Blog Entry #3
1/9/15
The longer we are here, the more I learn – and more and more I realize I know nothing at all. Is that a saying? If it is, it is certainly more eloquently put than how I just said it. What are we doing in Mindanao? Well, day to day, we head into meetings with stakeholders and get a very brief glimpse into their work, life, point of view, biases and prejudices.
I’ve never done field work. I’ve never conducted group interviews like this. We’re a big group, a group of 13 students, plus our professor and our local contact, James. We’re a pretty big crew and I can tell by the faces of our new acquaintances that this is a big… intimidating, off-putting or even just plainly, strange. Some meetings have been extremely rewarding – the people we meet have been candid (after a couple of warm-up questions) and we’ve been on our game in terms of asking questions as a group, coherently, with passion and interest. For example, our meeting with AFRIM, Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao – was an amazing experience. We were able to pick the brains of some seriously smart and well-spoke
The entrance to a peace zone in central Mindanao.
n women about their curriculum design work with peace education and mining practices (the challenges to documenting environmental and health issues).
Some other meetings have not have gone as we had hoped, probably because our expectations set our selves up for “failure”. Perhaps due to our beginning days as very green researchers (honestly? I haven’t quite bought into the idea that I can consider myself that – I’m more of a well-spoken questioner with little trepidation) or perhaps due to the reticence of certain informants in certain meetings. At times gender roles can get in the way, our presence as foreign strangers doesn’t lend itself to immediate trust and we don’t get a candid response. It should be recognized, however, no matter how frustrating an interview session goes – and the individual or group skirts around an issue – this information (or lack thereof) is incredibly valuable.
This brings me to a feeling – a feeling that there is so much under the surface here. I vacillate between hope and paranoia – mistrust and warmth. There is a pervading sense that people aren’t what they seem. And why should they be? We’re here for 2 weeks collecting stories and data. Who are we to be trusted? Dr. Iyer is so experienced in being in these types of conflict areas and alluded to these types of feelings when on the ground. I certainly don’t mean to be negative, on the contrary – I’m so pleased I have a place to write out these new and unexplored feelings. Tomorrow will be a new day, I’ll build on everything we’ve seen so far – challenge myself and my classmates to dig even deeper.