Push Back 6/26/18

Today we met with our group this morning to go over the feedback from yesterday that Dr. Cathorall gave on our program ideas. I didn’t mention them in yesterday’s blog, but we basically decided on an HIV program, similar to what we had previously planned with some some additional steps, and a sanitation/personal hygiene education/demonstration program as well. When we spoke with the group about this idea previously everyone was on board….or so we thought. Today when we were discussing it again the team was having a lot of side conversations and it seemed like they weren’t so sure anymore. When we asked they expressed that they felt only one program was needed and out of the two, they wanted to focus on sanitation. We tried to explain that in the time they had left only doing one program wouldn’t be enough. In addition, the Ndejje field work paper calls for a focus on two issues, so regardless of completing two programs or one, they would still have to focus on two issues in the assignment. This is when I started to get the feeling I often get when we discuss plans in the group. On one hand, Haley and I never want to make the team feel like they automatically have to go with our ideas, or feel like they need to do what we want and how we want it. On the other hand, the team sometimes isn’t very actively participating in the discussions we have and when we ask for feedback or opinions, everyone just kind of sits in silence. Then we end up doing research, constructing questions, or planning activities based on everyone agreeing, and by the next day, no one is even on the same page anymore. It’s very frustrating to feel like maybe they just aren’t being very open with us about what they might be thinking on how they would like to approach things. I would really like more active interaction and contribution from the team, but sometimes it feels like we are literally trying to force them to talk. At this point we really have no time left, the clock is winding down and in this moment I feel like we are standing stagnant. We spoke with Dr. Cathorall again to let her know that things had changed, and then as a group had a meeting with her. She expressed to the group the same things that we had told them earlier and they agreed to include the HIV program, but without the focus in schools, just with the community members. One might see this as a success, but I still feel that feeling of the group agreeing with this plan only because it’s like it’s being enforced for them to do so. I really don’t feel good about it, but I’m not sure what else to do.