About two-thirds of the way through my stay at Koh Yao Yai (KYY) has seen me comfortably settled in island life, interacting and learning about current affairs and attitudes of the community. I was specifically observing what people would do with their waste – finding myself highly aware of my own waste generation – since that is the focus of my project. With just over 2500 people to figure out in the sub-district I’m staying in (also called Koh Yao Yai), I found myself wondering what I could do and how I could help make a difference in short time I’m here for.

Ready

As I prepared for the main component of my placement, I was introduced to a local translator that would be able to support me when I would go out in the field on my own. Had this not been the case, I would have had to go with my contingency plan that wouldn’t have depended on as much interaction with the locals. Thankfully, I was able to go with my initial plan to develop a questionnaire and interview locals in person to fill it out.

During the preparation time, I looked into research papers that detailed community based actions for waste management/recycling efforts and the socio-economic factors the affect them. I looked into papers that were based in Thailand, as that would hopefully give me insight into the kind of questions. Most of the papers were detailed research reports, and my background in psychology had me developing one similar. However, when reviewed my draft questionnaire, I was dissatisfied with the more typical psychology design. I reviewed notes and readings from class in an effort to try and incorporate aspects of a post-evaluation, with the intention to understand what changes the communities have made since the beginning of the project. With more feedback from Salisa, Kittipan, Supranee and Maeve I added more open ended questions and different kinds of themes to reveal aspects that could influence how waste is managed in their homes.

Steady

I wanted to represent the people the best I could with the time I had. The KYY Municipality – with whom I’ve been working alongside of with Salisa – gave me the number of households in each community, and I decided to print 200 questionnaires that would be split to the same ratio of households per community. For example, Chong Laad has the most households so it will have the highest number of questionnaires, whereas Ya Mhee has the fewest households and so will have the least number of questionnaire. With the goal to offer fair representation, households are chosen at random as the translator and I go about the area. Not everyone is present at home during typical work hours, so we will occasionally interview people in public places like small restaurants and grocery stores.

Go

One of the biggest considerations I realized, and was proven correct about, was how the Thai culture would influence the way I carried out the questionnaire. Without stereotyping, there really is a different approach the locals take when my questions are asked compared to how it would be in America. My questions are personal, but not too prying that they could cause potential conflict, and require discussion that go beyond the questions. This means more time is taken, as we discuss and answer follow up or individual questions about waste management in the area. Just the other day, the translator and I had a lengthy discussion with a barber – he had his own little side room, comprised of a single chair and appropriate barber instruments – about some of the challenges he faces and answering questions he had for us.

By taking this large scale matter of waste management to keep the oceans clean, and condensing it to a questionnaire for someone who may rarely leave the island, I am gaining a lot of hands-on experience with public outreach and interaction. The initial step to go up to a house, call out hello and ask if it would be alright to ask them a few questions really pushed me out of my comfort zone. All the interpersonal skills we learned over the last year really played a part, altering aspects of verbal judo to ensure the translator and I are not accusatory or give impressions based on their current actions. It’s like we learned in class, it can be incredibly difficult to change behavior or attitude, but changing action may be adequate for now. I can only hope the answers I am getting in return will play a part in the next steps taken by the project coordinators to promote better waste management practices in local’s homes.