Field Work Begins!

After 3 weeks of background research, NGO interviews, and other preparation, I finally got to start my field work this week. I am planning on visiting about 5 BRAC branches to conduct focus groups with microfinance women, interview community health promoters (CHPs), and talk to other community members in their homes about sanitation. To test out the waters, I started with the Kalerwe branch in Kampala, which is considered one of the urban slum areas.

On all my field visits I am accompanied by my research assistant, Allen, who is great and we work well together. She is a crucial part of my research because in the Kampala area the interviews are conducted all in the local language, Luganda, and she is also critical in helping me find my way around to all the different towns. On Thursday we first went to arrange my focus group and CHP interviews for Saturday with the branch manager since it is easier to do in person. The only reason I am conducting focus groups with the microfinance women in particular is because there are always multiple groups that meet on any given day and therefore are easy to access.

Because I also want to get input from the general community, after we met the branch people we went into the residential areas to just talk to whoever was around. The branch is located in a less “slummy” area so I didn’t think it was as bad as the traditional slums I have learned about. Homes were small and very basic, and there was trash in the street and drains as usual, but other than that it was pretty decent. We would basically find women who were around their homes, usually preparing meals or doing laundry (men are around too but never seem to be doing any work, they also are just not really interested in talking to us) and asked if we could ask them some questions about sanitation.

Everyone was willing to talk to us and we interviewed women in four households. They were all really pleasant and really got a kick out of it when I used the three Luganda phrases I’ve learned: “oli otya” (how are you), “webale nyo” (thank you), and “nyabo” (how you address a woman). Some of the households we were at had a lot of kids running around too, and they would get really excited when we walked by, yelling “mzungu” (white person, yes I am now lumped into that category) and waving. Mzungu isn’t a derogatory term here at all, its just what all white people are called, and you definitely hear it often enough as there are not that many foreigners in Uganda and it’s a novelty for a lot of people. I’m always surprised at the positive image the children seem to have of westerners and how excited they get, given the history of treatment of Africans by whites, but I guess most of that was before their time. Here are some pictures from Thursday:


neighborhood where I did the interviews




The kid in the middle kept yelling "mzungu" at me and waving during the whole interview. Also, the popular choice of toy here seems to be tires, and sticks to push them around with


On Saturday I returned to the same branch because it was the only day I could catch both a focus group of microfinance women and also some CHPs at the branch. The microfinance groups meet in the respective villages around the branch where BRAC works, so I had to be there bright and early at 7 am to go with the credit officer to the village where she was meeting the group that day. After about a 10 minute taxi ride we arrived at the village, and the credit officer convened about 20 women who constitute this microfinance group. Each week the meeting starts with role call, and then the credit officer will have a discussion with the women on a topic for the week, such as health, caring for their children, etc. After the discussion each woman pays back her weekly installment of her loan. The credit officer actually is not the one who collects the money, but rather there is a leader of the group in the village who is elected by the group to be in charge of collecting and keeping track of the money. This leader has the responsibility of taking this money to the branch each week, which will then pay back the bank.

Once the official meeting was over we gathered 10 of the women to be a part of our focus group. They were quite open and we managed to keep their attention for about 45 minutes or so as they shared their complaints about the sanitation and hygiene in their community. Towards the end of the interview the women lost focus because there was a commotion behind us with another microfinance group that was meeting. A man was yelling at the women and they were arguing back, all in Luganda so I wasn’t sure what was going on at first. It turns out that his wife is a member of the microfinance group, was late on a payment, and didn’t show up to the meeting. The credit officer went to their house to find her and the husband got very angry that she had come by looking for the loan repayment, even though it is one of the basic requirements of being a microfinance member. He came back out to the group meeting and began verbally abusing all the women but they had strength in numbers and eventually chased him away, ridiculing him as he left. It was a comical end to my first field visit, I’m definitely looking forward to more in the future!

Pictures from Saturday below:

Village where the microfinance group lives

Microfinance group meeting

Who wants to be in my focus group?

Village group leader - collecting and documenting all the money being repaid

Typical latrine in this village, its raised because there are floods in the rainy season

Their drainage system. There is no system of disposing of trash (without paying a lot of money) so most of the trash ends up here. Also a breeding ground for mosquitos


Second microfinance group that meets after the women I talked to


I think this is a pretend vehicle of some sort. These kids were nonstop yelling "mzungo" at me as well