One student's (overly ambitious?) quest to collect all her dissertation data in three countries in 60 days.
We arrived safely in Swaziland late Sunday afternoon, checked into Veki’s Guesthouse where we met Rose, who takes good care of all the guests. We talked briefly with Rose, who taught us a few essential SiSwati phrases and then went for a drive to locate the Ministry of Health building, so we would be prepared […]
I still can’t believe I pulled it off. One country. 9 days. 5 key informant interviews. 4 focus groups. 10 expert reviews collected (so far). It’s certainly been a very full 2 weeks, and I feel like I’ve got more than enough for a dissertation already with two countries still to go. I honestly didn’t […]
I have now completed focus groups with two hospitals, one mission and one Government. I don’t feel that I’m learning nearly as much at the hospitals as I’m learning from the key informant interviews in terms of actual content. People are talking, and we’re getting some good examples of the benefits and types of issues […]
We had an amazing visit with my good friend, Qachile, and her family yesterday. She has the cutest grandson, Bohlokoa. We brought him a soccer ball and balloons, so he warmed up to us pretty quickly…we’re shameless! Tonight we’re driving up to Leribe to stay in the LeBoHA trailers for the night since we have […]
I have now conducted three of my key informant interviews. I am so thrilled to have real data. Lee Strunin and Barbara Bokhour (my qualitative methods professors) would be very proud of me as I am diligently taking detailed field notes after every interview and have begun my transcription. On Thursday, I had my first […]
Today was quite a roller coaster. Quite excited by the news yesterday that the Director General “agreed to approve” the study, I stayed up until 3:00 am printing 25 surveys for delivery to leaders at 3 hospitals over the course of a day (it took 17 minutes to print each 42-page packet and I already […]
My day was made today when the Director General agreed to approve my research. I’m still waiting for the official signed approval, but I’m fairly confident that I’ll get the letter tomorrow morning, at least I hope so since the plan is to deliver all the surveys tomorrow. We are now asking our experts to […]
Our flight landed safely in Johannesburg only a couple hours behind schedule. Both of us were quite impressed with the food on the plane…Milano cookies and perfect strawberries!!! Then we hopped into the cutest, bluest little car. We got a little lost, but Elena’s navigation skills got us back on track and we only went […]
It’s D-day. That’s right, Departure day. Ready or not (and it’s mostly not), here I come. Despite the fact that nothing is ready and I have no idea whether or not I will succeed in collecting the data I need to collect, I am pretty psyched about this adventure. I have not enjoyed the waiting […]
My departure is now only 12 days away…that’s less time than I will have to collect my data in each country. I am still waiting on the approval from each country, and I’ve hardly coordinated any logistics. Nonetheless, I’m getting on a plane on May 28th and am determined to get the data I need […]
