Picture of some of the women on this trip
Here I am with some of the other female students in the Fulbright-Hayes Group Project Abroad program. From left to right, they are: Nikki (from U. of Chicago); Abigail (from Johns Hopkins); me (from Stanford); Holly (from U. of Wisconsin); and Abby (from U. of Wisconsin).
Abby is answering her cell phone in this picture. It happened to be Chris, calling for me (a really nice July 7th present, since we had had some trouble getting in contact with each other that week). Of course, I couldn't hear a word he said because the connection was so bad, but I think he could hear me just fine.
I wish Dad could meet Abby (the one answering the cell phone). She often says she should have been a geologist and it's true. She's always thinking about soils and rocks and when we're driving along the road, she's always got a running commentary going on the landscape. She doesn't care if anybody is listening or not but she's talking about it. By the way, she's an environmental historian and is studying how the colonial government conceived and constructed space for blacks in the 20th century, which facilitated the spread of tuberculosis. She's the one I'm traveling with after the program is over--her and Alex, who is not pictured here. We're going to the Mozambique border, near the Tembe Elephant Reserve, and we will be staying with a husband and wife who call themselves Rhodesians (Rhodesia has not existed since 1980 and if you know a little bit about the history in this area, you will know that they are white simply by this fact) and who also speak fluent Zulu. Abby says they're a really interesting and kind couple but a little strange to boot.
posted by Jessica Somewhere in the States at 6:42 AM
5 Comments:
TB is making an enormous comeback in South Africa but that has a lot to do with the HIV infection rate (which in KZN is apparently at 40%, an enormously high number that is difficult to fathom or believe). Apparently, HIV and tuberculosis go hand-in-hand in southern Africa.
P.S. The experts quote 40% as the rate of HIV infection among Africans in KwaZulu-Natal (the province I'm in). It is 6% for whites and less for Indians (KZN has the highest population of Indians outside of India). When I say it is difficult to fathom or believe, I mean that when you are sitting in a khumbi with 15 Africans, it is difficult to accept that 7 of them are infected with HIV. It may be TRUE, but it is just absolutely UNREAL.
Also, the 1918 epidemic was devesating in South Africa. I don't need to ask Abby about that, I already know. There's a really interesting book you could read about it called African Apocalypse.
p.p.s. But I will ask her what she thinks. She's only finished her first year at Madison so she may not have any idea....
OK, so I just asked Abby as she's sitting right beside me. She says she has no idea whether the death rate for influenza was higher in rural vs. urban populations though she suspects that it was higher in rural areas given the lack of biomedical infrastructure.
About TB, she says it was highest in the mining camps and it spread from the mining camps to the rural areas, in direct proportion to the migration patterns.
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