Using Ethnopetics With Transcripts

Here is an ethnopoem , which is basically a poem comprised of my interviewees words. In this poem I have compile some bits and pieces together using Suiata's words, who is a refugee from Nepal; she arrived to the USA in August. I think you would get to know a bit about the subculture I'm studying through this short ethnopoem.

Nepali people originated from Nepal.
The Bhutanese government came to Nepal at the time, a century ago,
And the government just took the Nepali, from Nepal to Bhutan.
Nepali population grew big in Bhutan.
The Bhutanese people are Buddhist, Rupert Buddhist.
They forced the Nepali to follow their religion,
Nepali, they don't like the Buddhist religion,
Because of the Religion there is war in Bhutan.
Is unbearable for the Nepali people,
The Nepali people leave their native land and move to Nepal.
We stay in a refugee camp for a long time,
I stay in Nepal for 23 years.
Its a miserable life, not difficult, but we call miserable no?
Some people went outside to gain money, in a local area,
Some they work in a farm,
Some went outside and construct buildings.
It's a difficult life.
We have to live in a crowd area,
In a small house like cottage.
Many people have to use one water tap.
In winter also, there is no heat provided.
When I reach here I felt happy!

My next step is moving forward !

This is a mind map that my professor put together in our last meeting. It is just to help me organize my ideas and how my final research essay will be put together. It basically will start with my personal story of immigration, then one of a refugee I met and interviews a few days ago, and finally my mother's story. The professor decided that adding my mother's immigration story would be a good idea as my mother and the refugee who I interview kind of click, and my mom decided to help her by taking her to a church where food is provided. It demonstrate how people who live similar experiences are willing to help each other. Then I will write about the mission of the DIIRI. Lastly I will write about the importance of having a immigrant community that support each other .

Establishing Rapport : Interview

Two weeks ago I got the opportunity to talk to one of the refugees at the Dorcas International  Institute of RI. She was very friendly and we got to talk for a bit before her next class. I decided to interview her. Her name is Sujata and she came from Nepal 4 months ago. The interview was done at her house, and I was very nervous because I didn't know what to expect. When I arrive to her house I knock on the front door and a male guy opened the door, I ask him for Sujata and he welcome me in. He ask me to take my shoes off and go into the leaving room. I was a little embarrassed because I they were eating, and I didn't want to interrupt , but that was the time she told me to go. One of her sons was watching TV on the living room. I was awkwardly standing there as I waiting for her. While waiting I noticed their house was not packed,  their living room had couches and big nice flat screen TV, not many things hanging on the walls either.  It was kind of empty compare to what I am used to.
A few minutes later she hustle me in into the living room and at the moment I realized they had visit, two white guys were sharing the table with Suiata's brother. Sujata's brother Jay invited me to the share the table with them and I sat , not realizing it meant I had to eat too. Two minutes later Sujata brought me a huge plate filled with delicious food that didn't contain any meat. As I was eating I got to learn many interesting things. The two guys once tutored Sujata's nephews, and became good friends with Jay. They were all eating with their hands, and told me that was part of the Nepali culture. Jay has been in the USA for 4 years, and has a pretty good English. I had assume he had learned English when he arrived here, but as I leaned later on my assumptions were wrong, he was actually an English professor back in Nepal. Sharing the table with 4 strangers wasn't as bad or awkward as I would have thought.

Once everyone was done, all the males when into the living room to watch a movie, and left us alone to proceed with the interview. It was a pleasure interviewing her.  I made few questions to which she gave me long, honest answers. What I noticed about myself at the beginning was that I  Sometimes didn't know how to phrase my questions to make them easier to understand as her English is limited but as the interview progressed we understood each other through examples, hand signs. I did struggle talking too, it was like my brain decided  to forget simple words. She is a very friendly, patient person which made the interview  very pleasant and sort of informal at one point. We got through it successfully, and I think the interview lasted for an hour and some more. Once we were done as I was about to save the file but my iPod died and I lost the entire interview. She said she didn't mind being interviewed again, and said that wanted to be my friend because she didn't have many friends yet. I was more than happy to accept her friendship.

I approached Sujata like I would approached any adult with respect and seriousness. Also, due to her limited English I had to talk slow, and sometimes I had to give examples of what I meant. Other than that I approached her as a fellow immigrant, I would tell her about similar experiences which made her share even more than expected. It was a personal approach.  We found our homelands, Nepal and Bolivia share some similarities in food and culture. As the interview progress I completely forgot that it was part of my research, I was completely engaged by her stories. I think that even though I forgot the professional aspects of the interview it allowed me to get so much more of everything she told me and even though I lost the recording and  stop taking notes, I can remember most of the things she told me.

The rapport was pretty good, she shared many interesting things about her experience, but there was some parts where I couldn't understand her so I had to ask her to repeat it and it would make her cut her answers shorter than before. She started giving long answers, but at one point we got stuck in a question to which she didn't know what to answer, which made us pause and the following questions received short answers. Once I shared some anecdotes of my own which made her share some of hers and help her open up again, driving the conversation to interesting subjects.  Like the fact that she used to be a kindergarten  and 2 grade teacher. Or she that she is happy to be in the USA because most of her family is here and in Australia. I think even though we are from completely different places and we have different religion, language, and traditions, here in the USA we share a common goal which brings us together―succeeding, and living a better life. She did open up her heart to me, unluckily my iPod decided to die making me lose the interview before I saved it, and I have to interview her again.  Hopefully I can get the same wholehearted answers the second time .

Mind Map

This mind map was design to help me organized my themes an ideas for my research essay. I decided to make it look like puzzle pieces because it reminds me of the paintings of the IIRI (look at pictures and description below). I also think that its a perfect representation of the refugee's migration experience. A refugees life is a puzzle in the making, they are trying to fit all the pieces together, and on the process they are learning that sometimes a piece doesn't fit in a certain place, but it does belong to the overall puzzle; without a piece it's incomplete.