Used in a (non- pejorative) sentence (I swear): "Nothing says you live on the outskirts of Haitiville like walking down the street in the company of a few loose chickens roaming around."
First -- I surely hope that they were egg-laying as opposed to being kept for any ceremonies.
Second -- I mean this descriptively, in the same way that folks refer to 'hoods like Little Italy or Chinatown ... meaning that people of a certain cultural background tend to congregate together in a geographical location. And, statistically, there are a *lot* of Haitians in Ft. Lauderdale.
Third -- I have (mostly) stopped referring to those who live in and around both ye olde homestead and ye olde *new* homestead as "islanders", as *that* did sound pejorative.
Fourth -- Speaking of ye olde *new* homestead, I have also stopped referring to the immediate neighbors as Jamaicans. I wasn't sure after hearing them during their back yard sessions and not being able to understand much despite them speaking mostly in English (except for what seems like every other word ... f&^%ing used as the only adjective that they ever learned). However, having been here for six weeks and having had the chance to be downwind of those aforementioned sessions, I have concluded that they can't possibly be Jamaican or else that which they are smoking would smell much much better and much less like skunk.
Now ... can someone teach me some Creole fast so I can figure out if my neighbors are saying anything about me?
TIME TO GET INFORMED ... A HAITI PRIMER:
http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Haiti.html
NO SERIOUSLY ... NOT ALL OF THE CHICKENS MAKE IT OUT ALIVE:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0707_040707_tvtaboovoodoo.html
HAITIANS HAVE THE NUMBER ONE SPOT IN THIS COUNTY:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-05-11/news/fl-census-foreign-born-20120510_1_foreign-born-first-haitian-baptist-church-large-haitian-population
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