coping mechanisms

A friend and I were chatting via the internet last night, and she commented that I don't really seem homesick. I don't really feel homesick, either. Admittedly, I have only been here a month (as of today, actually), and that's not really long enough to make me whine. Living in Gabs, as well, is pretty easy when compared to, say, Togo -- at least, au village in Togo in 2000. And while that's partly to do with the level of infrastructure (e.g., electricity, water) and available commodities (e.g., Woolworth Food's gypsy ham), these kinds of conveniences don't account for the entire difference. I was a lot more homesick in Togo, but, frankly, I was also being interpolated into the Peace Corps as an institution, and that was enough to make anyone sick, whether for home or anything that looked remotely like sanity.

OK, it wasn't that bad. But I don't take interpolation well, especially when performed in an uncritical, ahistoricized, rah-rah, pseudo-patriotic manner. Let's just say that living as an independent researcher and forming my own affiliations and associations is far more pleasant to me, and, I think, helps ward off homesickness. Strange that being independent should be so much more comforting (and comfortable) to me than the cozy nest of Peace Corps Togo. But I had a hunch, even back in 2000, that this would be the case.

That said, I do indulge in a few coping mechanisms to help myself adjust to living here.

1. The internet. I did not expect to have internet access in my living quarters in Botswana. It's expensive, it's not widely available, and I only have it because my landlady works for Botswana Telcom. It has made all the difference, as noted below.
   
2. Skype. I love skype. Not only does it keep me in touch with family and friends (via my unexpected but warmly welcomed internet access), the makers of skype apparently also helped sponsor a recent conference in Vienna at which my stunningly intelligent boyfriend presented a paper that, to put it colloquially, rocked the house.
   
3. Buffy. I don't watch television (though my boyfriend has gone some distance in convincing me that it's not an instrument of evil). If everyone is raving about a show, it's hard to get obstinate me to watch it. The result is that I'm usually about three years behind. The last show I watched regulary was The X-Files, but I only got into it around season 3. Too many people I knew were telling me to watch Buffy and The West Wing for me to actually watch either of them. Naturally, this obstinacy only hurt me in the end; I always wind up getting deeply involved in a show three years after it was actually good. I started watching the first season of The West Wing when I badly needed something to do between drafts of my dissertation proposal last January, and I loved it -- and not just because it was something to do other than write my proposal. What's keeping me going these days is season 6 of Buffy, but I'll take any episode I can get.
   
4. My informal little research network. This is hardly a formal thing; it's just a little network of folks here doing research, most of them working on Ph.Ds. It includes a British geography student, another woman from my institution who's also here doing social science research, a Fulbrighter on her way to public health school, and a med student with a strong interest in medical history. It also includes my advisor in the Population Studies Department at University of Botswana. It will eventually include an American historian. Some of these folks know each other, and some don't. It's really lovely to be able to "talk shop" with people.
   
   There's a seminar in the Population Studies Department next week to which I've been invited, and I've been invited to attend the History Department's semianars as well. These aren' t organized on the weekly basis to which I've become accustomed at my institution, but they do seem like they would be useful fora in which to meet people, learn about what kinds of research folks at UB are doing, etc. I'm also bound, by virtue of my grants as well as my research permit (if it's ever granted), to present my work in venues such as these, and I'd like to know what they're like before I show up in a year or two to give a paper!