Great first day of assessments at Little Ripples! We got through 81 respondents! The refugee interviewers were amazing. So diligent. It was a long day, but they hung in there. Gabriel and I helped with the coordination, taking polaroids of each child and making sure all was coming together systematically. Nathan was greeting every mother and her Little Ripple, and registering the children in order to make sure each student’s name and refugee identification number was well documented before they began their interviews. What a process! Welcome to survey field work.
The mothers were so kind. So patient. They allowed me to shuffle them around from station to station with hand signals and the few arabic words I learned. Mainly I just smiled a lot and said “Kaif Halik” (How are you?), “Shukran!” (Thank you), “Jameel” (Beautiful) and “Tamam” (Good). The children were quietly following their mothers. They’d reach out and give me a shy little handshake. And I would melt.
While the mothers and children were waiting their turns, many were requesting I take photos. My camera ended up getting passed around so that everybody could have the chance of seeing themselves. Mothers were calling to their friends to come and see the photo of them. Lots of laughter ensued!
I’m going to leave you with some of those very photos so you can get a glimpse of the beautiful people and children we had the pleasure of spending the day with! [new_royalslider id=”40″]