Test Drive Successful

Today I held the pilot run for my participatory mapping sessions. I’ll explain this in more detail in a later post (when I’ll also explain time geography – having promised in one of my previous posts to talk more about this I’m very aware that I have ignored the topic entirely), but I’m basically asking girls to map their daily routines using a base map of the Ampara district and plastic overlays for different times of the day.

I spoke to Dharma Sir in the morning regarding the mapping sessions, and despite Mrs. G saying that sessions would have to be held lunchtimes due to production constraints, Dharma Sir was very conscious not to deplete the girls’ lunch hours. Instead, he suggested just taking two girls from each packing session at a time, and asking them to participate. That way the line can continue as usual, and the girls will only be gone for half an hour. This was far better as the lunch time logistics were getting a little fiddly – how long would it take to queue and eat the food, where would they wash their hands, who would take the plates back because it might offend the kitchen staff if they have to collect workers’ plates and so on. Instead, I have been given a full half hour slot with groups just after the lunch break.

I spent the morning finishing off preparations and explaining to Padma from HR, who’ll be translating for me, how the sessions would be run. This gave her time to ask questions, and time for me to demonstrate exactly what was happening. Baba G was present today also, just in case, but Padma speaks good English and understood what I was doing so Baba G’s input (thankfully, because she’s leaving tomorrow) was minimal.

A group of 8 girls should have arrived at 12:30, but instead I got two groups of four girls. I made sure to supply some biscuits, in an attempt to make the atmosphere a little more welcoming, although the girls were very shy to take them. Padma was very good at keeping the atmosphere light and friendly, with a lot of smiles and laughter. I drew the curtains back before the session to let in some factory light as I’m aware that natural light is limited in the factory itself, and I turned on the air con too, to keep the room cool – again, a luxury that’s not so available on the factory floor itself.

Generally, the girls understood what was being asked of them, and although being a little shy, they did understand what was being asked of them and I don’t think they were suspicious of job security or anything like that. Some had a few queries that were either corrected by companions or by Padma. I’m planning on holding three more sessions like this, and if time and if it’s successful, then maybe I’ll be able to do more. However, as each session is for 8 girls, after another three I’ll have data for 32 workers, which I feel is a decent amount. I’ll see how things go.

I spent some time with Baba G last night reviewing how the sessions would run, and we cut out quite a lot of steps that weren’t really necessary, so this ensured there was no need to rush in the session today, which was good. We were finished with plenty of time left over, so although there were no major issues today, if there are any misunderstandings or unforeseen problems with the method, then I will have contingency time in future sessions to deal with it.

To try to break the ice further, I introduced myself I Sinhalese and asked their names in Sinhalese. I’m also trying to get a couple of girls from my packing section into each session, so that there are at least some girls I know who will feel more comfortable and who may then be able to help others in the group.

I’ll think more about any potential improvements tonight, but having thrashed the method out thoroughly with Baba G last night, I feel things went pretty well today. Also, because I’m so conscious of the language constraints, I really have made sure that all instructions are as direct as possible, and that there are no unnecessary steps. We made a few minor changes to the steps today – taking out a little bit of wording here or there. This means that there aren’t too many opportunities for confusion. I’m heading back into work now for the tea break (despite not having worked in packing today… Feel a little guilty but the girls asked me to come along so it would be rude not to), and I think then I’ll stay there until the end of the day. I’m not going to work tomorrow, as there are buyers coming to look at the factory and I think the managers are a little nervous to see what the buyers’ responses would be to seeing an untrained white girl working in the packing section. So, that should give me plenty of time to catch up on here, get some photos up, tell you about a few little things that have been going on here recently, and review my plan of action for the next few weeks. The next mapping session’s on Wednesday.

Day 7: Heading out East

At long last! I have been nagging and nagging Family G (poor family) to let me go out to Ampara as soon as possible, and urgency doesn’t really seem to register in Sri Lanka. I’ve been trying to explain to them the importance of time in social research, and through sheer repetition I think it is starting to sink in. At least the past week has given me time to prepare, and I actually managed to conduct an interview with Mrs G this evening which I felt was definite progress. They almost tried to delay Ampara by another few days, to which I quietly but firmly protested, explaining that I really want and need as much time in Ampara as is possible. I’ve spoken to Mrs G again about actually working in the factory, and she thankfully still seems in favour of this idea. It’ll be something blissfully simple, like stickering, or folding, which should give me plenty of opportunity to get to know factory and workers.

The interview was interesting – I learnt a little more about the factory and its employees – I’ll try to post up the outline of the findings soon. Mrs G was having a pedicure done at the time; I wasn’t putting too much pressure on Family G regarding interviews because I know they’re busy, but I told them I’d like to conduct an interview before heading out to Ampara. Baba G reminded her mother I wanted to ask her some questions, so Mrs G suggested I come to ask her the questions whilst she was having a home pedicure done, as part of a monthly salon home-visit. I wasn’t given much warning for this, so I scrambled together all of my things, cleared my camera memory as I don’t yet have a Dictaphone sorted, and ran upstairs to the covered rooftop where Mrs G was relaxing with her feet in a bubbling footbath, whilst the beautician clipped and painted away. It seems like a very obscure situation in which to hold an interview, but in retrospect, Mrs G was relaxed, she was in her own familiar home environment, and she wasn’t preoccupied with other things so I had her full attention. There were some disruptions as maids came and went, and she would often just stop talking to pick up phone to make a phone call to goodness knows who, but she always came straight back to the point, so I don’t think the interruptions were actually too disruptive. One downside was that, being in open air, there was a lot of background noise, and even with audio editing software on my computer, I couldn’t quite remove all the birdcalls and occasional gusts of wind, so some bits of the playback were a little unclear. Also, perhaps because she was relaxing, Mrs G was speaking quite quietly, making some things hard to hear. I transcribed almost as soon as the interview was finished. I say almost. I procrastinated for as long as I reasonably could, and then fiddled with the audio for a silly amount of time. Transcription is so dull, and it’s important to note everything about a conversation, from a slight pause here, to a few ‘ums’ there, to that chuckle at the end of that sentence. It took a while, but it’s done at last. Next time, I know I need to put the Dictaphone closer to the respondent, and hope for a location with less background noise and fewer interruptions.

Right now I should head downstairs to get my things packed up for Ampara, and get a few hours of sleep before a very very early start. We’re going to drive over via Kandy – apparently there’s a nice temple there. Then I get the afternoon to explore Ampara and see the factory! If you’re lucky, I may even post up some photos at some point, as I’m very well aware of the slightly unfavourable word to image ratio on here.