How to make sense of it all

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my single post this summer. Things got crazy and blogging just wasn’t high on my list of priorities. But I did keep quite a detailed journal, so at least I have some record of all that went on and how I felt about it.

Now that I’m back at school, I’m doing an Independent Study project through the Gender Studies department on Gender in Uganda. I’m hoping to use my personal experiences to make a broader statement about gender. It seems like my work is going in a cultural relativist direction – yes, it sort of sucks to be a woman in Uganda, but what can I, as a western student, do about it? How can visitors or NGO workers negotiate between cultures while maintaining their own values?

I’ve begun researching international development, women in Uganda, and cultural relativity. Hopefully I can take all of this information and maybe help some other idealistic westerner deal with cross-cultural gender relations.

Let me know if you have any ideas. I’m planning to blog my research process and would like all the help I can get!