Welcome to Haiti. My name is Elizabeth. I am a young Haitian-American lady. For my capstone, I decided to do something that will help me figure myself out as an individual. I also did this because I wanted to broaden up my knowledge about my culture. I was not born in Haiti, but my father decided to relocate himself to the United States to start a new life for my mother and her two sons at the time. After a year a two without the love of his life, my father was stable enough to bring his wife and two sons to America, so that they can get the better education and opportunities they deserve. Being as though, I was not born in Haiti I wanted to do something that will better help me connect with my culture other than speaking the language, creole, frequently. There are two parts to this capstone, the first part is a research paper on the country Haiti and my father’s journey to America. The second part is the mini course I taught. In my mini-course, “Welcome to Haiti”, I taught the students games that my parents would play as a child, I taught them basic conversations and numbers 1-10 in Creole and had them listen to Haitian music.

This year for my final SLA capstone, I decided to crochet a few hats and a scarf to donate to CHOP. This was a really cool thing to do because not only was I able to learn how to crochet and teach some of my peers, it sort of felt like a social experiment. In a day and age where everything is changing so rapidly, it’s hard to assume who’s going to be doing what. Many people are going out of their ways as activists to break down social constructs in order for people to freely express themselves and be comfortable while doing so. I’ve been knitting basic rectangular scarves on and off again since the 4th grade. Ever since then and even now, people would jokingly call me a grandma or old lady for knitting and crocheting. I’ll usually laugh along with them without a care in my mind. I personally appreciate those women older than me who were patient and willingly to teach me these creative stitching methods. I think that this could be an important skill to have if you wanted to stretch your entrepreneurial skills and sell your products or just to make winter hats yourself and save money. I personally enjoyed crocheting because it relaxed me and was so easy to do and easy to travel with.