new research project

I have some good pictures to post but I lack the ambition and time to post them at the moment. I have to get ready for a Valentine's day dinner :) Pictures soon though, for real.

I have started a new project at my internship. A new intern came last week which is a refreshing experience. With her, she brought the opportunity for me to help with research.

So here’s the deal. The Rwandan Parliament asked RDCG to write a report about the psychosocial state of the last generation of genocide survivors, the government calls them youth… they are 18-35 years old. The report should also focus on what services the survivors are receiving and highlight gaps and redundancies in services. 

RDCG staff conducted interviews with roughly 200 survivors. Half male, half female. Varying in degrees of education. The interviews were recorded and are now being transcribed. Zoe (the new intern) and I are developing a coding method  for them to use in analyzing the transcriptions. RDCG also gathered data by holding focus groups for service providers to discuss services and benefits for survivors. The meetings were Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. 

We will be meeting regularly to fine tune the research plan and run a pilot study in English so that Zoe and I can help out with the coding part. 

I am excited to be working on something new and I get to have another female in the office which is also nice.

Things that have made me very happy this week: Coding, getting excited for Kampala, discovering my proximity to a place that sells real coffee, getting sunglasses

Biggest annoyances this week: taking a cumulative two hour trip to a bus station to exchange our tickets only to find that the ticket office was closed and going to Turkish Airlines today to rebook my flight for after the commemoration only to have the woman try to con me out of $70. I checked the rebooking fee online before I left and she refused to accept any form of payment except cash and wanted to charge me an extra $70.