Bushbuckridge - Bosbokrand

Since Monday afternoon, I have commenced work fully and without supervision. I live at the house of one of our collaborators who is currently away in Mali, a very nice 2-bedroom house in the middle of the bush at Wits Rural Facility. It is amazing to wake up to the sound of the birds singing and to watch the Impala grazing in the front yard. It is also scary because I can hear Hyena at night and big animals breaking through the bush which my mind obviously associates immediately with robbers and thieves. The area is however enclosed, there is a front gate which nobody can pass unless being seen by a porter and the drive up to the house is about 30 minutes through the bush, what better deterrent can one think of.  The nearest house is about 300m away and there’s a leopard strolling around freely which means one should not be out on foot after the sun sets at 5:30pm. Internet connection is also not super great, but I will be moving into my full-time accommodation next week where I will have proper wireless and do not have to rely on a slow bundle anymore.

I’m currently spending the days setting up meetings with the school principals, the Indunas (community leaders), the police, Department of Education officials and the municipality to get permission to re-interview all the kids without being accused of dodgy researching techniques.  I am not sure how officials become officials in South Africa, one thing said though, they talk a lot about things that are not relevant to the project (like the colour of my eyes) and sometimes try to make passes at me which I fend off in good humour so far. Everyone has given their consent and without any problems. It just takes a lot of time and driving around to get together the official paperwork and there is so much I need to learn. One of these things was that nobody actually reads the official paperwork, you just need to wave it in front of them and tell them the contents. Quite an experience!

From tomorrow on I will be talking to principals and leaving consent forms with them to distribute to the children we want to interview starting in three weeks time.