Starting my ISP (Independent Study Project)

It is really hard to believe that I am so close to being done with my semester here in Bolivia. Although in some ways my time here went really slowly and it was bien challenging mostly my three and a half months here have flown by and I am going to be so sad to have it all end in a week and a half. 

After we got back from Santa Cruz we all had to turn in our ISP proposals, IRB ethics forms, and a literary review about our chosen topic. We spent a week working on these assignments and then jumped right in and started our research. My chosen topic is child workers here in Cochabamba which means I have been continuing to live with my host family and working on my project. Other people in my group traveled to other cities or small villages to do their research.  

My project was very frustrating and challenging at first. First of all, I got my ethics form back from my advisor and she informed me that it is against Bolivian law to film or photograph kids under the age of 18 even with their parents consent. Obviously this didn't bode well for me since my project is making a video about children. Anyway, after a few stressful days we realized that that is not true and as long as I have consent from parents, guardians, or "tutors" I would be okay. 

My first day of ISP I headed to SEDEGES which is basically Child Protective Services. Everybody had told me to talk to them but the woman there was super mean and wouldn't film an interview with me. Then, my afternoon plans fell through. The next day I met with Heidi, our Academic Director, to inform her that my project was a disaster and was for sure not going to work out. She assured me that this is how it always is with these types of projects in Bolivia and that I was going to have days when nothing worked out, and days when magically everything worked out. Turns out, she was right. The next day I was able to film two excellent interviews and felt so much better. 

My second week of ISP I met Juan Vicente, who is one of the leaders of UnatsCo, the Cochabamba branch of the Bolivian Child Workers Union. He agreed to help me out with my project as long as I gave the organization a copy of the final video so they could use it to promote themselves and find funding. I filmed an interview with him and then he took me on a visita to the Cancha, the giant market. We walked around and he asked random kids he knew who were working shining shoes, washing car windows, or helping out at fruit stands to film interviews with me. Although some were rather skeptical thanks to him several agreed to be filmed and finally my project really felt like it was going to work. 

This type of research in Bolivia is definitely frustrating. People are constantly late to meetings, don't show up at all, or schedule them for days when the office is going to be closed. There are several areas of the city that have no street signs so finding places is often difficult. Bolivians in general are super helpful and willing to sit down and talk to you, but I have had a little bit of trouble since I am always asking to film and sometimes they aren't so excited about that. It has been completely overwhelming to be alone in this process of research, but at the same time it has been challenging in a really great way. 

Mostly, I have been pleasantly surprised at how many things have actually ended up working out in my favor. After those first few days I didn't think that I would have enough footage for a 20 minute video, but now that I am in the editing process I realize that I definitely do, so that is exciting. Since I don't really know what I am doing or how to use Final Cut Pro it is still touch and go if my video is going to be halfway decent but we shall see.