week 4

[Lindsay Davis]

Lindsay Davis
Journal 4

I have now been in Granada for about a month. It is interesting to me how the dynamic of being in this country has changed from the beginning and how much I am starting to notice the shift in my own mentality. We were walking in El Fortin today and Doug mentioned how at the start of our research all of the houses looked run down and shabby but that many of them now look really nice. If you take the time to look at the details the houses that initially look like they are not taken care of are actually beautiful and very well kept. The dirt is swept neatly all around and in front of the property. The tiles on the front porches are mopped often and the laundry is often hanging outside on clothes lines. Even some of the houses that used to look small look like very nice, big houses. I think that if you look at something the right way you can discover so much more about the community and how things work within that community.
I think I came into the project with the assumption that it was going to be a very poor area and everyone would be trying to get out of El Fortin. Looking back now, however, my views on the situation have completely changed. I think that it’s true that some of the women want to get out of El Fortin, just like any other community in the world. Other women are perfectly content with their situation. Many of the women have grown up in El Fortin and raised families of their own, many live in houses that are adjoined to their mother or sister’s house and the kids play in the bushes while the women have afternoon conversations on the porch during the hottest hours of the day. The lives that the women live are beautiful and simple and in some ways I am envious of the connections they share with their neighbors and the community at large. It may be harder to make ends meet monetarily, but everyone seems so grateful and so happy to have each other and jobs and a healthy family. I think people from the US often forget to appreciate the most important things in life because we are all so focused on our careers, school, getting ahead in life, etc. I think I have learned a great deal from the participants of this project both about myself and about what is generally most important in life.
The highlight of this week for me was definitely a house we did last Monday or Tuesday. Gloria Elena came with us and brought both the twins and Juan Diego and there was a little girl at the house named Isabella. While we were taking turns with the health endpoints Bevin and I were playing with the kids and taking pictures. When you take a picture of any kid in El Fortin they get super excited and immediately run towards you as soon as they think you’ve taken it so they can see it. It is a little like being ambushed but the cameras are a huge hit! Doug, Erin, Bevin and I were spinning the little kids around and playing with them and it was one of the most exciting simple experiences; to be able to connect with little kids from a different culture that speak a different language is an amazing feeling. The same is true with the women, especially those who are in their late teens or early twenties. I find it very interesting to see a parallel to my life in another woman whose life is so different from my own. I have learned so much about myself in the last month and I think that I will be able to reflect on this experience as one of the most clearly defined instances of growth and change in my life.