So there have been many changes since my last post....

Practicum is not going as smoothly as I had anticipated, but being that I'm in Uganda, that should have been expected.

I met with my advisor last night who pretty much knows everything there is to know about refugees so he is perfect for my project, but he's also a little scary. I haven't quite figured him out but basically he doesn't smile and is very unenthusiastic, but he's also the encyclopedia on refugees so although he's incredibly intimidating, I'm lucky to have him as my advisor. When we met last night he advised me against going to two settlements because he thinks the majority of my research will be in Kampala. He also recommended that I interview people from the US and Canadian embassies in Kampala in addition to UNHCR and OPM. Last night I was feeling pretty good about my research plan, but then today I met with my AD (academic director) to tell her what Moses said about my research. She disagreed with him and said I should go to both settlements, then said I shouldn't even bother making appointments at the embassies and should just walk there and ask to speak to someone. She also forgot that I was planning on leaving on monday for Hoima and said maybe I should postpone leaving in case the embassies can meet with me next week. Then at the end of our meeting she told me not to worry about figuring out if I'm going to one or two settlements and that we'd discuss it later...when is later!? It's thursday and I'm leaving on monday!

I left that meeting so frustrated. I don't feel like she listened to anything I said and then contradicted what Moses had said. I left there feeling so confused about where my research was heading. But now, hours later, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to listen to her and instead follow Moses' advice because he is the expert on this topic and has spent a considerable amount of time at Kyangwali and knows how best to go about research in the field. So that being said I think, well as of now, that I'll leave for kyangwali on monday, stay there for 2 weeks and then come back to Kampala to do interviews.

My day got way more frustrating as I attempted to do research at SIT today. First, I was able to find a ton of articles online about resettlement and refugees from protracted conflicts, so I saved them onto my flash drive. Then I went to print them and the SIT printer ran out of paper and ink at the same time. So I decided to wait until tomorrow and make phone calls instead. But when I went to use the SIT phone, there was no airtime on the phone! So now I'm writing this post to complain about my day, but once I finish this I'm heading out with my friends Courtney and Derrick to grab a beer because today is a day that deserves a beer.