Beware of Dogs

I didn’t realize, prior to my pre-departure orientation, that rabies is fatal.. as in, fatal to everyone who gets it.  No big deal, right, you just get the vaccine?  No, apparently not, because the US right now has a shortage, so they will not give the pre-bite vaccine.  Which means, of course, that should I get bitten, I will have to get the notorious ’shots in the stomach,’ which sound terribly ominous.

But let’s be honest, I’m less worried about rabies than I am about poisonous snakes.  In fact, I’m terrified.  Oh, come on Tuphani, you say, that’s so unlikely.  Perhaps.  But remember that, not only will I be going to a tropical country with yearly monsoon floods (that carry snakes! you hear these stories on the BBC every year), but I will be living in a village surrounded by ‘jungle’ and rice paddy.  And LOTS of water.  Did I mention that I’m not only scared of snakes, but I am absolutely terrified by the possibility of snakes in water?   Now is the time when you shake your head and ask me why I’m such an idiot that I chose to do my research in an area filled with water.. and snakes.

The Note-taker

I always used to think that I was a great note-taker. In class, I could get down not only the details, but the overall point of the lecture in an organized outline. But as I’ve progressed through my graduate career, I’ve begun to realize how ‘in my head’ I really am. There are so many things that I think about, think through, and decide in my head without ever writing anything down. You can imagine the result: I have these amazing ideas in my head, but they never make it to paper… and when they do, they somehow don’t have the ‘bite’ or the succinct nature that they had in my head. I’ve found that I am actually not a great writer.

But now as I contemplate the fieldwork experience, I realize that I must make note-taking a practice. In the past, I’ve taken fairly brief and sporadic notes, and I have rarely gone back and summarized my interviews or observations, which I know is good fieldwork practice (SP taught me that so many years ago!). And that means not only getting ‘outside of my head’, but also taking the time to sit and write each night. If I don’t do that, I will come back to the US with gaps that will need to be filled.

And oddly enough, I’ve found it difficult to really ‘find my voice.’ I’ve written in journals since I was in middle school, but always with a very self-aware attitude that almost ruined the ‘authentic’ voice of my writing. This blog has been extremely difficult, because I haven’t figured out if I’m writing as the ‘expert’, the student, or the traveling poet. It would be best if I could write without being aware of my audience, or even of my own perceptions of my writing.

Another linguistic note

I didn’t realize this, but it seems that tuphaan is also the word used for ‘deluge’… as in the deluge (flood) that came during the time of Nuh (Noah). (See Qur’an, al-’Ankabut 29:14).