We’ll see: Adaptability in Field Work
Del Sumlar
2nd Year MPH Occupational & Environmental Epidemiology Student
My name is Del Sumlar, an Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology MPH 2nd year, and I worked with the Ministry of Social and Community Development in Grenada on disability inclusion.
A week before leaving for Grenada, my team and I had a lot of questions. We were eager to feel like we had everything under control; with only one week on the ground, surely the only way to get anything of value done would be to have the perfect plan laid out. They had given us many ideas about their priority areas for disability inclusion, they had provided plenty of reading material, and we had done our research. We felt that it was time to solidify our goals before arriving. However, when meeting with our Grenadian leadership representatives, we didn’t get all the answers we wanted. As my team presented our project ideas and asked clarifying questions, many times we were met with the same answer: “we’ll see.”
At first, I was a bit frustrated. Time was so limited, and we needed to schedule interviews with community members and advocacy leaders. We needed to prepare the perfect questions to ask them. We needed a framework and a clear goal to work towards.
We narrowed our sights as much as possible, but we knew we had to be flexible. My team and I traveled to Grenada unsure of what we would be presenting just a week later. Monday morning, we walked into the Ministry offices with a relatively broad set of interview questions and no idea who we would be asking them to. We hoped our first meeting would provide clarity, but I was personally left with more questions than answers.
While the goal of our final product was not yet clear, one thing was: they were passionate about creating change for the disability community in Grenada. Both the leadership team and key informants were excited to work with us, and I quickly realized my previous worries about scheduling interviews ahead of time weren’t necessary. People were willing to talk to us whenever they had the time.
As the key informants talked to us, themes emerged quickly. There were a few issues that people with disabilities on the island were facing daily, such as transportation accessibility, and some issues that people worried about for the future, such as emergency preparedness. No matter what issues the interviewee identified, everyone seemed to agree that it would take a collaborative effort to see the improvements they needed, and they were ready to be a part of that collaboration.
A task force for disability inclusion and accessibility was not a new idea. The Ministry had talked about it before, but even in our Monday meeting, they seemed a bit hesitant about the feasibility. However, after just a few days of interviews, we agreed that our goal should be taking steps towards creating this task force, and Ministry leadership was on board. Organizations seemed ready to participate, and people were eager to see changes that could only come about with this kind of concentrated effort.
While it might have felt scary to start a project without seeing the end goal, flexibility was the best and only path forward. The answers were there, but there is no way we could have known them ahead of time. Our Friday presentation was something to be proud of, and it was beyond what I ever could have imagined coming together in just one week.
