Is there anyone at Birmingham with recent experience of Ugandan fieldwork? If so, I'd suggest meeting for coffee. If not, I think I'd be looking for anyone at a UK university who has - I suspect there may be big differences between what should be possible and what is possible and the personal experience would be most helpful. Africanists tend to be nice people!
On medical insurance, you should ask the university insurance office whether there's a policy covering postgrad fieldwork (there is at my uni) - and what exclusions there are. I don't know if you've done the health and safety forms yet (and do them well in advance and thoroughly!) but that might set also limits on what you can and can't do.