Uncategorized – Page 35 – Katja Malmborg

details of region Centre-Nord

Termites devouring the bark of a vaka tree. The geometry of a rice field.

and now we’re there, the last transect: CHECK (November 29)

Finishing up the last transect walk in Sera. Meeting a flirting donkey foal, hanging out for a while with the animals and the boys and the men in the shade underneath the animal fodder storage sun shelter. Giving them rice and soap. Shaking everyone’s hand. Picking up Elli. Arriving in Ouaga, at Chez Tess, whereContinue reading “and now we’re there, the last transect: CHECK (November 29)”

and in Sera they’ve chosen the more geometrical take (November 29)

Mr. P going nuts

Oh, the countless bags of unpeeled groundnuts that I’ve been given in almost every village that I’ve worked in. I don’t know what to do with it all. The peeled kind is so much nicer to handle. And tasty, too.

15 minutes of sight-seeing in Kaya (November 28)

I was so busy working during my week in Kaya, so I barely had any time to see anything other than what was visible through the car window when we drove back and forth between the villages and our hotel. It’s not a very big town, though, and it didn’t seem very exciting. I don’tContinue reading “15 minutes of sight-seeing in Kaya (November 28)”

almost the last transect (November 28)

Today was the toughest day I’ve had here. I simply didn’t want to walk. I was sick of waiting for people, sick of having to shake every single grown-up man’s hand, sick of introducing myself and my project, sick of all the millet fields and itchy pieces of dry vegetation that gets stuck in myContinue reading “almost the last transect (November 28)”

the mood swings of the internet (November 28)

The mobile broadband modem that we bought in the beginning of our trip, but haven’t had to use until now, has turned out to be a joke. It only works in glimpses, enough for me to see that I’ve gotten e-mails, but I rarely manage to open them, and never answer. The only time itContinue reading “the mood swings of the internet (November 28)”

big families (November 27)

Nakombogo, the third village I walked through in the Kaya area, didn’t have mountains or watermelons, or anything else that made it stick out. But the CVD was an intensely happy man. He had four wives, four bulls and twenty-one children. Maybe those things are connected. The happiness and wives, bulls and children, I mean.

Mr. P the research assistant vol. 2

Mr. P, resting in the shadow of a neem tree next to the village smithy after a morning of transect walking.

fruitoholic (November 26)

It’s amazing, here, how easy it is to get hooked on fruit. It’s no news, though, that I have that particular weakness – but what’s even more, here, is that some fruits are so incredibly cheap! I eat guavas by the dozen, every day. Not a problem. Today I bought 20 for about four kronorContinue reading “fruitoholic (November 26)”