Thursday, January 27, 2011

Back to the field

Well, I'm almost back to Ukenzagapia. I didn't cry this time when Jon and I said goodbye at the airport. My bags were right at the weight limit- one was even a pound over but they let it go anyways. I have another 10 pounds of stuff that will come with another traveler who is arriving next week. Jon is bringing that box to our friend who will bring it to the traveler who will give it to Violet the taxi driver who will then put it on a bus to send it to me.
I'm carrying a ridiculous amount of cash on me this time. Violet is picking me up at the airport and bringing me straight to my friend's house with my 120 pounds of luggage. I'll unload some of the cash in the city, but I'll have to change most of it into local currency, and then the stack will be too big to fit in my money belt. Gotta come up with a different plan for how to bring it all from the city to Nyota. I'm staying in the same place as last time, and Cam is still there so I won't be lonely.
Have I said on the blog that I think this may be my best trip yet? I'm super excited about the project I'm going to be working on. I think it's going to be the best part of my dissertation, thanks in part to Theo who set up data simulations to run power analyses that allowed us to hone in on a reasonable sample size. Also, my permits are all set so I hardly need to spend time in the city!
I'll be gone 3 months this time. I was only home for 9 weeks. My cell phone battery didn't even die! Hopefully the infrastructure (especially the electricity) will hold up to make the next 3 months as productive as I dream they might be. Fingers crossed.

2 comments:

jaxzwolf said...

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great!

African Fieldworker said...

good luck and have a safe trip!