Today was a very interesting day. Ann needed some time to look over the HSDVFR frequencies from yesterday so I worked today with Noella. She is working on an Abstinence/Sex Education program through Boys and Girls Club of Hawaii. There are two age groups: 10-12 and 13-15. Each has a booklet with a pre- and post-test. My job was to code the questions and create an Excel sheet for the people on site to enter the data. I needed to make it as easy as possible with as little change of data corruption or errors. This was really interesting to work on and I enjoyed it a lot. With some help from Jeff (Mr. Excel Guru) I added data validation to nearly every variable so the person entering the data can only select from a pull down menu of options. I also locked in some formatting so they couldn't accidentally mess it up when entering the data. All in all I figured it was a good day's work. I ended up with 4 nice spreadsheet layouts, ready to add data and set up to easily merge files with a minimum of problems from different sites, even multiple years.
Today is Wednesday so at lunch Noella, Ann and I went to the Leahi Thrift shop. I got several nice blouses for $1.00 apiece! It will be nice to have a few more selections of things to wear. Almost a week's wardrobe for $4.00. WOOHOO! All money from the thrift shop goes to the nurses' wish list for the patients. They bought a handicap accessible van to take the residents on trips. They have also bought some items the residents needed and couldn't afford. It is a good cause to support. Not that most of you care, but here are pics of the blouses.
After the thrift shop Noella returned to the office and Ann and I walked around the corner to Fort Reuger Market. It's just a little hole in the wall market but it has food options.
There was a board with Filipino food specials on it, I didn't know what most of them were but Ann enlightened me. Ann's husband is Filipino and she picked up a couple of items for him so I got pictures. Let me clarify I did NOT eat these items.
This is what I got for lunch: Kahlua pork. This is smoked then shredded pork. It is salty and smoky flavored. YUM. The incredible edible pig wins again. Or rather, the pig parts I WANT to eat.
We ate in the conference room today and there are always snacks to nibble on. This is a Japanese rice snack cracker called mochi crunch, or arare. This particular kind is called mini yakko arare. They are rice crackers seasoned with shoyo (soy sauce).
I saw these on the way back from Fort Reuger Market. The first and second are pictures taken in a small rock and plant garden in front of someone's home. The third is a pumelo tree with HUGE pumelos!
After lunch I worked more on Noella's project. I finished the Excel files I mentioned above and sent them off to her. Then I met with her and we discussed the next part, which is working on a couple of questionnaires. One for the kids and one for the caregiver/parent. So we worked on specifics of those for a while. I am learning a LOT about designing questions. Knowing what data you need is important. Otherwise, you'll get data, but it won't necessarily be exactly what you needed. For example, if you want to know if contraception is being used you must ask the question based on the specificity of the answer needed. Is it being used? Yes/No. Who is using contraception in your relationship? Female/Male/Both/Neither. Etc. Etc. The point here being, you have to think about the questions. Not to mention designing the database whether you choose one option, or all that apply. The headaches caused by "Other: (Please specify)" I won't even go into right now.
So I'm learning a LOT about survey design, planning, database design and how it all needs to work together so you aren't pulling your hair out. Not to mention making sure you actually learn what you want to know. Trust me, it SOUNDS a lot easier than it is. Especially when dealing with amorphous concepts like beliefs, emotions, and people's faulty recall abilities.
So I'm home temporarily and doing the blog early because I'm going out this evening. I'm going with Susan from work to the Honolulu Museum of Art for Tattoo Honolulu. This is an art show featuring the history of tattoo work in Hawaii and it's cultural significance. Susan had an invitation for 2 for this evening to see this before it officially opens to the public tomorrow. Sounds interesting so I'll be leaving soon to go. I don't know if I'll get to take pictures or not but I'll try.
To be continued...
Aloha,
~Melissa
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