comings and goings

So I finally got the car back today, which is a damn good thing because I need to drive to Johannesburg -- again!!! -- tomorrow so that I can pick up my gentleman-friend from the airport Thursday morning. You can believe I will only be driving in good daylight this time...

That said, it's been anarchy around here as I trade one housemate for two others, one of whom is a recent arrival to Gabs. There are no real problems, just the usual discomfort of having to adjust one's life to new circumstances, which can be exacerbated by having the continuity of living space, if not of living companions. (No, I'm never set in my ways...)

These companions are only here for two months, and I need to find someone else to share the house with me come August. A lot of expat/student-types I know in Gabs are leaving as the 'field season' comes to the end over the North American summer. As many of you know, I have no real intention of leaving 'the field' until sometime in 2008, so I am looking for the arrival of the next wave of researchers (or my 'tribe', as one friend put it). In the meantime, though, it's not much fun being the one left behind.

At least one of my cohort-mates is packing up and leaving the field, too, which leaves me with a strange feeling. Why am I not done? What exactly have I got to show for my nine or so months in Botswana? Am I spinning my wheels? The things that reassure me are: 1) I'm not even halfway through the first of my grants; 2) I haven't looked at everything I want to look at; and 3) I'm not bored by the things I'm seeing. So I might as well hang out a bit if I can eat grant money while I do so.