Dispatch from the Field

I had one of my most interesting days in Kenya this week. It was a very long day out in the field. This week I'm making a huge push in research work; I'm interviewing tons of people, holding focus groups, etc. So Tuesday I interviewed over 30 people for my project. Right now it is wildly hot in Kisumu; I drink about two liters of liquids a day but I pee once in the evening. Often at the end of the day my head hurts, and I'm pretty sure I'm dehydrated. But it was very interesting to hear people's family histories about polygamy, or their stories about refusing to be inherited when they become widows because they are HIV positive. Luos are notoriously welcoming. This hospitality is nice, but can also drive you crazy. Every house you go to, you can't leave without taking at least two cups of tea and eating a couple of chapatis. I ate so much that day that I felt ill at the end and refused to eat dinner at home. The hospitality went so far that someone gave me a grand gift in Luo culture: a chicken. My first chicken gift! I was honored. I carried it all day, with tied feet, with it's head sticking out of a plastic bag. I was supposed to eat it, but when I got home, I just couldn't bare to! So now it's my pet chicken. It has lots of chicken friends on our homestead though. I named my chicken "gweno," which is the Luo name for chicken. Haha!

So later in the day, while still out in the field, I FINALLY had to go to the bathroom after drinking all that tea. So I went out to someone's pit toilet. As I was finishing and standing up, the floor caved in under me, and my left side fell into, well, shit. I yelled quite loudly and the head of the household came running to help me out. It was definitely gross and I cut my leg a bit.

That said, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Obviously, it was a badly build toilet so it wasn't dug that deeply and wasn't even used that much. Sometimes homes are required by the chief to build a toilet, so they build a bad one just for show. The one that is at my host family's house is 12 feet deep, and used everyday by at least 6 people, so you can imagine that falling into that would be a much bigger deal. Mostly now it's a funny story.

And I'm still alive and looking forward to more days in the field.