Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s my namnsdag today. A strange tradition, really, this Swedish one of making every day of the year the ”name’s day” for two names. Today, one of the names is Katja. I have met no Swedes today, though, who could wish me a good namnsdag. Instead, I’ve been to Tanlargo. The watermelon village. This villageContinue reading “the watermelon village (November 25)”

Before internet crashed again, I managed to see a photograph that Kate had uploaded on Facebook of her pale face and red nose, and some comment of her now returning to the winter (from Uruguay to New Zeeland, I presume), and no tan for her due to thesis work, or something like that. That gotContinue reading “the body of a fieldworking researcher (November 24)”

I’ve treated myself to a room of my own here in Kaya. I could have done like in Ouahigouya and gotten one big room for both me and Desiré to share, but no. With the intense work schedule I have here, I decided I needed the privacy at least a couple of hours a day.Continue reading “fieldwork luxury (November 24)”

I did the first transect walks in the Kaya area today in a village called Zanzi. It was a small village, situated in the valleys between a chain of small mountains that suddenly just appear in the otherwise quite flat landscape when driving along the Gourcy-Kaya road. Due to the mountains, this place was somethingContinue reading “back on track (November 24)”

I left Elli in Ouaga, healed from her malaria but still not quite well, and went back to Gourcy to do the feedback sessions with the villages there. Three villages in a day meant the day became very long, and we ended up sitting in the dark, talking with the village elders in Tarba. TheContinue reading “surviving without Elli (November 23)”