Having acquired so many completed questionnaires from Luz Haydee, Thursday and Friday of last week was spent entering the data into Excel. Whilst the data forms the basis for the entire research project, the actual entry process is boring, repetitive and extremely time consuming. I had considered giving the job to a local business but I simply dont trust them or anyone else to do it properly. In addition to the data entry, I have started my mini research project investigating philanthropy and the role that donors play in education within comuna 13 (see map). At this stage, it appears that most donations are managed by local foundations and NGO’s and I have uncovered a number of papers related to large institutions in the Cali area. As indicated previously, I have developed an measuring instrument for deriving a basic profile of philanthropy and have integrated it into my Climate model, so whilst Ive been able to describe the contextual setting, I’ll have to wait for the DoS responses before drawing any kind of conclusion.

On Saturday I met up with Teresita, the PhD student from the Autonoma University that I met during Joni thesis presentation a couple of weeks back. She is married to an Irish fella, Trevor and thought we would get on really well, so I was very much looking forward to the study break. Its clear that Teresita is a very good judge of character, as we had plenty in common (particularly travel and rugby) and rabbited on for most of the night. I was also introduced to their baby daughter Sarah, who somewhat amusingly has not a single physical traits in common with her dark, Colombian mother. Sarah is a green-eyed, pale skinned, redhead and the centre of attention whenever theyre out shopping. T&T have built their own house on the edge of the city with Condors flying overhead and sensational, uninterupted views of the jungle. However after a gut full of red wine, it represented an impenetrable barrier to my journey home, being potentially more dangerous than Aguablanca. The following afternoon and with a raging hangover, I made it back to the centre of town just in time to meet Ana Lucia who reminded me that we were going to an International Dance Festival that evening. Naturally I acknowledged the reminder as if a night on the tiles was perfect preparation for an evening of culture. Im really enjoying the intensity of the Cali experience but Im definitely beginning to flag and I havent even reached half way.

Monday morning. Geraldo was busy and delayed our meet until the afternoon. I caught up with Joni at 10am at his place to discuss our plan for the week. In view of the success of the pilot study and the absence of critical comments, I decided that it would be a good idea to print out a large portion of the questionnaires (60 for the parents and 20 for the teachers). It seemed to me that based on a up to date teacher list, we could potentially perform a random sample at each institution and present the DoS with the documents then and there, saving the need for multiple visits. We first visited El Diamante to retrieve the Director of Studies (DoS) and teacher questionnaires we had deposited the previous week. Whilst on that occasion he appeared distant and somewhat negative, the weekend break had obviously done him the world of good as he presented us with a number (though not all) of the requisite papers. He talked us through the results and whilst I was grateful for his input, I was somewhat concerned about his potential influence on the teachers. Whilst the DoS is aware of the anonymity requirement, I have yet to meet any of the teachers directly, as the DoS insists on passing the papers onto the teachers themselves. Under such circumstances, it will be essential to check the variety of answers given by the teachers, whether they are critical of the school to any degree and more importantly, how their views compare with those of the parents. One further interesting aspect is that despite being a public school, El Diamante receives funds from 3 seperate foundations, paying for roughly 7% of the places for poor children. My initial interpretation of this funding arrangement is that the state appears to be sidestepping its constitution obligations, however Ill have to follow it up with the DoS to get his point of view. Despite these funds a quick inspection of the teachers questionnaires suggests that lack of resource is the principle issue at this particular school.

In yet another successful afternoon, we are able to visit numerous large institutions including El Poblado (private), Humberto (Public) and Loboguerrero (Public). At each school, the DoS allowed us to view the teacher list and leave a number of questionnaires based on a (on-the-spot) random sample. Each DoS was also amenable to the idea that we attend the next parents meeting with the aim of undertaking a one-stop questionnaire session. We exchanged phone numbers and dates for future reference. The only problem we encountered today was the lack of access to La Florida and a further chat with Rigoberto at the Voluntad de Dios. Our way was blocked by police who were apparently engaged in a fierce exchanges with recently arrived displazados (displaced people). No worries officer, we can do it some other time.