I'm starting to meet more members of the migrant community, beyond simply those working for the outreach programs. I knew that would take some time; it's hard for many of the immigrants to trust strangers, especially when they hear the word "journalist." As it is, I've been surprised at how quickly I've made inroads -- I only had one person, a doctor, refuse to speak with me.

Earlier this week, I attended a Moms' Club meeting. (The Moms' Club is organized by Pam Madzy, out of the Migrant Ministry at Blessed Kateri, and as I mentioned in a previous post, it provides an opportunity for young immigrant mothers to meet, learn from and help each other, and hear about services in the community that they might be able to use.) I was surprised by how many women and children attended: I counted almost twenty mothers, plus all of the kids.

Many of the women did not speak more than broken English, so, for the first time in this project, I spoke in Spanish. My Spanish is decent, but I'm much better at writing, reading, and listening than I am at speaking myself, so the experience provided me a small glimpse of how the language barrier must feel for those who come to America unable to speak English. It was hard for me to just start speaking, knowing that I would make mistakes, that my accent would be off; it was frustrating to forget words or have to struggle to make myself understood. But the women were very understanding, and very patient, and I managed to carry off several conversations, where I learned a lot more than I had expected.

In fact, the meeting inspired an idea for one of the pieces I'll write for this project: an article focusing on the migrant mothers. I'm meeting with two of the women next week -- one is a single, working mom with 4 kids, and another, who is not much older than I am, stays at home to watch her three children while her husband works. I also want to explore some of the programs that help the mothers and their children, so I've interviewed two Head Start employees and am looking for other agencies that provide similar assistance.

At the same time, I've been trying to learn more about the migrants who work in food services, which I'm hoping to turn into another piece. Today I met with Aldo Monge, the proprietor of Jake's (pronounced Jackie, in honor of Aldo's wife, Jacquelin) and Salsa. Jake's is one of two hispanic grocery stores in Newton; Salsa is a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away. Aldo and Jose Orlando Castillo, Aldo's partner at Salsa, discussed their experience as immigrants and as business owners, and they were kind enough to share their stories with me.

All in all, I'm satisfied with my progress this week. I've gained a lot of information on two separate story lines, and I'm looking forward to learning more about those themes, as well as discovering new avenues to pursue.