Week 7- Waiting... for Interviews

I sat waiting in a cafeteria at a medical student dormitory for an hour before calling it a day.  Every time a door would open I would turn around to look.  I would sigh, as it was a worker coming in or leaving the kitchen. I had laid out all of my materials- notebook, audio recorder, consent forms, pens.  I had been waiting for interview participants for my research project.  I had been told that a group of five 5th-year medical students would be gathered when I got there so we could have a focus group session.  I got to the medical school early and waited for my contact to pick me up.  He was 5 minutes late but I wasn’t concerned because nothing here starts on time.  On our walk up to the dorm he told me that he hadn’t actually spoken to any students but he was sure I could gather enough people at the dorm.  Finals were starting the following week so I was doubtful that I could persuade anyone.  As we walked up to the entrance of the dorm, my contact introduced me to several men that were there.  Half way through my “hello, my name is” speech, my contact said he thought I would be okay so he was leaving.  Feeling a bit nervous, I went on with my speech, asking if anyone would be interested in being interviewed.
    No one volunteered. One guy asked me where my research office was. I explained that I was a student so I was interviewing participants in a variety of locations based on their convenience.  Apparently that wasn’t a good answer.  The same guy told me I should get my contact to organize people for me (I thought I had?) and come back. I told them I’d sit in the cafeteria adjacent to us if anyone would be interested in being interviewed. I thought, “So much for the focus group idea. At this point, I just need data whether in a focus group or individual interviews.”  So, I sat and waited.  One student who was in the group I spoke to came in to be interviewed.  I got the feeling that he agreed out of pity for me. After our short interview I waited around. I texted my contact that no one else had showed up. He assured me again that people would once dinner started. Once dinner started? I felt like an ambulance chaser on the hunt for interview participants.  However, I waited for another hour thinking dinner had to be soon. It was already 6pm by this point.  Unfortunately, no one else came. Dinner must be served late. So, after an hour of waiting, I packed it in.
    Interviewing participants has been incredibly difficult given students’ time constraints and the unreliability of people to show up.  In the United States I live my life by a calendar. I try to be no less than 15 minutes early to everything and have my life color-coded by type of activity: work, personal, school, etc.  Here in Uganda, things don’t work this way.  Unpredicted situations always seem to arise and estimated travel times are never a reliable estimate.  Plans are never confirmed more than 12 hours in advance because situations are constantly changing.  This had made the process of gathering interviews difficult given our own limited time schedules.  Despite being here 7 weeks now, I’ve still yet to adjust and plan for the delays. 

Location: Kampala, Uganda