I didn’t really know what to expect when I designed this research project at home in Kansas City. How many participants is it realistic for me to survey? How will I travel to each site? How will I convince each clinic to work with me? Who will help me do the surveys???
I had the basic research design mapped out, but all of these details spun around inside my head for a year as I prepared to leave, knowing that they would only be solved once I was actually in Swaziland. Since my prior experience in Swaziland was as a Peace Corps Volunteer , I was resigned to do this the hard way- using my contacts in 3 of the regions I had experience with, taking the bus to the research site, staying overnight with host families and sleeping on the floor, and figured I would spend a considerable amount of time trying to find local Swazi’s to partner with.
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I walked for more than 2 hours a day to meet with active community members and worked extremely hard to “prove” myself to the leadership and community members. It took a long time to integrate into my community and for projects to start gaining momentum. So, I didn’t know what to expect this time around. I hoped that my previous experience would speed up the process some, but I had no idea what was in store for me.
Two weeks ago I sat across from the National Coordinator for RHMs at the Ministry of Health and had a meeting on how we would work together. We drafted a letter to each of the four regional clinic directors calling a meeting to discuss the research and ways they can support the project. We also discussed my ideas for helping mitigate stress for RHMs, which the coordinator liked and stated she would incorporate in the national plan, which rolls out in January. As I sat there, I started to pinch myself to make sure this was really happening!
During a previous meeting with my University of Swaziland supervisor, she encouraged me to increase my target number of participants from 200 to 1,000. She is also helping to recruit my research assistants, and the Dean of the Health Science department at the University has agreed to organize transportation so we can all ride to the research sites together. Every time we finish a meeting, my supervisor says, “this research will be very interesting!”
I’ve finally scraped my jaw off the floor and am on cloud nine. I certainly have gotten a research “upgrade.” Yebo!
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