Every day a new lesson (or two)

Ai! What a day. Today was my first day in the field and I didn't bring
spare batteries. First lesson. I even knew this already and stupidly
hoped the batteries would last. Hope is as effective in the field as
it is a method of birth control.

This afternoon I spent quite a while trying to figure out how to get
online. I can't wait until there's free wireless internet over the
whole world. It's going to be great. In the meantime, I learned that I
chose incorrectly when I selected my GPRS internet provider- the one I
chose does NOT work at Nyota because they don't have coverage here
(they might next month if they finish building the cell tower they
started). They told me it would, but I even knew that the other
provider has better coverage here. I 'saved' about $15 by going with
the unproven provider. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! This left me with two
frustrating options.

1. Try to get online at field station office. This is a bad option
because I can't connect my own computer. They successfully prevented
me from being able to connect even after doing a bit of sleuthing
around their PC to find the settings I need. So, that sucks because I
write emails on my computer while I'm offline and then wait to send
them until I get online. it makes everything much more difficult if I
have to use a different computer.

2. Try to get online with the GPRS provider that DOES have coverage
here. I use that provider for my mobile, but my sim didn't work in
the modem. I think it's too old and not GSM/GPRS enabled. I did a bit
of reading about it online (when I paid to use the field station
computer). So, I went to look for a shop selling a new sim in hopes
that it would work. I bought a sim, bought credit for it, put it in my
phone to add the credit, put the sim in my modem, then tried
repeatedly to connect with my fingers crossed. After several tries it
worked! I am so happy. However, I'm now really paying by the MB (about
35 cents per MB) because I don't know how to subscribe to a plan with
a better deal. I think it would require that I buy credit in an
obscenely large amount that will be impossible to find out here in the
sticks.

Now I have purchased 5 different sim cards from all but one of the
major mobile providers in Ukenzagapia. One I didn't need and resold to
the anthropologist. One is in Big City with Jon (great idea, Karina).
Three are with me now.

Actually, today's theme might be "lessons re-learned." I was also
getting seriously down on myself while we were in the field today. I
was thoroughly worried about everything- my field assistant's pay
rate, my hypothesis, my decision to do research in Ukenzagapia at all,
my budget, my ability to get anything useful done this summer...
everything. I was hungry. Things haven't been so bad since lunch,
though I do have a lot to think about. Life is always better when I'm
not hungry.

No hurry in Africa

Things really do happen slowly here. It took an extra day to get to
Nyota because things just take longer. We arrived at Nyota this
evening after a long, lurching bus ride where the windows threatened
to fall out with their rattling and the undercarriage sounded like it
lost a few pieces along the way. I wonder what Click and Clack would
say. Twice about 3/4 of the passengers had to get off and walk a bit
so the bus could go through a particularly treacherous stretch of
road. I'm just thankful I had a seat and that the bus didn't fall
over, nor did my bags fall off.

Shortly after arriving here I met the guys in charge. I introduced
myself, showed them my papers, and they proceeded to welcome me and
tell me there's "no hurry in Africa." They said I can start work
tomorrow if I want but we'll wait to sort out the official stuff (i.e.
money) on Monday, because they are definitely not working on Sunday.
Then they invited me to have a beer and eat some beef with them. Very
manly. So for the next hour or so I sat there with eight men drinking
beer and eating meat. I tried to follow the conversation but only
caught the gist of it a few times. It didn't seem to go so well when I
tried to participate. Maybe I asked too many questions?

Not only do I have to negotiate another culture and another language
(at least part of the time), I have to do it as a woman in a man's
culture. I hope I don't screw this up.

Moving forward

It's been a hell of a year for me so far, in both good and bad ways. I lost my grandmother and, most tragically, my younger sister, on two awful consecutive days in February. I passed my prelims in March. I got married in April. Now here I am halfway around the world in a country where I don't speak the language very well trying to begin my fieldwork. It certainly hasn't been a boring year!

It is with some trepidation that I approach my first field season. I'm at the end of my second year of grad school but haven't collected a single bit of data yet.

It's not that I haven't been making progress- the nature and location of my project just means I haven't been allowed to collect data yet. I've written a handful of successful grant proposals that have made the field work I'm about to do financially possible. I received two fellowships. I've successfully negotiated enough red tape in Ukenzagapia to keep a herd of elephants under wraps. I'm learning the language and the culture here.

Clearly, the next thing for me to do is collect data, but my nagging fear is What if I actually suck at this part of science? What if nothing I've planned works at all? What if my labors this summer don't result in anything publishable? What if my ideas really weren't very good after all? What if I'm actually terrible at collecting and analyzing data and all I can do is write about ideas for great projects but not actually do them?

I'll have to be clever. I'll have to be flexible. I'll have to be willing to do something different if things don't work out as planned. I'll have to do it all without any on-the-ground guidance from advisors or committee members and limited access to scientific literature. Hopefully I'll encounter the odd scientist or sciencey-tourist at Nyota with whom I can discuss things, but for the most part I'm on my own.

Herb's parting words were, "Have a good time, and be flexible. This is a time to remember it is fun to do fieldwork, not fret. Do what can be done."

So, here I go, moving forward into my next stage of research to do what can be done. Before the week is out I'll meet my field assistants, arrive at my field site, and start putting these plans on paper into action. Or perhaps I'll be scrapping them entirely. Stay tuned...
scientiae-carnival

oh my gosh!

I've got everything I need! And I've had it since 10 am this morning and I didn't know it! The final piece of step 3 was sitting in my inbox where I've redirected all emails with attachments. How silly of me not to check there earlier today! Oh my. This is awfully exciting.

Almost done with paperwork!

After a relatively successful morning yesterday, I was totally wiped
out for the rest of the day. I had a headache, generally didn't feel
well, and wasn't able to get much done. I fell asleep early and had a
dream in the wee hours that my sister was alive again and I had
another chance to be her sister. Sadly, I realized I was dreaming
something impossible and woke up from my dream. Thus I started the day
feeling better physically but worse emotionally. It didn't get much
better when Jon and I chatted about our finances.

I went to breakfast trying to be more optimistic but was disheartened
that I hadn't heard from the man who was supposed to call me yesterday
about completing step 4. I left breakfast resigned to the fact that I
probably wouldn't complete step 4 until the end of the week, but I
returned to my room to find a text message on my phone saying step 4
was ready and I should pick it up before 10 am! So I hopped on a bus
and rushed to the office, made it back here within an hour, and step 4
is DONE.

Now I'm only waiting on step 3, and all I CAN do is wait. As soon as
it is ready I can tell my field assistants to meet me in the city, and
then we can go to Nyota!

Cautious optimism

It's just after 10 am on Monday morning and I'm mostly through steps 3 and 4! I brought all the necessary paperwork to an office this morning and the man I spoke with said step 4 would be completed and ready for me to pick up tomorrow morning! Step 3 organization confirmed by email that they have received all of the necessary paperwork and will let me know when it's ready.

This leaves me cautiously optimistic that I may have all the paperwork I need to begin my research by Tuesday or Wednesday. Then I could leave for Nyota!

This morning at breakfast I met an anthropologist who did her dissertation work in Ukenzagapia. She said she expects to accomplish only one thing each day here, and was impressed at how quickly I was able to complete step 2. It feels good to be making progress.

Money madness

I'm the kind of person who can spend far too long planning something
and still fail to do something really obvious.

Before you leave the country, be sure you KNOW THE PIN FOR THE ATM
CARD YOU PLAN TO USE.

A week before I left I spent hours- literally 3 or 4 hours- moving our
money around in our 3 checking accounts and 6 savings accounts,
setting up bill payments and automatic transfers to optimally arrange
our finances so that they require as little maintenance and thought as
possible while I'm in Ukenzagapia. I set it up so that I'd use only
our ING checking account for withdrawals here in Ukenzagapia and our
rent and bills would get paid out of the other accounts. I also
brought $1000 cash with me (easier to change than travelers checks and
gets a better rate).

Well, the last time I used the ING debit card was probably a year ago,
and I *thought* I knew the PIN, but all of my guesses so far have been
rejected. This was especially stupid of me since I'd tried it last
month and couldn't guess it then either. So, I've requested a new PIN,
but it's being sent snail mail to Big City. I've got to wait for it to
arrive and for Jon to tell me what it is.

In the meantime, I do have $700 cash left, but I'd like to use as
little of that as possible and keep it for times when I need cash but
can't access an ATM (like this one, I guess). I can also get some
money out of my other checking account but there isn't much in there
(it's only supposed to pay the utility bills).

What's the worst thing you've forgotten for a trip?

Some progress towards field work

After nine separate visits to the same office on four different days,
I have completed step 2- just in time for the weekend. Next week I
have to do steps 3 and 4. I think the earliest that I can leave for my
field site is Wednesday. Bummer.

I have absolutely no weekend plans that don't involve my computer or a
book. I'm not terribly motivated to go on a day trip by myself and I
really do have a lot to do so unless something more exciting presents
itself I'll be at the hostel or internet cafes all weekend working and
reading.

One thing I plan to do this weekend is write for the June Scientiae
carnival. I haven't written for Scientiae in ages, and I think the
last time I did my submission didn't make it into the carnival. June's
theme is Moving Forward. I can definitely write about that.

Speaking of blogs and blogging, another goal this weekend it to catch
up on blogs for the first time in months (like, since before
Christmas). The list of blogs I read while I'm here in Ukenzagapia is
getting cut because I'm exclusively using a feed reader. If it's not
in the feed, I'm not going to use the bandwidth for the rest of it
unless it's really compelling. Pictures also don't work so well
offline, which certainly makes Dr. Isis's blog less enjoyable. Also,
I'm less likely to comment on other blogs. I've hardly done this
anyways the past few months (which is partly why I think there are so
few comments here), but if you've ever commented on my blog there's a
pretty good chance you're in my feed reader.

I've finally abandoned Safari for RSS feeds (it's really sucking for a
lot of things now) and moved to using NetNewsWire. Does anyone out
there have other suggestions for standalone applications for reading
feeds offline? I'm not sold on this program yet but it's what Jon uses.

The runaround

*sigh* I have no idea yet when I'll be able to leave the city, head
for Nyota, and begin field work. The best case scenario is probably
Sunday. I sailed through step 1 without problems but there are 4 more
steps that must happen before I can begin my research. I'm part way
through step 2 and step 3 simultaneously, but 3 can't be done before 2
is finished. There's a slim possibility that step 2 will be finished
tomorrow, but Friday is more likely :-(

If step 2 doesn't finish until Friday, then I'll have to stay at least
until Tuesday or Wednesday because steps 3 and 4 can only happen on a
business day. GAH!

I knew this might happen. Sam mentally prepared for it last year. At
least the hostel where I'm staying it relatively convenient to do all
of this running around.

I've got plenty to do while I wait. Today I started private language
tutoring classes for 1-2 hours every weekday until I leave the city. I
also have lots of reading and writing to do. I STILL haven't submitted
the grant that my prelim proposal was written for. I very much
intended to finish it before I left but everything took longer than I
thought it would. That seems to be a theme for me these days. I
suppose I should start being exceedingly pessimistic in my estimates.

I may have also underestimated my internet needs. Yesterday I got my
3G USB modem working and signed up for 500 MB per month. My plan was
to use it for small things in the city but go to internet cafes for
sending or receiving large attachments. But, connecting my own laptop
at an internet cafe can be far more difficult (or expensive) than you
expect. The transfer rate can also be agonizingly slow. I tried to
send an attachment to Leo tonight and it failed to finish before the
cafe closed so I ended up sending it over 3G anyways. That combined
with checking my bank account online and sending & receiving a few
other emails used 8.5 MB in only 20 minutes. And really, I need to
reserve most of the volume for when I'm at Nyota with few other
internet options. Maybe I should sign up for an unlimited 3G plan with
another provider while I'm in the city and save the remaining 16 MB/
day for Nyota. If I have to be here for another week it may be worth it.

Somewhat unexpectedly, I haven't made any traveling friends yet. This
is probably a record for my longest time traveling alone (I wrote
about traveling alone last year). I haven't yet walked out of this
hostel to go anywhere with anyone else this year. Thankfully, I also
seem to attract fewer guys who want to be my friend and talk my ear
off so walking alone isn't so bad. I did run into some Canadians who I
met when I stayed here last year, but I've only really seen them at
meals at the hostel. It's kind of lonely. It sure was awesome to have
Helen around last year. I could really use someone to talk about my
research with.

GRF awards are all out and rating sheets are up!

I was notified on April 10 that I received a Graduate Research
Fellowship from NSF. They announced 950 awards and sent out many
rejection letters at that time as well. However, the NSF budget was
uncertain and they were not sure how many additional awards could be
offered. More than 2000 people have been waiting in limbo since that
date, knowing that they would either receive an Honorable Mention, or
an award. I'm sorry for those of you out there who were in this
uncertain situation.

NSF said that rating sheets for all applicants would not be available
until all awards had been made, so I finally received an email this
morning stating that my rating sheets were up. I checked the award
lists for other people I know and to see how many additional awards
were made.

950 first-round awards
286 second-round awards
(1236 total awards)
1785 Honorable Mentions

I have no idea how many people applied. The competition sure is steep.
But, there's good news for those of you who can apply again next year.
According to the American Institute of Biological Sciences:

"The [proposed FY2010] NSF budget would increase funding for graduate
research fellowships from 1200 to 1600, with a goal of awarding 3000
fellowships per year by 2013."

That's a big difference. I suppose it's still just the proposed
budget, but those numbers are encouraging.

Internet strategies

I'm quite proud of what I got accomplished today. First thing after breakfast I went to get my permits and I was back at the hostel by 10 am! Long time readers may recall that I did not get permits when I was here last year. Thankfully I did not run into any complications- yet- this year.

It is great to have my permit. However, there are still three or four more bureaucratic steps (hoops?) that I must go through before I can actually go to my field site and begin research. Today I made significant progress on two of those steps, which involved photographs, printing, photocopying, and faxing. Tomorrow morning I hope to have a better idea of when I'll be able to head for Nyota (my field site).

Last year I made a fast friend, Helen, at the hostel. She and I would go sit in the lobby of a swanky hotel and nurse very expensive sodas in exchange for their free wireless. Well, I guess they decided they had too many backpackers in the lobby bringing down the class average, or too many of us were cheapskates. Either way, they now charge $20 per day. I found a different hotel I can't afford to stay at that only charges $10 per day, so that where I am now trying to make the most of my 24 hours.

Yesterday I wrote several emails (including a few blog posts) and sent them all when I got online today. It's really satisfying to do that.

Soon I need to figure out how to get online with the 3G USB modem I bought. I'll use it to check email when I'm at my field site, but the prices can be quite high so I need to be careful of my usage. Typical plans are in the range of 10 MB to 1 GB per month (uploads and downloads combined). Per MB charges range from about 2 cents to 30 cents, depending on the plan. In preparation for my switch to volume-based internet useage, I downloaded SurplusMeter. Clearly from my usage so far, things like large email attachments and podcast downloads will be out of the question on the USB modem. I'm stocking up on podcasts right now at the hotel while I have this fast and already paid-for internet connection.

That reminds me that I should be searching for literature right now because pdfs start to add up in the MBs as well. Better stop blogging and start working.

general craziness, and apparently I should keep a blog

On Wednesday night, Jon and I hosted a visiting scientist who my
interdisciplinary cohort asked to help us with our project. He was
already coming in for another event so he came out a day early to meet
with us. I, feeling bad about missing the event this weekend related
to our project, volunteered to host him. It worked out fine and he is
a great person, but it certainly didn't make the week any less
stressful.

I spent most of Thursday meeting with my interdisciplinary group and
the visiting scientist. Our project is really coming together in an
exciting way and I'm sad to be missing a big chunk of the field work
this summer. There's plenty that I can do from afar, but it will be
harder. I've really got to make time and space for myself to think
about that project in addition to what I'll have going on in
Ukenzagapia.

My interdisciplinary cohort is going to have some kind of blog about
our project. I explained how Google Analytics works, mentioning that
Jon and I had a blog while we traveled in RFC, and my cohort was like,
"You should totally keep a blog this summer in Ukenzagapia!" Ummm...
Yeah. I guess I should. I gave a somewhat hesitant non-committal
response. So, should I have a real research blog where I talk for real
and non-anonymously about what I do? In addition to this one which I
have no intention of giving up? What do you think?

home sweet hostel home

Well, here I am now in my hostel room sitting under my mosquito net
with the faint smell of burning plastic bags lingering in the air. My
flight was delayed over an hour, but the Ph.D. student who met me at
the airport was thankfully patient, kind and helpful. First we had to
go drop off my equipment at the university for safekeeping so I have
less to worry about at the hostel. Then he drove me here to the
hostel. I'm so glad that I didn't have to hire a taxi to run me around
at midnight.

I was really stressed out yesterday about this hostel reservation. I
emailed them earlier this week to reserve a single, but I didn't hear
back. Then I tried to call yesterday before I left, but the man I
spoke to said I had to call back on Saturday morning. So I called
right after I landed in Europe during my layover (once I figured out
which phone to use), and I was told to call back after 10 am. Finally
I spoke to a woman and reserved a double room (singles were booked)
and informed her that I'd be coming in late. Whew. Here I am after 24+
hours of travel time.

I think I've only slept about 1-2 hours since Friday morning. I'm
planning to sleep tomorrow until whenever I wake up on my own (or by
the noises outside). Then first thing tomorrow I need to buy a sim
card for my phone and some bottled water.

one day more

All week I've been kicking myself for choosing my Friday departure. I really wish I had picked Sunday or even Saturday for my departure because of two events that I'm missing. One is an event that the rest of my interdisciplinary cohort is participating in, and the other is a SFC alumni event about Ukenzagapia.

I knew about both of these events well before booking my tickets, but I was concerned about letting these "less important" events delay my field work. In hindsight, two days is not a big deal and I think I'm missing out on some important networking by missing these events. In the case of the first event, my cohort is going to get up to speed on the methods for our project while I'm flying around and sitting in airports.

The SFC event is important for a different reason. In short, the reason I came to grad school was so that I could some day lead foreign study programs as a professor at some other Small Friendly College. I need to make my potential availability as a program assistant for SFC known, and this event would've been the perfect opportunity for that. I thought it would be lame to delay my departure by a day so that I could go to an event about Ukenzagapia, but that was silly.

Really though, there's no use crying over spilt milk and I'm trying hard not to fret about the things that are beyond my control to change (or not worth the $250 change fee). And besides, at the time of writing I'm already halfway there.

30 pounds

Jon helped me pack on Thursday night in record time. I most of my
stuff generally gathered, but not packed at all. We packed it all up
in two bags plus my carry on, only to weigh them and discover that my
"research" bag weighed a whopping 80 pounds-- 30 pounds more than
allowed. Yikes.

I immediately took out 20 pounds of books and eliminated another 10 by
reducing the quantity of things like marking flags (all those metal
flag sticks get heavy!). This means that Jon will be bringing a lot
more stuff that we'd originally planned. I thought he'd only have the
few last-minute purchases but now he'll probably have close to 50
pounds of equipment and books too.

I'm currently waiting to board my flight to Ukenzagapia at a nice
European airport. More posts in the pipeline.