At the end of my first full week of field work, one of the students I had been staying with invited me to visit her in the nearby, and slightly larger, town – Senhora de Bomfim. Aline seemed keen to get me out of her hair, so I slightly reluctantly, agreed to go. My reluctance might seem a little strange but Cleia and I had barely exchanged two words during the preceeding week, probably mostly due to the language barrier, but I felt a little awkward spending 2 full days with her. When I arrived, my concerns were initially confirmed by the uncomfortable walk back to her place and an afternoon of difficult communication which left me with the distinct impression that she was laughing with her friends, in my presence, at my lack of Portuguese.
However, that evening we went out for drinks at a nice bar in town with an outdoor terrace, and she introduced me to a Nigerian friend of hers who spoke English and Portuguese fluently. After a few beers we all began to relax and have a good time. Sunday I awoke relatively early, considering the level of alcohol consumption the night before, and after lunch I sat down to type up the weeks data. This ended up taking most of the afternoon, but I was relieved to have it finished and spent a relaxing evening with Cleia and her housemates.
My second week in Campo Formoso has presented a whole series of new field work challenges which have driven me, at times, almost to distraction. It begin with the discovery, over the weekend, that Aline, the lady who has very kindly been putting me up in her house, has some major mechanical issues with her car. This is the car we had been using to get to the field site, and by Monday it was clear it was going to take quite a bit of time to repair, so we needed to find alternative transport arrangements. Unfortunately, the site I had hoped to work at this week was at the top of a mountain, albeit a relatively small one, and after the first day working there the taxi driver refused to take us up again. Even taking a taxi to the farm site, which was relatively easy to access, was going to cost R$50 a day (about £20) and for various other reasons that I won’t go into, my field work just became impossible. So, we decided it was necessary to move to the farm house asap. This farm house is in walking distance of my ant colonies, but is, to say the least, a little bit basic. Nobody has lived there for, who knows how long, so it needed a serious clean, and all the basic living amenities (plates, cultery, bed linen, etc) buying. So that has been my week this week. Trying to organise moving to the farm house and making the place liveable.
The day of cleaning was a rather interesting one. Four of us set out at 8am by taxi to the farm, with cleaning products and personal belonging in hand, ready to turn the run-down farm house into a place we could live for the next 2 months. About half way there, we were met with quite a steep hill which had always been easily passable in the past, but after the heavy rains in recent days had turned into a mud bath. Even in the 4X4 taxi, it was impossible to pass. So we backed-up and tried an alternative route. After a few minutes drive we met a patch of road so full of rocks and stones it was also impassable. It became clear we were going to have to walk. So we took as much of the stuff as we could carry, and marched up the hill under the now-baking sunshine. Less than a minute later, and half way up the muddy hill, one of the locals in his pick-up truck decided to just go for it. He got a decent run-up, got as much speed as he could and pelted it up the hill. Remarkably he made it to the top, and he offered us a lift to the farm. We gratefully accepted, and climbed into the back of the truck. However, as he took of the handbreak, we started rolling back down, and after a few, slightly terrifying, attempts to get going, he announced that he was now out of petrol. So, we got out again and set off in the heat to walk. We made it most of the way to the farm house before someone else picked us up in their truck and drove us the rest of the way.
After a long day of cleaning, the place finally looked like it might be liveable, so we headed back to the house. The following day I planned to get the final bits and pieces together before heading to Salvador for a birthday weekend by the beach. However, when I awoke on Thursday morning, I found a note from Aline slipped under my door saying that she was ill and needed me to leave for my trip a day early, as she needed medical attention and couldn’t have me stay with her. So I rather hurriedly packed up my things, altered my hostel booking and headed to the bus station to begin my 7 hour journey to the coast. More on that adventure, to follow!
Mosquito Update
After my torturous first week here, with nearly 300 mosquito bites, I learned exactly which of my clothes were bite proof, and managed to dramatically reduce the number of bites I was getting. Not being able to get into the field has also helped to buffer me from the bites, and I probably only gained 10 or 20 over the course of the week.
Whether it is due to the absurd number of bites I got last week, or my body finally adjusting, or my improved defences against bites, but I haven’t really been noticing the few I do have as much. The odd scratch, here or there, but they are no longer driving me insane!