Samantha Muller from the University of Pretoria's Physical Anthropology section reflects on her travels abroad. She gained new skills in R statistics and Bone Trauma Analysis and learned about new cultures while traveling to Portugal as part of Bakeng se Afrika.
Frequent travellers always say that travelling helps you find who you are as a person. Often, they say travelling solo leads to a world of self-discovery. The self-discovery they speak of was always a foreign concept to me until I went to Portugal. While I did not travel to Coimbra alone, the trip was only the second time I have left South Africa and was the first time travelling without my family.
I was very excited to learn that Bakeng se Afrika would be sending me and a few of my colleagues to workshops held in Coimbra (Portugal). Not only would I get to travel to a new country, but it meant that I could finally attend a Trauma Workshop that would help me improve my ability to interpret and understand bone trauma. I would also have the opportunity to attend an R course again, which would help me to run statistics for my own research on the sexual dimorphism and ancestral differences in the shape of the zygoma using CT Scans.
We spent the months leading up to the trip making sure we had our visas and some spending money. Once that was achieved, we couldn’t wait to leave to explore another culture and country. We left South Africa on 24 August 2019 with a late flight, accompanied by a glass of champagne to celebrate my friend and colleague Maritza Liebenberg’s first international trip. Our flight landed in France in the early hours of the morning on 25 August 2019, where we waited to catch our connecting flight. At the airport in France, I finally got to have a decent sized bottle of coke, which for a Coca-Cola addict from South Africa is amazing! Our bottles are too tiny here.
After our connecting flight to Porto, we had to wait a while for the shuttle to pick us up and take us to Coimbra, which was an hour and a half away. We all sat down and got something to drink and some food. We were all extremely tired at this point. Once the shuttle picked us up from the airport, we began our journey to Coimbra. I ended up sleeping the entire way there. We got to Coimbra in the afternoon, got settled in to our accommodation, and went exploring. Let me just say Coimbra is full of steep hills and we were welcomed to climbing them on our first walk!
The first week began with the R course where we learned the basics of R and running statistics applied to anthropology. I had already done a similar course before, but I learned something new every day; though I still got frustrated with R when it decided not to work! I, unfortunately, got sick on the last day of the R course and missed my opportunity to work on the statistics for my research.
Being sick in a foreign country is not anyone’s cup of tea. By Saturday I was still sick, so I decided to go to the pharmacy. Trying to explain to a Portuguese speaking pharmacist what I wanted in English was an adventure in and of itself. I eventually got my point across to the pharmacist and he gave me the medication I needed. The whole situation was not what I am used to. Pharmacies in South Africa are a lot larger and you have a lot more access to the things you need without having to ask for it. In Portugal though, you have to ask for everything.
The second week consisted of the trauma workshop which was intense but so much fun. During this course we got to break foam bones to mimic trauma as well as learn from an orthopaedic surgeon about how they handle traumatic injuries. Overall the trauma course was well worth it, and I learned a lot from it that I can use in the future.
Over the weekend between the two courses, we had some free time to explore Coimbra and its many, many hills and stairs. Who needs gym when you have the hills and stairs for free, right? We walked into many ancient churches that were mostly free. These churches were amazing. There were sculptures, paintings and candles that you could pay 10 cents to light up and say a prayer. The architecture of the churches was astounding and to see the amount of effort taken to keep up these churches shows that the city of Coimbra cares about their history.
We also got to go on a tour of the University itself. The University is one of the first things to pop up when you google ‘things to do in Coimbra Portugal’. We got to see the famous library that was actually the inspiration for the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast, where unfortunately we could not take pictures. We also got to see where the PhD students defend their research and let me tell you the room looks daunting!
As we went through the tour of the university, we were taken to the academic prisons. Apparently, back in the day, if a student was caught outside past curfew or did anything against the university rules, they would be put in these academic prisons. They are also home to a row of long drop toilets that the students had to use while incarcerated. I think I would have tried my best to avoid it! Another room in the academic prison was used for isolation. If a student tried to cause a revolution or riot, they were put into isolation without even a window or toilet. All of this was so fascinating. The bell for curfew still rings at 18:00 every evening to this day, although the curfew no longer applies and Coimbra now boasts a bustling nightlife.
We also went for a walk along the Mondego river, ate some sardines and chorizo on crackers and then walked across the bridge that passes over the river. While walking across the bridge, we got to witness the European championships for Canoe Polo. It is a surprisingly aggressive and interesting sport. We then sat on the banks of the river with our feet in the water, where a very feisty crayfish bit my toe.
During the two weeks, we also got to explore the night life of Coimbra once the workshops finished for the day. Evidentially every Tuesday and Thursday, there was happy hour where drinks were substantially cheaper. On one of the Thursdays we joined a couple of the Portuguese students for drinks at a bar. One thing about Coimbra that caught me off guard was the fact that from 15:00 to about 19:00, everything was closed so dinner was always very late.
The Tuesday before we left Coimbra, we were taken to a traditional Portuguese restaurant where we got to eat sardines (that we had to gut ourselves), some corn bread, potatoes, roasted vegetables and beans. For dessert, I got to try a poached apple. The apple was sweet but also tart, and overall amazing. Our last night before we left, we were treated to a symphony, which I have never experienced before. I am grateful to have had this opportunity, I will treasure the memory for the rest of my life.
Although the trip to Coimbra was eventful and fun, the journey also had a profound impact on the direction of my career. The trip helped me to realise what I wanted out of life, which was honestly not what I expected to get out of the trip. Over the two weeks that we were in Coimbra, I learned who I could trust as well as how to function on my own without having any curfews, which I have back home. I also realised that I wanted to change the direction that my academic career is going in. The realisation came to me while talking to fellow researchers, some from the United States of America and some from the neighbouring European countries, who focus on palaeopathology as well as other research areas. Coimbra helped me come to the decision that I would want to branch out into palaeopathology in the future instead of only focusing on Sex and Ancestry research. Coimbra was an opportunity of a lifetime that thanks to Bakeng se Afrika, I could experience, learn from and enjoy as a whole.
Samantha Muller
MSc Student
Physical Anthropology Section
University of Pretoria