Blog
Gracie and Chanell
May 16th,
2016
Today’s blog is a slightly
different; this one will focus more on self-care than research. After an emotionally
draining yet exciting Sunday at Hope for Youth, Monday was a much needed day to
process and rewind. Due to an unexpected injury to one of our team members, we
had to cancel our trip to Kampala. Although upset at our team member being
injured, we were grateful for a break. Instead we decided to use Monday to rest
and process. Kristin suggested we started meeting in circle which was actually
a great idea. We meet for circle in the afternoon communicating our thoughts,
processing the Hope for Youth trip and what we needed for the remainder of our
time here in Uganda. Sadly we were also informed one of the babies we meet at
Hope For Youth passed away due to illness. As a result of this information we
were left feeling hurt and sad, an even more of an indication we needed to just
chill out.
In regards to one of our team member injuring
her ankle, she was taken to the hospital to have her ankle x-rayed evaluated. Thankfully
her ankle was just strained with no further damage. After lunch we also met
with Uncle Peter from Hope for Youth giving him the donations as well as
processing with him the trip to the school. We informed him of a few of our
concerns and he explained and reassure of their code of conduct.
Although we didn’t
do anything research related Monday, it was great to just sit down and breathe
for a moment. When we arrived into Entebbe last Tuesday we came in and hit the
ground running. Between traveling to Uganda, Jinja, in the field data collection
and the Hope For Youth visit, there has been no real rest. When there is a lack
of self-care and rest we can easily result in burn out. By the end of Sunday night
you could view the looks of fatigue, irritation and wariness in our body
language. As social workers especially
those in research and doing field work, it is imperative to our work as well as
service to remember self-care.
In the evening a
few girls left to get their hair braided and the rest traveled with a HNUE
worker to have dresses made. Taking time
out for self to rejuvenate was very beneficial. After rest we can concentrate
on finishing our research on a strong note. Cheers to self-care.
