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Wait A Second -- Why Are We Here? (Updated)

You may think that we've forgotten that we're here to do a project, that we're not on vacation. Sure, we are having fun doing parahawking, but despite what it may seem, we have not forgotten our purpose. In fact, in addition to following birds off cliffs, we are talking to people about education. Indeed, our time here has given us quite good material to include in the book. We have also worked out some organizational issues and are slowly catching up on our transcribing, among other things.



The Summer Transformation
The book has evolved quite a bit over the last nine weeks and indeed, since its original inception. We started out with a very clear idea about what we thought this book should be like, and how we would go about making it. We decided to begin doing preliminary research last summer, by going to interview the H'mong girls in Vietnam. It's a good thing, because we realized that our initial idea of getting long stories from people simply wasn't going to work as we planned; we had to change tactics. We decided that our questions were too vague and open-ended, making them too difficult to answer, especially with the language barrier. We figured to remedy the problem by asking more pointed questions for the next set of interviews.

We continued on to Cambodia with a more pointed list of questions. Again, we were not getting the results we wanted. We figured we were asking the wrong questions, so we came up with a new list. We also enlisted the help of our friends (I'm sure you recall the e-mail we sent out asking for your ideas). Still no luck. Add that to the fact that every place we went in Cambodia, we seemed to be getting the same, depressing, answers. It was seriously disheartening, and we didn't leave the hotel for a few days. (I then developed bronchitis & pneumonia, so we ended up not leaving the hotel for about a week.)

The Change Of Plans
We returned from our summer 'preview' totally disheartened, wondering how we were going to get this to work. The 'laundry list' of questions seemed not to work, as we were only getting short answers, and often just "yes" or "no". Not the kind of thing you can easily put into a book. We spent last semester trying how to get 'good' stuff. Of course, it's really hard to determine what will work without having a chance to try it, but Chrisanne gave us some advice, and we've slowly been able to figure out what she meant (thanks, Chrisanne!). We've gotten quite good at interviewing by this point, if I must say so myself. Finally, we're getting what we want. It's quite rewarding.

We find people to interview by learning something interesting about them, either directly or indirectly. We no longer go into an interview with a list of questions, although we do certainly have a few questions for them. We first just ask them about themselves and their family. We then ask about the thing that interested us in them, and from there, we simply follow threads that they leave. In essence, we follow their story, instead of trying to force them into ours.

We have also learned that even one word can make a difference in relaxing people. We no longer call it an 'interview'. We've come to realize that this word puts pressure on the person, and makes them feel as if they need to have 'facts'. Now we simply ask if we can 'talk' to them. It's funny how something so simple can make such a difference.

While the book won't look as we originally planned, we came up with an idea that will more easily work with what we're getting from people. Essentially, we've learned that it's extremely difficult to get biographies from people after talking to them one or two times. Although we do have some really good stories from people, about half of it will be short, but telling, interview excerpts.

The People
Once we left SE Asia, we struggled to find people to interview. Luckily, we've since found a groove for that as well. The trick is to hang out somewhere for a while; this way, either we meet people who we wind up interviewing, or we talking to people about what we're doing and they know someone we might be interested in meeting. For instance, in Patan, we always took a long breakfast at our hotel, which gave us time to talk to the owner, Devendra. On our second day, he told us that his sister, Mandira, was a K-10 school principle, and offered to have her come talk to us. She, in turn, invited a colleague in to talk to us.

We also went to the same restaurant for lunch every day, in Patan. We wound up talking to the waiters and managers, and on our last day, one of the waiters mentioned that he had a friend we may want to talk to.

That method has also been working well for us here in Pokhara. The longer we stay at a place, the more we get to know the people there, and the more information we get for our book. We've met local students that are being sponsored by foreigners; Adam (at Maya Devi) introduced us to a Gurkha major who built a school in the village he grew up in; Graham (also from Maya Devi) sponsors the children of his barber, Norris (a very sweet Indian man); and we've become friends with our taxi driver, Mike, who struggles to put his four children though school. So even though it may seem like we're lazy here, we are indeed getting work done.

Looking Back
As I mentioned above, we've taken this time at Maya Devi to transcribe our earlier interviews. Some of them are just comical. There's one where the predominate sound is me mixing the sugar into my tea (clink, clink, clink, clink). There's another where at the very beginning of the tape, Tadashi asks the interviewee to write their name (which is never said aloud); luckily, I'm really good with voices, so it was easy to figure out who it was.

The Book
During our time here, and over the last few months, we've also developed a design for the book, as well as more detailed idea of how to present the interviews. We're continuing to get more interviews and information, which will only make the book better. We've very excited about how it's coming along. I've even written the introduction (thrice, actually, since my computer died yet again).

I also think that we've found another girl that we'll probably wind up sponsoring; that makes two (for now). One in 9th grade here in Pokhara, the other heading toward University in Hoi An. We've decided that we'll most likely use a portion of the proceeds from the book to help pay for these girls' education. We'll likely give the rest to UNICEF or some such organization.

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