In terms of work done, this week was certainly a lot. I conducted the two interviews I was promised. I authored the pamphlet I am supposed to use next week for the community engagement part. I also started work on the report I have to contribute to the host organisation about my engagement with the local community. So, it certainly felt quite satisfying as Saturday approached.

The reason I thought of writing this week’s report with respect to temperance was simple. I was tempted to adopt a very different approach to the one I planned to take up. The plan was to conduct the interviews, and then, on the basis of the interviews conducted and surveys filled up, to author the pamphlet to be printed. This week went according to plan. However, I was initially tempted to change the plan. One of the interviewees was not very enthusiastic on call and from my poor local language skills, I was not able to make out what their exact address was. Online, their footprint just mentioned a huge area as their address, and without good knowledge of the local language, it would have been a difficult task to find a small office in a huge area. So, I was very tempted just to skip this interview, and go ahead with the other interview, which was very near where I lived, so I knew where it was. Moreover, I thought the time I will save by not travelling all that far for an interview could be spent on starting the awareness campaign using the pamphlets. I could probably get a larger final number of ‘businesses and individuals impacted’. I could author another report for the organisation (see below). The sheer quantity of my engagement would no doubt be up by some margin. Would the quality be up though, without the interview?

I was lucky in the fact that the two organisations I was supposed to interview were very different from each other. One was a part of a multibranch larger set of saving and lending cooperative societies (this was the one I was facing problems with ironically), and the other was a small local microcredit cooperative that was probably less than a tenth of the former. So, I expected at least some divergence in approach. Not interviewing the larger one, in retrospect, would not have been a good decision. The choice to take the pain, make an intentional thought-of decision and go ahead with the interview was made. I could have very easily come off with some less knowledge, drafted a less good pamphlet, and interacted in a slightly different, probably also less good, manner, and just increased the ‘quantity’ of interaction. It was satisfying though, to take a step back, and think. It was satisfying to prioritise what truly mattered.

My research report about microcredit availability among tea smallholders was very well received and I was very happy about that. I was happy about the fact that I was able to contribute something to an organisation that was helping me so much during my time in Nepal. Soon enough, I was asked, if possible, to conduct another research report: this time about increasing agricultural productivity through cooperatives. I was interviewing cooperatives for microcredit in the Kathmandu area, and this was vaguely relevant to what I was doing, but not really. So, it was a hard decision to say no, and it was a decision I had to take. I had promised my organisation to author a research report on the community engagement I was about to do, and I had to devote a lot of time this week to arranging that report and consolidating the surveys and the interviews I had conducted. Therefore, all I told them was that I loved the topic, which I did, but finding time during this week might be especially hard, but I look forward to doing that research in the coming weeks. It was also hard to say no for another reason. They liked my previous report, and authoring another report would have earned me a bit more applause. And I loved the topic, and who doesn’t like appreciation. But still, somewhere down within, I thought whether I was here for the applause and the appreciation or the microcredit engagement I was involved in. It was incredibly hard to say no, but I look forward to authoring a report on that in the incoming weeks.

The best thing I learnt from this experience was about the idea of happiness. Overindulging and rushing ahead and getting things done provides you with a boost of self-esteem. You feel worthier. It is a form of happiness. To step back, though, and think and then make a decision that is lot less flashy and less glittery: doing that gives you a different kind of deep satisfaction. Perhaps the English language is a bit shallow in the sense that both of these come under the category of happiness, but it was good to explain my thoughts here.

• The progress you made; what was achieved and done: I was able to complete the interviews scheduled. I designed the pamphlets that would be sued next week for the engagement and got them approved by the organisation.
• Things that did not get done and/or could be changed: I would have wanted to do more interviews. As of now, only two interviews could be done, even though I contacted over 15+ possible saving and credit cooperatives. Most of them would not pick up my call or would not be willing to participate. I should have probably asked someone from my organisation to help me out with the invites in retrospect. My initial assumption that people in management positions would know English was wrong.
• Leadership attributes and insights you developed: I think I felt comfortable interacting with people in a new environment during the interviews, and that was certainly a plus given the skills I gained in effective communication during the previous weeks. I also collaborated with people from the host organisation drafting and translating the pamphlet: so that was valuable as I learnt so much from them- so many pointers I would have missed otherwise. I got to know a lot about myself as well and organised my priorities at a time I was questioning my approach to certain aspects of the project.
• What do you want to develop or focus on next? I wish to author the report I am supposed to submit to the host organisation about my work. More importantly, I wish to contact the people who filled in the survey forms to offer information about collective saving and borrowing using the pamphlets.