On the Road with HAT

Tuesday and Wednesday, I went with Vikram, Moo and Champ, to another province to meet with their consumer safety community volunteers. They are working with six groups of volunteers in low income communities who they have trained on issues of consumer safety, who are now going out and talking to people who run the food stalls on the side of the road in their communities, of which there are hundreds. For the most part, I had to guess what was going on.

Moo was the main speaker; Champ took pictures; and Vikram mostly sat and listened, but got up to put in his two cents once in a while. They passed out forms for the volunteers to fill out whenever they talked to a group - to record the place, the topics covered and the number of people reached. Moo talked a lot and then they handed out informational pamphlets and test boxes that test for borax, and two other chemicals that I can’t remember, in food. She also handed out lavender polo shirts with the project logo on them for the volunteers to wear in the community. Although I did not understand the words that were said, it was good to see HAT staff in action and to see not only what good relationships they seem to have with the volunteers and the community organizations, but also to see how organized and professional they are. I had become quite impressed with the organization from reading all the materials and the real life interactions only served to impress me further.

I spent both Tuesday and Wednesday on the road, but when they asked me if I wanted to come out again on Thursday, I had to decline. For each hour long meeting, there was a three hour drive (or rather, sit) in deadlocked traffic, each way. I knew there was work waiting for me at the office and that my time would be more productively spent at the office.