Meta Reality in a Business Analogy

These past few weeks seem to really have been flying by.  They've been filled with interviews completed, surveys passed out, YSA activities, and surveys never returned (sort of the frustrating part) but the project is moving forward.  I have just a few more interviews to do, but I'm hoping to start planning the final project this week.  I want to get my introduction written and have an outline for the rest of it, that way I can simply fill in the stories of the members as they come.  I hope to be able to get this project enough underway that the members will be able to continue it after I leave. It is, after all, their project and not mine; I am just the initiator of it.  I also have this crazy idea that I will upload my project to the internet, that way the members here can all get online and write their own stories and it can become a virtual database of inspiring, personal, and local stories about members of the Irapuato stake.

It's hard to believe that I already have been in Mexico for 2 months, and during this time I have learned a lot.  I have learned, mostly, about the difficulties of undertaking a field study.  Working alone in a foreign country with a language that you are still learning has its many challenges.  I know that I'm not supposed to come home from my field study and talk about what I learned about myself, but I definitely have been learning a lot about how important it is to know yourself in order to work well and productively.  I think that we sometimes forget that when we work alone we don't really work alone, but with ourselves, and it is important to remember to treat ourselves well as we work towards our goals.  In our daily field journals we kind of need to be Sherlock Holmes in order to view not just those around us, but the reasons and patterns that we ourselves follow.  I think I explained this concept well in my field notes the other day by comparing my field study to a business:

Today I realized something interesting, and that is that a field study
is like a one-man company.  Not only am I all the workers in all the
different departments (office boy, interviewer, clerk, etc) but I am
also in charge of planning for the future, of productivity, of HR,
employee morale, and customer satisfaction.  I am every employee and every
boss.  The trick is being a good boss to yourself, and giving your
best work as an employee.  Just as a good boss needs to treat his
employees well and show that he or she loves them, so I need to do so
with myself, and, in like kind, I need to reciprocate that by being a
good, hard-working and dependable employee.  It really is a rather
interesting analogy which, if I can master, can bring me light years
ahead of where I currently am not only in productivity, but also in
understanding myself and how I work with myself and others.  Hmm, if I
can learn how to teach myself, then I will be much better at teaching
others.  If I can love and lead myself, then I will have so much more
of an understanding and a preparation to be able to do so with others.

Now to apply some of these findings and get to work getting to know better the language and the people here.  My next blog post should incorporate some of what I have learned from the application of this knowledge, and, hopefully, talk a little more about the actual progress of the project that I came here to do.

Modismos and Sayings

On class on Wednesday we had a really interesting discussion about some idioms used in the Spanish language. You can tell a lot about a culture from the idioms that they use. Our idioms in America are very centered around time (such as "time is money"). Where as Spanish idioms seem to deal a lot with food (such as "me vale queso" which means I don't care, but literally means something like: that matters to me as much as cheese).

Last night I was watching Ocean's 13 and there is one part where one of the "mormon twins" is working in a factory in Mexico. One of his co-workers warns him "algo es peligroso" (something is dangerous), to which he responds "Peligroso es mi nombre medio" (literally: Dangerous is my middle name). I thought this was funny because the subtitle read "danger is my middle name." It's interesting how we try to get our idioms to fit in another language and sometimes it doesn't work, especially when we translate wrong.

I wonder sometimes what impression my use of the Spanish language is going to give the native people there; I still have a lot of Spanish to learn. Every time that I mess up my grammar or use the personal tú instead of the formal usted I am labeling myself as a outsider. Of course, with my pale skin and 6'8" I will stick out like a sore thumb, but language is something else.

The nice part is that I will be able to use my lack of language proficiency to my advantage sometimes. If I admit my mistakes and inadequacies but express a real desire to learn, that should open up the hearts of the people of Irapuato. Who doesn't like someone who is struggling hard to learn your language and culture? They should be happy to help, and as I seek to learn in friendship, I am sure they will respond in like kind.

And I will be feliz como una lombriz (happy as a worm).