I can’t quite believe it’s mid-November. I’ve been cut off from the rest of the world since the beginning of the month, but the time has flown by. I returned to Mombasa from Shirazi early yesterday morning and spent the day re-adjusting to non-village life (meaning: taking a normal shower and spending too much time on the internet).
On November 2nd, three of us left Mombasa, boarded a ferry, and transferred onto a matatu that took us to the coastal area where we would study. Then, we split up; they each ventured to separate villages. I continued into Shirazi on a pikipiki (motorcycle), where I was reunited with my host family from September.
The village was different the second time around. In September, I was able to spend every day with the other students in my program. That meant I could speak English, which I took for granted. This time I was on my own. I had a translator to help me with interviews for my research, but family time made me remember my Kiswahili very quickly. In September, our only mission was to improve our Kiswahili and experience life in the village. This time, I had to organize my time and conduct interviews with villagers. I had a lot of help from my translator and from a coordinator living in Bodo, a nearby village, but it was stressful at times!
I spent 5 days in Shirazi before moving to Funzi, the nearby island village, for 3 days. I conducted interviews there before returning to Shirazi for my last 4 days. One of the other students was studying in Funzi, and it was great to hang out with her and have sugary chai after our interviews were through! We left for Shirazi together, where we met up with 2 more students who decided to visit their host families.
Now I’m trying to wade through my emails and organize my research in Mombasa. I’ll have more about the villages later—I loved it, but wow, typing on a computer again is so nice!
No comments:
Post a Comment