Surveys

After what seemed like an interminable wait, nothing happens quickly in this country, I have finally commenced my survey. I created a satisfaction survey to assess people’s opinion of the program and find out how the program could be improved. My goal is to interview 200 clients, although this seems less feasible every day. Each interview takes approximately 20 minutes. I am accompanied by one of the PSC who acts as my translator and community liaison.

After two week of surveys, I have a love hate relationship with them. I love being fully enmeshed in the community. I get to see communities that I never new existed. I have the privilege of spending time talking to people and listening to their experiences. And of course, I am learning a great deal. But, and these are big buts, logistics are a nightmare.

Simply finding clients is arduous. We have a master list of all clients. However, glaringly absent is information such as addresses and phone numbers since our clients do not have these. We know only what community they lived in at the time of participation. Many clients have relocated back to their villages, some have moved within the communities and others are simply out. So we wander around aimlessly in the hot, hot sun asking people if they know where to find so and so. Turns out, I am a planner. I like things to be on time and organized. This is hopeless and laughable here, and it is driving me a bit crazy. (On a side note, I attempted to go to this cultural competition on Monday night with friends. It was suppose to start at 6, so we went at 7:30. By 10 it still had not started so we bailed. I don’t think I will ever get used to African time.)

Confidentiality is another headache. We are interviewing in very poor areas where even a bench is a rare luxury. As a result I am often forced to conduct the interview outside, which often leads to an enormous crowd. Additionally, confidentiality seems culturally incomprehensible. People do not want to talk alone and there seems to be no understanding of privacy. People invite their mother, sister, neighbor and random child to come sit with us during the interview. I think this is most likely a combination of the communal nature of society here and the fact that talking to a ‘white girl’ connotes importance and they are anxious to display that. Stopping the interview to disperse the crowd seems to only insight more interest and draw larger crowds. The concept of confidentiality seems to be solely a western construction and completely incongruous with Sierra Leoneans. Even giving the introduction to the survey, explaining that the survey is anonymous and their names will not be reported with their answers, seems to confound people as evident in this participants response, “No, no you use my name. This is my name. I want people to know.” I wonder if confidentiality is necessary or if it is just a way of me imposing my value system on them.

The mere structure of the questions is problematic. One chunk of the survey asks participants to respond on a scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree). This concept does not seem to translate well into Krio as all responses are either strongly disagree or strongly agree. These people have strong opinions. I have yet to receive any answers in the middle. Actually, it was not until my 10th interview that I received any ‘strongly disagree’ answers. I was thrilled to finally find someone disenchanted with the program. My translator did not share this sentiment and proceeded to lecture the participant about not being grateful for the services, ugg!! Luckily, I know enough Krio to intervene and explain that we wanted honest answers and I greatly appreciated his willingness to share his experience with us.

The overwhelmingly positive response is another problem and has me thinking about the neutrality of the survey. It is possible that people are simply pleased with the services. Or despite my preamble that participants will not receive any benefits for participation, nor will there be any consequences blah blah blah, there might be some feeling that if they give positive responses they are more likely to receive additional service. Or that people are so deprived that they are overjoyed with any program. Additionally, people are not taught to think critically here. When asking them to critique a program and provide suggestions for improvement or examples of what they dislike, I am met with blank stares.

Translation is probably my biggest headache of all. I know enough Krio that I know my translator does not translate things accurately. One of the questions I ask is, "What does CVT do?" An interviewee responded, "CVT heals your heart by talking, not with pill medicine like doctors, but with words and it makes you feel happy." What a great sentence and perfect qualitative data but the translation I received was "they make you better by talking.”