Core Sampling

Do you remember that song from girl scouts? It went:

“Black socks they never get dirty

The longer you wear them the blacker they get

Some day I think I should launder them

But something keeps telling me don’t do it yet”

Well, my question is what if white socks turn black? Do they fall into that category have never getting dirty, especially if there is no chance of them ever turning white again? The socks I wore today turned black. I don’t think I will ever be able to get them white, especially considering I’m not due to do wash for another week or so. Okay, white socks turned black: this sounds really gross so I think I must explain.

Although I’m really happy to be studying at UKZN Pietermaritzburg, I don’t like how the school doesn’t have an anthropology or archaeology program. Therefore, a few weeks back, I asked my biogeography professor if he knew anyone local who studied archaeology so I could do something pertaining to my major while I was here. When I told him I studied paleoethnobotany, he replied that his lab was a paleogeography lab using pollen analysis to study past environmental change. Perfect! Although I’ve never done pollen analysis, it is a method used in Pbot which is usually associated with various other botanical analysis techniques. He then proceeded to introduce me to the graduate students in his lab who told me that when they went to the field, I could come along.

Pollen analysis is fairly difficult because preservation, especially in the tropics, is a big issue. In order to find decent, well preserved specimens, it’s necessary to find sediments where 40,000 year old sediments can remain intact. In the tropics, the best place to do this is in wetlands and bogs associated with indigenous forests. Therefore today, I accompanied my professor, a post-doc student, and 3 master students to Kar kloof National Reserve, 1600 meters in elevation, to take core samples of a wetland.

The drive up to the site was beautiful. There were dozens of raptors (buzzards, eagles, and falcons) along the side of the road, cranes with 2 meter wing spans, and at one point, we spotted about half a dozen somenga monkeys swinging through the trees. After off roading it for a good half hour, we finally reached out field site, which was a wetland situated on ranchland beneath 2000 meter high mountains.

I was told to wear old clothes and shoes I wouldn’t mind getting muddy. The problem, however, is my wardrobe is very small and I didn’t bring any old clothes with me. Thus, I had to wear my only pair of normal sneakers, my soccer pants, and a shirt that already has mud stains. We packed up the gear needed for sampling and trekked out into the field. After about 4 minutes of walking carefully through thigh high grass, my shoes and socks were soaked through since I was sinking up to my ankles in floating vegetation and sediment. For about an hour we carried on like this: tramping around through the wetland looking for bouncy ground where we would then proceed stick a rod in to see how deep the sediment was. The ideal sediment is black, mushy, and wet. However, we kept coming up with samples of clay and regolith, which are whitish, grainy, and amazingly difficult to get through.

When we finally selected the sampling site, we started the actual coring process. For those of you unfamiliar with coring, the process involves sticking a metal rod, with a shovel like device attached to the end in alternating holes, 10cm apart allowing you to collect sediment at given depths. Sounds simple right? Wrong! The first couple samples may be, when the corer is only plunged 48 or so centimeters, but when you start trying to take samples at 200cm, in very firm regolith, you get 2 grown men plus 2 or 3 grown women hanging on this thing. It’s quite a site, especially since everyone is covered in mud. We did this whole survey/coring process for 8 hours. By the end of it, we were so exhausted and sunburned that we were covering ourselves in war paint and having sediment fights. Good times.

Even though this sounds like strenuous and exhausting work, it was actually really fun and really interesting. It was cool to get out in the field and be able to work on a project with graduate students. Everyone that I went with is really intelligent and total bio nerds, which meant that I learned about all the flora and fauna in the area. They told me that whenever they go into the field, I am more than welcome to come along, and, not to mention, they offered to show me around different areas in the Drakensburg Mountains, such as baboon rock and the areas with Sans Bushmen paintings.

Plus, I really like making relationships and connections with people here. I really love all of the Americans (and Frenchies) that I have been hanging out with, but it’s nice to meet locals who are familiar with the land and willing to show me around.

On a side note, Friday night we had a Mexican/French feast! I made tortillas from scratch, with the help of a girl from Berkeley who knew what she was doing, and which turned more into tostadas because they weren’t flat enough. We made fried rice, chicken, salsa, and guacamole. Delicious! I ate enough to feed a small village. Then, to top it all off, the Frenchies made crepes dressed with sugar and lemon juice. So good! Best meal, by far, we have made since being here.

Protests

I’m skipping classes today. I’m a horrible student, I know.

Actually, this isn’t my choice; I was planning on going to classes, especially since I have a 3 hour practical today. The problem is that UKZN is having a protest today. A protest of what, this link will give you the rundown.

I went to the computer lan around 0800 to work on some assignments. As I walked over to the lan, located on Old Main campus, I noticed students congregating on the grass, surrounded by Risk Management Services, in front of the Old Clocktower Building. It was a small group so I didn’t think anything of it. Around 1000, my friend sent me a SMS stating that I shouldn’t go to class or be in major campus buildings because the protest was going to get violent. Protests by the ANC or the young communist league are conducted here everywhere and usually last a few days. The first day is fairly calm and then they usually escalate to levels where classrooms are stormed, tables are thrown, and two years ago, the police used rubber bullets to ward off the mob of protestors. So, I quickly decided to get off of campus in order to avoid being part of the fiasco, and detoured only to ask my instructor if I could make up the prac. Her only advice to me was stay away from the protest, which I am happily doing.

As I walked off campus to meet up with the girls at the bakery, down the street from campus, I began to notice the numerous police cars stationed around campus. Here is where it becomes interesting. Some of the girls had class this morning on New Arts and were quickly told to evacuate. Apparently, there was a bomb threat and students were becoming a bit rowdy and were using pepper spray and tear gas in some of the classrooms. RMS was there sorting it out and turning students away from New Arts campus so hopefully its under control by now. Chemistry, agriculture, and a few other lectures also had incidents of paper spray and a few of my friends, who are locals, got nailed pretty badly. Although a number of classes have been cancelled and a number of students refused to go to school today, the overall atmosphere of the campus is fairly at ease. As my lecturer said when I told her I was advised to miss class, they are used to this here; ordeals like this are a normal occurrence. Can you imagine?

I know Berkeley had an incident last week that turned a little violent, and my freshman year at Santa Barbara our anti-war demonstration turned into a disrespectful crashing of a meeting between military officials and UC leaders, however I’ve never been anywhere where I’ve actually felt afraid for my life.

I don’t understand the need for violent protests. I am all for peaceful protests and using public demonstrations to express injustices and displeasures, however, when they turn aggressive I feel that it sends the wrong message. For me, I’m not going to respect people who are causing harm to others or property. It sends the wrong message because it’s almost inviting the other side to fight back which only angers more people. Communication, speech, is so much more powerful than violence. It shows that the protestors are educated, they understand what they are fighting for, or against, and they are willing to settle their differences with the other side in an orderly and civilized manner.

It’s disheartening for me to hear about public protests that end in violence. It’s a sign that we are failing as a society resolve our differences through respect for each other. Hasn’t history taught us anything? Hasn’t this current military action show us nothing? Nothing gets resolved by violence. The issues will still persist; they just become covered up by the fact that one side will always have bigger and more powerful weapons. I want to believe that humans are innately good; I want to believe that peace is possible. However, things like today’s protest and the protest last week in Berkeley only work to remind me how uncivilized and destructive humans are.

Maybe, the protest of the UCs will be better. I guess I’ll find soon enough.