Response Essay: Chapter 10 of Mad Dogs by Douglas Raybeck

In Mad Dogs by Douglas Raybeck I read chapter ten Sunstroke. In this chapter Raybeck is stricken by luck that was not foreseen in one major way and a couple of others as well. This unexpected pot of gold he has been searching for was stumbled upon when accompanying a friend Yusof Ismail that has been consistently asking if not begging to come visit his parents in the village of Kampong Paru-Paru. One way luck was involved is that he got to see another part of the culture a more deprived. The main thing that luck had given to him is exposing smuggling. Luck good and bad can play an unexpected role in fieldwork. The first thing Raybeck gets out of the trip is he got to see another part of the culture that would have not been discovered if Yusof would have not asked Raybeck to visit his parents. The part of the culture he visited was more on the deprived side and didn’t have much to offer. On their short but long trip walking once of the bus Raybeck started sweating profusely and once in the village was drenched with his sweat. Before the first meal with Yusof ‘s family he had to bath instead of a well in the back of every house the village had one central well for bathing due to lack of funds. As Raybeck says, “ this village, however, was impoverished and had only one rather large, central well serving the entire village” (Raybeck, p.199) I thought that this was a learning and new experience for Raybeck to see a different side of the culture just not from the one village he has been in. He got to see how just money can affect aspects of the culture even if its just a few miles away, I found him to be lucky for this because I think that it could further his work and give him more of a holistic view. On the second day of the trip Raybeck accompanied Yosuf’s father to the warehouse he often worked, which is where the trip really pays off and he gets a lucky break. Raybeck tells, “ he could occasionally improve his income with smuggling. As his