I am WELLLLL!!!! :0)))

Hey y'all

Yes, I am better! Woot! The anti biotics are working their magic! Yesterday I ate two full hot meals (well, sort of) and managed to get out to see a temple - I was very knackered but managed to walk to the top. DB was very proud, I wasn't, I felt like an old lady. Today though I am so full of energy! It makes me realise just how ill I have been really - I couldn't spend much time up from the bed, even walking up stairs whacked me out. But today I feel like I could go out and do all sorts all day! I don't want to stay in bed at all! So we are off to start reccying today - DB is at an internet cafe working (oh dear, I wanted to leave in half an hour... ain't gonna happen) and has taken it upon himself to find some accommodation (yay) as not much in guidebook... I hate turning up late with nowhere to stay, is really scary - plus everything, signs and lang will be Tamil so god knows what will be what!! I should have organised this before, but being ill I didn't know if I was even going to make it in the end - I thought I may have to go straight up to site one and leave the recce for when I was better.

Ahhh. I am so relieved to be well. Am going to think through what I want from this recce. At one stage in my imagination it was turning into full-on work, with interviews and everything and I was getting rather intimidated. So I have turned it right down to being literally a recce - asking things like: how will I fit in? Will I fit in? What can I do about this? Can I go there on my own (like I can with site one) and make my own contacts there, or will I need someone to introduce me/give me a reason to be there that participants will understand? Will I see anyone? What doe the area look like? Is it all Tamil? Is it rural/industry? Is it towns/villages? It is still decimated by the Tsunami, or totally rebuilt? and so on. I shall refine these in a min in my journal.

These, I feel, are questions enough for now. Then, over next few weeks while in site one I shall think through my recce and work out a plan of access. Aye. The good thing about site one is that it is in the north, and near Chennai, so I can always nip up there and talk to organisations if needs be - and do interviews. I am so looking forward to getting to site one. Get some work going!

I am also so very happy we are coming back in Sept. The strain of trying to fit it into one trip was ridiculous - I don't know why more people don't say that it is nigh on impossible to do the work in one trip - if now downright inadvisable. May be this is one of the things that sups like their PhDs to learn. Or maybe lots of peeps do do it, but I am confident that I could not. The one thing that I regret is being ill so much. I have been ill for ab out a month in total! A month! As a newbie researcher I need time. Lots and lots of TIME!

x J