Day 30

 

Feb. 3, 2009.

Day 30! Can't believe I took and posted pictures for thirty days straight.

I went in to SF Chinatown today to interview someone at the Cameron House. I do this about once a month, for Rose Wong's (a Phd student) dissertation research in Social Welfare. I interview Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants for clinical depression, and, as you can imagine, the questions get pretty rough:

Have you thought about hurting yourself in the past two weeks?
Have you thought of suicide?
Do you feel that life is meaningless?
(你想过伤害你自己吗？你想过自杀吗？你觉得做人没意思，不如死就好了吗？）

Things did not go as expected. My interviewee could not finish the survey; I ended up bringing Rose down to talk with him and calm him. I felt strange on the BART ride back, as though I were leaving a problem unresolved and a problem I alone could not resolve.