… is the name of the first chapter of one of my all time favourite books, Alice in Wonderland, written by Charles Dodgson – better known under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll – in 1865. It tells the story of young Alice who during a rather boring day in the countryside spots a white rabbit and decides to jump after it and follow it down the rabbit hole. The world she encounters there is a world full of riddles, contradictions and ambiguities – a wonderland, where nothing compares to the world Alice thinks she knows so well. To go„down the rabbit hole“ can therefore refer to the experience of throwing yourself into a world unknown, to begin an adventure. In my case I want to take this analogy further to describe my very own experiences during conducting research in the course of my PhD project in South Africa. Read More…