You may be thinking, Oh
my gosh! Flush the sanitation blog has returned! Finally, I can get my
acerbically-written commentary and trivia about toilets and poop! My life is
now complete! Or, potentially, you’re thinking, Hey, I was trying to get to a toilet fetish website, why the heck am I
on this person’s blog?
In either case, dear readers, you will be disappointed. I am
not returning to blogging on sanitation in the way I did before. Sanitation
will be a part of it, because it’s what I study, but I am using this as a
platform for a personal blog, so interested people can keep track of where I
am, what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it. (Hi mom!) It’s a bit like a mass
e-mail, but longer and less personal. Some of it is also a self-indulgent
writing exercise to keep my writing brain limber and to remind myself how to
write for normal people. (“No, ‘hegemony’ and ‘panopticon’ are not normal
words, Jen.”)
So, after that unnecessarily long introduction, let me tell
you where I am, what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it.
At this moment, I am sitting on a beanbag in my apartment at
a desk I constructed out of two cardboard boxes, a yoga mat, and the inside
shelves on a bookshelf that I demolished yesterday. I am still in Atlanta for a
short time yet—I would count the exact days on a calendar, except I am afraid
it will cause me to scream and start packing at midnight or frantically
scanning books. I leave June 2nd—I leave the math up to you. In the
meantime, I am slowly selling, packing, and getting rid of the bits and pieces
that have made up my life in this particular abode.
I have lived in this place for the longest I have lived
anywhere since I moved out of home for college, and as I look up at the
now-blank walls, I cannot help but wistfully sigh. But there is plenty to
loathe about this place too; just this day, I gently steered a man who was
inquiring our leasing office away from renting a property. (“You do not want to
live here. Cockroaches, termites, ants, and the shower I had in rural Ethiopia
was better. Seriously. Just don’t.”)
Since people don’t ask me very many questions, I don’t
really have frequently asked questions. So I’ll just write Questions I Imagine
Someone Might Ask.
QIISMA
Q: Where are you going?
A: India.
Q: Unlike many Americans, I have a slightly more nuanced
knowledge of that subcontinent’s geography/I know how to use basic map
resources and care enough to do so. Where in India?
A: I fly into Hyderabad to visit some dear friends from when
I studied abroad. From there, I will take a train to Delhi, and then from
Delhi, I will take a train to Bhubaneshwar.
Q: Wait, why are you doing this?
A: I just finished my third year at Emory. I spent two years
in the anthropology department, working on my doctoral program in anthropology,
then one year getting my masters in public health. Now, I am finally done with
coursework and I can enter the stage of my doctorate where I can do my research. This summer is the
exploratory bit for that. I am going to network and assess the feasibility of
doing my dissertation in the two different field sites I’m considering.
Q: You mean you aren’t done with school yet?
A: No. I’ve got a while. Leave me alone.
Q: So what are you doing while you’re there?
A: Lots of talking, exploring, looking around. I am
interested in the politics and economics of sanitation, so I’ll be talking with
representatives from NGOs and the government who work on sanitation issues,
trying to get a baseline read on what’s going on there. Why is the sanitation
situation so bad? How bad is it? How is it measured? Who is trying to improve
it? What has been tried before? What is being tried now? What are the
justifications for these approaches?
This is sort of a basic, bastardized summary of what I’m
doing, but it’ll serve.
So, I hope, imaginary someones, I have answered the
questions you might have. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
I’ll be updating this sporadically.
Back to packing!
