Project SHINE Field Note - Nov 29 2005

Anth 142
Field Notes @ Villa de Guadalupe
1:41-3:45pm
29 November 2005
Description:
I entered the site at 1:41pm and found that the director wasn’t there. When I called 000 to call the receptionist’s desk, a woman answered, so I told her I was there for ESL tutoring. When I entered the site, I found an elderly woman at the couch on open room called me to sign my name to the form on the counter. I signed in. The manager’s office was locked and nobody was at the counter. I walked down to the multipurpose room. The room was empty and the rights were off, so I went back to the entrance and found Andy walking to the counter from the computer lab. When he saw me, he said “hi,” so I replied him with saying “hi.” Then I asked him if he knew there was a tutoring today from 2 o’clock. He said that he knew they have ESL tutoring but he was not sure when and what day they have. I pointed the ad on the wall next to the bathroom, and he gave a glance and said that it should be open at two, and asked me to feel free waiting in either computer lab or at the living, which is room A. I sat on the couch faced to the counter because it was the place I could check both entrance and the multipurpose room door. It was about 2:00pm, I found a middle aged Caucasian woman walking out from the lab and went into the multipurpose room. I followed her and I asked her if she teach ESL class there. She was the teacher, and said it was quite strange because the students usually showed up around 1:30pm. She said that they might not show up today but on Thursday, because she might told them that the next class would be on December 1st. And she was afraid that they might show up on Thursday when there would be no teacher in the room. As we waited the students in the room, I asked her about the ESL class. She told me that the class was semester system and today was the last day, so the students would get certificate for participating the class if they showed up. There were 8 students attending the ESL class. The topics of the classes are broad; weather, food, color, etc. They also spent time for the citizenship exam. MTM: that sounds similar to JohnXXIII, because they also have two types of classes at the same place. About 2:30pm, she left the room to use computer lab. She asked me if I wanted to come to the lab or I could wait in the room to see if any students showed up. I told her to wait in the room for a while. Since it was the first time in this room, I made the observation of the room. There is a kitchen located on the SW corner of the room and the door to the kitchen was locked. On the SE corner, there was an old organ next to the pile of chairs. I saw couple of people passed by from the window, but no body came in to the room. An Asian woman came in and left at 3:10pm. At 3:16pm, she came back with another elderly Asian man and walked out. About 3:32pm, I heard some Chinese conversation from the living room area. About 3:38pm, someone entered the room from the door on the north side, and left from the east side door. MTM: Some people walked in from the outside garden and used the door to the hallway as their route. I left the room about 3:45pm.