Coming Full Circle
A passion for anthropology brought Getrude Finyiza all the way from Malawi to æģ»īapp. Sheās going back home as a researcher on a mission.
When Getrude Finyiza was a high school student in Mangochi, Malawi, a friend told her about an unusual job she saw in the newspaper that she thought Getrude would like.
āAn anthropology student from Europe was looking for a research assistant,ā she recalls. āThe student wanted someone who knew the local culture and language and enjoyed interacting with people.ā But they also wanted someone who had never been to university because the work was in rural areas. āPeople who went to college didnāt want to work in the villages."
Getrude, who wasnāt sure what she wanted to do after high school, decided to apply. The youngest of six children, she says she was flexible and open to new experiences and traveling around her country. Little did she know that the decision would lead to her working for more than a decade with PhD students from around the world and, eventually, coming to the æģ»īapp to study herself.
She worked for researchers from Europe and the U.S., from the University of Amsterdam, the University of Chicago, the London School of Economics and the University of Oslo, among others. She worked throughout her time as a student at Skyway University, in Lilongwe, Malawiās capital city, where she completed her bachelorās degree in project management.
Getrudeās interest in anthropology grew over the years, as she helped conduct studies in many of the 28 different districts in Malawiāeach with its own culture, language and norms.
āThere were tribes that had specific rituals they follow when someone dies, for example. We didnāt have any rituals where I came from, so it was different,ā Getrude says. She had to learn languages quickly to do her job. āI would have someone in the community teach me some of the words and, if I didnāt understand, I would ask little by little, and I started getting used to different languages.āĢżĢż
Getrude began exploring anthropology programs in Malawi and found that there was only oneāand it had just two or three students. So, she started looking at programs in the United States, specifically, the University of Chicago and æģ»īapp. æģ»īapp was the first program to accept her.
'Now, I can do my own research'
By the time Getrude enrolled at æģ»īapp, she was married and had a baby daughter. In the fall of 2022, she and her family moved to Denver, sight unseen. They settled into an apartment close to campus and her husband, Nebert, who has a bachelorās degree in community development from a college in Malawi, took care of their daughter while Getrude dove into her studies.
Almost immediately, she also started a job as a desk assistant in æģ»īappās Housing and Residential Education office. Although Getrude already knew English, she says, āI thought it would help me get used to people around here. I talk to different people every day when they ask for keys or ask for other things. I thought I could get used to the way they speak so that I can understand better.ā
Her classes, too, provided learning opportunities right away. She says that, despite her many years working as a research assistant, there was a lot she didnāt know. āI was just doing my job without knowing what I was doing sometimes. And I was working for others,ā she says.
She learned about ethnographic research methods and how to collect and analyze data using a variety of softwareāsomething she had never done before. āNow,ā she says, āI can do my own research.ā
Getrude notes that she was helped along the way by her supervisor, professor Alejandro CerĆ³n, who checked in on her progress and made sure she was going in the right direction academically. She also worked as a research assistant for him, learning how to work with data from the archiveāsomething else she had never done.
She says her classmates were also helpful. āAt first, I was scared. In class, I was thinking, āAre they going to understand me? Maybe theyāll just look at me.ā But everyone was very nice. If I didnāt understand something, my friends would explain it to me after class. We had lots of group discussions, which I liked a lot.ā
Last summer, Getrude had the opportunity to put what sheās learned to use when she returned to Malawi to conduct research with HIV-positive pregnant women on the prevention of vertical transmission (passing HIV from mother to baby). She worked at a health center in Mbela, a village in the southern part of the countryāwhere she had worked as a research assistant many years ago.
That was just the beginning of Getrudeās full-circle journey. After she graduates in Juneāand after Nebert finishes his masterās degree in higher education at æģ»īappāthey plan to return to Malawi. Her goal is to set up a research consultancy firm, where she will once again help students and faculty who want to conduct research in Africaābut this time, as their guide.
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