Nothing seems to be going quite as planned with my research.
On Thursday morning, I was really excited to do a second interview in Juárez. I was over the bridge by 8:30 because I love spending time in front of the Presidencia before my day begins. The area rests between the two downtown bridges and is full of bustle. The land there sits slightly above the land in downtown El Paso, so you get a really interesting perspective looking at the big Chase and Wells Fargo buildings with the backdrop of the Franklin Mountains. (Before I leave, I'm going to bring a friend over with me so we can take some pictures...I don't quite feel comfortable enough pulling out my camera alone amidst all the other commotion.)
Anyway, I was supposed to be picked up at 8:45, but Goreti didn't come until 9, which happened to be the time I was supposed to meet my study participant. The hospital is about a 10 minute drive from where I was, but the streets were all super flooded due to the lack of drainage system, so it took longer than usual. (Super exciting side note: We got a little rain over the past few days, and the temperature has been below 100 for the past week! The humidity in the air and the sight of clouds in the sky have been absolutely wonderful!) I texted the participant but didn't hear back. I got to the hospital around 9:15 and assumed I had still gotten there before her; after all, we are on "border time." I called her phone but it was off, so I waited until 10. She never showed up, though. While I was there, I was able to aprovechar the good signal on my Mexican cell phone and set up another postpartum interview for Juárez for Tuesday, so I guess my time wasn't completely wasted.
At 10, Goreti came back for me. However, she had a friend, her friend's daughter, and their dog in the car. Before going back to the bridge, we had to go to the vet because the dog was sick. The trip was actually pretty cool; I got to see a lot more of Juárez while also learning that Mexico has public veterinarians, which are significantly less expensive than the private ones. This is especially good since most people (like Goreti's friend) acquire pets by taking them in from the streets... so at least there's an affordable way to get the animals taken care of. I also really enjoyed chatting with Goreti's friend's four-year-old daughter; I absolutely love little kid Spanish.
So anyway, I've been trying to set up two postpartum interviews in El Paso for the past week, which has been a major struggle. Then, on Friday morning, one of the participants texted me and asked if I could meet her at an IHOP in 15 minutes. The IHOP is 15 miles from my office and I don't have a car. I was freaking out so my supervisor kindly drove me over there. Then I conducted the interview over pancakes with the participant and her boyfriend while their 8-day-old baby sat at the end of the table. It was kind of an awkward situation, and the restaurant was really loud. I've been trying to transcribe the interview, but the background noise makes it painful and I keep getting frustrated at hearing the interruptions in the conversation every time the waitress comes by the table. At least the interview happened though; evidently the couple is moving about 3 hours east of here in a couple of days! It took me an hour and 15 minutes to get back to my office using two different buses, but it also only cost $1, so I guess I can't really complain.
I leave El Paso five weeks from tomorrow and am still less than 1/3 done with my summer project. I've come to accept the fact that I will likely not get prenatal and postpartum interviews with 15 women on each side of the border. My new goal is for 10 on each side of the border; with that I'll hopefully have enough data to analyze for my thesis. And if not, well, I guess I'll be able to say I worked as hard as I could on this and then cut my losses by doing a completely quantitative thesis.
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