i've been moving around a bit lately, despite not having acquired a motorbike yet.
i made a quick run to Kitgum over the weekend to pick up some cash. i left Karenga at 9am and arrived back at 7pm. That's 10 hours: it's about four hours each way and i spent an hour and a half waiting for a ride back to Karenga. So...
A boy stared at me as the lorry i was riding pulled out of Karenga. On the way back, the passengers walked down a few hills with reassuring effects in hand.
(Shameless plug moment--i'm also posting some photos at humansofkaramoja.tumblr.com, the contents of which are repeated on a facebook page called Humans of Karamoja. There are a few stories up there that aren't here, also.)
Speaking of HoK, i wrote about the Mercycorps group that stayed at the mission a few nights ago there. Here is a repeat of that photo (without the text), as well as two more--one of which would have been a better HoK photo than the one that i posted.
At breakfast yesterday, i asked what Father David's program for today is (that's the type of question that people here ask each other.) He said "Ah, I'm just here! Do you want to go somewhere? To see that old man in Lobalangit?" His eyes were desperate. He seemed to be anticipating a boring day.
We rode on his bike to Lobalangit. A trip that took up to four and a half hours last trip was 30 minutes. After an hour and a half of waiting for people to track down Komol (a time during which i was kept company by a cat--the top photo), he came running up the trail from one of his gardens.
His health is fine
We worked for about two hours on a recording he gave me last year about how to make the local brew. The phrase /èprènàè ˈká ŋɛ̀ð/ had given me trouble when trying to work on this text on my own, but he patiently demonstrated the different types of stirring that are needed for different types of food preparation, and gave me the verbs associated with each action and the nouns for the different types of stirring sticks associated with each action. i found it prudent to take video of his explanation, but i'm not gonna post that from here. In this photo he has a /ŋɛ̀ð/, with which he could /èprènàè/.
Finally, i went for a little hike after an abortive meeting with Ilukol Isaiah today; i ended up on top of a hillmountainthing and all i brought you was these stinking photos.
Totally jealous! But the ardor of real adventure travel shines through your words enough that I'll enjoy it vicariously instead of truthfully wishing to see through your camera. Thank you! Where are you, what language are you documenting, and how much longer will you be there?
ReplyDeletedouble exposure win. teeth-mountains win. AND a kitty cat.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Finn! i'm about 15 or 20 miles from the Uganda/South Sudan border (in the same town i went to in 2012) working on Nyang'i, a member of the quasi-isolate Kuliak/Robic family (consisting of Nyang'i, So (which i worked on in 2009), and Ik) that might be coordinate with Nilo-Saharan in a larger language family. The guy in the photo appears to be the last remaining Nyang'i semi-speaker (that term is awful but i'm not going to dig for a better one at the moment) who can still produce texts. He lives about 12 or 13 miles from the nearest place that can support me living there, so my work will go much faster when i buy a motorcycle, which will hopefully happen before i leave the country, which will be at the end of May.
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, Julie, the blue photo that looks for all the world like a double exposure is simply a hand-held 2.5 second shot (ISO 2500 on a fully manual 50 f/. 1.8 wide open).
CAT. Stephen's going to love this.
ReplyDelete:)