June 28: Nearly three weeks

We haven’t done anything particularly exciting this week since we’ve been working from about 8:30 am to 4:30 pm every day and it gets dark early. I’ve nearly finished organizing data spreadsheets, which has taken the bulk of my time for many days now, and will be starting to write my manuscript next week. I gathered a decent sample of Venda children and mothers and will be interested in seeing the results of the data analysis, hopefully at the end of next week. I also never want to see a spreadsheet again. Probably got some sort of arthritis in my copy-paste fingers.

Speaking of ailments, I developed a stuffy nose last night. I’m thankful it’s not something horrible, like cholera or Ebola. I started taking an anti-viral as soon as I felt symptoms and I have cipro on hand if I need it. The drastic temperature changes, from blazing hot in the daytime to freezing at night, might have something to do with it, particularly because we forgot to turn on our heater a couple nights ago and the three blankets on my bed weren’t sufficient enough to keep me warm. Constantly mopping my nose is loads better than anything I would be doing had I eaten something wrong, though, so yay. I took a decongestant that’s made me exceptionally drowsy and I hope that this post is coherent. I’d been trying to study for the physics section of the MCAT but kept dozing off (that might have been more of the basic physics than the medicine).

Besides a lot of ruckus on our roof at the beginning of the week that one girl from California thought was an earthquake, we haven’t interacted much with the monkeys lately (called vervets, according to my mom’s research). They seem to have decided that some people camped in tents across the park are a better group to frustrate. Before they moved away they stole a box of laundry detergent from our porch and perched it in a tree, leaving a nice line of powder for us to follow. I hope they didn’t try to eat it, but it’s more likely they just wanted a good laugh at us.

We’ve been getting dropped off and picked up from Univen every day by other students working on water filters and there’s a pretty hectic two-lane traffic circle that we have to pass around to get back to Acacia. Nobody has been sure of how to navigate the circle so we ended up in the inside lane to go a quarter of the way around the circle. As we were turning out, a mini-bus flew by in the outer lane, nearly hitting us. We stopped in a panic, slightly in the outer lane, and just as we started moving again, a pickup (called a bucky here) sped by, missing us, or so I thought, by just millimeters. We decided that we hadn’t hit it and made our way out of the circle. The pickup came right after us, though, and we pulled into the entrance of Acacia so our driver could talk to the lady in the bucky. Turns out she was a police officer in her personal vehicle and she was angry. Three of us sat in the car feeling helpless while our driver, a grad student, talked to the lady. We could hear the officer screaming at her, saying she was lying and that we hit her baby.

Due to her inattention (she had to have seen the mini-bus problem and we were turning out before she came around), the vehicles had just barely grazed, which left a faint streak of dirt and pain on her car and worn spot on ours. The damage wasn’t anything to be mad about (I could rub off her “scratches” with my finger), but the lady still called the police and still yelled. Someone in our car called some people and several professors from Univen came over, worried we’d had an actual accident. The driver of our car handled the situation wonderfully, keeping her composure and eventually getting a good explanation of how the circle works. I definitely would have been in tears if I’d been yelled at like that by anybody, let alone a police officer in a foreign country. The on-duty police officers came and diffused the anger a bit while they filed an accident report and by the end of the ordeal (an hour later) we had three cars of students, a police truck, two cars of Univen professors, and the mad lady’s husband all standing on the side of the road because of a tiny little scratch. The husband evaluated the situation, said that he wouldn’t require us to pay for the damage and our driver didn’t get a ticket, so besides a lot of stress, we left without consequence.

I’ve been warned to avoid police officers here if I can, owing to their reputation for trying to get large sums in bribe money to get out of a bogus charge. At first we thought the lady was overreacting to try to get money, but she was actually upset and handled it in a very inappropriate manner for someone in uniform. The two officers who came to file the report seemed alright, but I think I’ll still try to avoid the law. I never carry enough cash on me to bribe anybody anyways.

We’re all glad our “accident” wasn’t anything more serious. Roads are notoriously dangerous here, cited by many natives we’ve talked to as the part of our trip we need to be most careful about. There are cars driving all over the place, often not heeding signs and lights if there are any, and to make it worse, people just walk across the road wherever and whenever they want. Parking lots are absolute nightmares. We’ve witness many stupid people behind the wheel and a lot of close misses. As annoying as it is to have to depend on other drivers, it’s well worth not being responsible for a car and passengers when the chances of getting into an accident are nearly 100%.

My roommate and I went out to lunch with our advisors today. In one of the crazy parking lots, our advisor greeted a man and then told us that he is the chief of the area in which she lives (which I’ve been to and it looks like a nice suburban neighborhood). I asked how she could tell he’s a chief since he just looked like a man and she responded that you just have to know the man and that times have changed enough to allow a chief to go out by himself. Now I’m worried I might accidentally bump into a chief or hold him up in a queue since I can’t tell who he is. Another student from UVA recognized one in a parking lot and went up to introduce himself, which appalled several people since one can’t just talk to a chief without knowing him already. There are a lot of social constructs that I haven’t learned yet that I hope I get the chance to before I offend someone.

We’re going out to some villages tomorrow to take some measurements and check a few kids I pinpointed as being potentially in need of medical attention based on some calculations I’d done earlier. I don’t think we’ll end up at a chief’s house, but we never know.

For those in need of a summer read, I just finished Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut. It’s about the evolution through natural selection of a colony of humans stranded on an island while the rest of the world dies because of economic crisis and a bacterium that destroys human ova. I must caution that it contains a number of adult themes and is not at all suitable for those younger than 17 or 18, but the story is wonderfully arranged and quite comical. I only have one more book with me (besides my MCAT study books), so I’m slightly upset that I finished Galapagos in two nights, but it was so good that I couldn’t have made it last longer. It was also a fitting book for this week since Lonesome George just died.

We’re planning on going to the big tree and some waterfalls this weekend. It should prove to be a fun and photo-conducive trip, so I hope to have more interesting things to write about in a few days.