Many of you (OK, let’s be honest, only some of you) have
asked the following, very appropriate question: What exactly are you doing over
there in Nepal?
The answer, right now, is a multitude of different things
and they include, but are not restricted to: Running away from small children
who believe that I, on account of my white skin, have pockets full of candy;
and roaming around rural villages with a saddle-bag that is (in reality) stuffed with survey packets and dull pencils.
However, currently, our main objective is to collect 300
questionnaires from teenagers about their economic status, emotions, and ideas
about caste-ism. Teenagers, and this may come as a surprise, are particularly…
challenging. They are simply too cool. Kids are easy. They can be lured by
candy. Adults are easy. Playing on their compulsion to chastise, all a
foreigner need do is make cultural blunder before they feel it’s their moral
obligation to correct you. With finesse, such a reprimand can quickly transform
into a mutually agreeable conversation about the weather, kids these days, or
the perils of drinking un-boiled milk. Kids want you to teach them. Adults want
to teach you. But teenagers… they want NOTHING to do with you.
I’m pretty sure I now know how it feels to be a Grade 3
Creeper, as we spend considerable effort strategizing about “how to get closer
to the teens.” We’ve tried offering candy and treats; we have followed them
home; we have asked their friends to tell us the whereabouts of other friends;
we have laid in wait outside the school, ready to pick off the stragglers at
recess; we have loitered near playgrounds and soccer fields. Yes, our methods
in finding these 300 consenting kids to survey certainly smack of sexual
predation, though it truly is
ethnographic work. I think we’ll get a van for next field season.
