Can Paige Come Out and Play?

APRIL 8th 2008
I took some time away from our more serious talks and decided to just participate in “play” with Paige. We hung out at a room that was being prepared for a party for the local youth in the community. We helped to decorate the place and fell into the inevitable moments of distraction and goofing around. I assigned her as my “tape girl” as we hung paper flamenco dancers on the wall for this fiesta. We hung the dancers in a contorted way at first just to see how others would react. We laughed and we bonded. Our relationship seemed to enter a new place when we realized the fun we could have together and how our humor worked together. I could tell that she enjoyed our time together as much as I did. People asked if we were attending the party the next day and Paige replied that she was going only if I was going. I replied with the same, “I’ll go only if you go.” NOTE TO SELF: Trust and relationship can be built through play.

Instant Replay

Although recording the conversations has proven to be a successful method of documentation, I have run into one problem. Over an hour of conversation that I had with both of my informants together appeared to be recorded, but when I attempted to play it back it would not work. I could not find a way of getting past the error message no matter how many times I tried. This may not have been as big of a problem if I had checked the recording right after the conversation. If I had checked it sooner and realized it was not functioning then I could have grabbed a notepad and written down some of the information while it was fresh in my mind. Of course that is not the way it happened and I checked it a few weeks later. This made it tough for me to remember all that was said. NOTE TO SELF: Check recording right after it is complete!