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CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS
that of expectations: “there are lots of expectations on this little girl. But lots
of other kids feel like that too”. This clearly reflected the tensions they were
experiencing in their lives.
The human child’s animal behaviour, the condition of being between two
entities, triggered many questions. One respondent to the questionnaire
listed nine questions that the story triggered in her/him, and then concluded
“there are so many other questions that I could write. Questions that have no
answer, because this is a peculiar little story that moves your imagination.
Well, at least it moved mine ©”, I look at the questions raised in detail
further on in my analysis.
Participants also reflect on the challenge they were facing in their roles as
NGO staff helping people. “It wasn’t about playing the dog child, but about
rising to the challenge”. Another participant explains: “I think the beginning
was really strong and it drew us all into the story, and then from one moment
to the other we just dropped into this different reality. I really believed in
this fiction, and I wasn’t self-aware at all”. The moment referred to is when
the NGO received the commission to work with the feral child. The challenge was
extreme and believable at the same time. While participants were completely
aware of engaging in a fictional story, I also passed around photographs of
Oxana Malaya, a Ukrainian child who had been partly brought up by dogs."??
These images brought a reality to the story as well.
Oxana Malaya
678 F Wd.
679 Q We.
680 F Wa.
681 Ibid.
682 A short documentary about her case can be found on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PyUfG9u-P4, (accessed 26 April 2020).
+ 212 +