What does Dr Emily Gardiner do?

M: Dr Emily Gardiner is an economist from Lancashire University. She specializes in the study of cereal production in tropical areas. So Dr Gardiner, since you spent a lot of time abroad, you must have had some unusual experience.
W: Yes, recently I went on a two-week trip to study the grain trade in a third-world country. A few days after I arrived, my local guide and interpreter said that they didn’t think we’d be able to go on our first trip to the East because the main city was waist-deep in water and the ferries that crossed the big rivers were unable to cross.
M: Then where did you go at last?
W: We went to the South instead. But after I arrived, the main rail link was cut off and the lines were dangling limply into a really swollen river, which kept on rising.
M: How did it affect you, I mean, were you marooned?
W: The house where I was living was quite seriously affected. The first day the water rose about half a metre, and the children paddled in it. Many women fled from it but were finally drowned and then eaten by big black ants which invaded the house.
M: Were you able to get around? Did you have to take a boat?
W: No, I walked around without any shoes! At first I was told that a lot of the deaths there have been because of snake bites. But we were quite a long way from the rice-fields where the snakes abound, so I bargained on the fact that there wouldn’t be too many!
M: Did you see what was happening in the poorer areas?
W: I did. The houses on the lower ground are really like tents made of rush matting supported by bamboo poles and as the water gets deeper, people are forced to move to higher places taking their houses with them.
M: And what about food supplies?
W: Well, it was quite impressive how they had managed to move all their stock well above flood level. The price of grain varied by about a hundred percent.
M: Did the government take some measures to control the price?
W: Yes, it tried to sell some of its stock on the open market at low prices in a vain effort to bring down prices, and meanwhile it organized soup kitchens in conjunction with local charities.
M: How did you manage to get out because the airport was under water for a lot of the time?
W: I only got out because there happened to be a spare seat on a flight. Anyway, it was one of the most spirited take-offs I’ve ever had.
M: But you lived to tell the tale.
W: Yes.