I have not been spending all my time blog writing though, or at least, not lately. This past week, I did one or two interviews daily with domestic workers, which means that I am up to 6 interviews with domestic workers and 5 or so interviews with other people (government workers, organizations, union workers, professors, etc). I'm hoping to have 20-30 worker interviews by the end of my time here, so I'm making good progress. The interviews themselves are interesting, although I still don't feel fully prepared doing them. Listening to the recordings is the worst: my Spanish sounds twice as bad as it feels, and I always think of additional questions that I wish I had asked. On the whole though, I feel like they are going well enough (or at least, I hope so!). I've also had a few interesting interview experiences, including one interview that lasted 2+ hours yesterday – I had to go to the bathroom SO bad by the end!
I have gotten pretty lucky finding interview subjects so far. The union that I mentioned in an earlier blog post has a few offices less than 5 minutes from where I live, and there are always workers around for various reasons, so in the afternoons I stand outside and accost people as they are leaving. I've been surprised at how easy it is to find people to talk to – I usually only have to ask 2 or 3 people before I get someone who is willing and has time to talk to me. I am hoping to move beyond this method pretty soon, as I am especially interested in talking to workers who are working in the black market (none of whom would be in the union), but for now it's been a close to ideal situation for me.Above are my business cards. Official, right? Except for putting my gmail address – I debated about it, and in the end decided that @college.harvard.edu was too complicated and long for the card. Only problem is that it kind of looks like I'm making up the Harvard affiliation. So far, I haven't gotten any calls or emails from people I hand them out to (people too busy to do an interview when I talk to them, or people that I interview), but they are nice to have anyway.
Today, I met up with the mother of one of the tutors in Dunster house, Marina, who lives in Buenos Aires (Marina is the name of both the mother and tutor, for those who know tutor-Marina). She works taking care of an elderly man and his even more elderly mother-in-law (she will be 103 years old on July 3rd!) on the weekends, so I visited them all and then went out with Marina. Carlos, the gentleman she takes care of, talked just about non-stop all through lunch – literally hard to get a word in edgewise. But he was very nice.Marina and I walked around Puerto Madero, the old port area of Buenos Aires that has been made into a very touristy locale. We explored a boat-museum (seen here) and had coffee at a restaurant along the river. Marina also gave me a bunch of Argentine goodies, including ingredients for mate! I have yet to try mate here, so I am super excited to use all my new supplies.
Tomorrow I plan to check out the weekend fair in San Telmo, I've heard that it's one of the things you have to go to while in Buenos Aires, although the stuff sold there is supposedly quite expensive. Other than that, don't have too many more plans for the weekend – might go out tonight with some of the Harvard students here for the Argentina internship program; I went to dinner and a tango class with them earlier this week and had a lot of fun. It's been good hanging out with people I know lately (also had a group dinner at my friend Nico Maffey's house earlier this week), as life can get kind of lonely just here by myself and out interviewing. Have been ruminating on a possible blog post about it.. we'll see if I can figure out how to express myself adequately on the subject.
I am finalizing plans to visit my cousin Melissa in Córdoba the first weekend of July. Really looking forward to the trip, and to finally meeting her (Melissa lives in Jamaica, so I've never actually met her, although we have been on and off pen-pals for years). Other than that, don't have any more trips planned, although I have ideas for some others if I have the money for more.
Hope that everyone is doing well. I am already looking forward to being back in the States, summer, and seeing you all again!
Brianna
No comments:
Post a Comment