Rethinking

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot do this research the traditional way. I have tried to do a good review of the literature prior to fieldwork but just seem to get further and further away from the topic. There just isn't really anything much out there about Short Term Medical Missions, and while there is a lot on the larger context- NGOs and health, international health and so on, it doesn't really address my concerns. In fact my concerns have changed direction yet again. I am becoming more interested in Medical Missions as a symptom of larger issues. That sounds a little callous when discussing groups that are essentially doing "good", but it makes some sense to me. The larger issues I'm starting to see are dependency, paternalism and the dominance of western medicine and culture. These are all good development studies ideas but may prove to big to address in a Masters level thesis.
So the literature review is on ice until the feildwork is completed. I'm essentially going to do a slightly modified grounded theory type study, where the theory will come from the fieldwork. I need to hear what the people have to say- the patients and community, local health professionals and the teams themselves. Only then can I go back to the literature and see if there are any parallels. It's a challenging way to do it but since making this decision I feel a lot more excited about the research again.