Julien’s Journal

 

First Day – 27/1

 

Hi everyone. I’m settled in here at Wits Rural now. Its an amazing place – students from all over South Africa and all over the world are here. You wouldn’t think so when you first look at the place as it seems so empty but where I’m staying there are a couple of anthropology students from Pretoria, a PhD student from the US and a woman from somewhere else in South Africa. Wits Rural’s involvement in the local area is just phenomenal – Its amazing the involvement they have in the local community.

 

I’ve not been able to get much done on the project yet as the weekends are just dead slow out here. Hardly any shops are open at all and god forbid you want to get on the internet. After finishing this I’m going down to see if I can be set up with a permanent internet connection here because the nearest internet café is about 25 km away. I have however done some reading on the area I’ll be studying, the Sand River Sub-Catchment. That’s where a lot of small-scale farming goes on and is the ideal place to investigate.

 

The weather here has been good. Better than in Melbourne at least. When the sun stays behind a cloud it is just beautiful here and we’ve already had several thunderstorms. I drove through one yesterday on the way to Hoedspruit. It must have been 25-30 km in diameter and absolutely pissed down towards the centre. However, when I got back to Wits there was no trace whatsoever of a storm – it had completely missed this area. This area is just so dry its unbelievable.

 

I’d better get about my business eh? Today’s work involves going to meet the extension officer for the region who kinda acts as liaison between the farmers and the Department of Agriculture. Aside from providing me with information about information flows she’ll by able to introduce me to the farmers I’ll be keen to talk to. It’s important that I’m introduced properly any my intentions made clear because a community like this may just get suspicious of me and what I want with them. I’ll be treading carefully.

 

I’ll be in touch, more so than the last few days as now I should have regular internet access. I hope you’re all well at home, especially those in Melbourne – hope those fires are under control. Bye for now,

 

Julien