply Sustainability and Pollution At the local level, after seeing the problems in Sawal Bahal, and similar trends in Kankeshwori - a better understanding of migrants rights in Nepal could help us to realize the potential for upgradation of their livelihoods. Overall, finding additional methods to improve the education of all children, and to encourage all children (and parents of all children) to complete their studies could create notable change in this regard. Not only should the school facilities be physically upgraded, but the education system should be examined in full to fill in gaps and increase the standards set across the board. While we found legal difficulties in broaching the topic of ownership of the vacant land in Sawal Bahal, it does
Kathmandu Group Report - Fall 2009
leave open potential for further study and aid to the community. More focused research on the current ownership could be done and a community driven usage plan for the land could be explored. Finding a sustainable way to use the land - socially, ecologically, and economically, could greatly benefit Sawal Bahal. Business plans could be worked out so that the community could run a small enterprise and profit from land use, while social needs and inclusivity could be encouraged through communal use and maintenance of the land. The concept of starting a day care center was another late thought which could be further worked out as a business model. Teaching the women of this area, not only work skills, but entrepreneurial skills, could prove useful in strengthening the biggest population of traditionally slighted - low caste women. Again, this project should be approached as self sustaining to avoid making the community any further dependant on outside aid. It should be remembered that as students we have the potential to teach the community how to strengthen and support themselves, however they should not be taught to rely on us.
Fieldwork Reflections One important aspect of planning is to reflect on the lessons learnt. It includes what was learnt by doing, but also what was learnt by what we could have done differently. When considering the outcome of the survey work, which took most of our time, it would have been interesting to look more into the social capital of Sawal Bahal; local knowledge and skills that could contribute to more creative, locally inspired projects for implementation. One noteworthy discovery made during this work was the obvious challenge of the
language barrier. We did, thankfully, have three Nepali students and one assistant teacher who did most of the translation work during the two months in Kathmandu. However there is always the risk of information being lost in translation through the individual interpretation, and also information lost after this, in the sharing of acquired knowledge between members of our class. We too had language and cultural “ barriers “ internally, being such a multinational group of students. Having that said, this was an enriching factor in the fieldwork and I think we all learned a lot about communication in general. When it comes to successful approaches, it turned out that one of the most constructive, and also the most intuitive, methods was simply the improvised dialogue with the people, building trust-relations and asking open questions. This we could have started earlier in the process, so that the community meetings could have found place in the beginning of the research, rather than half way through. In addition we could have used our observations as a basis for questions more actively, in order to dig deeper into the workings of the community. There was a challenge for the community people, the way we were posing such open questions, like “What do you want or need? “. As we experienced, at both the women meeting and with the teachers, they did not know or could not answer straight away on exactly what they want or need. With this question there is also the possibility that the response might be, unspoken or not: “What can we have?“. This is of course a legitimate question as they most likely would want to maximize their own profit of our contribution, and yet it might lead them to not answer truthfully, but more saying what they think we want to hear. These issues are quite difficult to resolve and maybe there is no appropriate method for ensuring a “correct“ interpretation. One last thing we could have done differently, looking back, was to
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