Must Have Chocolate

     In Wednesday's class we talked about several different things, including our weekly group meetings while we are in the field. Heather brought a bunch of chocolate to class, it was awesome. In my opinion, group meetings must have chocolate. We decided to have our group meetings on Monday evenings and sort of do family home evenings with them...so there will be a spiritual thought, game, etc. as well as discussion on our projects, progress, issues. We also talked a lot about ownership of this project. Field studies are so amazing because they really do depend on the student for success. Holly, Emily, and I are going to be in a foreign country with no one to tell us what to do or keep us on task. We get to decide what we do every day and whether we really rock our projects or just goof off. On top of that, we will have to solve any problems we run into. Projects might have to adapt if we can't get the resources or access we wanted, and it will be up to us to come up with a good alternative (I really hope this doesn't happen to anyone). We won't even have a field facilitator, not that it is the facilitator's job to tell us what to do, but it will all be up to us!

       On my part, I really want this to be an amazing experience....I have wanted to go to Africa for as long as I can remember, and I always planned on having some kind of international experience while in college. I am excited for the traveling and the culture. I am excited to work on my project. I know that putting in hard work now and going to the field and working hard will be extremely beneficial to me - I will learn how to work with people and survive in a completely new environment. I get to see a different world than the one I have lived in and hopefully have my eyes opened to things I never considered or knew existed. Heather mentioned attitude and how that will affect our project and living arrangements...ha, I have a testimony of attitude, really. I firmly believe we as humans can decide to see the glass half empty or half full. But even though I believe that, it can still be hard to do all the time. I am sure this summer will give me ample opportunities to practice having a good attitude. In my World Religions class we just talked about Taoism and their concept of wu-wei. Wu-wei is inaction....it is accepting what comes and not getting frustrated or put off by hardships. If you are practicing wu-wei, nothing can really be that upsetting. Wu-wei and deciding to have a good attitude are really the same thing and both will come in handy this summer, whether there are travel, project, or personal issues.

Interviews vs Observation

     In Monday's class we talked about interviews. There are several types of interviews, ranging from informal and unstructured to highly structured. An informal and unstructured interview would give a lot of space to the person being interviewed to just talk. There might be a general topic being discussed or some general questions, but mostly the interviewee just gets to spew. A structured interview would have very specific questions, carefully worded and put in a particular order. Within these interviews there are many different methods of probing, or getting more information out of the interviewee. These include the silent probe, the uh-huh probe, rephrasing the question etc. In order for an interview to be really productive or helpful, it is good to have a rapport built up. This was also part of participant observation - you want to "hang out', get to know people, earn their trust or friendship. Then they will be more willing and more helpful in their interviews. Something I found really interesting was the idea of asking what questions to ask....if you are going into a situation about which you know very little, it makes perfect sense that you would ask, "what should I be asking about, what should I be learning about, what is good to know?"....
   
     How does this translate into my project? I'll start with rapport - in order for me to build rapport I plan on just spending a lot of time at the zoo and letting the people who work there get to know me. I want to become familiar to them. Hopefully I will be able to interact enough with the zoo keepers to become friends with some of them. I probably won't be doing any highly structured interviews. I would like to learn about some general things, and then maybe I would come up with more specific questions and do a more formal interview. But for the most part a lot of what I learn will come from observing and just talking. I can see this being a little dangerous, because there will be a lot going on and a lot to process, so I'll want to become proficient at jotting. Finding time for jotting might be hard too, if I am able to do some more hands on stuff. I guess I'll just have to work on memorizing details! That is the benefit of doing a "sit-down, let's talk" interview, it would give me time to write down everything. But I really would like a lot of my learning to be done observing the interaction between animal and zoo keeper. I just found a whole bunch of articles about zoo-keeper animal interactions and relationship, I'm interested to see what the researchers/writers did more - interview or observation.

Literature Review

        Today in class I realized that I did not have nearly enough literature reviewed to do a really good literature review. Part of the issue is that I only recently found out what exactly I wanted to research, so I have a lot of more general articles about zoos and animal welfare legislation...and on top of that I am not sure if literature exists that addresses exactly what I want to do. Latest project question - What is the relationship between zookeepers and zoo animals and how does that relationship affect job satisfaction and animal welfare? Today's class was helpful in that I created that question, I did not have a really specific question before today, just a general "I want to study zoo keepers and animals". I hope it is specific enough.

So breaking up that question into more questions: what is the relationship and how does it develop? How does it affect job satisfaction for zoo keepers? How does it affect animal welfare and what animal behavior can we see that shows they are content? What laws exist in South Africa that affect zoo keepers and their treatment of captive animals? How do humans and animals interact in general? These questions will direct my literature reviewing from now on. Hopefully I can find more writing about zoo keeper relationships specifically, but if not, I will research all the background stuff - what zoo keepers do, what laws they are working with, animal behavior, etc. and that will prepare me for my study in South Africa where I can get the more specific details on zoo keeper relationships that I am curious about.

I worry that my question is not terribly scientific. Of course, doing a study on a species out in the wild would be ideal but it is not reasonable with this kind of field study set-up. I don't know how big of an issue or of how much importance the zookeeper-animal relationship is, but I am really curious about it. I am not sure it will benefit anyone other than me, but we are not really trying to change the world with these projects, so I guess that is okay. It is interesting on a social level - how humans and animals interact and how that affects happiness or welfare...so that is good.

Family Dynamics

       In Wednesday's class we talked about our families and about the family we will be staying with, the Thomases. It is almost this part of the field study that makes me the most nervous - everything will be so different and new and overwhelming and hard, it will be so important to have some place safe to return to at the end of every day. Which means having a good relationship with the Thomas family. Heather asked us to think about our own family dynamics and how that might translate to our host family. Living away from home makes it easier to see what my family/home is like. It is so nice to go home during breaks. I love all the people there and they all love me, which is so reassuring. It is marvelous to know that there are people who will love you no matter what and help me out with anything. In my family, my mom stays at home. She takes care of the house, the kids, cooking meals, doing laundry, paying bills. All the kids help out, of course. Everyone has their own jobs to do and is responsible for taking care of their own things. My dad is super busy with his job, being a dentist, but he also has many projects outside of school. I think this is something unique to my family - we all work together, and work a lot. Some past projects: pruning fruit trees and picking fruit, bottling/drying fruit, selling stuff at Farmer's market, taking care of bees, extracting honey, making candles, all kinds of projects around the house and yard - fences, sheds, walls, decks....currently my family is working on fixing up this old, Victorian-style house. When I go home for breaks I know I am going to be part of the latest project - like this Christmas I tore down walls and trimming at the old house. My family is pretty close knit, we eat meals together, watch movies together, play basketball and board games together.

     From Heather's description, the Thomas family is not quite like this...they eat meals separately, most of their children have grown up and left, etc. This is not to say they are not a close-knit family - it sounds like the Thomases would have stayed in the United States except they wanted to be near family. My concern is being too shy and not becoming friends with the Thomases. Heather warned us they weren't going to force their friendship on us, which means we have to put forth the effort to get to know them and become friends with them. I am afraid and nervous about this, although I am not really sure why...I have made friends before, I know how to do it. It's just that in this case, I really want to please and impress the Thomases and have a good relationship with them. I want to be able to talk freely with them and learn things about their lives. I wonder how our cultural differences will affect this process, or if it will affect it at all? The Thomases have lived in the U.S. and have been hosting BYU students for a few years now, they are not completely unaware of our culture, although we might be unaware of theirs.

       So, what can I do to get to know them and create a comfortable atmosphere in their home? Heather mentioned watching soap operas together - bonding moment! Also helping out around the house, with cooking or dishes or cleaning. I have to not be shy! Of course don't be insufferably gregarious, but ask questions and be friendly. Okay, thinking about it all is making me a little less nervous. I am excited to get to know the Thomases!

Participant Observation

      In Monday's class we talked more about Participant Observation and all the things that go into participant observation. I want to really apply all of those things to my specific study, so here goes. First I will name some part of preparing for or doing participant observation and then I will discuss how it pertains to my field study.

Learning language - I am not planning on learning any Xhosa or Afrikaans before going, but I would definitely like to learn some while I am there.

Build memory - I liked the exercise suggested in the reading where you walk past a store window and try to observe all the things in the window and then go back to and see what things you missed. Basically I need to become Shawn, from Psych, and become good at noticing and remembering things. This will be helpful in every field study situation.

Explicit awareness - I would like to practice becoming more aware of my own actions and really think before I act or speak,  especially because I can be a little impulsive when I get excited about something. If I am able to go and observe at the zoo, what kinds of things will I need to be aware of? Animal behavior - is the animal active/inactive, shy/confident, excited/bored?  How am I going to tell how it is feeling....I think mostly from its body language. Zoo keeper behavior is another thing I'll be watching for....how they act around the animals, smiling, pet names, touching, playing, etc.

Insider/outsider and hanging out - a lot of my time is going to be spent "hanging out" at the zoo. I want to be comfortable with the people and the animals there, and I want them to be comfortable with me, willing to answer questions, willing to let me help them do stuff.

A huge part of participant observation is what sort of social situtation you are participating in/observing. Ashley talked about several different things that go into your ability to participate...

Simplicity - some parts of observing at the zoo will be hard, others easy. If I just went as a normal zoo goer, but spent a lot more time looking at the animals than normal zoo goers did...that would not be hard, I wouldn't be bothering anyone. But I would also like to observe some of the more behind-the-scenes stuff - cleaning cages, feeding animals, checking animal health etc., and that might be harder to observe.

Frequently recurring - The activities at the zoo will be frequently recurring, so that should not be a problem.

Permissible - Will it be permissible for me to help out with things? I am hoping I will get permission to do some hands on stuff with the animals and zoo keepers, or at least get permission to observe more.

Accessible - Kind of the same as permissible, once I have permission, it won't be hard to get access to behind-the-scene locations. The zoo itself is pretty accessible, if I attend as a normal zoo goer.

Unobtrusive - Depends on the situation too. If I am just standing outside of cages watching things, I am not obtruding. If I am trying to help clean a bear's teeth or get a knot out of a giraffe's neck...that might be a little more obtrusive, both for the animals and the people who normally do those kinds of things : )

Body Language

          Whenever I hear "body language" I think of the Queen song. Anyway, Friday's class we talked about nonverbal communication and cues. This includes body language: what your posture, facial expression, hand motions, walk etc. are saying about what you are thinking or feeling. It is amazing how much we do convey with body language. I don't like talking on the phone very much, and I think one of the reasons for that is because I rely on body language to clarify what someone is saying. Same goes with any kind of communication where facial expressions or tone cannot be determined. Ashley mentioned that we need to be careful out in the field about what our body language is saying, because of the whole one symbol, multiple meanings thing. I don't think that I am always very aware of what my body language is showing. Or my body language is not accurate to my actual feelings....crossing your arms is often said to be a sign of being tense or insecure. I cross my arms a lot, but mostly because it is just more comfortable. Anyway, I want to try and be more aware of my body language and what it is saying.

         I went to this retreat once in high school and was put in a group with some people I did not know very well. We did a lot of different activites and got to know each other much better. One of the boys in my group told me that he had thought I was sort of stand-offish, or stuck-up, but after getting to know me he realized I was not that way at all. I think when people are shy or even just quiet it might make them seem aloof or uptight. I've thought about that experience several times, and how I can seem more friendly. This is definitely going to come into play on a field study. I am going to be trying to work closely with people and I want them to know that I am friendly and also trust-worthy. How can I use my body language or other nonverbal communication cues to help show them that? For the rest of the semester, I am going to work on what my body language might be saying about me and the accuracy of what it might be saying.

Values

For Wednesday's class, Heather had us play a game. She set up a situation and we had to position ourselves along a line of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Her situations were corporal punishment for children; giving money to homeless people; and giving people jobs based on their merit, skills or talents versus just because they knew the right people. It was a really interesting activity and helped me realize what some of my own values are, but also the values of Emily and Holly and why they feel how they feel. I also realized a lot of my values come directly from my parents and the way that I was brought up. Does that mean that they are really my values, or is that just the only way I've ever been shown to think or feel? As a young, developing adult...how do I figure out what my values are? What kinds of things affect how people develop values? I can see that a lot of it comes from the different situations we are exposed to. It was great to hear what everyone thought - Malcolm, Heather, and Holly usually had a different angle and I could totally understand their points and why they felt how they did. That's the problem - for me, it is easy to see why I value something a certain way, but I can also totally understand why someone feels differently, at least with all of the things that we discussed. And I haven't really been exposed to many different situations. My only example of corporal punishment comes from my dad giving us spanks when we were little, when he only did it if we were really being snots, and then was completely loving afterward and explained why our behavior was inappropriate. My value/opinion on that might be completely different if I had seen or been subject to severe corporal punishment in school....

So I was thinking about why Heather had us do this, and how it pertains to South Africa, and how my experiences there might help me in shaping and developing my values. With the homelessness question, I know we are going to be exposed to a lot more of it than we currently see here in Provo, Utah. A point that Heather brought up was human trafficking, and how a little kid begging might actually be working for some bigger group and might not benefit from money or food at all - something that would not even cross my mind here in Utah. I am really interested to see how being in a culture totally different from the one I am used to is going to change my values and the way I view the world.