Highlights from North Sulawesi

• Seeing census processing live. From the forms filled in with pencils, to the guillotine used to cut them into sheets, to the scanner to read those sheets, to the staff manning a bank of computers correcting any errors from the scanner, to the finished tables!
• Sitting in on two interviews for Susanas, the National Economic Survey. Both Krycia and I worked with the Susanas data a little in Seattle and now we’re here observing the first step in getting that data! A large group from BPS went with us. I thought that the respondents would be overwhelmed to see 8 people show up at their house to ask a battery of questions that would take around an hour to complete, but everyone immediately invited us right into their homes. It’s hard to imagine the same thing happening in the US.
• Snorkeling in Banakan, an island an hour’s boat ride from Manado.
• Hanging out with the BPS staffers!