I am satanist, are you?

 After an amazing start with the project we have met fieldwork challenge number 2. Number 1 will be explained in the next blog.

This weeks' challenge are satanist accusations which have been bouncing around in the community.  To be able to identify the location of the houses (street names and house numbers are inexistent) our research assistants use GPS devices which hang around their neck. In their interviews they ask about the house in which the family lives and who sleeps in which room. This has apparently led people to believe that we were asking these questions to be able to steal the children in the middle of the night. These accusations were also made last year but were addressed at a community meeting and contained in one community which was then successfully convinced that we are in fact not satanists.

This time around the rumour has spread and changed. We are now apparently teaching children how to kill their parents. Children refuse to participate in the interviews even once parents are convinced of the importance of the research project. In the last community the children ran in fear upon casting their eyes on the research assistants. The reason for this is that they were beaten up by older children in schools last year and accused of having turned to satanism while following the interview. 

This issue will have to be addressed by me within the next week, otherwise the rumours might spread into other communities and pretty much destroy our data collection.

The action plan, devised with a lot of local knowledge and cultural understanding, is the following:

1. More community meetings in which we present the project (see picture)

2. Getting very friendly with the Indunas (community leaders) to show that the elders are not fearful of us

3. Meeting all ministers in the area to introduce the project to them and to be invited to church services as satanists can not walk into a church or pray

4. Pray with the families and children before the interviews to prove our non-satanist ways

5. Address all the local traditional healers as to avoid to being blamed for future outbreaks of diseases in the communities

6. Set up meetings with teachers and principals so that they can promote the project in schools.

7. Buy shitloads of cookies and oranges to show our appreciation to all these people for helping us out. Never give money as they could think we are trying to buy them.

8. Never sleep, eat or rest and do not ever think that you have the right to a weekend off!