The first real day of fieldwork was spent going to Saria, an agricultural research station that INERA, our local partner and a governmental research institute, has run since the 1920s. We went there to pick up the toys that Elli will need for her sampling and measuring and weighing – basically when she plays with the dirt. (Paré, another researcher, who we met in Ouaga, told us about his father. The father was a farmer, and couldn’t understand why his son would want to go to university and study SOIL of all things. ”You’re like a child”, the father said, ”playing with dirt – and you call that science!”. And I guess that’s true, in a sense. Science is a meticulously well-structured game for adults.)
It was nice, getting out of Ouaga, seeing some of the real landscape. It was really green, which surprised me. But of course, it’s just in the end of the rainy season, why wouldn’t the trees be covered in leaves and the fields overflowing with high millet straws and small groundnut bushes.
At Saria, we did a lot of waiting. And photographing, to pass the time.
We got back to Ouaga late, way after dark, and ordered dinner to Chez Tess, trying take it easy one last night in the luxury of a cozy guesthouse, before we left for what would probably become some really strenuous field work.
Katja Malmborg 