In aticipation of the joys of a 26 hour flight...

...with layovers in Miami, La Paz, and Santa Cruz (the later two in Bolivia, for those of you who are a bit shaky on the geography of obscure Latin American urban centers...not to worry, I had to look up Santa Cruz too).

In any event, I'm leaving for the fieldwork component of my dissertation research on Monday and will be enjoying the tropics for somewhere between 12-14 months. I'll do my best to post regularly (mostly so that my poor, dear mother doesn't die of anxiety in the interim...though I imagine that she will continue to stockpile small kitchen appliances for my anticipated return--some sort of cosmic insurance policy that I don't fully understand but benefit greatly from). I don't imagine anything too exciting will happen until I head off to Ciudad del Este, a week or two after I get there. But Paraguay is indeed a "nest of pirates and thieves," so you never know.

Oh, and I don't imagine that anything I say will be overly sensitive...but the diligent folks who oversee the ethics of human subjects research in our Internal Review Board kindly remind me that confidentiality (&c) is always a concern with fieldwork...so I'd be much obliged if you don't share this site with too many other folks. It would be silly to password protect it, but if you would kindly not link to it or share it widely, I'd be much obliged. Thanks!

besitos!
~carly