…On Tuesday we hiked the waterfall behind the village where we are conducting our research. Downstream of the waterfall is the source where the village gets its water. The little valley it created was lush with vegetation. At the top, we could see for miles/kilometers. Our guide was Styles. He is the head student coordinator for our project and already a good friend. He and two other students, Ellie and Kwathiso, are our main translators and a crucial part of the work. They are also working on a volunteer basis and easily spend 30+ hours a week with us.
Since the cameras have been returned we have been able to develop them and conduct our first interviews with our participants.
We mostly ask about how they felt as they were taking pictures, which are their favorites, and why. The prompt they were given when they received the cameras was to take pictures of things that related to health. Already, some of our participants have had some very profound things to say. At night, after 4-10 interviews a day, we go home and sit with our translators as they interpret the 15-30 minute conversations in Tshivenda, the language of the region, into English as Ashleigh and I type everything that was said. It is not an easy job but with the help of copious amounts of Cadbury chocolate and unique flavored chips (such as smoked beef, and Thai sweet chili) we mange to complete the work. Sometimes it takes place by candlelight because the power goes off on a daily basis around dinner time. Eventually the batteries on the computer die and we take everyone home.
We have made many new friends among the other students from UVa here working in the same villages. They come from the medical, engineering, media schools as well as some other universities. We see one another 2-3 times a week and share our experiences as Mukhua (white people) in an unfamiliar place. One such experience was a trip to locate a participant that was reportedly a short ride away but turned out to be about 4 miles of driving, and roughly 2000’ feet of elevation change over a cloud enveloped mountain to a house perched on a cliff face. In my paranoia, I envisioned we were being led into a trap where we were going to get robbed by some masked bandits hiding out in the mountains. Fortunately, this was not the case. Needless to say I tried hard to make friends with our guides in the back seat hoping I would get the “nice guy” treatment when they left me broke. Then I would have to walk back and explain to Ashleigh how I ruined the project, and deal with her wrath. Instead, when we got there, our participant seemed more annoyed than anything else and also spoke a dialect throughout the interview we couldn’t understand very well.
Elly, my already-sick translator, had only a t-shirt and the temperature had dropped 15 degrees since we got in the car 20 minutes prior. I gave him my jacket and he wore it for three days.
Basically this cycle has been repeated day after day for a while since beginning our interviews. Today will be more of the same. By Friday, we are going to have a presentation on what we have accomplished thus far. I don’t think the experience will really fit in a powerpoint but I suppose we will try….
Since the cameras have been returned we have been able to develop them and conduct our first interviews with our participants.
We mostly ask about how they felt as they were taking pictures, which are their favorites, and why. The prompt they were given when they received the cameras was to take pictures of things that related to health. Already, some of our participants have had some very profound things to say. At night, after 4-10 interviews a day, we go home and sit with our translators as they interpret the 15-30 minute conversations in Tshivenda, the language of the region, into English as Ashleigh and I type everything that was said. It is not an easy job but with the help of copious amounts of Cadbury chocolate and unique flavored chips (such as smoked beef, and Thai sweet chili) we mange to complete the work. Sometimes it takes place by candlelight because the power goes off on a daily basis around dinner time. Eventually the batteries on the computer die and we take everyone home.We have made many new friends among the other students from UVa here working in the same villages. They come from the medical, engineering, media schools as well as some other universities. We see one another 2-3 times a week and share our experiences as Mukhua (white people) in an unfamiliar place. One such experience was a trip to locate a participant that was reportedly a short ride away but turned out to be about 4 miles of driving, and roughly 2000’ feet of elevation change over a cloud enveloped mountain to a house perched on a cliff face. In my paranoia, I envisioned we were being led into a trap where we were going to get robbed by some masked bandits hiding out in the mountains. Fortunately, this was not the case. Needless to say I tried hard to make friends with our guides in the back seat hoping I would get the “nice guy” treatment when they left me broke. Then I would have to walk back and explain to Ashleigh how I ruined the project, and deal with her wrath. Instead, when we got there, our participant seemed more annoyed than anything else and also spoke a dialect throughout the interview we couldn’t understand very well.
Elly, my already-sick translator, had only a t-shirt and the temperature had dropped 15 degrees since we got in the car 20 minutes prior. I gave him my jacket and he wore it for three days.Basically this cycle has been repeated day after day for a while since beginning our interviews. Today will be more of the same. By Friday, we are going to have a presentation on what we have accomplished thus far. I don’t think the experience will really fit in a powerpoint but I suppose we will try….
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