Ethan and I are just about to leave Nebaj for a week of travel. The tentative itinerary is Coban, Sierra de Las Minas, Semuc Champey and Las Cuevas de Candelaria. All of the things we look for in a vacation – biodiversity, natural wonders and a whole lot of muddy hiking. (Though truth be told, we are also excited about the possibility of seeing the new Batman movie in Coban.)
I conducted two focus groups in the field this week, with groups of mothers who have been given goats by the project. It was an interesting and at times awkward experience. Many women understand a bit of Spanish, but certainly not all, and few speak more than a few words. So conducting these groups requires a translator. For the first group, the supervisor did not attend as he had promised, and there were great swaths of silence following each of my attempts at stimulating discussion. These people had no reason to trust me, none of them had ever met me before. They sat politely, but without making eye contact, occasionally offering a few words to fill the silence.
The second group was much different. This supervisor stayed and was a wonderful translator, she was able to not just translate my questions but also add examples and context to help the discussion along. She has the trust of the community, which gave them some reason to trust me. They talked not just to me and the supervisor but to each other, which is ideal for this kind of qualitative research.
My experiences in the communities here are generally somewhat awkward. I smile and greet everyone, and am received with a distant politeness. In one of the communities this week, though the mothers wouldn`t talk to me directly, they sent over a young girl (who must be learning Spanigh in school) to ask me to sit down and to give me another chair for my bag. And if refacciones (10 AM-ish snack) are brought out, I am served first, with the men. So they certainly are not rude, there is just a wall I haven`t been able to breach.
In addition to the language barrier, I think that people here are careful with their words and interactions with outsiders. I am the strange extranjera with a notebook and no children (usually they pity me for this). The children are often curious, delighted and/or scared. We have met a few adults who are curious and delighted, and a few who are decidedly un-enthusiastic about our presence, but the majority are reserved in their reactions.
I had an interesting discussion with a man from Nebaj yesterday. He has a lot more experience with outsiders, having worked with the UN mission MINAGUA in Guatemala after the war. He was very frank in describing his experiences during the war, how his father was killed by the army and how as many as 15 or 20 people were killed a day around here. He said that as late as 2001/2002 there were still struggles here between the army and the people. The areas I am working in are not places where they often see foreigners (a completely different world from Xela or Antigua). Which all goes towards putting a lot of the reserved reactions in perspective.
