Good evening!
Today is Friday, August 11th, 2023. This was the Ukweli 2023 team’s fifth full day in Sierra Leone.
Today was a lowkey day, allowing us the time to dive deep into our interview questions after observing yesterday’s mock interviews. It is important to make sure each question is crystal clear in its intent, simple, and easy to grasp. We sat down for a couple of hours this morning to review our questions. We also took time to think forward, brainstorming about potential paper topics that could bloom from our research focus.
A few of our yes or no questions (e.g., “Have you heard of cervical cancer?”) are simple and the most pivotal in commanding support for health crises. Looking at last year’s research, Sierra Leoneans who were aware of cervical cancer universally agreed that educating about cervical cancer is paramount–yet barely anyone gets proper education on it. We are very mindful not to expect what we may hear from women. Yet, given the urgency our connections so far have discussed the cervical cancer crisis with, the depth we anticipate hearing about the issue with is undeniable.
The World Hope International office in Makeni has become our second home.
Our team also got to add new locations to our planned list! We aim to get ten locations locked in, and with two groups, that’s ten interviews each at all locations. Mohammed Jawara gave us a great hand in picking new spots! Jawara knows the local scene like the back of his hand.
After our review, we had another meeting with Edwin Abu. He is a multilingual cervical cancer expert. Edwin helped us navigate the translations that were originally generated with ChatGPT, refined by us, and tested in the mock interviews with Memunatu and Alieu. We used the feedback from our session to ensure the questions were simple enough for anyone to understand.
A common issue is that while our translations from Krio to English are technically correct, sophisticated language led to some uncertainty in our mock interviews yesterday. The ladies we spoke to were incredibly gifted in English, so we could jump in to further explain what we were thinking through each question. But most people we interview will not have the same bilingual abilities. We hope to get a holistic understanding of what cervical cancer knowledge looks like for each woman.
The last two days have been a long process of sharpening our interviewing ability for fieldwork. We also recognize that nothing will give us experience quite like the first day as well, and more changes are to come!
Beautiful mountainside visible from the office.
This afternoon, we had a fantastic catch-up with Ukweli legend Noah Weaver. As a team member and having done over one hundred interviews last year, Noah’s insight on preparing for the experience was very helpful. Noah is doing great, by the way! He graduated this last semester and is very enthusiastic about his new job in chromatography.
We had questions for Noah centered on the techniques he and Ukweli 2022 employed during their interviews. A great piece of advice Noah signified was to be mindful of our non-verbal cues, as English will not be very useful during our introductions. Noah emphasized our body language should be warm, friendly, and caring without becoming overwhelming. Noah has a fantastic mindset when approaching research; he told us to remember that we are visitors and treat every interaction with the anticipation that we must approach everyone with kindness and openness.
Noah stressed the importance of recording verbal consent which is more culturally appropriate than written consent in Sierra Leone. Written consent for these semi-structured interviews is inappropriate and intimidating. It would almost certainly compromise the authenticity of our findings, or stunt the interview capacity as a whole.
From our short experience here, it makes sense. There are often no written or signed agreements made, unless for specific governmental business. Striking a balance between avoiding coercion and ensuring that we don’t leave participants uninformed is something we are cognizant of.
The birds are smaller, louder, and chiller in Africa.
Our team had an important discussion today about what to do when women do not know about cervical cancer or human papillomavirus. Noah said the approach employed by the previous team if a woman was not aware of cervical cancer was delivering succinct information on its danger and symptoms. Sometimes, we catch ourselves thinking that women not be forwardly engaged during our research, but Noah assured that people are generally extremely interested and grateful to learn about key health information when the information is delivered mindfully.
The sequence of our questions also came up in our conversation. It is essential to structure the interview in a neutral manner that avoids leading to preconceived outcomes. With practice, we will be able to actively recall the questions and facilitate organic, unrehearsed conversations, which is particularly imperative given the topic’s sensitive nature.
Torrential downpour in Makeni.
Overall, getting to this stage is super exciting. We all are very antsy to get out and do our research! Sadly, today was another day of waiting for the Institutional Review Board’s approval of our study. There is no sign of when things may move along. The process of paperwork is very bureaucratic in Sierra Leone. All we can do is hope and be grateful for the experiences of each day.
Today, we got to have delicious banana bread! We enjoyed a truck bed ride through torrential downpours. We danced on the veranda. Best of all, our fourth team member, Lorraine Rwasoka, arrived tonight! It is such a joy to see her. We played chess and cards all night together, laughing and happy. We’re grateful that nearly the whole Ukweli family is finally together.
Brooke Lee is an champion at Egyptian Rat Screw.
Until next time, yours truly,
Ukweli 2023