Some updates on research
Hello!
Long time since I last updated this. We’ve been doing lots of traveling in the Acholi region of Uganda, but I think we’ll soon leave to spend some more time in the Lango and Teso sub regions of Uganda. We’ve been getting some good data and insights for our research here in the villages and towns near Gulu, especially when we went to Awach last week.
Awach is a trading centre that used to be host to one of the largest IDP camps in Acholiland. Most of the IDPs have now returned home, but some chose to stay in the homes they’d constructed and just commute to fields they harvest kilometres away. On Friday, we traveled back to Awach to meet up with the Village Health Team who would help us administer surveys. We spent all day talking to many people and collect 80 responses! Although it was generally a good experience, we also learned a very valuable lesson about field research - never leave those administering your surveys unattended. Unfortunately as we reviewed results back at the hotel, we noticed that at least a dozen had just been invented by the person doing the surveys. Its pretty upsetting because we even paid people so that they’d take the work a little more seriously.
We had a nice weekend nonetheless. We worked on our data and explored a little and found a huge fruit market. We also returned to St. Monica’s where we volunteer with a children’s programs. There were so many kids there and we had fun as always!
We’ve also started planning for a trip back to Lira and hopefully all the way to the Teso sub-region before we meet up with my dad in Kenya for a few days. It will be so nice to see him! It will also be good to leave the Acholi subregion for our research. We’ve learned that in order to properly understand and document the opinions of those who were affected by the war, it is important to visit different communities and ethic clans. It is especially important to travel out of the Acholi sub-region because other clans have very different understands of justice, and often feel like they have been completely ignored by post-conflict policy makers and donors. For example, one of the issues we find most interesting in Uganda is how relevant this peace vs. justice tension is. In the region where the Acholi people live, there often seems to be a complete bias towards peace over justice.
We’ll be going to Pabo to do some research tomorrow, but then hopefully we can be in Lira and Teso!
Update soon on this week and our mini adventures!
- Sima
Long time since I last updated this. We’ve been doing lots of traveling in the Acholi region of Uganda, but I think we’ll soon leave to spend some more time in the Lango and Teso sub regions of Uganda. We’ve been getting some good data and insights for our research here in the villages and towns near Gulu, especially when we went to Awach last week.
Awach is a trading centre that used to be host to one of the largest IDP camps in Acholiland. Most of the IDPs have now returned home, but some chose to stay in the homes they’d constructed and just commute to fields they harvest kilometres away. On Friday, we traveled back to Awach to meet up with the Village Health Team who would help us administer surveys. We spent all day talking to many people and collect 80 responses! Although it was generally a good experience, we also learned a very valuable lesson about field research - never leave those administering your surveys unattended. Unfortunately as we reviewed results back at the hotel, we noticed that at least a dozen had just been invented by the person doing the surveys. Its pretty upsetting because we even paid people so that they’d take the work a little more seriously.
We had a nice weekend nonetheless. We worked on our data and explored a little and found a huge fruit market. We also returned to St. Monica’s where we volunteer with a children’s programs. There were so many kids there and we had fun as always!
We’ve also started planning for a trip back to Lira and hopefully all the way to the Teso sub-region before we meet up with my dad in Kenya for a few days. It will be so nice to see him! It will also be good to leave the Acholi subregion for our research. We’ve learned that in order to properly understand and document the opinions of those who were affected by the war, it is important to visit different communities and ethic clans. It is especially important to travel out of the Acholi sub-region because other clans have very different understands of justice, and often feel like they have been completely ignored by post-conflict policy makers and donors. For example, one of the issues we find most interesting in Uganda is how relevant this peace vs. justice tension is. In the region where the Acholi people live, there often seems to be a complete bias towards peace over justice.
We’ll be going to Pabo to do some research tomorrow, but then hopefully we can be in Lira and Teso!
Update soon on this week and our mini adventures!
- Sima
I see that your are considering my advice of keeping the intercity travel to a minimum. Please keep safe.
ReplyDeleteAnd I thought that I had seen a lot of Uganda.
Can't wait to see the conclusions of your research.
Love you.
Maman