Ethnography Project

Conducting ethnography surprised me. I interviewed my friend Beth Bloom because of her vast experience with service in Latin American countries. I prepared the questions and I thought I knew what Beth would say, based on what I know of her. However, many of her answers took my by surprise. She talked about how she was probably not the greatest contributor when she went on service trips and she was very honest about her interests in tourism as a part of why she traveled in the first place. I don’t really know why I had been so sure of what the answers to questions would be, but looking back on it I wonder how this could have affected my questions in the first place.

Conducting this interview also made me realize how important it is to be conscious of other’s ideas, backgrounds, sensitivities, etc. Coming up with the questions, making sure they weren’t leading or that they would not offend the interviewee presented me with a lot of questions for myself. It changed my preconceptions and helped me avoid them. That last sentence might be in a little bit of a disagreement with what I said earlier about wondering how my questions were affected by my thinking I knew the answers, but that’s because even while trying to not have preconceptions I still somehow created base assumptions for myself or at least that is what I think happen, now that I’m looking back. That goes to show how ethnography is not an easy task and should be taken really seriously. This whole issue is especially delicate when in a foreign culture. It Specially for the people going on the CCESP it is important know about Nicaragua before making assumptions and asking questions. The goal is not to offend someone who is kindly giving you his or her time or to misrepresent what they really think by asking badly formulated questions.

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