(perpetually?) a student....: The novelty of hot showers and drinkable tap water...

...has not yet worn off.

I thought at the very least I could put up some more pictures of my last couple of weeks of field work. The month, in summary, was high-intensity, stressful, rewarding, and fun. I had a total of one sick day, which was the last day in the field...who knows whether this resulted more from sun exposure, sheer exhaustion, or actual digestion issues?

Frank keeps telling me to take some time off, so I am trying to phase-in, and doing the equivalent by making a blog posting while in the office, and I will later go home for a nap and to make it outside. The tents are airing in the yard, and I attempted to remove some of the red Gorongosa mud from their bottoms this morning.

Getting water is women's work. It occupies an enormous amount of household time, especially when a woman may walk up to two hours to a water source and then have to wait in line--

My campsite was right next to the water source at the Dept. of Agriculture compound in Inhaminga. Because the water only runs from 6:15 to 6:45 AM, this means people were congregating around my tent to wait in line, often while I was still asleep!

Cotton is a major cash crop in the districts of Cheringoma and Gorongosa. The economics of it are particularly interesting, because the pesticides and seeds needed to grow it are often sold on pre-harvest credit, which often leads to a sort of positive feedback cycle of indebtedness to the cotton company. We did meet a few people who were doing quite well, however, and below you see the fruits of the most recent harvest at the house of the local secretario.

Kids in Mozambique are often quite scared of me. These kids (below) got closer than most, and were excited to have their picture taken with me.

During our stay in Inhaminga, we got to welcome the national secretary of the FRELIMO party, which was a big deal.

Things like this in Mozambique are greeted with much dancing, singing, and celebration.

On a day off, we took a trip to Monte Gorongosa, and spent a few hours in the rain hiking to a beautiful waterfall.

Of course, I was unable to resist getting in for a dip, though I was already freezing and didn't spend very long in the water. Note the fleece and bikini fashion statement that was necessary after this act. If you look more closely, you can see me turning blue.

Fire in Mozambique is used for agricultural clearing, like most other places. This fire, though, was set by a group of hunters to flush out cane rats, and other edible animals. The guy we interviewed just after walking by this burning area said that he would lose his stand of bananas as a result of this action.