Chris in Uganda

[Chris] My travel to Uganda is for a research project testing the feasibility of a parenting intervention for traumatized and under-resourced communities. If you don’t know, I’m working on my Ph.D. in Couples and Family Therapy (same area as my M.A.) at the UofM and my primary research interest is systemic interventions for communities affected by mass, interpersonal traumatic events. If you aren’t familiar with northern Uganda you can find lots of info online (especially with the recent increased attention to Joseph Kony). I also highly recommend the documentary War Dance, which tells the story of three children affected by the LRA. The children in the documentary are Acholi – the same people with whom we will be working.

During my time there, I’ll be co-leading the 8-9 session intervention with my advisor, Dr. Wieling, and will be there by myself collecting data for a few weeks after she leaves. Dr. Wieling is conducting this research with colleagues in Germany from an NGO called Victim’s Voice. A few months ago we traveled to Germany to prepare for this project and one of the students I met in Germany is already there conducting her own study and will help us for the first month of our project. She tells me that they finally got rid of the cockroaches in the part of the house that I’ll be staying in while I’m there. She also said that the outdoor latrine is “lively,” and that after having an electrician over they finally feel comfortable turning the power back on to my part of the house. So it sounds like everything is coming together nicely.

I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to participate in this work after only one year in my Ph.D. program. This is the area of work that I hope spend my life on and having these experiences while I’m still a student are invaluable. Of course, as passionate as I am about this work, there have been many tough decisions and sacrifices at every stage of decision making. And I certainly couldn’t do this all without the most supportive and wonderful wife in the world.