Lessons in research.

I am now half way through my in-field research in rural Blantyre, Malawi. I aim to conduct semi-structured interviews with close to 50 savings group participants to find out gendered information regarding why people joined and what they do with their money. I am hoping to see a difference between men and women but so far my research has not really confirmed such a theory. Anyway, the research is going well and the villagers seem to be very excited to see us for the most part. I think white people coming is a big event in small villages like the ones we are going to. Everyone waves and children all run after our car.

My interpreter is named Alfred and I he is a teacher assistant, meaning he is not employed by the government but rather by the local village members. His English is decent though I have difficulty understanding him and find that he is unable to translate word for word. As such, my research has not been going as perfectly as planned, nor have I been getting the amount or quality of data I had hoped for but I guess that is just all part of the learning process!

TIA (This Is Africa) Highlights of the Week:

1. The sliding door of my minibus taxi completely fell off the vehicle on the way home. Men shoved it back on and we continued on our way with some passengers having to exit through the window. No big deal here apparently.

2. Sitting under a tree, eating lunch while listening to the local people discuss their very real belief in magic; maize meal is made through magic, you can be killed by magic when the wrong person looks at you, and Hitler had a coat of magic that now resides in a museum so no one can get to it.

3. We passed through a rural primary school en-route to our research location and at least fifty children dropped what they were doing and ran behind our car screaming and waving for close to a kilometre. I guess I now know how it feels to be a celebrity!