Muddling around the edges

I really feel like I am just muddling around the edges of the topic at the moment... doing some literature searching and reading but not feeling like I'm making any progress.  I guess it's still early days.
It doesn't help that there appears to be very little literature on the topic of short term medical missions.  Of course, I knew this was the case before I even started and the lack of literature was one of the justifications I gave in my proposal for doing this research.  At the moment I have a stack of mission "reports" and personal reflections, and a range of literature addressing such diverse but related topics as NGO's in health care, international medicine and nursing and transcultural care. And I'm gradually building a collection of information on health and health care in Honduras. But I'm still working out what I'm going to do with it.... guess if I keep reading it will all fall into place in time.
I felt a little reassured yesterday talking to an acquaintance who has already been through the research process (several times I suspect)... Apparently it is very normal to feel lost at this stage.  I'm actually not particularly worried about the process of writing the thesis, my concern is in my ability to actually collect the data- designing and carrying out the research itself.  But I have been assured that writing is actually the harder part.  I hope that's true...