The countdown is running...

Now the countdown is really running, I only have thirteen days here and then I have to go back and write everything up!!! It is going fast now.

The last days I took some distance and finally caught up with my notes in my laptop so that I have now (nearly) everything digital as well. This note taking does take such a lot of time, when we heard that in our methodology course I was one of the unbelievers, but yes, decent note taking does take as long if not longer than all the interviews and participation time. And I really have the feeling that even at my age the brain can be trained to remember more and more details :-)

At the moment I am again in Pretoria, in a hostel that turns out to be a second home by now, and here with the distance I can think some things through. I have net 9 days of interviewing and participation left and have a list of people that I still want to interview or ask again some more details ... and those who know me will know that the list is far too ambitious for the time left ... and I am anyway going to try it :-)

The value of staying long at one place came to me last Wednesday when one of my key informants in the village revealed that the village I am in has a totally different name and actually is a place of contested headman boundaries!! I was nearly screaming when I heard that, how could that be kept from me for such a long time!! Anyway now that I know it and reading through my notes again, they make even more sense. And the good thing is, I found it and I think this is mainly due to me staying there for a longer time. At one point it has to come out.

Another problem I had the whole time and I continue to have is the language, this relying on translators is not my thing. Should I ever do another research I would need to cater for that differently just for my own sake. I notice myself getting angry when noticing that my translator is not really translating what I am saying or asking.... and yes after a while and some interviews I can actually roughly tell whether he asks "my" questions... Maybe I am just too big a control freak there. What comes with the translation but as well with just a different cultural background is the reflexiveness that people have on their lives and doings and hence how they can tell about them. In some respects this proves to be difficult and makes my research into the power relations really difficult. At the beginning I thought my questions are too conceptual, but even with straightforward questions (as they appear to me) I sometimes look into blank faces. Thus I am still adjusting questions all the time, but I think this is something we all have with anthropology. What I find a pity and what comes with the language issue as well is that informal conversation is a near impossibility and this is on what I really miss out here. Twisting my research questions will do the job of catering for that I hope.

Just reviewed what I wrote and realised that this post does not give much factual information, but a good overview on what I am thinking through at this point in time. As I have done quite some interviews I really hope to dig deeper in the net 9 days that are left and for this I need to reflect on the way I do it.

Beside all this I must say that I have met lots of wonderful people through this research, especially the handicraft group participants become more and more open and less and less shy of asking me questions as well.

Before I close a short big thanks to Sabine for the nice cadeautjes :-)If I find the time I will send some words from Butha-Buthe this week.