blog post 4: research reflection

Being able to conduct meaningful research has been one of the best aspects of my experience in Zambia. However, preparing my research topic has not been easy. For one, my topic focuses on climate change issues and environmental legislation. Neither of these fields are a part of my course work at Cornell.  Not only are environmental issues not my specialty or where I see my career going, looking at and analyzing policy has proven to be very difficult considering I have little to no experience in the area. Additionally, climate change is a very big issue. It affects many part of the world and there is no way to anticipate how an area will be affected by climate change issues. In most cases, actions concerning preserving the environment only come into effect after the damage from climate change is already done. As student working on the issue for two months, it often felt impossible to tackle such a big topic. Living in Zambia also made things even more difficult. Not only does Zambia lack the resources needed to tackle climate change issues, the climate change issue that Zambia faces are different from those faced by the United States. As a result, the majority of my time in Zambia was spent learning about current legislation in Zambia and the ways Zambians contribute and are affected by climate change.

Although my topic required a lot of time, I am very happy that I was able to learn about climate change issues in Zambia. I feel like my topic was a current concern for a lot of people in Zambia. Many of the organizations we interviewed were very aware of the current state of climate change in Zambia. Many people were interested in the subject and wanted to get involved in the area. Even our organization, Actionaid, has climate change and environmental issues as one of their top priorities. Conducting this type of research was very fulfilling because it feels like many people and organization who are interested in getting involved in climate change issues will genuinely benefit from our paper.

In order to effectively work in my new environment, I’ve had to force myself to set deadlines and plan ahead. Not having access to wifi at abundant life was a huge obstacle especially when we began writing our research paper. Somedays, the majority of my work days would be spent responding to emails, conducting interviews, and downloading environmental legislations to read at night. Additionally, my research experience forced me to be accountable for my own work. Because our topic is so specific, few people have worked on it. This adds a lot of pressure but at the same time makes me want to present my best work.