As many of you know, I'm embarking on approximately year of ethnographic PhD fieldwork in a small village in the Transkei region of South Africa. Its a pretty scenic place right on the Indian Ocean. You can check out the map below to get a sense of where I'll be located.

In addition to my data-collecting, I'll be volunteering as a English teacher at the local school. The area is quite remote, and infrastructure is quite basic (they got a road and community borehole last year), and the school is really ill-equiped. Its going to be a challenge, I think, but I feel good about being able to offer something to the community besides a critical academic eye.

Anyway, I've been given the use of a beautiful house on a hill overlooking the ocean (below). Like all houses in the village it has no running water or electricity, so the major project of this week has been getting myself outfitted with all the 'stuff' that I'll need to be comfortable out there.

The town has two shops, both of which sell basic dried foods and fresh local produce. So in

terms of updates on my first week in South Africa, I've accomplished the following:

-Bought a car

-Bought enough non-perishable food, spices, and toiletries to last me months (I hope!)

-Done a day-trip to the wine country inland from Cape Town to shop for several cases of wine

-Managed to avoid a sunburn

Tomorrow I take off from Cape Town on a three-day solo roadtrip across the country. The middle of South Africa is hot, beautiful, and rather desolate, so I'm flip-flopping between feeling exhilarated at the prospect of the drive, and terrified that I'll have car trouble on some lonely desert highway and I have to wait for hours for someone to find me.

So that's all for now. By the time I update this blog again, I should be at the fieldsite!

xoxox

-Kate