Focus Group Wrap-Up

Noz and I have arrived in Hoedspruit at the Thornybush Game Reserve safely and are enjoying Jackalberry Lodge very much. It's so quiet and peaceful here, and we've already seen so much wildlife on our two game drives thus far.

Before I get to all that though, I just wanted to wrap up my thoughts about my focus group research. I haven't had reliable access to the Internet for almost a week now, so I apologize again for the lack of updates. Ironically though, now that I'm in the African bush, I have wireless Internet! It's slow, but works. So, I'd like to update my last week in retrospect.

My final focus group session was last Friday in the township of Emalahleni, which is in Mpumalanga province right outside of Witbank. It's about a two-hour drive east of Johannesburg. It was a somewhat challenging last session due to the language barrier. Although the youth spoke English well, they felt it wasn't advanced enough to fully express what they wanted to share so we worked through an interpreter. It worked well, but took twice the time because everything was said once in Zulu by the youth and then interpreted in English. I had to cut some of my last questions due to time, but in the end, it was a very productive last session. The examples I received of real problems youth have faced and used MYMsta to help solve/alleviate were very powerful -- rape, drug addiction, physical abuse. I will be forever grateful to these youth for their honesty and openness. They really welcomed me into their lives for the brief moments I had with them and I am still humbled by their graciousness.

I just tried to upload a few photos I took with the youth and the youth centre coordinator, Yvonne, after the focus group, but it looks like my Internet connection is good, but not that good. Taking way too long to upload. I'll try again later.