Hello blogosphere! I’m a rising senior, double majoring in Anthropology and Biobehavioral Health and minoring in Global Health. With my belief that health is a universal human right, I’m pursuing a career in public health. I aspire to work in under-resourced areas, both domestically and internationally, using my research and advocacy skills to help people lead healthier lives. I’m also a local, from the State College area, but this summer I have the opportunity to travel out of the continent—and my comfort zone. Welcome to Senegal!

(This is a picture of the beach, so close to my apartment, it’s practically my backyard. Jealous yet?)

I have the pleasure of spending six weeks of my summer (almost five weeks down, a week and a half left!) in the beachside town of M’Bour, Senegal, as part of a fieldwork component for the Global Health minor. While there, I have been shadowing doctors at the local hospital, assisting in research about traditional healers, and conducting my own research on caregivers of diabetic patients. Along the way, I have been learning Senegalese culture, acquiring some Wolof, strengthening my French, and making new friends.

The biggest thing that I am doing here, thanks to funding from the College of HHD, is research for my thesis. Working with Dr. Rhonda BeLue, I’m studying whether caregivers, through their role in helping diabetic patients, are more motivated to prevent diabetes by changing their own health behaviors. This is one of the first times I’ve conducted research interviews, and they aren’t as simple or easy as they may seem on paper. So far, I’ve been learning more about the research process than about caregivers!

Firstly, interviews are long and exhausting. We ask people open-ended questions because we’re conducting qualitative research and because we want participants to tell us their own stories. However, this means every participant’s interview takes between thirty to forty minutes. Some days, I interview eight consecutive participants, totaling about four continuous hours, asking each the same questions, end on end.

Secondly, it is not only the relationship between the participant and I that matters during the interview, but also the relationship between me and my translator. This relationship is not something I have considered before, because it is rarely mentioned in academic articles. In order to have the best working relationship, we both have to respect and be patient with one another. Thankfully, I have been given a good-natured translator who has been working with his tedious and detail-oriented student patiently and tirelessly.

Finally, over the course of collecting data, my conclusions sometimes become unclear. I’m getting some of the answers I have expected to get, but I’ve also gotten some surprising ones I didn’t.

The shocking thing is that these interviews aren’t even the bulk of my work. Upon returning home, I have to compile and analyze my data, a task that is at once daunting and exciting. It’s a good thing I like the work I’m doing, and I look forward to discovering my conclusions!