This update will encompass our second week in the field from October 25-31. We started off this week with a meeting with all the translators to go over our research questions. I’m interviewing with Ian Watt as both of our projects relate to medical anthropology. My research project is called “Needles and Natural Healers: An Analysis of Maasai Perceptions of Traditional Ethnomedicine and Modern Medicine”. Ian’s project has to do with barriers to treatment options that people of this area experience. Forgot to mention that last week we also went on safari for two half-days in Tarangire National Park. The two main things that the park is known for are: elephants and baobob trees, and we saw lots of both. A highlight of the game drive was that we watched a lioness stalking three warthogs. We watched her stalking progression and if she had been quicker, we would have seen a kill. We saw lots of baby elephants and also had our first experiences with the hellions that are tse tse flies. This week we also started our interviews. The first interviews we conducted were with a mother and another mama’s husband. Getting participants for our research is quite an interesting experience: we walk to areas in the village where we see several bomas concentrated, Daudi calls ‘hodi’ (a greeting call) and if they answer, we ask if they wouldn’t mind being interviewed. Then they usually have their children grab buckets and other stools for us to sit on as we interview them under the shade of a tree, or inside their boma. As the week progressed and we formulated and re-formulated our questions, we interviewed four natural healers (yay!) and two or three of which practice black magic. However, they did not admit outwardly that they practice black magic because they are not crippled. Let me explain, the people who are considered the most powerful holders of black magic are those who are natural healers and are crippled - they are the most trusted by the people, although they are not allowed to live in the community sometimes. So the natural healers who do practice black magic and are not crippled can say comfortably, without feeling like they are lying, that they don’t practice black magic, since they also practice traditional medicine. We interviewed many other people from the villages of Oltukai, Minjingu, and Olasiti, including health care providers at health clinics, dispensaries, and a pharmacy. On a side note: many of the men who we interview who have many wives don’t know how many children they have. The staff members from our outfitter group that is with us throughout the field are absolute hoots! We also celebrated several birthdays in the field, which were very memorable experiences, partially because the cooks made cake - some of our first desserts in TZ! Halloween in the bush was another memorable and fun experience. Halloween was also the voting day for the Tanzanian elections. We went into town to go to the market, but no one was there due to the election, so we went to the Transit Bar and played euchre and ate chapati until before lunch time. We then went to the market and stocked up on goodies for the Halloween festivities. Each tent decided to do a different theme, my tent passed out fruity suckers for a more traditional halloween experience. The night ended with a small bonfire under the starry night in the middle of the camp. Our costumes were very creative as we were confined to the our wardrobes and what materials we could find around camp or buy at the market, all in all, not that much. I was a white collobus monkey, Caleb was Scott and vice versa, Brendan was a faux super hero, Abby was the zodiac signs, Courtney was the one eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater, Linnea was Albie the Racist Dragon (a Flight of the Conchords reference), Allison was Jane Fonda or a young Richard Simmons, etc. Halloween was the perfect ending to our second week in the field.
