22 December 2011

observers' paradox

At GIAL we learned about what's called the "observer's paradox." When you decide to observe a cultural situation, wishing to be an unnoticed bystander...but your presence ends up being so noticeable that it changes the whole situation you were wishing to observe...this is called the "observer's paradox."


But tonight I found a new definition for the term. Often, there are groups of little observers that crowd onto our and Zubot's porches to watch us do the normalest of things. Events of greatest interest include -- us eating, and the kids taking baths.



So as we got ready to eat supper on the porch tonight, three little girls approached the porch, politely shook hands with us, then sat down on a bench to watch us eat.



"Are you just here to watch us?" Adam asked curiously.


"Yes," they replied, smiling. They were pretty cute.


So we played our part as the "dinner theatre" for a while, and then I decided to take advantage of the situation. So I asked them if they minded me taking some pictures of them, and they readily complied. All in all, it seemed like a pretty good trade to me.






2 comments:

  1. Good morning how are you?

    My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.

    I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.

    For all this I would ask you one small favour:
    Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Central African Republic? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Central African Republic in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:

    Emilio Fernandez Esteban
    Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
    28902 Getafe (Madrid)
    Spain

    If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.

    Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.

    Yours Sincerely

    ReplyDelete
  2. Those girls are beautiful! We are praying for you guys as you continue to transition to your new home :-)

    ReplyDelete

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