Running around

06.03.2004

Waiting for people's secretaries to call me back to schedule appointments. Not much fun. Recently, half of Bolivia's "public intellectuals" entered government positions. So their calls are now screened by personal secretaries on power trips.

Interviews are my least favorite part of this research project. Are they even necessary? Not really. Plus, I've never trained in interview techniques as a social scientist. I'm used to running election data analyses. So much simpler. Ah.

I went to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) — in a snazzy new modern building in Miraflores — to request some data. I can get census data a year prior to the 1993 & 2002 elections, so when I get back to Kalamazoo I can crunch tons of numbers & run fun OLS regression analyses.

Waiting for more electoral data from CNE any day. Then hoping for a quick trip to Cochabamba (will the roads be open?) for two snap interviews & data collection at CEDIB.

Also, just got reminded that yesterday was Annie's birthday. She's 4 years old. My fat cat's on a diet, so no birthday treats for her.

Posted by Miguel at 04:29 PM

Comments

I completed an interviewing skills training seminar for a job with HUD's fair housing office a while back. It's common sense stuff, really - if you know what you need to know, I suspect you have all the tools you need to interview. Just need to get past those power-tripping secretaries.

Posted by: tom at June 4, 2004 11:43 PM

To be fair, interviews aren't difficult. But. Compared to the anthropologists here, we're in another league. Their interviews are much more intensive, structured, or whatever. Mine are just open-ended conversations w/ politicos about specific topics.

Posted by: miguel at June 5, 2004 03:38 PM