Michelle Savard is a doctoral student in Education. Keenly interested in peace education and child protection, her research examines both the marginalization and the reintegration of formerly abducted young mothers in Northern Uganda. She has more than 20 years of experience designing, delivering and managing educational programs both nationally and internationally, which includes training for educators, police peacekeepers and social workers. She has co-edited a prestigious journal and coordinated the delivery of international conferences.
Blog post
Research abroad: Embrace your inner fool and move on
Navigating international research and bodas, buses and boo
If you’ve clicked on my profile, then you must be interested in research on the post-war reintegration of formerly abducted young mothers in Northern Uganda.
I am in the process of creating an ethnography which means delving into the hundreds of tragic stories that I’ve collected from these women over the last four years. No need to worry, in subsequent blogs my research will have you in tears and it will also make your blood boil at the injustice experienced by these women. If you don’t mind, I’d like to start blogging with a bit of levity that was inspired by a recent workshop I delivered with Drs. Holly Recchia and Bill Bukowski at Loyola.
Navigating international research
During this workshop, “Driving in foreign lands: What we have learned about collecting data in different cultural contexts” we had a great discussion with students about some of the cross-cultural challenges that surfaced as a result of conducting research abroad and we proposed some strategies. These challenges include:
- Working through a translator
- Establishing partnerships with local organizations
- Navigating bureaucracy in an unfamiliar culture
- Ensuring the integrity of the data collected
- Managing expectations of partners and participants and finding a means to give back to those who contributed to the research process in a way that is culturally appropriate.
We talked about how a researcher can impose Eurocentric values and practices and how that can leave a negative footprint behind. This speaks to the importance of the researcher engaging in reflexivity and uncovering personal biases throughout the field visit.
Conducting research abroad is indeed a great way to stretch yourself and your skill set but along the way, apart from your research, you are sure to commit multiple cultural faux pas. The best thing you can do is to embrace your inner fool and move on. Better yet, try and learn from ten of my gaffes described below.
Ten ways to NOT look like a fool while you are in Uganda
1. First of all, get a handle on left and right before you come here. At the airport, when Immigration asks you to put your LEFT hand in the glowing box for fingerprinting, do not put your right hand instead. This will cause a commotion. The officer will need to alert her supervisor as your fingerprints on your right hand will not match what Interpol has on file.
2. When you are in the capital city and you see stripes on the road and a sign that says, “Zebra Crossing”, do NOT ask your cab driver if there are zebras in Kampala. It’s a crosswalk. Just as there are no deer prancing down St. Catherine Street, there are no zebras crossing the road in Kampala.
3. The first time you are at somebody’s house for dinner and they offer you “boo”, (pronounced “bah”) a slimy vegetable that tastes like saliva) tell your host that you can only eat meat or desert. Actually, that’s a little culturally-insensitive. Eat the boo but send me a selfie when you take your first bite.
4. Do not assume that all motorcycles are boda bodas (taxis). I flagged one down and asked to be taken to the market. He drove me there and when I asked how much, he said, “I am not a boda. You were in such a hurry, I decided to drive you.”
5. Do not excessively simplify the way you speak as the national language in Uganda is English. I was with a colleague and I wanted to know if a boda driver could call a second boda. Rather than asking directly, I inanely asked, “Do you have a friend?” He said, “I have many friends. Why do you ask?”
6. As a young woman, if someone offers you ten cows for your hand in marriage, do not quote Air Canada Cargo Policy. Instead graciously decline or hold out for an additional three goats.
7. Do not scream like a girl when you see a bug. All the bugs here are supersized. That is, grasshoppers are three-inches long, millipedes are the length of your arm, and Uganda is home to the Goliath beetle: the biggest honking insect in the world. Sensitize yourself for your encounter with bugs and you will look really chill when your foreign colleagues are all jumping on chairs while you calmly watch one of these beetles wrestle a small dog.
8. If you happen to take a public bus from Gulu to Kampala do not sit in the back row. As the bus fills up, these five seats end up hosting up to ten people and you will end up with your face pasted to the window for six hours.
9. Do not sit in the front row as when the bus driver decides to pass two transport trucks while going up a hill… well it’s just best that you don’t see that.
10. When the bus stops to let passengers on and off, vendors will push everything from solar panels to pork-on-a-stick through the windows to make a sale. If live chickens come through, it is best to grab them by the feet and pass them down. I’ve learned that chickens get downright ornery when they are grabbed by the neck.
I hope I haven’t discouraged you from venturing beyond Point Claire. Experiencing Uganda, working with these amazing resilient women, navigating cross-cultural differences and stumbling through the research process has been one of the richest experiences of my life.
I suggest though that before you go: prepare well; plan your research carefully; line up partners and potential resources; and then be prepared to let it all go. Nearly nothing will go according to your plan but if you are determined, sincere and patient you will reach your objectives.
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