Interview with Michael and James
by Zofia Wolicki
My name is Zofia Wolicki and I am the Chief Operating Officer at Hand in Hand Soap. I first met Michael and James in 2014, when I went on my first soap donation trip to Haiti. I will never forget that first encounter with two shy boys who said maybe 5 words to me in total. Our non-profit partner, William from My Neighbor’s Children, was boasting about them – how they were going to take on responsibilities in the new kitchen being installed at their orphanage. How much they loved going to school and worked hard on their studies when back in their room at night.
Fast forward to 2016, when I met up with Michael and got the pleasure of spending an entire day with him, as he joined us on some visits we were taking to local hospitals around Port-au-Prince. The super shy 14 year old I had met two years prior was gone. Replaced by a more confident 16 year old, who spoke nearly perfect English and excitedly engaged in conversation about his schooling and love of languages. “I want to be a linguist!,” I remember him exclaiming. Pretty sure I didn’t even know the word linguist when I was 16! Again, I was struck by his maturity and resilience. I knew this kid was special.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was able to see Michael and James yet again. This time at the brand new My Neighbor’s Children Headquarters in Haiti, the place that Michael and James now call home. Here they are free to come and go as they please, heading outside the walls of the compound to attend church, school and the markets, where they buy raw goods for their jewelry making business (more on that to come!). Now 18 and 19 years old, Michael and James are just as studious as ever and determined to push themselves far academically. I had the pleasure of getting to talk with them one on one. To catch up, learn more about their background and find out…does Michael still want to be a linguist?! Learn more about these incredible young men below:
Zofia: Thanks for talking with me Michael and James! To start, can you tell me about how you got to where you are today?
James: Well, we were born in the D.R. (Dominican Republic). Our mother died when we were 8 and 9 years old and our father brought us to Haiti. We ended up staying at an orphanage and one year later, our father passed away. So we ended up spending most of our childhood at the orphanage.
Michael: Now we live at the My Neighbor’s Children Headquarters because William [founder of My Neighbor’s Children] wanted us to join his Leadership Program which will grow to 300 leaders for Haiti. He chose James and I to be founding members of the program and now we get to live here independently while we finish up high school. I’m taking my exams now and will be done this year. James has one more year to go.
Zofia: Thanks for sharing about your past. I would love to talk more about the orphanage you grew up in because that was one of the first places Hand in Hand started donating soaps. Do you remember when you started regularly receiving soap?
Michael: I think I was 13.
James: I was about 14.
Zofia: And do you remember when William started showing up with the soap?
Michael: Yes. The funny thing about it was the soap was not only used to wash hands, but it was also used to wash clothes too!
James: And take a bath. Wash our bodies.
Zofia: What were you guys doing before the soaps were being regularly donated? Did you have access to soap?
Michael: No, not really. We had it sometimes, but never in the quantities we did once William started bringing it regularly. Once we had it, we could then do all of things with it – wash hands, keep clean and yes, wash our clothes!
Zofia: I love hearing about your memories of the soap! My first memory of you guys is William bragging to me about how smart you both are, which is totally true! How is school going for you guys?
James: I still have a year more of high school. I want to go to university after high school and study software engineering, IT, computers because I am good at math. I’m not as good with writing and things like that.
Michael: I am taking my exams now and will be done this year! I’m looking to going to University but am not sure what I want to study because there is a lot of stuff I like. I like linguistics and I like business. Like for now, I have on my list, business then linguistics. I also like law, I like diplomacy, I like international relations, I like psychology, sociology…and I think that’s it. Oh, and I also like communications. And computers too!
Zofia: Michael, I’m so happy to hear you say you still love linguistics! I remember talking with you about your love of languages a couple of years ago. So, since you love linguistics, how many languages do you speak?
Michael: Now I speak English, Haitian Creole, Spanish, French and a little bit of Brazilian Portuguese.
James: And I speak the same number.
Zofia: Wow! That’s really impressive. I only speak English. But I am trying to learn Spanish. I just haven’t been consistent with my studying.
Michael: Practice makes perfect!
Zofia: Very wise words, Michael! When did you guys start getting into all of these languages?
James: We grew up speaking Spanish and Creole in our home.
Michael: I kind of taught myself English. And French we were taught in school.
Zofia: And what about Portuguese?
Michael: Same, taught ourselves.
James: It’s similar to Spanish so it’s not been too hard to pick up.
Zofia: Congratulations to both of you on all of your academic success! Where do you want to go to University? Are you going to stay in Haiti or go elsewhere?
Michael: I would like to go to another country because they have better universities and better education than in Haiti, but if Haiti is the only option I have then I will go in Haiti.
Zofia: So would you ever come back to Haiti? If you end up leaving for university?
Michael: Yes! Because Haiti needs me. That is why I would come.
Zofia: And what would you want to do here, ideally?
Michael: I want to do business and actually, I want to have an organization or corporation to help create jobs here. And work with the communities and the youth. Because Haitian people are very smart. They just need a hand; assistance. But they are very smart people.
James: Yeah, after my college studies I want to come back and build a tech school for kids. Starting for like 5th grade. Because kids here, they don’t have access to information about computers and technology. So I want to help them to get exposure to those things early on.
If you are as impressed with Michael and James as I am, then please check out their jewelry business, Bel Vi (Beautiful Life in Haitian Creole). Michael and James make all of these by hand, using natural stones found in Haiti. And yes, you can have them shipped to the USA!
FOLLOW THE TOUR: This blog post is the first of four in Hand in Hand Soap’s Haiti Blog Tour. I will be adding the links to the others when they go live this week! Enjoy!
Day 1, July 10: Stories of Impact by me (@ConsciousNChic)
Day 2, July 11: Hand in Hand Haiti Blog Tour: Day 2 by The Shift Wellness (@pandahamandah)
Day 3, July 12: One Million of Bars of Soap for Haiti by DoneGood (@donegoodteam)
Day 4, July 13: Soap, Stories, +Smiles with Hand in Hand Soap’s Impact in Haiti by The Social Girl Traveler (@thesocialgirltraveler)
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