Due to strong cultural perceptions of gender, Megan and I have divided interviewees by sex and will interview them accordingly: She will interview the women, and I the men. I have thus far secured two interviews and am approaching a third.

We made good headway insofar as making professional connections at a recent Community Coordination event on March 6. Megan is a regular part of this group; however, for me, this was my first introduction to Richard, one of the first Congolese to move to the area who speaks advanced English and is active with integration efforts.

I worked in his group that night, focusing on developing a series of orientations for Congolese on topics such as bills, local recreation, banking, and many other vital pieces of knowledge. Afterwards, I introduced myself and explained our project. He graciously agreed to be interviewed, and I will be meeting him on Tuesday to talk. I’m particularly keen on learning from him, given the length of time he’s spent here and the depth to which he is involved in the community.

I’ve also spoken with Jérôme, another man with good English who works with Farmland. Originally acquainted over Facebook thanks to Megan, we met at his house recently for a pre-interview chat and will talk again this Wednesday. Megan and I also plan to speak with another man after church on Sunday and set up a time with him.

The main hurdle we presently face is lack of background knowledge on the Congo (more so for me than Megan). For this reason, I have reached out to a professor who’s done a considerable amount of work in this community requesting basic resources to give myself a crash-course on the DRC.

Over this next week, we will also begin preliminary testing of the media we’re most keen on; we’re hoping to construct a basic map of local Congolese languages on Story Map. The Congo is home to hundreds of indigenous languages, so this map will focus on a handful of the more widely spoken native tongues. The goal is not necessarily to have completed said map in the next week, but to make decent headway in testing whether this is a viable feature.