Floating along

Back when I worked for EF High School Year, interviewing and screening 15 and 16 year olds who applied to be exchange students, I used to draw them a diagram looking somewhat like this:

It was supposed to demonstrate the mood swings one is likely to experience throughout the exchange year. First is what we called "the honeymoon" where everything is fun and like a holiday, but this is usually followed by an experience of culture shock and home sickness. We would tell the kids that with the right attitude and some endurance there would be better times again - this is ideally where they will start to feel at home in the community, they are no longer "news" to the local students and life has gained a sense of normalcy. Another downturn usually follows at Christmas, but then things pick up again and with the new year comes integration on another level. And then, alas, spring arrives and it is about time to go home, and most exchange students will feel ambivalent or conflicted about that.

I felt this diagram applied well to my own experience as an exchange student in Texas in 95/96. I am not sure how well it depicts my experiences as an anthropologist, although in a sense the goal of both experiences is the same: to understand and become part of another way of life. The fundamental difference, of course, is that the anthropologist has to be much more methodical in his attempts at integration (a paradox?) and then in turn relate this experience to a wider debate within the discipline, and hopefully add something of value to that debate. I have written about this before, but the consequences of this ultimate goal in terms of the need to document daily activities (writing field notes, taping conversations, filming and photographing etc. etc.) in a sense works to distance the anthropologist from the community of which he wants to be part. We are professional assimilators and professional outsiders at the same time. Schizophrenic, indeed. I guess that what I'm getting at is that this double way of being makes for two different sets of waves: 1) personal well-being and 2) progression of fieldwork. Throw into the mix a third dimension which is the well-being of ones family and the result is a more erratic looking set of waves - the composite of the three dimensions, which I suppose would look more like this:

These three dimensions are, of course, largelly, though not completely, functions of one another. The question "how are you doing" will necessarily involve tapping into all three dimension. So how am I doing? If baseline is zero and the waves can go from -5 to 5, right now I would say zero (the composite of one on "dimension 1", two on "dimension 2" and a negative three on "dimension 3"). The biggest drag at the moment is that the days can get very lonely and boring for Silje and Ella. Finding stuff for them to do while I am gone during the day is proving to be a challenge. The weather is too hot and humid to stay outside much, and there's really not much to do outside anyway. You see a lot of people hanging on the roadside, but not many women and kids. Many children go to preschool and Silje and Ella have visited the local one a few times. It is crowded, under staffed, loud and hot. Ella, though she likes to meet other kids, does not last long and the staff has no time to talk to Silje. What we need to find is a friendly housewife, preferably with small kids, who would like visits, or come to our place a few times a week. The search is on.

I personally don't mind the lack of socializing as much as Silje. Back home I'm a bit of a couch potato anyway and tend not to see a whole lot of people and do a whole lot of stuff outside of work. Socializing, of course, is at this point my work and I have to admit that it can be difficult for me to be that person. There are days when I'd rather stay at home and watch CNN. But Silje is good at reminding me why I'm here. And I've been lucky, too. I've met and befriended some very helpful people, among them the head of the local Fairtrade unit who grows bananas himself. I've spent a week or so at his farm now, mainly watching him work and talking to him about the stuff he does. He is good at explaining and doesn't seem to tire of me asking every question that pops into my mind. For me, the challenge is to keep on pushing in order to come to know more people. I've still got a good ways to go.