Abstract
The aim of this article is to describe the role of the researcher in getting objective and valid data in ethnographic fieldwork in a foreign culture. The paper is based on an ethnographic research project, which dealt the cultural care among the Bena in the village of Ilembula in Tanzania. Cultural care refers to culturally learned activities aiming at assisting, supporting, facilitating or enabling the improvement of health condition. The data were collected through interviews, participant observation and personal working diaries. Sixty-one villagers were interviewed. The data was analyzed by inductive qualitative content analysis method. The article shows how significant for the researcher it is to build up the relationship with the key persons of the community in order to become accepted and find informants, who are capable to explain cultural beliefs and practices. Language barrier and the role of the research assistants are in focus when evaluating relevance of the data collection. The researcher has to be aware of her background and reflect her experience, feelings, thoughts and ideas throughout the fieldwork The final conclusion is that in cultural encounter the researcher is able to learn about other cultures to one degree or another. The purpose of the article is to encourage nurse researchers to cross cultural barriers.