5th Jan Reflection

Today I felt uncomfortable. Today I felt awkward. Today I felt out of place, and today I went out of my comfort zone. Today was the day I didn’t even realise I was dreading the most – the day we conduct interviews with the locals to find out how they feel/know about nutrition labels.

Amidst the the cool winds was music of an unfamiliar language and genre, and noise that constantly reminded you of the traffic behind you. They continuously threatened to diminish the sound quality of my interviews. Being the camera (wo)man, I found myself constantly panicking about the quality of my footages and the questions asked. I repeatedly scanned the interviewee(s) from head to toe, toe to head, to every nook and crook, smile and frown. I was tense. The atmosphere was tense. I had to relax.

And so I did. Being in a group full of energetic and funny and amazing people, it was easy to. We played hard and worked hard. We laughed at each other’s mistakes, and learnt from each other. We lent a helping hand to one another, supporting each other in every way possible. Soon, the nerves went away and playing while working wasn’t difficult; it became second nature. I realised, as I relaxed, interviewing people became a more natural and easy process. I was comfortable, and they were comfortable. My footages became more raw, and people answered our open-ended questions with ease and the eagerness to share. T’was definitely a fruitful day.

Also, I’m extremely thankful for Mhon and  Prof Nat’s friends for completely breaking down the language barrier. If not for them, today’s destroying of my comfort zone would not have been possible. Looking forward to returning back to Chiang Mai tomorrow already!

P/s: We went to a supermarket that was filled with a variety of chips. It really opened our eyes to the variety of chips; imported and locally produced, and the kind of nutritional labels they produce. As seen from the photos above, the nutritional labels of imported chips are normally in English, and those locally produced have nutritional labels in Thai, but more often than not, understating whatever that is required on the labels, not giving consumers the full nutritional value information!