Towards the end of September (again, I’m LATE), I went to a workshop in France. It was a final team meeting with most collaborators in the project that I’m part of. The project lead works in Montpellier, so that’s where we all went, people flying in from all over, Ghana, Burkina Faso, California, Minnesota, UK.Continue reading “the art of being young and boring”
Tag Archives: life as a research assistant
an island summer, part IV: Stora Karlsö
Every year in September, the whole office relocates to Stora Karlsö for a couple of days, to bond and strategize and eat-sing-dance. Stora Karlsö is an island in the Baltic, off the coast of Gotland. After Yellowstone, it is the oldest protected nature area in the world. In spring and early summer, thousands upon thousandsContinue reading “an island summer, part IV: Stora Karlsö”
spreading the word (mid-August)
In mid-August, I was invited to talk about my research at the yearly Burkina Faso day at Öland’s college. The day was organized by the local UN association and the Sweden-Burkina Faso friendship association, and consisted of a series of presentations about Burkina Faso by different professionals: a social anthropology professor who studies local democracyContinue reading “spreading the word (mid-August)”
for the hundredth time: recap
Time runs through my fingers. I spent autumn biking through a beautifully colorful Stockholm, trying to finalize some results to our Volta basin project while at the same time trying to come up with ideas for an advertised PhD position at the SRC. Managing those two very different stages of the research process at once,Continue reading “for the hundredth time: recap”
spring wrap-up (May)
After coming back from Ghana, I spent the rest of the spring cleaning and harmonizing the data that I had gotten from the Ghana Statistical Service. A lot of spreadsheets, numbers, maps, logging of cleaning procedures. Sitting in front of the computer and staring at my two screens. You have to start enjoying the littleContinue reading “spring wrap-up (May)”
fieldworking in Tenkodogo & Zebilla (mid-April)
We spent about two weeks doing fieldwork in southern Burkina Faso and northern Ghana, my fellow researchers and I. A small number of communities with small reservoirs had been selected around the town of Tenkodogo in Burkina and Zebilla in Ghana. Together with our local partners from universities and other organizations in Ouagadougou and Tamale,Continue reading “fieldworking in Tenkodogo & Zebilla (mid-April)”
anticlimax – or not
After more or less three days of work, I’m finally done, and out from the GIS pops this: Pretty. The color like a caress to the eyes – but a poor substitute to the physical and emotional contact that I won’t be getting from my loved ones, because I’m always at work. But still. It’s done. I managed.Continue reading “anticlimax – or not”
winter recap
The winter season this year was a bleak affair. Christmas was pretty, with mom coming home from Liberia and going on a Christmas decoration shopping spree. Coloured lights in every window of the apartment. But then it rained. And snowed. And rained. The path through the oak grove by SRC turned slippery. And I onlyContinue reading “winter recap”
me and the budding sustainability professionals of the world
I graduated in June. I keep on telling this to people, from different perspectives, how I defended my thesis in the morning and after lunch attended my first official team meeting as a research assistant. How that’s a reason for why I’ve been feeling so exhausted this fall. How I didn’t realize until quite recentlyContinue reading “me and the budding sustainability professionals of the world”
a soft start to spring
I’m back at work. I’m brushing up on my statistics toolbox and teaching myself programming in R. I found an online course, and today I watched three weeks worth of lectures. Granted, some of the lectures were very basic (I’m supposed to know the basics of R already, we had a 1,5 week module on itContinue reading “a soft start to spring”
Katja Malmborg 