quick update
The last few weeks have been pretty packed, and I'm short on time, so instead of trying to write it all down in detail, I'll just give a basic rundown...
The week after coming back from San Gil (I'll put up the caving story when I get time) I worked for a few days, then that weekend I went to Armenia with my favourite drinking buddy, Mayo. The 12 hour bus trip through the mountains was painful (you try sleeping when a bus is making 180 degree turns every minute or so), but it was definately worth it. Armenia is a small city in the heart of Colombia's richest coffee producing zone, and has some pretty amazing scenery, and really great people. It was a long weekend, and the plan was to leave on Monday night, but we decided to stay another day, which was good, cause it meant that I got the chance to got to go to Acción Social's territorial unit in Armenia, where my friends Victor and Nicolas work. It was interesting to see just how different things can be in the same country. The Coffee Zone seems a lot calmer (the territorial unit in Armenia maintains one Attention and Orientation Unit (UAO), (in Bucaramanga there are three), and everything seems a lot more organised...
This week at work has also been far more positive. I'm now spending most of my time actually working with people, not just in the office, which is really good. Since there was no real set role for me here when I came, I've been able to pretty much do what I want (within a certain framework, naturally). A real positive is that my Spanish is finally at a level where I can work relatively independently, so I'm now able to direct my energies into things that genuinely interest me. Most of this week has been spent conducting structured interviews with displaced people (the structure is provided by the government), and it's been a good chance to hear people's current reality and past experiences (most of which are horrific) direct from their mouths, and not just from a book or a policy document. These interviews have been a good experience, but I still find them very structured, and the amount of people that are always waiting to be interviewed means that there are constant time contraints. To remedy this problem, I've started planning some discussion/focus groups that I'm going to conduct in the UAOs. The idea is that the discussions will be informal, and the groups will be small. There will be no set 'yes' or 'no' questions, and all information will be completely anonymous (no names will be taken); I plan to provide a few general themes for discussion, and then just see where the discussion heads... Hopefully that way the things that are discussed will be what the people actually want to discuss, and not simply what the interview questions say they have to answer... Eventually, I'd also like to involve students from local universities in these discussions, but that's a more long-term goal...
I think that's enough for now... I'll add some photos when I get around to it...
The week after coming back from San Gil (I'll put up the caving story when I get time) I worked for a few days, then that weekend I went to Armenia with my favourite drinking buddy, Mayo. The 12 hour bus trip through the mountains was painful (you try sleeping when a bus is making 180 degree turns every minute or so), but it was definately worth it. Armenia is a small city in the heart of Colombia's richest coffee producing zone, and has some pretty amazing scenery, and really great people. It was a long weekend, and the plan was to leave on Monday night, but we decided to stay another day, which was good, cause it meant that I got the chance to got to go to Acción Social's territorial unit in Armenia, where my friends Victor and Nicolas work. It was interesting to see just how different things can be in the same country. The Coffee Zone seems a lot calmer (the territorial unit in Armenia maintains one Attention and Orientation Unit (UAO), (in Bucaramanga there are three), and everything seems a lot more organised...
This week at work has also been far more positive. I'm now spending most of my time actually working with people, not just in the office, which is really good. Since there was no real set role for me here when I came, I've been able to pretty much do what I want (within a certain framework, naturally). A real positive is that my Spanish is finally at a level where I can work relatively independently, so I'm now able to direct my energies into things that genuinely interest me. Most of this week has been spent conducting structured interviews with displaced people (the structure is provided by the government), and it's been a good chance to hear people's current reality and past experiences (most of which are horrific) direct from their mouths, and not just from a book or a policy document. These interviews have been a good experience, but I still find them very structured, and the amount of people that are always waiting to be interviewed means that there are constant time contraints. To remedy this problem, I've started planning some discussion/focus groups that I'm going to conduct in the UAOs. The idea is that the discussions will be informal, and the groups will be small. There will be no set 'yes' or 'no' questions, and all information will be completely anonymous (no names will be taken); I plan to provide a few general themes for discussion, and then just see where the discussion heads... Hopefully that way the things that are discussed will be what the people actually want to discuss, and not simply what the interview questions say they have to answer... Eventually, I'd also like to involve students from local universities in these discussions, but that's a more long-term goal...
I think that's enough for now... I'll add some photos when I get around to it...
posted by Steve Phillips at 1:59 pm
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