English Club

Hi! I’ve finally started working on the projects, and have gotten more accustomed to life in Leogane! Yesterday and today, we spent the morning with our interpreters. We recruited a total of 36 people for the focus groups that we’re holding on Monday and Tuesday. We also found a nice place to hold our focus groups. A man in the area had a nice yard with shade, and we asked him if we could hold the focus groups there on Monday and Tuesday. He agreed, even though he didn’t even know us! No one in the U.S. would ever let random strangers hold a focus group on their property. We spent today prepping for the focus group and practiced the questions on our amazing cooks Yvette and Lazeena and our cleaning lady, Jocelyn. I’ve been eating well and I get along well with my group. We have been playing cards, Taboo, reading, and just hanging out in our free time.

Today, we went to a place called English club. It’s a free club where the Haitians come together to practice their English. It was really fun and entertaining. Today, they were practicing their English by answering the question “How I conceive English.” We thought their choice of words was really funny, but it was nice to hear their responses. They said things like “I see English as money,” or “To me, English is like my boyfriend.” Another guy said “English is like a baby- you have to feed it and nurture it.” The funniest was a guy who said “When I speak in English, I feel like I am flying.” The funny part was that they said all these answers with such serious faces, and weren’t joking at all. They also called us to go up there and give our answers, and then they asked us questions. After one of the girls in my group had gone up, they asked her how she stayed so beautiful. It was so funny! She just answered them by saying that she washes her face and brushes her teeth everyday- haha.

Everything else has been going well! We have a free day tomorrow and Sunday, and then on Monday and Tuesday, we will be conducting our first focus groups! It will be exciting to see how they go.

That’s all for now!