Field work in Zambia: from dawn to dusk

Recently, I was asked to describe a “normal” day of my field work in Zambia. It could be like the following…

6.00 am: Alarm rings, press snooze button. 6.30 am: after choosing the snooze option four times finally getting up. The sun is already awake and waiting for me. Matata (a black Labrador) as well. 7.00 am: the divers from the village come to have our daily meeting on what fish to catch today. Although I love to dive and catch fish by my own, there is simply not enough time to do it regularly since I work at the experimental ponds many hours per day. 7.30 am: Breakfast. Fried eggs, tomatoes, onions, bread, honey, peanut butter…after 50 days, I begged for porridge and fruits which the cooks are happy to prepare for me each second day. Today was porridge day by the way. A good day! 8.30 am: start experiments at the ponds with the fish that have been caught the previous day. 1 pm: finishing up for lunch break. Stomach already loud and grumpy. 1.30pm: Lunch!!!!! Eat so much that I can barely walk. 2.30 pm: back to work. It’s hard. Wanna pass out on the couch enjoying the easy breeze. 4.00 pm: finish testing. Start transferring data to hard drive, plan which fish to catch the next day, planning, paperwork. 6.00 pm: always want to spend this hour before dinner doing some sports. Never do it. Usually take a swim or lay on my bed. 8.30 pm: night dive to catch some fish that are hard to catch during the day but sleep during night. 10.00 pm: pass the fuck out.

Actually I struggled a lot to describe a “normal” day because if one thing is true for field work: no day is the same. Sometimes I go to Mpulungu to do some shopping or sort out things at the immigration. Sometimes I have kind of off and climb the Kalambo Falls nearby. Sometimes I lay in bed with diarrhoea or Malaria. Sometimes I spend a lot of time in the water to catch fish myself. Field work is challenging, unpredictable, exhausting, frustrating, exciting, beautiful, fuuuuuuuun and never ever boring.