My approach in doing ethnography is to be honest. When you ask people to share their stories, it's only fair if you do the same. The first two hours of meeting people is usually the assessment phase where each assess the other on whether one can be trusted or not. In a village, one of the assessment is family and this is where all hell broke loose. People asked why I haven't married yet and preached me about it. I don't lie, but I was really tempted to do it. The bad things about lying is that it creates more and more lies. And since I don't do it, my face usually gives away the truth. I know I need to create boundaries but boundary, creating trust with other people and my own character don't really fit together. Another possibility is to just suck it up and take it as a sign that people care about you. Need more meditation for this.
On another note about my fieldwork, I am lucky to have a Sumatra face. People consider me as their own and even a pretty one, ahahaha. There were cases where people who I interviewed got a phone call and he said he was busy talking with a pretty girl or people were talking about me. A good ego boost and a farewell to feminism.
Life is about balance after all :))
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