Lekgoa, lekgoa
Last Monday I arrived in Mopipi after a 7 hour journey. This is the village I am doing my research in. The house I am staying in is really nice. Mercy, my assistant is renting a room there. The in situ room left a little corner for me. There is a bathroom with running (drinking) water. Even hot water! Mercy has a tv and a fridge (yes, there is electricity). So we have a bit more luxury to retreat to after doing the household surveys. The days are quite busy and in the evening I have to enter data and every second day make diner as well. And internet is not omni-present, so this update might feel a little late. Sorry for that.
Everyday we walk through the village to go to several households and ask some questions about their use of firewood. When I walk through the village with my really cool straw hat, the children shout: Lekgoa, lekgoa. The Setswana word for white man. So I shout back at them: black child, black child. No, I don’t, but that would be funny wouldn’t it?
People are very friendly and are very willing to help us. Yet I do sense some resentment to another research. Looks like these people have had researchers come here for a few years now.
On a less serious, but equally important note: I have tried some hip things. Deep fried Mophane worms are one of them. They are a type of caterpillars that walk the Mophane trees. As well as sorghum porridge with sour milk. And some local (sorghum) beer.
Also they have something called Magwinya. Very close to Afrikaans ‘vetkoek’ and Dutch ‘oliebollen’ (zonder krenten). Also I can now make phalitshe (pronounced as polidge), the name for the maize porridge. To try and fix your air-bed just as you do a flat on your bike is also a treat.
Lastly you should know I have an awesome T-shirt tan by now :).