Episode 9: Santiago Fieldwork 2015

This week was good, overall, some ups and downs, but I’m continuing to progress toward my goal.

Monday through Thursday were great recruiting days, and I had some interviews throughout, as well. I am trying to be as brave as possible about approaching people about my project, so for instance one of my participants this week was my waiter for Tuesday’s lunch—you never know when someone is going to be interested in participating.

Friday I went down to LP to hopefully finish up that whole neighborhood, but I was foiled by an event going on next door including intermittent microphone use and loud music that made my recording unusable. What a bummer!

I did have several cancellations this week, but also some last-minute interview interest, so I guess it sort of evens out. I’m trying to be a boss at following up with people, and that has gotten me some big wins. One of the things I did this week and last was to have my data turned on on my phone all the time. This has helped me both feel more connected to home as well as be available at any time when being in touch with participants. I’m on a pay-as-you-go situation, using my iPhone from home with a Chilean sim card, and so I’d been trying to keep my data usage to a minimum. However, almost everyone here (including older folks) use WhatsApp, which that’s a data-based app. So whatever, at this point, I’m doing it!

This week was a good one also for administrative tasks; I got caught up on a lot of stuff, including inputting data from one of my side projects (so I don’t have to lug around all that paper), and receipts into my spreadsheet, etc. I’m trying to stay on top of that stuff as much as possible so it doesn’t catch me off guard at the end.

Totals:

Interviews & original perception test: 53/64

Perception control test: LP: 11/15, V: 5/15

Picture control test: 23/28

Lessons learned:

1. I am decidedly NOT a fan of partially doing tasks and following up for the rest. It’s been too hard to get people to commit again. I will never do it like this again—it has to be a one-shot situation. I was supposed to have an appointment to finish up with a participant in LP (including the perception task & the demographics) and can no longer do so because this person is arguing with some of the staff at the site, so is not going to be around anymore. Super bummer for me, cause I’m caught in the middle.

For this reason, and recording quality in some others, my new N is 64. I did NOT want to get home and get analyzing and realize that some of my data were unusable and be unable to do anything about it. I’m sure I can do it, I’m down now to just over 4 weeks and I’ve been ahead of my goals!

My boyfriend Justin arrives for a visit on Friday, so one more big push to get a lot done this week, then we’re taking a brief vacation to Buenos Aires through mid-next week, then back for my final push in December! I leave on the 17th, so looking at those calendar pages is a reality check! :)

Prayers & well-wishes for my advisor, Claudia Parodi, going through some tough health stuff right now.