Happy New Year

Happy 2009 from the Campbell family! Jeremy celebrated the new year by ice fishing in Michigan's U.P., and finally found some redeeming qualities to winter: blue gill sushi! On Sunday, Maddy will be leaving him in the capable care and companionship of our dog, Sammy... oh and the millions of people coming to visit Washington D.C. in under 2 weeks!

First the fame, then the fortune

As Jeremy sets off for no less than 10 job interviews at the American Anthropological Association meeting in San Francisco, Maddy is finishing up her 6 week (legal & procedural) training to become a full-fledged Refugee Officer. Jeremy, now a card-carrying and rights-bearing "researcher" at the Library of Congress, has been spending quite a bit of time there to avoid a yapping dog and to enjoy L.O.C.'s book-to-desk delivery service. He has also risen to fame here on Capitol Hill after he was photographed jogging last month for a local magazine's piece on how to exercise on the cheap during the economic crisis. (The image attached was published in this month's Hill Rag.) Here's hoping that come next Fall, he will be running around a beautiful college campus somewhere in this great nation... maybe Kentucky, maybe up-state New York (that's the "fortune" part of the title). Meanwhile, Maddy has been learning all about the importance of acronyms and paperwork. Luckily, she's found her job as intellectually stimulating as it is paperwork-intensive. She has incredible colleagues and will be traveling to southeast Asia for 2 months at the beginning of the new year to interview Burmese refugees. While she is more than a little disappointed to be missing Jan. 20th, she will be prouder than ever to represent our country traveling abroad, and now in a very official capacity (she even has a big gold badge like in the movies!). We've also done a fair share of traveling in the past couple of months--to North Carolina to visit Kassi, New Jersey to visit the Campbells, and Texas to celebrate some dear friends' wedding. We'll be celebrating our first stateside Thanksgiving together in Arizona next week. Happy beginning-to-the-holidays to you all!

Moved to Washington... new digs again

In the nearly 7 months since our last post, we have been quite busy writing a dissertation (Jeremy), finishing doctoral qualifying exams (Maddy), completing job applications (Jeremy), and navigating extensive security and medical clearances for a new job (Maddy). We are pleased to report that after almost 4 months of anticipation, Maddy has finally received the green light on her new job with the Federal government as a refugee officer. The go-ahead came not a minute too soon as we have already arrived in our new home in Washington! We are living just southeast of the Hill in a small studio apartment within a very charming neighborhood. Here's where you can reach us:

Madeline and Jeremy Campbell
1807 Burke St. SE
Washington, D.C.
20003

It is sure to be an exciting time with Maddy traveling a lot with her job and Jeremy finishing his "diss" and hopefully landing a job for the 2009-10 school year. We promise to keep you all abreast of our news with this newly re-released blog!

Love,
Maddy and Jeremy

Back to Davis... New digs

Jeremy arrived back to California after a few weeks on the eastern seaboard and Maddy just returned this weekend to meet him in sunny but windy Davis! Maddy came back two weeks early due to a rather nasty respiratory infection. She received excellent care, considering the circumstances, from the same Cuban doctors that helped her with her worms in the fall. We are almost all settled (with the help of IKEA's fine housewares) in our new home and delighted to be spending time together in our old stomping grounds, if largely in IKEA and other big box-stores stores. More soon!

Some scenes from the camps

Here is Maddy, standing at attention in her newly-cleaned classroom in Semara camp. She's teaching three days a week to a class of 10 young Saharawis who, at last check, had truly mastered the present continuous tense. And then there's Jeremy, shortly after learning how to tie his turban. Quite necessary attire in the desert, actually: sand and wind and sun all stay where they should.

Cold shakes!

Another week's gone by in the Saharawi refugee camps, and Jeremy's managed to forget what precious little Hassaniya he had managed to learn. No matter, as Maddy is doing all the talking for the two of us: today she started teaching at the Salam English Center in Samara Camp, while Jeremy walked around passing out cookies and textbooks. It's a shame we can't post pictures here (connection too slow), because to see us dressed up to "go to school" in the morning is to think we were living in Chicago after a blizzard. You simply can't get warm in a winter desert, anyways between the hours of 8 pm and 2 pm. I would kill for a pair of mittens.

Our "host dad" Ahmed is out in the middle of the desert, on the trip to Mauritania that we (as non-visa holding Americans) were unable to embark on ourselves. So, instead of talking to Mauritanians there, we're searching for them here in the camps...believe it or not, the economic situation in Mauritania is so dire that people come here, to refugee camps in SW Algeria, to find work. Taxi-drivers, security guards, petty merchants: good chance the fella is from Mauritania (where Hassaniya is also spoken) and that he is trying to get Saharawi citizenship by "emmigrating" to these refugee camps. Bizarre and beguiling situation.

Earlier today we gave into our cravings and made a batch of brownies. Actually, it was just one brownie, and by brownie, we mean "cake." Sure beats goat, or camel for that matter.

Some more fun from NW Africa!

After leaving the Canaries on January 6, we spent four days in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara, specifically in the Saharawi capital Laayoune. There we met with human rights campaigners and walked about a city becoming more Moroccan day by day. We also took a trip to the territory's principal port (25 km through desert from Laayoune, on a rugged stretch of Atlantic coast), where European fleets are overfishing millions of tons of octopus, flounder, and tuna from the waters.

On our way to the other Sahara--the refugee camps--we had to fly through continental Spain, then wait for two days in the beautiful Algerian capital, Algiers. In Algiers, we kept a conspicously low profile, but did manage to enjoy eating some wonderful couscous & patisserie and trolloping through the city's windy and hilly streets. A week ago, we left the Mediterranean for the desert, landing in Tindouf to a much-anticipated reunion with Maddy's host family in the camps. Maddy's host-mom, Haha, is a sweet and affectionate woman, not without some mischief, who cooks outstanding meals inspired by Rachel Ray, but who happens to be married to a creepy chain-smoker, Ahmed, who takes to telling near-total strangers about how he once whupped some Spaniards in soccer, back when Muhammad was a little boy.

Increasingly confident in her linguistic abilities (while Jeremy mumbles to himself about "halub-juhb"), Maddy is turning towards the difficult and exciting task of preliminary research. At the time of posting, we are entertaining a weeklong excursion through the desert to Mauritania (look it up!), but we'll keep you posted. Mauritania is a vast Hassaniya-speaking country, and many Saharawi refugees in the camps maintain business and kin relations with Mauritanian communities.

Quick notes so far: 1) going days upon days without showering (unthinkable in the Amazon) is actually not too bad in the desert. 2) goat meat IS as bad as Maddy warned; camel turns out to be sweet, vaguely reminiscent of mincemeat pie! 3) The Aljazeera cable network has some good contacts with the American producers of dopey made-for-TV dramas. 4) Saharawis tend to take 5 minutes to greet one another (even a neighbor whom you see everyday) in a ritualized speech pattern that is, increasingly, getting on Jeremy's nerves. Otherwise, no complaints. 5) the desert has thus far proved productive for syllabus wrtiting and dissertation mapping. Halub-juhb! Hamdillallah!

...and more photos from Las Canarias

Maddy and Mom enjoying some over-sweet wine, yummy cheese, and salty ham in a cave-cafe (you read correctly) in the Canarian interior.

Here we are, taking a break from some off-road buggy driving on the rugged (and steep) inland of Gran Canaria. Jeremy drives too fast, by the way.

All dressed up for New Year's at a Swedish/Spanish Party, Maddy managed to eat all twelve grapes by 12:05. Yes, she's wearing yellow underwear (not shown).

Grooving to the oldies, just after midnight. Jeremy and Mom have nothing--absolutely nothing--on the old man in the bowtie (stage right). He rocks.

Some Photos from the Canary Islands, part 1

Here we are, with the Atlantic Ocean behind us (and behind that, Africa...)

Together in Las Palmas, heading for the Occupied Territories

Dear All,

We have returned from a delicious vacation on the beach here in the Canary Islands (Spain), and now we´re back from a way-too-long break from the blogosphere. Sorry! Jeremy has moved on from Pará (in Brazil), and is beginning to work on his dissertation after spending a few weeks in the states. Maddy´s been in the Canaries since her birthday, and Jeremy since Christmas. We had a joyful and restful reunion here, and tons of fun with Maddy´s Mom, who was here until January 2. We are leaving this weekend for the Occupied Territories (Western Sahara), and then back to southwestern Algeria on the 10th. Much Love and Happy New Year! Sorry again for the hiatus...we´ll be posting more photos soon!

-Maddy and Jeremy

This is a picture of my closest Saharawi friend, Fatima, and me on a lazy Friday afternoon.

Here is a picture of 4 English-speaking friends (from left to right, Nancy, Alice, Jessica, and Marite) and my Hassaniya tutor (Mahmood). Mahmood is preparing a traditional tea in his house. After 32 years here and with no repatriation in sight, his house, like many in the camps, appears pretty permanent.

This is a picture of my host, Haha, and her youngest son, Mustafa.

More photos!

This is a photo of some of "my girls" in the language lab at the Salam English School whom I tutor three times a week.

Geertz's echo OR Why should I be lonely now?

This picture was taken at one of the many weddings I have attended in the last couple of months. The woman pictured here is a member of the bride's family dousing a bunch of women crammed like sardines into the wedding tent with perfumed water. The picture doesn't capture the loud music, flying candies, and infectious hollering. Amidst such festivities as these (and now only a few shorts weeks away from seeing Jeremy and Mom), I have found myself wondering: Why should I be lonely now? It rings strange to say, but it is true that since I've become more familiar with this place--and more capable of communicating--I have felt more and not less lonesome. Then again, maybe it makes sense... When I first arrived, I didn't yet feel fully human, more like a statuette. After some modest inroads in language acquisition and network building, I now feel a little more myself, a little more human--and a lot more lonely.

My friend Alice frequently reminds me that when she was first getting to know this place 8 months ago, she felt like she had the subjectivity of a goat. If Alice was a meager goat in her first months here, I have begun joking that I was (...it is only funny in retrospect...) some triumph in taxidermy. Maybe more exotic than a goat (Alice's European origins are old hat. But America?!), yet also far less self-sufficient. Like a stuffed moose from the far off plains, I was either stared at quizzically or overlooked altogether. In either case, not exactly treated as human, and not exactly playing the role. Luckily, I’ve been retreating into my moose statuette less and changing the scenery more. Because I am feeling more able to get around on my own, I feel freer to change my surroundings when people are either paying me too much or too little attention. I have even begun running some in the early morning, which is the closest thing I've found here to living on the wild side.

Antibiotics, toe-socks, and other delights

As I write from the desert, Jeremy is preparing for his final departure from Amazonia for many months. Just beginning fieldwork myself, I cannot imagine how it must feel to finish. Bravo! It will be a thanks-filled holiday, indeed, this week. After a 5 day series of antibiotics, I am back in good health. The diagnosis by some Cuban doctors working in the camps was an intestinal parasite. Now, as the cold sets in, it seems like everyone in the camps is getting chest and head colds. It is a riot to see people walking around in winter coats, gloves, and hats. It's still getting into the 80s in the day. But I am growing to appreciate the seriousness with which people take bundling up against the sand, sun, and cold and have fully jumped on-board. I have loaded up on all sorts of warm clothes, including head wraps to wear on top of the malafa, long-underwear to wear under your mulafa, and even toe-socks (all the rage here). As Jeremy travels home on Thanksgiving, I will be celebrating anti-biotics and toe-socks with the handful of other Americans living in the camps. I have been self-assigned to take care of the sweets and am in the process of puzzling over possible dessert menus given my very limited access to ingredients here in the camps.

With my body cooperating, I have been able to get more into the rhythm of things here, which I can only describe as simultaneously busy and lazy. There is always something going on (another round of tea to prepare for another round of visitors), and dozens of things to do (pushed back by ever more rounds of tea), but never a particular rush to get things done. In addition to the everyday busy laziness of things here, the past couple of weeks has been filled with special activities surrounding two big visits. One was the short visit of a Human Rights Watch team including my friend, Bill, from New York. They were here to investigate the overall humanitarian situation here as well as some particularly disturbing allegations of slavery in the camps. Slavery was widespread among the Saharawi until the war and the formal eradication of slavery in the new republic. While the team found no evidence of bonded labor, they did find some evidence that former slave families remain constrained in their freedom of marriage and movement by their former owners.
The other big visit was by a set of religious scholars from Minneapolis who came here to meet with some top Algerian and Saharawi imams (religious leaders) here. Although I described both parties of these meetings as "religious," what most impressed me about the conversation was that it was cast not at the level of "religion," i.e. the historical institutions of Christianity or Islam, but at the level of "truth." All of the speakers seemed to talk quite negatively about those who act in the name of exclusive truth (religion), and instead chose to discuss what they believed to be infinite truth. To that end, a large focus of the conversation was on how to live a righteous life in a violent world. What I took from the conversation as someone who is entirely new to "the books" was the following question: How does one live God's truth without alienting other living truths? Quite a remarkable conversation to observe in the middle of the desert. Then again, not at all unusual here...

...unfortunately, Maddy's internet connection timed out here...Blogger saved her work up to this point, and this is Jeremy (hi!) pushing the "publish" button from Santarém. Hope the connection cooperates soon, Maddy...I love you and thank you for the well-wishing as I wrap up here! Beijos.

The Flashlight Maniac

Last week in Castelo de Sonhos, Military Police apprehended a man suspected of being "The Flashlight Maniac," a fugitive murderer who had escaped from a Mato Grosso prison in 2003. The Maniac is alleged to have killed as many as 16 people between 1999 and 2001, and his trademark move was to sneak up on young couples in parked cars, emerging from the woods with only his flashlight. The Maniac would then knock on the window of the car, use the light to temporarily blind one of the passengers, then rip open the door and begin bludgeoning his victims to death.

Rumors have circulated for years that the Maniac was hiding out somewhere around Castelo. The police followed a series of reports to an abandoned goldmine 50 km west of the village, and arrested the suspect without incident.

I took this photo after I interviewed the suspect, who claimed his name was "Josué." Pictured is the flashlight that police found on him in the old goldmine, compared with a photo of a flashlight that the Maniac had used in a 2001 murder. Outside the barracks where I spoke with the supposed "Maniac," a crowd of about 150 Castelo residents were threatening to turn into a lynch mob. "Josué" was eventually removed from the barracks, handcuffed, and spirited off in a Military Police truck to another jurisdiction. I should point out that this only happened after a few people, myself included, pleaded with the police to respect the prisoner's civil rights (he was being held in violation of habeas corpus) and to remove him before the mob invaded the police barracks to kill the suspect.

Another wedding, another stomach bug

Or is it the same old bug from the beginning of my trip that just won't leave me alone?

In any case, since the last wedding (read, goat/camel-meat-eating bonanza) I attended one week ago, the battle against my stomach bug has grown even fiercer. The troubling thing is that I didn't even eat the meat this time (which meant that I got an earful from my new, dear host and friends). Still, my body's rejection of desert meat seems to be the most common explanation for why I've been out on my back for much of the last week. Luckily, I had already made the move into Haha's house and had my own room to crash in. Things with the family have been wonderful. It turns out that in addition to the two small boys I also have two host sisters. I hadn't known about them because neither of them lives at home: onem Hadiga, is in Algeria studying and the other, Mariam, lives with Haha's mother down the road (not uncommon here). All of the kids, including the boys Mustafa and Cory, are very affectionate, even with me. Although everytime I speak to them in Hassaniya, they cannot help but laugh!

The case of the mysteriously felled tree

This photo needs explanation beyond the translation. The sign hanging from the side of the truck says the following: "Greenpeace extracted a Brazil-Nut tree from an area that had been impounded by the federal government." It's a scathing accusation, hung on the truck that was transporting said tree (trunk) from Castelo de Sonhos to points south. And the thing is, it's absolutely true, if bizarre. Two weeks ago, the world-renowned environmental organization Greenpeace entered a sustainable-development settlement on the margins of the Br-163 outside Castelo, and dragged out a 52 ft. long castanheira trunk, a species protected by Brazilian law against being cut. Greenpeace claims that they had government permission to remove the trunk, and that in fact the tree had already been cut down and partially burned by a rancher (this is unconfirmed). The population of Castelo, already very critical of Greenpeace's activities, didn't let the team leave the town with the trunk. Greenpeace was planning to transport the log to a "exposition illuminating the problems of deforestation" in São Paulo, but were compelled to abandon the tree when they were surrounded by nearly 300 Castelo residents. The climate was tense, but the situation ended peacefully.

When writing about the Br-163, Greenpeace functionaries often make sweeping accusations, blaming all roadside residents (ranchers, smallholder farmers, sustainable development projects, etc.) of the area for the accelerating destruction of the rainforest. As a result, the 300 protesters who forced Greenpeace to abandon the tree-trunk represented a cross-section of Castelo society, all of whom were mystified as to why an environmentalist organization would come to Castelo and remove a tree. No one missed the situation's irony.

...More updates (camels?) from SW Algeria

Thank you, Jeremy, for posting my last update! I will likely have to revert to that method of posting again. For today, at least, my internet connection seems unusually cooperative. I learned from a friend, Bill, who works for Human Rights Watch on Western Sahara, that a link to our blog was sent out as a google news update to the recipients of a Western Sahara news alert. Yikes! Hopefully it goes without saying that what you find written here is indended as a log of my observations, not a news source. What I am experiencing now will take many months, maybe a lifetime, to sort out. Luckily, Bill (or Billy as our Arabic instructor used to call him) is coming for his first visit to the camps in a couple of weeks and it happens to be his job to write up reports on a dime!

I am finding both my Hassaniya lessons as well as my part-time work at an English school here extremely rewarding. I wish only that I had more time to balance out my language work with the important business of socializing. Even in my brief time here, I have had a difficult time negotiating my dual expectations to 1) get a handle on the language and 2) be a responsible, if temporary, member of society here. I am still living with my friend Alice's host family and find myself very busy trying to keep up with all of the family commitments I have inherited through her despite/because of the fact that I cannot effectively speak the language. Every time I try to steal away to study, I feel like I am neglecting some social responsibility (who did I forget to visit? did I stay long enough?). At the same time, I know that I have to learn Hassaniya in order to get to know anybody. I have been keeping all this in mind as I've looked for a host family of my own. On Halloween, I will be moving in with a family, which seems to be very sensitive to the challenge of balancing family and study. My primary host's name is Haha. Appropriately, she has a great sense of humor and two small boys who are already pulling pranks on me.

One of the biggest surprises so far in my trip is how many breaks I have been given because I am married. I have found myself unexpectedly exempted from some of the interpersonal concern and social commentary that surroud unmarried women's behavior and comportment. Married woman have a code of their own, which I am coming to learn. For instance, I am not allowed to make myself beautiful with henna or jewels while my husband is absent. (I am still getting used to the idea of being approachable by other women without consistent access to bathing water, let alone beautiful.) Many women live apart from their husbands (many of whom work in Spain), so our distance does not strike anyone as particularly odd. Naturally, everyone I meet is eager to meet Jeremy and some have suggested we slaughter a camel when he comes. After attending a huge wedding where a dozen animals lost their lives (and after which I was ill for a few days from eating one poor goat's head), I politely declined the offer.