Research in Uganda: a work in progress

I'm beginning to understand why I couldn't find much literature of research in Africa. From language barriers to far-less-than-ideal experimental conditions, collecting clean data is near impossible. And "African time" is living up to its reputation. A week and a half since arriving here, I finally started my project. I'm very quickly learning to be patient and to tame my type-A need for efficiency and busyness.

After an extensive lit review and conversations with Winnie--the center's counselor-- I've decided to look primarily at the possible executive function (EF)* deficits resulting from intense prolonged childhood trauma. Yes, that's pretty vague, but so is the literature. So I'm starting broad and will hopefully be able to narrow down to more specific problems as I collect more data. I started yesterday with the simplest and oldest EF test in the book-- digit span**. I'm glad I did, because running that simple test was far more complicated and confound-ridden than I expected. In designing the next tests (which will undoubtedly be more complicated and more sensitive to confounds), I will have to take great care to make sure they run as smoothly as possible. I'm trying to minimize use of the computer in these tests (as most of the girls are not familiar with computers), which adds another difficulty in design and data collection... wish me luck.

In other news, I'm settling into life here. Bosco (our driver) is teaching me some Luo (the language of the northern Uganda Acholi people). Most of my vocabulary consists of food names and random greetings (which I butcher), but I'm determined to successfully carry a short conversation with a Ugandan by the end of the summer.

P.s. I'm at a cafe right now about to watch the Uganda Cranes play Liberia in football. Who do I cheer for??

And finally, more pictures:

Our stray kitty. We feed her our scraps, but she runs away every time we get close. I'm determined to hold her by the end of the summer.

Adorable kitty in a tree

The Acholi people have their fill of superstitions. Frogs, like caterpillars, are assumed to be poisonous. They say that they will hold a snake before holding a frog!

More of beautiful baby Ivan

Blessing loves hanging with the Mzungu (white person)

Just chillin'

Classic dish- posho (ground maize/white corn) and morongo (beans)

* Executive function is a broad term used to refer to frontal lobe cognitive processes, such as planning, decision making, working memory, and attention.

** The digit span task is a simple test of working memory-- the kind of memory you use when holding information in your mind (for example, reading a phone number and remembering it until you walk across the room to your phone to dial it). It presents you with a sequence of numbers, which you then repeat from memory. The length of the sequence increases by 1 until you can no longer remember all of the numbers-- hence giving an estimate of your working memory span (or how many pieces of information you can hold in mind at once).