Laugh It Out!
Perhaps surprisingly to those not in the know, research, particularly field work, can be full of rib-cracking experiences which stay with you for a long time. When reflecting on my research, these experiences often cause me to laugh out loud heartily as though it happened yesterday. So I thought that this month I would share some of these humorous titbits to highlight the lighter side of research.
For the sake of anonymity, the protagonists shall be called Ben, Christine, Dorothy, Eunice and Frank.
1. The pitfalls of sneaking in to a neighbour’s toilet
“There was a time I did not lock the toilet… I then realised that a stranger had sneaked in and was relieving himself… Oh, I did not spare him… You should have seen the surprise on his face when I opened the toilet door… He was in the middle of what he was doing… I gave him several slaps… He was lucky that he ran off… And even as he ran off, I hurled stones after him… He will never forget me…” Ben
“There are compounds where strangers are locked inside the toilet if they sneak in without asking for permission… if the landlord finds a stranger in the toilet, he locks the toilet while the person is in, it does not matter, even if [the stranger] is a visitor to one of the tenants… imagine that… [the landlord] would then open the toilet, and force the stranger to clean the toilet… other times he waits until the stranger is in the toilet… then he opens the toilet door [and] asks the stranger to finish his business while the door is wide open… imagine that… if that was to happen to you, don’t you think you would even lose the urge to continue with what you were doing?” Christine
"There was one who was found in the toilet in the morning. They locked him up in the toilet, because he sneaked in… yet he was preparing to leave for work… would you believe it? He was locked up from 9am up until 2pm… To make it worse, the toilet was dirty, and smelly, and full of maggots… He explained his ordeal to me… it was very hilarious…” Dorothy
2. Of collapsing toilets
"The toilet just collapsed… I tell you the truth… there was a stranger in the toilet, and someone [one of the tenants] wanted to punish him… he hurled a stone at the toilet, hoping to scare the stranger away, but instead the stone hit the toilet and it [the toilet] collapsed…” Eunice
3. Of stomach upsets
Frank wanted to emphasise to me that toilets are very important and, to do so, he dramatized his very personal experience:
He had a stomach upset, a severe stomach upset;
But he could not run to the toilet!
What was the nearest alternative?
A plastic basin.
It was quite a relief. Phew!
But wait a minute; his troubles were not over,
He had a major task to complete…
How would he dump the smelly stuff in the basin?
How would he walk out of his house carrying a basin?
What if he bumped into his neighbour? Or a visitor? Or to make matters worse, his girlfriend?
Never one to reveal secrets, I will just say that Frank spent a good five minutes acting out how he disposed of the waste and by the time I left his house my abdomen muscles were aching from laughter!
When I began my PhD studies, my sage professor advised me that I should research something that interests me because I would be ‘stuck’ with it for the next few years. His advice makes a lot of sense now. During the ‘dryer’ times of my PhD, I often replay such laughable moments from my field work and it helps me on my way through the fascinating journey that is my PhD.