What Am I Doing?

It’s been a long and difficult afternoon of napping and thinking, napping some more, thinking a little more, and writing. But I feel it’s been useful.

I started out with a mind map:

The ‘What Am I Doing?’ Mind Map

And then moved on to write up ‘The Situation’:
• A large employment site, employing multiple ethnicities: Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese work side by side in a garment factory in a rural area in post-war Sri Lanka. They usually choose to have their tea and lunch separately to one another. This is likely a language issue: the main language in the factory is Sinhalese. Most of the employees are Sinhalese.

• The factory is situated in Ampara Town. Ampara Town is about 97% Sinhalese. Old laws prohibit any other ethnicities from settling here or setting up businesses here. Very few of the factory employees live in the town itself.

• Ampara Town is the main town in Ampara District. According to 2007 statistics, the ethnic composition of the district is roughly 44% Muslim, 38% Sinhalese and 18% Tamil.

• The Eastern Province suffered, supposedly, during the 30 year long civil war, that ended in 2009. There are claims that ethnic tensions persist.

• Large employment sites such as the factory are amongst the only outlets in the district where ethnicities come into contact with one another. They do so peacefully and amiably, despite some language barriers. I am told there are no tensions between ethnicities. Any worker disputes are entirely unrelated to ethnicity.

• Meanwhile, peace building and reconciliation groups in Sri Lanka promote the importance of ethnic integration

• Yet the ethnic groups in Ampara District live peaceably apart.

• Settlements have been divided since their establishment, many of them dating back to centuries ago. The British colonisers and colonists play a large part in the settlement patterns in Ampara District.

• Despite alleged tensions between ethnicities, ethnic conflict of any sort does not appear to be present in the everyday fabric of the workers’ lives

• It would appear that the tensions are purely political, at a ‘higher’ level, as I’ve been told a number of times, the rural poor have more important things to think about, like how they will feed their families each day.

• So is ethnic integration through employment a good thing? Could it help with post war reconciliation? Is it needed at all?

• Is this… ‘an investigation into the importance/relevance/necessity of ethnic integration through employment in rural, post-war, Sri Lanka’?

Maybe.

So having summarised (and simplified) a lot, I have come up with the following:

Title:

An investigation into the importance/relevance/necessity [select your favourite or suggest another and we’ll roll with it] of ethnic integration through employment in rural, post-war, Sri Lanka

Research Questions:

What opportunities exist for ethnic integration in Ampara District, both at the workplace and in the wider community?

What is the ethnic distribution in Ampara District, and when do people of different ethnicities come into contact?

What ethnic tensions are present in Ampara District, where, and why, and what causes these to build to the point of conflict?

These questions should help me investigate the topic thoroughly and come up with some kind of answer as to how important ethnic integration in the workplace is, and why.

All of the above is entirely subject to change, as always. Although I’m leaving Sri Lanka in just a few days, I’ve barely skimmed the surface with all the literature there is out there to read, and I’ll be continuing a few threads of research too. But for now, it’s good to remind myself of where I am and what the point of my research is. My mother kindly mocked me earlier for having to ask myself what I’m doing, but it really is so important to keep track of things! Hence why I don’t feel one iota of guilt for having such a seemingly lazy afternoon.

Also, just for reference, here’s a mind map I made at the beginning of my research – look how much it’s changed!!

Some ideas for research topics surrounding a preliminary title.

Naturally, things aren’t going to plan…

…But they’re certainly not going badly. The little schedule I made for myself the other day has not been diverged from too dramatically, and the next couple of days are set to be relatively fruitful.

So far, I’ve done the following:

• Arranged a meeting with the Sri Lanka Centre for Peace Building and Reconciliation in Thirrukovil tomorrow morning – this will hopefully be with a group of three or four people (although I’ve had to forewarn them that I won’t be coming with a translator, so am slightly limited in terms of the language barrier)
• Arranged a focus group in the factory tomorrow afternoon at about 3:30pm, where I will attempt to run the ‘build your ideal community’ activity. I’ll see how this works, but if it goes well, I think I’m going to ask people to do this remotely for me – i.e. I’ll send out little packs via the post and ask people to build their own community and then send a photo of it to me, with any accompanying comments they may have
• I’ve set up a Facebook group, where I hope to ask the occasional question that will hopefully stimulate further debate. I might also upload the ideal community diagrams here, as these should provide further stimuli for discussion.
• I gave out all the photos I took the other day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen photographs give such joy! The girls were absolutely thrilled to be given photographs – a large group photo was taken of us, so I had plenty of copies printed of that so that they could have one each, and there were also lots of individual photos to print. They also wanted to see photos of my family and village, and with eager smiles they asked if they could keep these photos too (to which, of course, I agreed). One sticking point is that now some more of the girls want photos, so I have to take my camera in tomorrow to take any last minute photos and then I’ll just have to send them once they’re printed!
• Gift bags are ready to be distributed, although I decided Monday evening would be the best time to give them out.

So what do I still want to do?

• I’d like to try to arrange another focus group in the factory for Tuesday morning, which I feel should be possible.
• Mapping the factory floor is going to be downright difficult… I’m thinking about it each day, but with nearly 2000 workers, many of whose ethnicities I still can’t tell for definite, it will not be a subtle or simple task. I don’t want to walk up and down the lines asking their ethnicities…
• And questionnaires… What’s to be done about the questionnaires? I still haven’t had them translated, because the whole issue of how to distribute and collect them is niggling away. Logistics… I’ll review the questionnaire today and see if I think it will be genuinely helpful for my research

And today, what am I doing?

• I went in to the factory this morning, to see whether it might be viable to hold a focus group today. But it’s pretty deserted. There are a few odd bods around, but I think it’s better to wait until tomorrow. My meeting in Thirrukovil is tomorrow. I’ll distribute the gift bags tomorrow. I’ll take more photos tomorrow. Everything will be done TOMORROW. Which gives me a day of doing very little today.
• This gives me the perfect opportunity to just lie down and THINK.
• What direction is my research going in now? What is my focus? Indeed, what is the question I am trying to answer? What research do I want to follow up once I return to the UK, and how?
• Such a common error that I’ve heard other students complain about is that they lose track of themselves and what they’re doing. They get so distracted by the bigger picture that they forget what they really want to find out about.

So, my goal for today:

Redefine my focus, and then relay it back to you all this evening.

Easy.

I have prepared 40 of these – it seems basic, but small gestures go a long way. Each bag has a selection of sweets and a little wooden elephant.

Time is of the essence!

Once a month, or rather, every full moon, Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka celebrate Poya Day. It’s a national holiday, so lots of places are shut for the day, including the factory. If I was in Ampara, I might see the empty factory floor, the machines sitting quietly, the fans immobile. But I’m not in Ampara. I’m running days behind schedule for a multitude of little reasons, from visa implications to accommodation availability. Frustrating as it is to still be in Colombo, it did mean I had some time yesterday to bury my head in the National Archives, and I would have gone again today had it not been for Poya Day.

Thankfully, I’m at last going to Ampara tomorrow, which will leave me with about three full days there before I’ll have to come back to Colombo for my flight home! I’m going to have to be super organised. I would still like to try the ‘ideal community’ activity with a group or two in the factory, and a peacebuilding organisation in the area are keen to meet up. I had hoped to conduct some questionnaires, but now with the time constraints I’m not sure that I’ll be able to get translation, distribution and collection done in time. I’ll talk to Padma in HR about it. Time is one of the biggest constraints in social research, and very often it is almost entirely out of the researcher’s hands. This means I have to be absolutely on the ball in the next few days, and hope that people in the factory aren’t too busy so I can draw in a lot of help!

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been doing lots of shopping – a lot of this has been purchasing thank you gifts for participants of my mapping sessions. It’s taken forever, but I’ve managed to find little gift bags and tiny little elephants, and I’ll be filling them up with sweets and chocolates when I reach Ampara. I’ve also been printing out lots and lots of photos, so some of these will be going into relevant gift bags.
I’m just trying, in my head (and now on here too), to establish my plan of action over the next few days!

Provisionally, it looks a little like this:

Friday:

• Travel to Ampara by bus, via Kandy – arrive late afternoon
• Go shopping for sweets and chocolates with which to fill gift bags, and a couple of large tins of biscuits for Padma (translator) and Sanjeewa (photographer). Also buy Coca-Cola to satisfy my new-found dependence on the stuff…
• Ring the local peacebuilding group to organise a meeting
• Draw a map of the factory, line by line, section by section, in preparation of mapping the locations of workers of different ethnicities

Saturday:

• Go in to see all the girls, and distribute gift bags.
• Talk to Padma and Dhama Sir about the possibility of holding a couple of focus groups with some of the staff – ‘ideal community’ session
• If possible, hold a focus group today
• More participant observations during tea break – I’ll join the girls for this
• Talk to Padma about translating questionnaires – Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim?
• Mapping the factory floor in terms of ethnicity

Sunday:

• Hopefully go to Thirrokovil to meet with the peacebuilding group and hold an interview or focus group
• Go to the factory for tea break, and if possible, another focus group (if factory open)
• Distribute questionnaires (very tentative, and if factory open)
• Mapping the factory floor in terms of ethnicity (if factory open)

Monday:

• Focus group in factory
• Distribute questionnaires (very tentative)
• Tea break and participant observation
• Mapping the factory floor in terms of ethnicity

Tuesday:

• Any final interviews, another focus group if time
• Collect the questionnaires (if any at all completed)
• Farewells!
• Fly back to Colombo

Wednesday:

• Some photocopying at the archives
• And probably more shopping…

If this all goes to plan, it will be a miracle.
Here goes nothing…

A New Group Activity Idea?

All four participatory mapping groups are complete, although I do still have another week in the factory (after a short ‘break’ in Colombo – hopefully some more interviews and meetings with some NGOs and researchers), so I could do some more when I’m back. Interestingly, I’ve called in Chamila’s help to arrange the last two sessions, and although up until now all the sessions have been girls only, yesterday she brought a couple of boys along too. I considered this, and then shrugged it off and thought that right now, for this activity, gender couldn’t matter less to me. The gender thing did then make me think a little more though: I can’t distinguish at all between boys of different ethnicities, whereas with girls there are very obvious markers, in terms of clothing and adornments. Food for thought.

Mapping sessions aside, however, I’ve had another idea. The direction my research is taking is slanting heavily towards looking at integration in communities and the benefits of it, so I thought I might do this:

Host several ‘build the ideal (imaginary) community’ sessions, without any input from me as to what ‘ideal’ is supposed to be (I may use a different word… like, build a good community, a perfect community, a happy community, a peaceful community, not sure yet).

I would do this by…

1. Cutting out a number of paper squares, and colour coding them according to ‘ethnicity’ – same colour code as for the mapping – black = Sinhalese, blue = Muslim, red = Tamil. I would cut out about 30 or 40 squares, and the ethnicity ratio would be roughly the same as the district ethnicity ratio, obtained from population statistics in a special enumeration report from 2007. This data is about as reliable as it’ll come.
2. Each square would represent 5, maybe 10 families.
3. I would also cut out basic outlines of a church, a mosque, a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple, and include some symbols to clarify what they’re supposed to be. These are the four main religions in the country. Although, from the mapping sessions, religion doesn’t seem to play a huge part in the day to day routine, these buildings are still one of, if not the main landmark in each community to indicate which ethnicity the community is.
4. I would also provide four stretches of road, which when it comes to building the community, provides a few options for community layout. This could be simplified with just two stretches of road, giving options of one straight road, a t-junction, or a crossroads in the community.
5. Most communities seem to follow a river, so I would provide a couple of stretches of ‘river’, and I would also provide a ‘lake’ – another popular element to any community (hence four stretches of road – I’d be interested to see if they positioned the community around all four sides of the lake, dividing ethnicities up that way – physical barriers to integration are important to explore too, and at this scale the only real physical barriers are water sources).
6. With these props, I would ask participants, together, to build what they think would make for the ideal community.
7. This activity would hopefully last for about 15 minutes, and I hope it would stimulate group discussion.
8. Once the activity was finished, I would give them a few more black pieces of paper, and invite them to add in any amenities they thought their community should have, and place them in the appropriate places.
9. Although I could provide them with shops and schools at the beginning, I wouldn’t want to introduce the bias of there being a predefined number. For example, if I give them three shops, then they might automatically assume the community should be divided into three, according, obviously, to ethnicity. The same goes for schools.
10. The session would be followed by a brief discussion about why things have been placed where they have. These sessions would need to be smaller than the mapping sessions, otherwise there’s a risk of shyer participants not contributing. I think three or four would be the ideal number, and a mix of ethnicities would be perfect, although it may be difficult to find one Muslim, one Tamil and one Sinhalese girl who all can speak English well enough to get what’s going on. I’ll think on it.

The aim of all this is to see, without asking directly, whether people think communities are better divided by ethnicity, or integrated. When I ask directly, people seem a little put on the spot as it’s not something they’ve thought too much about. Chamila’s father, for instance, when asked whether he thought it was good for ethnicities to mix in the community, shrugged and almost asked, ‘I suppose it’s good, yes?’, but he seemed very unsure and I think he was just repeating things to give me the answer he thought I wanted to hear.

The reason I’m doing this, is that with the reading I’ve been doing and the results I’m getting, I’m not sure that integration is actually desired. Not in a hostile sense, but I think people are perfectly happy to just rub along with each other. Peacebuilders are often quoted to say that integration is key, but I think this assumption needs to be explored a little more before I decide one way or another. Before I came, I thought, well, of course integration is the way forward when it comes to peaceful communities. Now, I’m not sure, and I think it’s really important to question it further.

Feedback on this idea would be really helpful, so if you have any suggestions or improvements please leave a comment!

Making Maps!

I’ve now completed two participatory mapping sessions with groups of workers at the factory I’m researching. The aim of the maps is to understand where and when workers of different ethnicities come into contact with people of other ethnicities. In a district where Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese reside, it is surprising to see that so far, the only time my participants come into contact with people of a different ethnicity to their own is when they’re at work.

Baba G will teasingly roll her eyes and mock me for being ‘such a geographer’ whenever I start talking about maps. It’s true. I love maps. They say a picture’s worth a thousand words; a map’s worth ten times more!

I first created a large basemap myself; I would have liked to have done this with my participants, but sadly, due to time constraints, it just hasn’t been possible. So, I tried only to put down very basic information, such as main roads, main towns and main lakes as additional reference points. I wasn’t sure how clued up on maps my participants would be, because despite having been to school, whether they’ve used maps much in the past is questionable.

 

Preparing a basemap, using a purchased tourist map of Sri Lanka for reference.

I also prepared some large plastic overlays: one for the morning, one for the evening, and one for the day off, on which the girls can mark where they are, and what they’re doing, at what time. This not only helps me to visualise where Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese paths cross, but also what places and activities in the district hold meaning for the employees. Again, I was going to have more overlays – separate ones for lunch in the factory and tea break in the factory, and a map showing the bus routes to work, but with only a half hour slot with each group, it just isn’t feasible. The overlays that have been removed from the sessions are ones for which information can be very easily gained elsewhere. Lunch time and tea break locations of workers in the factory, for example, can be deduced through participant observation, which I’ve been doing a lot of anyway, so I already have a pretty good idea of who goes where with who. Information regarding bus routes has been provided to me by HR, and I’m simply asking the girls to write down which bus route they take. The photo below shows everything prepared and ready, including choccy biscuits on the table – a little ploy to make the atmosphere a little more relaxed and welcoming, along with having opened the curtains in the room to allow more natural light to flood in.

Ready to begin.

I need to think about what to buy for Padma to thank her for all her translation skills! She’s been invaluable, and the other employees seem very comfortable with her, which is a relief. She is always smiling and laughing, and everybody seems to understand when she explains to them, so that’s fantastic! It’s really helped to make sure the girls are happy being there, and that there are no uncomfortable moments. Padma arrived a little late to my session yesterday, but I’ve learnt enough Sinhalese to get by for long enough, and there are now girls I know as friends in each of the groups, so that helps to break the ice with other participants too.

Me with the first group, and Padma translating at the side

 

More from the first group – this was at the end of the session, as I was explaining that I’d find them all in a week or so and give them a little something to say thank you.

The first group somehow arrived in two separate groups of four, which is why they’re all standing at one edge of the table. Thankfully, in yesterday’s session all 8 turned up at the same time, so there was a nice crowd around the table, munching on chocolate snacks as they placed their details onto the map.

Explaining the session to the first group, with the de-curtained window behind me

One downside of yesterday’s session was that three men had been having a meeting in the room before I wanted to use it. I asked Dharma Sir about this and he said it wouldn’t be a problem, and that I could use the room as planned at 12:30pm. I hadn’t realised that this meant the men would continue their meeting alongside my participatory mapping session, so at times there were competing voices, but thankfully the girls didn’t seem too fazed by it! I think I’ll be holding the next session tomorrow – I’m just hoping it goes as well as the first two!

All the data that I am collecting will be inputted into a GIS to create a basic time-map of the district and the employees’ movements through the district. It’ll be great watching it all come together.

 

To add to my previous post…

I just spotted this on another blog [The Hampshire Feminist Collective: ‘The legacies of Orientalism and the exoticizing of women’]:

“The brilliant Emi Koyama once said “There’s no innocent way of being in this world”, meaning that no one, not even the most enlightened among us, can exist outside of history, outside of the legacies of colonial violence that shaped the world we inhabit.” — Tassja, The Jasmine Diaries Part II: ‘Exotic’ is Not a Compliment.

This might help to clarify, even if just a little, what I was I think trying to convey at the end of the post [here if you can’t find it].

My Positionality as a Researcher

Before diving in and talking about this, I should probably first explain what on earth I mean by my positionality. I mean, how I am perceived by the participants of my research. I mean how I perceive them. What pre-existing factors are influencing the relationship between me and my participants? I need to be considering how things such as my appearance, my language, my body language, my expressions, my actions and much more are read by my participants – I need to try to see myself as they see me, and then work towards understanding what sort of impact this may be having on my findings – will my participants be consciously (or subconsciously) censoring themselves, how they act, what they say etc.? It is also useful to know what sort of discourses are present in popular culture, and even in traditional culture, regarding the typical, white, western female, as regardless of how I behave, these deeply rooted discourses in the imaginations of my participants will also affect how we interact, just as the traditional and modern discourses surrounding rural women in Sri Lanka will also impact upon interactions. What makes this so hard to establish is that very often we’re not even aware of the pre-existing thoughts and ideas we have of people before we meet them, as stereotypes can so swiftly become ingrained in the psyche, especially when these are stereotypes that have been around for as long as we can remember.

Pause for a moment, and think, what does the word ‘orient’ mean to you? What images come to mind? And why? What put those images there in the first place? Are they accurate, do you think? (I choose the word Orient as an example for a number of reasons: Edward Said wrote a book called Orientalism that is held in very high regard across the world, which discusses in detail the discursive relations and understandings of ‘other’ cultures; I am doing research in a country that was/is seen as part of the ‘Orient’, and which has frequently come under the focus of ‘tropical geography’ and ‘tropical geographers’; the theme of a friend’s party recently was ‘Black Tie with a hint of the Orient’… Just a little food for thought.

Harmless as discourses regarding different peoples and different cultures around the world may seem, they have been the root cause of a great deal of prejudices that exist in the world today, including ethnic prejudice, gendered prejudice, class prejudice, and many more. I want to ensure that I don’t reproduce any of these prejudices in my research and in my write up, or at least, I want to make sure they are minimised as much as possible, and that any discourses and pre-existing prejudices that creep into my work are recognised and understood. If you look back to my entry about postcolonialism in method, I explain a little more about researcher positionality, and if you’re really interested in the topic, I cannot recommend enough Edward Said’s book on orientalism.

Thanks to colonialism, there are very deep power relations between the East and the West, with a number of dichotomous connotations, with some of the most common being the ‘inferior’ and the ‘superior’, the ‘dark’ and the ‘light’ (not only in terms of appearance – think Enlightenment – we found the light whilst other parts of the world were left in the dark), the ‘savage’ and the ‘civilised’. As a white girl entering a factory full of Sri Lankan girls, despite my dislike of these binaries and representations of ‘other’ cultures, I must be aware of them. I cannot know exactly how I am perceived by the factory workers, but I am going to lots of measures to make sure we are on level footing with one another. Appearance aside, I am entering the factory as a friend of the owner’s daughter, so just because of that there may be some girls who are associating me with authority, and thus inwardly acknowledging a power relation. Breaking down power relations entirely is, I think, impossible. But here are the things I’ve been doing to help things along:

• I wear flip flops to work – nothing special, and Baba G hates them – and then I take them off and pad around bare-foot, like most of the other girls do too.
• I am trying to learn the language. The girls speak the occasional word or phrase in English, so I in return am doing the same in Sinhalese, and making plenty of mistakes as I go, so they are having to help and teach me as I go along.
• I laugh and smile a lot, to make myself seem friendly and approachable, and more friend than colleague. Even when walking past the production lines, I try to flash not just a polite smile but a friendly smile at each of the workers, and will make it seem like I recognise them even if I don’t. There are so many faces to remember, but I’m walking the same way everyday and I know therefore that I’m walking past the same girls, so I always try to make it look like I recognise them, which is appreciated I think.
• I arrive on time, and try not to leave before the others leave. Flaunting in late might make it appear that I am not taking the job seriously, and that I am somehow above it. Baba G teases me for it, but I get very anxious if I’m running even a tiny bit late. [lunch issue]
• I join them for tea – managers drink their tea in a small room off the main canteen, not visible to the workers, whilst supervisors and HR staff and the like will sit at separate tables labelled ‘staff’ at that end of the canteen. The managers initially asked me to join them there, but I declined. I always sit with the girls from my packing line. There seems to be a set group who sit together, usually on the same table, or one very nearby.
• I join in with jokes where possible, when I understand key words, and today crept up on Chamila as a joke.
• I make little harmless jokes about Baba G, who they refer to as Miss. This is actually a little naughty of me, so I only do that with the girls I’m closest too – but by altering slightly in their minds their perception of Baba G, and making her seem a little more human than director, I feel it’ll work in my favour also. I would rather be Baba G’s friend than the director’s friend. Sorry Baba G – if none of them have any respect for you in the future, you have me to blame…
• On a similar vein, when Baba G and I went to Chamila’s house, I requested that Baba G wear flip flops instead of heels, remove her Dior glasses, and tie her hair neatly like most of the girls at the factory do. Again, although this is not directly to do with me and my positionality, I feel that it helps to bring Baba G down to as approachable a level as possible. Besides, she walks better in flat shoes…
• I always refer to Mr and Mrs G as Sir and Madam, showing that I see myself as inferior to them in the factory hierarchy, as of course the girls will too.
• I ask Padman the driver to wait outside for me, rather than have him come over to the packing section to get me. Otherwise, I have to walk past all the other workers following a man who is quite clearly a member of Family G’s staff. Not good if I want to reduce power relations.

I think the tactics above are working quite well. I’ve heard the word ‘yaluwa’ when Chamila is talking about me, and I think she is inferring that she and I are friends, and not just Baba G and I. I get arms slung round me, hands occasionally holding mine, and limbs draped over me if we’re sitting down on boxes at the start of work. This may sound a bit odd, but there is a lot of (totally innocent) physical contact between friends, I’ve noticed. It’s only the girls who are like this with me, but I’ve noticed that the boys are very close with each other also, and even the boys and girls in the factory who are friends will behave like this. Also, it’s not always girls who I know doing this. If I was anybody with any authority walking around, girls wouldn’t dream of coming up and holding my arm as they walk along, I don’t think. The fact that they are shows, I think, that they are seeing me as friend rather than colleague.

Something I’ve just realised is that I am assuming that the pre-existing power relation is that I am perceived as being at the superior end of the relation. I am assuming that this is how they see me, due to colonial relations and discourses but perhaps, although I seriously hope not, on some subconscious level I am also seeing myself as superior. The mind is a very strange thing, so it really is difficult to know what ideas you internalise, but I am aware of the assumption that I’ve made, so I suppose this does mean that at some level, there is prejudice present. I don’t know. This is in danger of turning into some kind of auto psychoanalytical waffle, in which I’ll doubtlessly dig a hole. I think it’s something I need to think carefully about though. It may well be that the girls all see themselves as superior to me (and I think by now that is starting to be the case – I’ve made a few really silly mistakes in the packing section – upside down stickers etc), but something in me still tells me it was, at least initially, the other way round.

Chamila’s House

Earlier on last week Chamila asked if I’d like to go to her house. I couldn’t tell whether or not she was joking, but I was keen regardless. The next day she had asked again, and asked if ‘Baba G’ would come too, so I spoke to Baba G about it and we checked with Mrs G, and were given the go-ahead. Just so long as Sunday was a day-off, we could go (with a driver and security, of course). There were a couple of moments when we thought we wouldn’t be able to do it, because managers were debating whether or not to make Sunday a day off or not due to a fast approaching shipment. But, thankfully, Sunday was kept as a day off, so at about 8:30am, Baba G and I set off for a little village called Wawinna.

I just kept exclaiming on the way what a beautiful area it is. It really is. Little villages lines the road, as I described in an earlier post, with houses often made of little more than wattle and daub with large leaves for the roof. The river seems to be the most popular place to go to bathe and to wash clothes. Little old tractors can be seen all over the place, as subsistence farming is the primary form of employment here. On the many little lakes and reservoirs, clusters of blue wooden rowing boats can be seen decorating the water’s edge, whilst cormorants stretch their wings from their perches on rocks and branches, undisturbed and unhurried. Village life here is quaint, as Baba G described it, but I’m trying to get past this disconnected view of it and understand the real people who live here, and the real lives that are unfolding around me. It’s all too easy to see it all as one magical, rural fairy-tale that is somewhat distant from real life; detached from politics, from economics, from the urban society. It may be detached in some ways, but even whilst we were in Chamila’s house, the family made a point of turning on the television for us to see. Electricity may not be available to everyone, but Chamila is now the main income-earner in the family, and with the money she brings in, purchases that may seem luxury to others in nearby communities have become an important part of the everyday weave of life for her family.

The driveway to Chamila’s house, which is behind me in this shot: a white bungalow, with cylindrical pillars supporting the front porch area.

 

When we arrived, we were swiftly served breakfast – milk rice and chutney, and biscuits and cake. All very tasty, and so much was heaped onto my plate that I was pretty full by the time they finally started listening to my refusals of more. The whole family was there; Father, mother, sister, brother, and a cousin, and later we were joined by more family members, who I think were just there because of the novelty of having a white guest. One little boy was running around and hiding behind the curtains, and each time I made eye contact with him, he would disappear in a whirl of curtain. Baba G assured me that it was very likely that this was the first time the younger generation of Chamila’s family had ever met a white person.

Senanayaka Reservoir, behind Inginiyagala Dam – part of the Gal Oya National Park

 

After browsing through some family photo albums (which Baba G says are like the equivalent of UK coffee table books), we headed off to nearby Inginiyagala Dam. This is a Dam built by the British 60 or 70 years ago, holding a vast reservoir behind it. We slowly walked along the top of it in the roasting sunlight, taking in the views and taking lots of pictures. Being from England, I always feel the need to make the most of sunshine, no matter how hot it is, but the other two girls, and the driver and security, were all a little less pleased than I to be out in the sunshine I think. Although Chamila did a very good job of hiding it, when she spotted a discarded plaid hankie on the floor she instantly appropriated to discreetly dab her forehead. The reservoir behind the dam is beautiful, and is part of a National Park. There was even a lone wild elephant, contentedly bathing itself nearby, and there were countless butterflies, weightlessly dancing around the grasses, both of which I was thrilled about.

A very content elephant.

 

Once I’d had enough of taking photos and skipping around in the sunshine, we headed to the car (much to Baba G’s relief) and then onto another section of the dam (at which Baba G’s relief dissipated somewhat). We didn’t spend so long here, but gazed down at the large concrete structure, and Chamila told stories of how when the waters are high, local children come to play and try to catch the fish. The story took a darker turn when she told us that one small boy was swept away not so long ago, because the water coming through can just be so powerful that the small children don’t stand much of a chance against it if they fall in. It’s another beautiful spot though, and it’s remarkable to see just how much the water level changes according to the season. During rainy season, apparently the waters come so high that it even pours over the dam.

We went back to Chamila’s house for an early lunch. Despite not being very hungry after breakfast, my plate was piles high again, with rice and dahl and potato and fish and pickle and poppadoms. All delicious, and each time I refused more I was told ‘chota, chota!’ – ‘just a little, just a little’. All these littles added up to a lot, and I think I was practically waddling by the end of it. I can’t believe how much weight I’m putting on here! The combination of great food and hot weather and limited exercise has not paid my body shape any favours! After lunch, I had time to ask a few questions for my research in an informal interview with the whole family, with Baba G acting as translator and research assistant. I won’t type up the whole thing now, but the same messages of there being no problems between Sinhalese and Tamil people were repeated, and it was very obvious that there is no mixing of the ethnicities in everyday community life. But, the father did hint that there had been some Tamils working in the area a while ago, but that they had left due to underlying tensions. Just as in my interview with Bandula Sir, this hinting at previous underlying tensions snagged my attention; I want to know more about it, but it seems to be so far from the surface, and so vague, that it’s really hard to pin down what exactly the sentiment is, and whenever I try to ask further, I just hear again that there are no problems between Tamil and Sinhalese, and that there never were.

I really am thrilled to have had the opportunity to visit one of the workers’ houses. And I’m very touched that Chamila invited me. It helps to gain an understanding of family dynamics, and also just to catch a glimpse of just some of the threads that make up the fabric of daily life in rural Sri Lanka.

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.

Logistics, logistics, logistics…

This past week has been spent in the factory, participating, observing and learning, and my goodness I’ve learnt a lot, and I’ve come on leaps and bounds in terms of my relationships with the employees. But now it’s time for me to move onto putting into practice all the research methods I talked about in the run up to this. I still have so much data to collect, and so much yet to find out. In order to do so, I want to hold some focus groups and, what I’m most excited about, participatory mapping sessions.

The factory environment is not an easy one in which to organise this sort of thing however, and the workers don’t live in the town, as I had initially expected they would. The vast majority live in dispersed outlying villages, and go to and from the factory on buses. From the time they arrive until the time they leave, they have a 15 minute break, and a 30 minute break.

Logistical Hurdle No. 1: Time

Also, despite my efforts to learn little bits of Sinhalese here and there, and the workers’ attempts in return to speak English, communications are still largely centred on body language, mimicry and facial expressions, with key words thrown in from time to time. All too often, my exchanges on the factory floor will end in hopeless headshaking and laughter, as any form of understanding flies out of the window. As far as translation is concerned, Baba G has been wonderful, and if there’s anything key that I need to say or find out, she can find out for me in a flash and is on good terms with the workers, so they trust her. But, Baba G is leaving for Colombo on Tuesday, so I’m going to be ‘alone’ in Ampara, with very few people around who can speak English fluently. Some of the men in the factory can speak pretty good English, but as the focus groups and participatory mapping sessions are going to be solely women, I don’t want to bring a male in for translation. Also, many of the males who can speak English are in management, which is highly likely to inhibit what I might find out.

Logistical Hurdle No. 2: Language

And where to hold my focus groups and participatory mapping sessions? In the canteen, during the half hour lunch break? If the other workers’ behaviour so far is anything to go by, then within 2 minutes of initiating a session there will be an entire crowd gathered to see what’s going on, which would be distracting and would virtually eliminate any chance of later transcription. On the factory floor, maybe, on the large packing tables? Possibly, but again, there will be noise to contend with, other workers’ to deter, and I highly doubt food would be allowed anywhere near where garments are going be placed.

Logistical Hurdle No. 3: Location

Some of the production lines are mixed ethnicity, whilst some are solely Sinhalese. I need to somehow select workers of a mixture of ethnicities, whilst still ensuring that they come from roughly the same area in the district, to make mapping viable and meaningful. Also, the 30 minute lunch break is staggered, so I need to recruit workers of mixed ethnicities, from similar areas in the district, who are all on the same lunch break.

Logistical Hurdle No. 4: Recruitment

The sheep have been jumping over these hurdles time and time again as I’ve been trying to get to sleep, and last night especially, goodness knows how many times I turned things over in my head. With time pressing, though, today I had to come up with a final plan for how on Earth things were going to be successful. And with Baba G’s help, here are my solutions.

To combat the time issue, I’m left with very little choice apart from just immense organisation and preparation. As far as focus groups are concerned, I will start just be holding a very informal one tomorrow with Chamila and her friends, and Baba G will be around for translation. Time is more of an issue for mapping. The lunch break is half an hour. This needs to involve eating time, and freshening up and washing hands and all the rest. So, as much as possible will be prepared in advance. Any aspects of the mapping that can be done prior to the session will be done, so instead of asking the workers to create the map (which would have been fun), I will prepare a skeleton outline of the district, including main towns and the sea. Instructions will also be kept brief and to the point. If clarity is maintained, and the session well prepared for, then hopefully, although brief, I will be able to get some data collected for my time geography take on the movements of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese employees through the district on a daily basis.

Hurdle No. 1: Jumped

I’m losing Baba G to Colombo, and I don’t want to use a male employee, but there is a very kind lady in HR who speaks good English and seems very approachable, so Baba G is going to ask her to join the sessions and translate for me. I’m also going to hold a pilot run of the participatory mapping session on Monday, with the girls from my packing section. They know me, and Baba G will be there to explain exactly what’s going on, and the HR lady too with any luck, so that she will know the drill for future sessions. Also, if this first pilot run is successful, and the girls from my packing section ‘get it’ (I’m going to try not to be too obscure… a common trait of a human geographer, I fear), then I’m going to recruit a couple of them to be my research assistants. One girl is half Sinhalese and half Tamil, so I’m really hoping she’ll be able to help with translation in later sessions if any of the Tamil workers need further explanation. She’s shy though, which is my one concern right now. I hope she agrees. I will also write up the ‘instructions’ for the mapping session in very clear, simple language, so that then it can be translated into Sinhalese instructions, which will limit the talking I need to do. Things said during the session by the workers can hopefully either be translated by the HR lady or filmed for later translation (with the participants’ permission, of course).

Hurdle No. 2: Jumped

I don’t think the factory floor or the canteen will work as locations, but Baba G and I quizzed Mrs. G at lunch time today, and it’s been decided that a meeting room near the canteen will be okay. Food can be eaten there, and we shouldn’t have (too many) interruptions. And there’ll be air conditioning, which is just a small bonus for me, because I find the factory floor very hot and I’ll probably be a little flustered during the sessions anyway.

Hurdle 3: Jumped

As I mentioned, I’m hoping to recruit some of my packing line to be my research assistants. By the end of the session on Monday, I hope they’ll be very clear about what on earth I’m doing. Chamila and Tamhara didn’t seem fazed when Baba G was explaining things today, so I’m hopeful. I need to stop saying hope. It’s asking for trouble really, isn’t it!? Anyway, I’m going to ask them to find recruits for future sessions from lines who have the same lunch times, and they are already starting to get that I need a mix of ethnicities. In fact, I think work of my research is starting to spread through the factory. One girl came up to me today, and with a big smile on her face, simply said, “Tamil!” I laughed and thanked her very much, and asked her name and told her mine. I feel this bodes well, if girls are not shy about what ethnicity they are and are eager to contribute, then this is going to make the whole thing a lot simpler. I’m planning also on having a day in between each session, to give my research assistants time to find recruits for the next one – there should be about four in total.

Hurdle 4: Jumped

My hurdles seem to be dealt with. The sheep can remain peaceful tonight. Although, really, there is just so much space for everything to fall to pieces. I’m just praying that if and when disaster strikes, the result is nothing worse than laughter! It’s going to be a manic week.

Factory Observations: Day 3

I bought breakfast on the way to work today – two sweet bread things from the bakery and a bottle of mango juice, all for about 50p. I hadn’t quite finished by the time I got to work, and I didn’t want to risk missing the start of the morning routine, so I took the last morsels through to the packing area to finish it there. The morning routine hadn’t started yet, so people were just lounging around. Tamhara patted the cardboard next to her so I went and perched there until the morning songs and exercise began. The workers in the packing section are all very friendly with each other, it seems, and I assume it’s the same with other parts of the factory too. As we were sitting there waiting for things to begin there was a very relaxed atmosphere. There were I think four of the Sinhalese girls from my line, and two of the boys. One of the girls was sitting on the box next to one of the boys, and had her arm draped across his leg, but not in any context beyond that of being friends. The men and women are clearly all just very comfortable with each other and get on well.

Things all got quite exciting when I was introduced to some new jobs today! I have gone past just label assembly – I am now attaching labels too, and even got to use the kimble gun to attach some of them. There’s a big shipment they’re preparing for, so the packing section were asked to do overtime tonight. I stayed on for an extra hour until being summoned by Mrs G and Baba G, but the rest are still there now and will be until around midnight, finishing things off. I had intended to stay with them a little longer than I did, but the driver came earlier than I expected due a misunderstanding – I felt so bad leaving, but I think the fact that I stayed behind at all pleased them. Gestures like this, I feel, are really important for maintaining and improving relations with the workers and for reducing power relations.

I’m getting on increasingly well with the girls, and some of the boys I’m getting to know too. And they seem to approve of the work I’m doing, as whenever a manager wanders over, I get compliments like ‘honda’ (good), and have been told I’m quick and smart. Thank god. Apart from little visits from managers, lots of girls from other sections and production lines drop by during the day, either just to watch me or to try to make conversation. Today, I noticed it was mostly Muslim girls who came over to talk to me, one who kept returning with different friends to introduce to me. I tried asking their names in Sinhalese, and interestingly, the regular girl (whose name I really should remember) translated this to her friends in English. They seem most confident with their English, out of the Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim workers, whilst the Tamil workers seem least confident. Perhaps different schooling curriculums?

Whenever a male worker comes over, there’s always a lot of discussion in Sinhalese, and a lot of glances in my direction accompanied by laughter. It’s not too unnerving, and I usually end up throwing my hands up in the air saying ‘Now what?!’ Chamila is sneaky as anything, and giggles a lot, and going by previous conversations with her, I have a horrible feeling she and the other girls are trying to select a male employer to be my boyfriend, despite my protesting. There’s another girl called Chamila, in another section, and she seems to be in the minority of workers who come to work wearing makeup. Chamila 2 came up to me today and held her hand out, palm up. I had no idea what she was doing, but it looked like she wanted to take my hand. I hesitated, so instead she took hold of my hand and turned it palm up too. She was comparing. She then turned it back over, and examined the skin on my arm for a little while. The other girls were watching, smiling, and explained ‘white, beautiful!’ Just like many white women just want a good tan, the girls out here are the opposite in that they just want to be fair. It’s the same in a lot of South and South East Asian countries, and perhaps in other areas too, and thankfully I’m familiar with this otherwise Chamila 2’s examination would have been a little unnerving I think.

That’s all for now – I’ve probably forgotten 101 things, but that’s why I’m going in every day. I know I said I’d put up details of my rough plan of action today, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

2nd Factory Day

I think after last night’s splurge on blog posts, I’m going to keep this one short. I walked down to the factory this morning – it’s about a ten minute walk from the house, on a road that first runs alongside the lake, and then divides at a roundabout with the big blue and white clocktower at the centre. Although it’s short, it’s a nice walk – it’s quite a peacefgul town, and on the far side of the lake there’s a big white temple that gleams in the sunlight across the serene water.

I joined in with the morning routine – singing little parts of the anthem, and participating with the dance. The girls in the packing line insisted I stand in front of them, primarily so they could laugh at me. They’re absolute devils.

I spent the day assembling more labels, memorising more names, and rehearsing more Sinhalese. I hadn’t had breakfast, as although I eat some seafood, I can’t deal with it when it’s very fishy. This morning I was presented with very fishy pancakes, and I’m afraid I left it. When the factory workers found out, everybody went into a panic trying to find food for me until I was told Mrs G had brought sandwiches for me and put them in the office. I popped off to eat them as quickly as I could and hurried back to packing to resume with label assembly.

I was feeling so much more awake today, which was a huge relief, and like yesterday I had plenty of visitors, and many more laughs shared with the workers. One man came over and started to speak to Tamhara, whilst holding her arm. When his back was turned, I whispered, ‘Your boy!?’. ‘No! No!’, she remonstrated. ‘He’s black boy!’. I was confused at first – I wasn’t sure if she’d said bad boy or black boy. Then Chamila pointed to the skin on her arm saying, ‘black, black!’. It’s true, he was darker than the others, but I hadn’t expected them to use it as a reason not to date a boy! They also explained that he was fat, so it looked like he was pregnant. None of this was said to his face, but there was so much sniggering that I think he might have realised we were talking about him. Poor chap.

I went back to the house for lunch and to freshen up a bit. I should perhaps try to spend some more time in the canteen, but it’s nice to have a proper break so that I can collect my thoughts. And I do get ridiculously hot in the factory. There’s a fan above our heads, but at times it just feels like it’s blowing more hot air at us, and I can feel myself perspiring.

After lunch, same again, and the girls and one of the boys took it in turns to write down their names in Sinhalese, encouraging me to then write it in English beneath. I had to guess at spellings, but I think I got it just about right. Rainuka, one of the Tamil girls in the line, refused to write her name, despite me saying with a smile that she could write it in Tamil, so instead Chamila wrote it for her. Rainuka had been shy yesterday, even with the Sinhalese girls, but this perhaps was due to my presence, as today she seemed chattier, and although I can’t understand the language, she seems able to converse with the Sinhalese girls.

At tea time, the girls all go to the canteen, but yesterday I went to the office instead. Today however I decided to join them in the canteen, and they were absolutely thrilled. They herded me on through amongst the throng of other workers all heading in the same direction, and we all found a table together, and sat sipping tea and dipping biscuits. Just as with morning routine, I felt like all eyes were on me, but thankfully, all of these eyes were also accompanied by big smiles, and curious whispers. I heard later from Dharma Sir that apparently all the girls had been really pleased that I joined them, and despite the managers offering me the private room to the side of the canteen where senior staff have tea, I declined and said I’d rather sit with the girls. It was mostly just packing girls from my line at the table, but Rainuka had gone to sit elsewhere so it was just the Sinhalese girls. I scanned quickly around the room, and I could see Muslim girls had mixed in with everyone else: they’re distinguishable because of the clothes they wear and the colourful headscarves. At some tables it was just boys, but some of the boys had mixed in with the women workers too. I still find it difficult to tell Tamil from Sinhalese, especially at a distance if I can’t see whether or not they have a talika or bindi. I’m going to keep going for tea in the canteen, as I think this is an important space to observe as the girls choose who they seat themselves with, rather than the production and packing lines where they do not choose who they are next to.

After tea, Chamila and Tamhara were chatting away to me – I say this as if we were in fluent conversation – far from it, but there were lots of moments today of prolonged interaction, involving a mixture of stunted language, hand gestures, drawings, facial expressions and laughter. They then proceeded to invite me to their houses. Although they live about 30km away, I think there’s a possibility that I’ll go to Chamila’s house on Sunday, when they should hopefully all have a day off. I’ll try to find out more about this tomorrow.

I walked home at the end of the day, mulling things over, and since then I’ve had a very careful think about the logistics of focus groups and participatory diagramming/mapping sessions. I’ve got a rough plan of action, which I’ll share with you tomorrow, but I think things are starting to take shape nicely.

Some Questions Answered

I’ve received some questions about my research via email, so I thought I’d share them and my answers on here. If anyone else has any questions please don’t hesitate to ask, either in a comment or privately if you have my details.

Three ethnic groups, one major the others minor. They work together but live in separate conurbations. How are they recruited?

They’re recruited according to what qualifications they hold, and according to performance levels in the factory entry tests. Earlier, however, one of the rules under Pramadasa’s 200 Garment Factory Program (which began in 1992, encouraging factories to be established in rural areas) was that employees should be selected from those in receipt of Janasaviya. Janasaviya is the Sri Lankan equivalent of the dole. The idea was that if a person became an employee at a garment factory, the government would stop having to pay them Janasaviya. A list of people in the district receiving Janasaviya would be passed to HR, and they would recruit from this list only. This was a problem, however, because of the limited qualifications (if any) held by those receiving Janasaviya. Recruitment for workers is not, I don’t think so anyway, actively advertised. They have many coming to ask for jobs, so they will just recruit based on qualifications and test results.

Who locally governs the enclaves in which they live?

The town itself has an urban council, but the district as a whole falls under the Eastern Provincial Council, which is constituted of three districts: Ampara, Trincomalee, and Batticaloa. There isn’t separate governance for villages of different ethnicities.

How many and which people get sacked (and why) over the course of the year?

This, I don’t know. I’ll try to find out. I know why workers leave – marriage being the biggest reason, childbirth another, family problems and so on, but I don’t know about the sacking of employees. I would imagine it would be issues of negligence, lack of attendance, low performance, dispute and perhaps even theft, but perhaps Baba G can correct me on these if I’m wrong?

Without hearing them speak, can you tell who belongs to which particular ethnic group? Dress or jewellery for instance?

Even when I hear them speak, all three languages are so foreign to me that I find the languages hard to tell apart. However, pretty much all of the Muslim girls wear head scarves with a tunic and skirt or trousers, or a dress or abaya, whilst the Sinhalese girls are more likely to be wearing a skirt and a T-shirt, or a dress, never shorter than knee length. I find it very difficult to distinguish between Tamil and Sinhalese. Impossible, in fact, apart from the fact that some of the Tamil women’s foreheads are adorned with a bindi or talika. And sometimes they will be wearing dress of slightly more Indian style, like kurtas. As far as jewellery is concerned, I’m not sure about the Muslim girls, but both Tamil and Sinhalese wear gold. This is a strong point of pride for them, as these are jewellery pieces they have bought with their own earnings.

I wonder whether the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims watch each other’s TV stations? Are there Dramas that include reference to the war?

Again, not sure on this one. I’ll have to look into it.

Do News stations fairly state what is going on and, is there censorship?

I don’t know, and I should probably be careful what I say, but somehow I highly doubt it. I expect each news channel has some sort of political affiliation and so contains strong degrees of bias. And I think, probably, things will be censored. I’m making assumptions, but that’s just the impression I get of the government.

Oops. Assumption Made. Lesson Learnt.

I think I’ve been working on a big assumption. I got excited about the idea of conflict and reconciliation, because I really think multi-ethnic employment sites have the potential to play a huge role in post-war reconciliation.

Researching this is dependent on quite an important factor, and this is something I’ve been assuming since I started. I have been assuming that there were tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese people during the civil war. I think now I may be wrong.

I’m learning (and somewhat reluctantly because I was/am so keen on the idea of researching outlets for reconciliation) that the truth of the matter is that in rural people’s normal, everyday lives, they have far more to be concerned about than another person’s ethnicity. There were and are no tensions between Sinhalese and Tamil people. At least not here in Ampara. During the civil war, it was not Sinhalese versus Tamil, rather it was the Sri Lankan society versus the LTTE. Rather than becoming concerned with ethnic politics, poorer rural people are more concerned with how they’re going to feed their families, how they’re going to bring in some income.

So my assumption was wrong. I will keep talking to people and interviewing people, but this is the message I have had from everybody I’ve spoken to. There are no problems between civilians. What this certainly does not mean is that my research has hit a dead end. Quite the contrary.

What I have learnt is that there is very little integration between Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese people in the Ampara District, and this is problem so deeply rooted that it goes back centuries. Each ethnicity lives separately and there is very, very limited crossover. In Ampara Town itself there are old local laws that forbid the settlement of, and establishment of businesses by, any ethnicities other than Sinhalese.

It’s a very divided district, and employment in factories such as this one are really the only opportunities that the ethnicities will have to integrate (although I now want to try to find out what local schools’ student demographics are like, although I assume that as the areas are so ethnically distinct, the schools will be too for language reasons).

This has made me think more about the causes of the civil war in the first place, and about how rural employment like this may actually be an important component in conflict prevention, due to these opportunities for integration. Perhaps, in countries where there is actually ethnic tension at all levels of society, multi-ethnic employment sites may well help reconciliation, but I don’t think I’ll be able to look at the reconciliation side of things here. But I can look at the benefits of integration of ethnicities in rural employment in divided countries.

To hugely simplify things to explain where I’m coming from: The LTTE were Tamil, fighting initially for the lack of rights for Tamil Sri Lankans. The campaign for a separate Tamil state (Tamil Eelam) continues. I believe this desire to be separate stems from earlier feelings of exclusion and isolation, not helped at all by previous Sinhalese nationalisation programmes, which did a very good job of ignoring Tamils in the country. So by providing more jobs that employ people from all ethnic backgrounds, bridges can be built between ethnic groups to promote a sense of unison, integration and inclusion, thus reducing the likelihood of ethnic tension.

The factory I’m in successfully promotes the integration of Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese employees by hiring multi-lingual managers, greeting the workers in their respective languages, writing signs in multiple languages, having mixed lines, sections, and buses, offering suitable prayer and worship spaces for the different religions and being flexible with the clothes that employees wear, which can vary quite significantly between ethnicity. A very large part is language, so I think this is something to investigate further. All my research will continue as planned, just with a slightly different focus.

As I say on my homepage, Geography is all about misunderstandings, and it is only from these misunderstandings that we begin to learn about the world in new ways. I’m glad I’ve realised my mistake now (unless some big discovery suddenly unearths hatred between the workers of different ethnicities, which I’m highly doubting), because I can take this on board and progress with my research. Let’s see where it goes.

 

 

My First Day as a Garment Factory Worker!

I crawled out of bed at 6am this morning feeling very sorry for myself – yes, another night with little sleep. Tonight I’m determined, hence why I’m now on a massive typing spree so I can get everything out of my head and into cyberspace so it’s not flying around stopping me from sleeping. Dharma Sir, a manager who’s staying at Family G’s house in Ampara gave me a lift in, ready for my first full day of participant observation for my research project. He was chatting away chirpily: “I tell all the girls you must do good things and you will get good things in return!” he explained as we neared the factory. “Do you go to church every Sunday? My wife is a Christian. But I am Buddhist! But still I tell the girls to do good things and God will be kind to you”. I explained I only went to church sometimes. “Oooh you must always go to church! Always, always go to church!” – he managed to repeat this a further four times, and was still telling me how good the girls are as we walked into the factory and to his office. He showed me his Buddha shrine, where many of the girls come in the morning to offer flowers and pray. He himself has a long morning routine of arriving in his office and lighting his oil lamp and offering flowers to Buddha and praying earnestly.

I left him to it as I felt like I was intruding a little, and went to wander around the factory. I stood next to a machine that was quietly whirring, and gazed at the empty factory floor, dimly lit only by the morning sunshine that was filtering through the windows. Then, as I was gazing, there was a movement, and I realised that there was a man sleeping on a pile of trouser fabric, about 6 metres from where I was standing. Then I started because I suddenly realised another man was sleeping on a heap barely 3 metres from me. I really hope they weren’t awake, because it must have seemed like I was staring right at them…

I continued to wander for the next twenty minutes, occasionally popping back into Dharma Sir’s office to see the long stream of girls depositing flowers at Buddha’s feet. Then, as 7am neared, we went to one of the factory entrances, and greeted the girls in all three languages, along with some of the other staff. Then, we headed back inside to one half of the factory floor where the workers had congregated in long lines. A few announcements were made in multiple languages, and the National Anthem was sung in Sinhalese, and then a kind of tribute was spoken to the factory, recited by the workers with hand on heart – this was said in at least two of the three factory languages (Sinhalese, Tamil and Urdu). And then it was time to exercise. Music was played out over the speakers, and the exercises were a short routine containing arm whirling movements, high-knee marching on the spot whilst patting alternate thighs, and then some more patting and clapping, all in time to the music. Some did this rather half-heartedly, and I joined in trying to look happy about it (it really is quite bizarre, but oddly fun) because most workers’ eyes in the room seemed to be trained on me with smirks and giggles and grins to be seen everywhere, and then there were a few who really went for it, including some of the boys at the ends of the lines. Very enthusiastic marching/dancing: good for them, I suppose!

It took a lot of explaining, hanging around, explaining more and then just outright telling the packing area manager what to do, before I eventually was allowed a spot with one of the packing sections. The managers had been a little confused by it all, and kept just trying to explain factory processes to me, again. Eventually I just said to one of them “Just find a job for me to do, any simple job, please.” He looked puzzled for a couple of seconds and then said hesitantly, “Okay, quality checking?” As this hadn’t really been the plan, and I didn’t trust myself to be checking the quality of garments, I said “No, packing will be okay.” So, he took me over, and before too long I was seated and contentedly (though sleepily) assembling labels surrounded by several giggling and curious Sinhalese girls, one quieter Tamil girl, and several curious-from-a-distance boys.

I had no idea this photo was being taken, as Baba G had sneaked up on me, but the girls instantly noticed and grinned readily. I couldn’t figure out why they were smiling so much until I turned around.

 

I got the hang of label assembling pretty quickly, and gradually got faster as they day went by. There were times when I considered just getting up, leaving and going to bed and coming back tomorrow, but then thought better of myself and stuck to my guns. I gradually got round to talking to the girls too, trying out tiny bits of Sinhalese here and there, and in return they were attempting English. Big barrier, but lots of laughter involved too, which made it much more fun to actually try the language.  A good ice breaker was learning numbers. I’m now up to twenty, and the girls with me, Chamila and Tamara were using me to demonstrate their teaching skills; whenever a manager came past they would make me count up to twenty, quickly correcting me wherever I went wrong. They put me to shame though, because they can rattle out all of their English numbers with ease. I was asked my name, my age, where I was from (Australia or England?), father and mother, brothers and sisters, and I must have looked nicely hot and sweaty as another common question was “England cool?”

Interestingly, or amusingly, or both, one of the questions they were keenest to ask was whether I had a ‘boy’ (boyfriend). They asked if I had a boy in England, a boy in Sri Lanka (no and no) and later on went back to asking again (no, I still don’t). They suggested ‘Sri Lankan boy – Nice boy!’ to me, which made me laugh. One of the men who’s joined the conversation was busy claiming that the girl next to me was his ‘match’, whilst the other girls were saying ‘Yes, yes, he’s her boy!’, to which she was shaking her head profusely, whilst blushing and saying ‘Ne, ne!’. He gave me a knowing look after the girls suggested I get a Sri Lankan boy, and said “Aaah, white boy!” as if I’d silently rejected any idea of getting a Sri Lankan boy. They all laughed again.

Everybody was very curious, workers and managers alike. I had a lot of people coming up to me during the day to try to find out more about me. Often it would just be a couple of girls who’d sneaked over from their section, who would stand next to me watching me, giggling and whispering, and would then go over to one of the girls in my section to ask questions. They were all less than subtle, which actually made it far more bearable because they were so open with their curiosity that I didn’t feel uncomfortable. The girls in my section would then laughingly introduce the visiting girls to me, and the girls would either be too shy to talk, or would attempt conversation with varying success levels. If a manager ever appeared everyone would hurry back to their positions. Although usually they were well aware in advance of manager’s positions. Tamara or Chamila would say a manager’s name to me, and I would look around, but for minutes I wouldn’t be sure why they’d said this name. Then, the person would suddenly appear. The power of the grapevine. These little exchanges made the day fun, and interesting; I dread to think of how much chatter there must have been about me though, and goodness knows what they must have been saying! I’m trying very hard to learn their names, and I’m trying simultaneously to improve my Sinhalese.

I know I’m calling the workers girls, but everybody seems to refer to them as girls and I’m not trying to be derogatory. I think it’s because they’re constructed as the factory’s daughters, in a way. There are very strong family related discourses that run throughout the factory. These discourses have been prominent since Premadasa’s 200 GFP, if not before, although especially since then due to parental concern over the lack of supervision in urban garment factories. It was very important then to construct rural factories as safe, family orientated spaces where parents are happy for their children to work. Indeed, at this one, they even have songs at home time to honour the workers’ families, and everyone stands with their hands pressed together, singing along, at 5:30pm on the dot. Then, the workers all run out to the buses like excited schoolchildren. Despite the early morning, I’m looking forward to work tomorrow! I think it should be good fun, and hopefully I’ll improve my Sinhalese a little more.