Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Starting the interviews

Wow, this field study is turning out to be the most enriching learning experience of my life. I started the interviews last week, which has been an incredible experience. Ray is a local who has been working with Jaron ever since he's been here and he knows where all the women live and speaks english really well. The women all know him and like him, which is awesome because it makes them all that more comfortable telling their life stories to us. We started out on Tuesday in a village called Laliya, where some of the women live, including the chairperson of the group. So we recorded the stories of four women on Tuesday and four more on Wednesday, when we went to Kanyagoga. Each day I came home feeling a little overwhelmed emotionally with all that I heard from the women telling me about their lives and the situations they are still currently living in. Each one has suffered so much throughout their lives and continue today struggling to support their children, most of them on their own. They all desire for their children to have better lives than they had and so they are doing everything they can to make enough money to pay for school fees so their children can gain an education, which many of the women didn't get very much of growing up.

Interviewing the women has made me realize how incredible important this paper bead business is to them. Many of them rely solely on making paper beads to support their families because they have no other source of income. Jaron is working so hard to find more orders for beads from the U.S. to at least keep the women working and earning money in the meantime while also trying to figure out something that would provide a more steady income for the women. Many of the women have no other resources to turn to and are thus relying on us and our connections to the states to help them out. After hearing their stories first hand and knowing how important this work is to them, I want to do everything I can to give back to them what they are in need of. They have been giving me so much by teaching me so many important life lessons and values that will bless me for my whole life. Hopefully I can use their stories for some good, so that this project will come back to bless them as well.

After conducting these first interviews, I realized some changes I need to make in my approach to recoding the stories. Ray is going to help me with being better about giving the women appropriate warning and time in advance to us coming so that they can prepare and think about what they want to say. I am also coming up with more and better questions to ask the women to get them really thinking and talking. It's definitely a learning process as I really didn't know what to expect at first. I think I will be able to make some changes that will help make the interviews more in-depth because the first few were not nearly as long as I had hoped. I also think I need to keep the interviews spaced out a little bit and have Ray help me convey to the women that I'm not in a rush to get all of the interviews done, but that they can really take their time. I love this project and I'm so grateful to be here and among such incredible people!

4 comments:

  1. Sweet! It sounds like you're making progress and are learning some good techniques to help with interviews!

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  2. So how do you approach people to start interviews? Does it take some explaining, or was it only the first time? Are they all really just very willing to just open up to you?

    And most important question: have you used the silent probe?

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    1. The women all know about the interviews already because I told them about my idea when they were together as a group. They all agreed to do it, so I just use Ray to call them and set up a time to come visit them and do the interview. My translator, Ray, is super good about explaining everything to them before we start so that we're all on the right page. Some are definitely more willing to open up than others and they give varying degrees of detail. I try really hard to be sensitive and ask appropriate questions and yes, I have used the silent probe. Sometimes they ask to have some time to think about what else they want to tell me.

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  3. I just have to say that I miss hanging out with you guys. :)

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