Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Dlo

No, that is not acronym. It is the Kreyol word for water. Another something new that I learned today. I also learned from this same lesson that I am terrible at pronouncing words that have letter sequences that are not common in English. In case you were wondering dlo is pronounced like the word "blow,"  but with a "D" at the beginning.

This brief Kreyol lesson came this afternoon as I was sitting with my Haitian translator waiting for people to take my survey. This morning I headed to a local factory, owned by a friend of Deacon Moynihan to speak with his employees from the unskilled labor category. I needed to speak with 78 people from this category alone, so I knew in advance that I was going to have my work cut out for me. However, with the help of my translators, the day went smoothly and I was able to meet my quota.

Everyone that I spoke with today was so receptive. They asked questions about my survey and willingly participated. I am also especially appreciative of the man in charge of the factory who let me speak to his workers and the woman who helped organize the almost steady stream of people coming into the interview room. When we were able to speak with two or three people at a time we flew through the surveys and after about 4 hours of work we were completely finished. 

Deacon Moynihan and a member of the Board of Directors for The Haitian Project stopped by to bring me lunch and accompany home from my long day of work. On the return trip home we were able to talk about what I learned so far today and where this information fit in with the rest of my data and project. Although I had not yet entered the data into a spreadsheet it was clear to me from the results that I received that these workers were spending less on their cell phones than university students. This comparison was very interesting as it calls into question the spending habits of university students on their phones.


When I returned to campus, I spent the rest of the night inputting today's surveys into Excel and briefly analyzing the data. The Volunteers had spent the day preparing campus for the Graduation Ceremony, and when I returned they were working on putting together the student's diplomas. It is getting to be very exciting here on campus as everything comes to a close. The Philo Class has truly been working hard in preparation for their big day, and it is clear that they are more than prepared to take on new challenges in the near future.

Tomorrow I have another busy day, so I will be heading into bed shortly in preparation. On the schedule for tomorrow is another visit to the factory to speak with a few members of Professional Staff, a trip to Sogebank (one of the major banks in Haiti) to speak with someone about trends in the banking system, and a soccer game. I will be reffereeing the last Boys' Varsity Soccer game against their rivals, and I am hoping that my previous experience as a refferee will help me out tomorrow! If not, at least the players will not be yelling at me in English!

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