By: Jenna Murray de López

Jenna Murray de López — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 13:45:09 +0000

I related very much to your post. Last year I completed my doctoral fieldwork in Mexico taking along my then 5yr old and was also 7 months pregnant- giving birth halfway through and continueing in the field. On top of that I left my then 3yr old back in the UK with my husband so our family was separated for most of the year. I blogged about my experience throughout (www.letterfromchiapas.blogspot.co.uk). You’ve just reminded me that I never got round to my concluding post! Having my daughters with me made fir a truelly unique experience and being separated from my son and hubby made it a deeply emotional one that I still have very mixed feelings about.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 02:49:04 +0000

Not nearly as dramatic and stressful as the case described here, but hearing about it recalled a much-treasured memory of how kids facilitate entry into local communities. When we moved into our apartment complex in Yokohama in 1980, my wife had classes to attend, and I had to find a job to supplement her grant. A top priority was finding day care for our four-year-old daughter. My wife noticed children lining up to be led to a local kindergarten, went over to introduce herself, and threw herself on the mercy of the mothers. Japanese being very susceptible to “poor-little-me” approaches, our daughter was enrolled in the kindergarten and one of the mothers volunteered to care for her after school until her mother got home from Tokyo, where her classes were. But the memory in question is from a few months later.

My wife was walking up the hill toward our apartment and passed two little boys. One, a visitor, instantly started pointing and shouting “Gaijin! Gaijin da!” (Foreigner!. It’s a foreigner!). The other little boy replied, “Gaijin ja nai yo! Kay-chan no obasan da yo!” (That’s not a foreigner! That’s Kay’s mom!”).

Comments on: Fieldwork with children

By: Jenna Murray de López

By: John McCreery