Hysteria

Hysteria / Hysterics
A nervous affection, occurring almost exclusively in women, in which the emotional and reflex excitability is exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into paroxysm or fits. [Webster1913]

I sat on the bench wanting to laugh- long and loud - uncontrollably for all the world to hear. It was then I started pondering the definition of hysteria. maybe 'hysterical laughter' wasn't a phrase to be used lightly if this was the urge i was feeling...

All I wanted was a map- a map of the farm with topography. In Australia I'd have called my mate John at Harley Survey and a few hours later it'd pop into my inbox with a poem or joke to brighten the day. I'd asked for this map 6 weeks ago, and finally deciding I'd been given the 'African yes' went hunting for it myself.

Several hours, several offices and a request for bribe money later I was sitting on a bench in the town records office- a small room lined with bookshelves and pigeon holes crammed full with tatty, yellowing manilla folders, labelled with peeling masking tape – the excess stacked in toppling piles on the floor. The clerk was slowly and systematically looking through every file for some tidbit of archived information for the man further up the bench. When it finally came to my turn it was 20 minutes 'til lunch so I had to go back in the afternoon.

He was held up some where else that afternoon, but very cheerfully handed the file to me this morning. It did contain a map - of sorts- but it wasn't what I was expecting it to be. sigh.

This culture shock stuff just goes on and on doesn't it? For some reason it still surprises me that my expectations don't fit here and I think completley differently and somehow miss most of the nuances in possibly every interaction.

Well- back to my comfortable task oriented cultural paradigm- If anyone knows how to measure and map topographic information for a very hilly piece of land I'd really appreciate it :)