The Two O’clock Blues

I usually divide my fieldwork day into two parts, morning and afternoon. In the morning, I work with one team, and then in the afternoon I check the work with another team. This set-up, when possible, gives me confidence in my results, and also allows me to get a feeling for variation, since the different teams will produce slightly different utterances.

Likes and Dislikes of Living in Rural Botswana

These likes and dislikes are based on my experiences living in Diphuduhudu (local language: Cua) and Mokgenene (local language: Sasi) in rural Botswana during my linguistic fieldwork. The locations I stayed at are called ‘settlements’, meaning that they were created as places where the ‘Basarwa’ (Khoisan population) could move to for access to amenities (e.g., school, clinic). I have no experience living in other kinds of rural villages in Botswana.

I am grateful to the people of these villages for their friendship and for supporting my research. Just to be clear, I love staying in the village and doing fieldwork. The likes and dislikes are presented in no particular order.