I don't want to leave. Ever. 

      I really don't want to go back anymore. I've been asking for it for a while, but now I don't want to. I've developed relationships with all (or most) of the Terre Froide people and they are great. I've become friends with the people I met at the conference and on top of that there are all the Global Potential people that I love. .. I don't want to leave because of the people here. Everyone, they are family now. 
      Staying was a struggle for me at first, because I was sick; I spent a total of twelve full days in Haiti: I had a cold for seven, stomach problems for eight and I wasn't able to eat for five... but for the last day or two I was fine. Healthy. Enjoying myself. Being sick wasn't so great, but it was bearable. Yes, my Haitian mum's cooking wasn't so great either, but I could eat elsewhere. Everything else, the food, the shower, the bed, everything, it was tolerable. It was all a new experience and that was refreshing.
      To be honest, when we arrived at the airport and I saw a TV playing, a lady wearing makeup, a man on Facebook on his iPhone, and all these big designer labels: Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, everything... it just made me feel sick. All these things that we value as a society. It threw me off. Why do we lead our lives this way? I personally despise hypocrisy, but I know that I will slowly go back into being like the people I'm currently looking at with disgust. I know that I will start to refill my life with useless distractions. Because that's just the way it is. But, it makes me want to stay here. Where I'm not tempted by those things. Staying in Haiti, and in Terre Froide specifically, would mean staying in a life where it's just you, the environment and the people around. Not where you are more concerned with whichever screen it is you're staring at. I want to stay here, where people have their priorities and values straight. 

I know I have to leave. 
I know I will slowly go back into my regular life.
I know that, I, too, will have moments when I forget what's actually important. 
But, I know that I will never be able to view our screwed global society the same way again. 
Either way, I don't want to. My views have been flipped upside down, and it's going to stay that way. 

LM

Please support Yasmin, a Global Potential participant living in France who made this video as her third phase project. 

As I mentioned in the day summaries (days 4 and 5), my internship at the beginning of the trip included conducting interviews for her video. All footage is from Terre Froide, Haiti (the community where we were staying) and also shows clips of the soccer tournament that we organised. 

Enjoy.  

LM

Click here for my full conference reflection on the JUMP! Foundation blog.  

LM 

      Yesterday's sessions focused on debating and discussing the topics that were chosen. So, even though I said it was a problem in my last reflection, it didn't really matter that the sessions were too short. Today, though, was about coming up with solutions/projects on the issues. The first and most important thing to say is that if they expect us to really have a thorough project, we are going to need a lot more time. If they are fine with knowing everything we talk about won't actually happen, then okay, the sessions were the right length. But, if they want implementing the project after the conference to be realistic, we need more time in order to assign roles, figure out details etc. In some sessions, we didn't even get to start talking about a project, because by the time we had discussed which part of the problem to focus on, our time was already up. 
      But, I mean, it also depends on the participants. Maybe it's better for the Haitian youth to be introduced to several different projects that they could do, instead of having only a few solid, well thought out solutions that they will do. What we did today was more of an introduction than actually getting things done, but that's fine. 
      All of this is especially interesting for me, being one of the 5/150 nonHaitians here because I'm also learning a lot about Haiti and its culture, aside from their problems and coming up with solutions. For that reason, everything that we are doing here is very worth my while. 

LM

      After attending a session on education today, I decided to try to get to understand the Haitian educational system. I sat with one of the locals for a while and we discussed the topic. This is what he told me: 

General Information/Structure
      First of all, in Haiti, the school they attend depends on their social class: there are different schools for high, middle and lower classes. The lycée is the only school that is open to everyone (regardless of their social standing), but, the problems with them are that there aren't very many of them and that they are of a rather low quality. Lycées are the only schools in Haiti that are free. 
      The first level of education is called primary school. This is from levels one to six. Starting about two years ago, all primary schools are free (paid for by the government). Primary school is part of fundamental school, which consists of levels one to nine. For years seven, eight and nine, they can either pay (which most people do) or go to the lycées, that, again, are free. 
      After fundamental school is secondary school. Again, they have to pay for all of them except the lycées. Prices for secondary school could vary from $250 a month to $250 for the entire year. Like anywhere else in the world, it depends on the quality. Secondary school is made up of 4 levels: troisieme (third), seconde (second), terminale un (terminal one) and terminale deux (terminal two). Terminal one is called 'Rheto' and the latter is called 'Philo'.
      (Since only primary school is free-aside from the lycées-, some people stop their education after year six, since they can't afford the rest). 
      For universities, there is only one in the country that is free: the state university (L'université de l'état d'Haiti) or UEH. You can think of it as the scholarship school. They have to take a state exam and only people with scores above a certain numbers will be accepted. Those people are the tops of their class and generally only come from the schools for the higher classes. Similar to the lower schooling, the prices for university vary. Those who can't afford the other universities go to an 'école professionnelle' (professional school). They are cheaper, but not free. After university, jobs are extremely hard to find. So, even if they spent money on schools, they might not find work. 

Subjects
      In primary school (levels one through six), they learn five subjects: social science(/basic history), French, Creole, basic math and experimental science. After level six, they apply for a certificate. If they don't pass, they continue their fundamental school with the same five subjects they had in primary school. If they do pass, then for the rest of the fundamental school, on top of the five previously mentioned subjects, they also learn Spanish, English and biology.
      In secondary school, they learn chemistry, biology, French literature and Haitian literature. In the last two years of secondary school (terminal one and two) they learn two more subjects on top of the other four: geology and philosophy. 
      For university, like in any other country, they choose their subject. There are twelve subjects that are offered: medicine, agronomy, civil engineering, political science, psychology, sociology, science communication, anthropology, social economics, law, diplomacy and international relations. No schools in Haiti offer Doctorate or Masters programs, they have to go abroad to get them, which many of them cannot afford. 

Age
Unlike schooling systems elsewhere in the world, age does not determine what level they are in. I met...
      -a 12 year old in level 8 
      -a 15 year old in level 5 
      -a 17 year old in university 
      -a 22 year old in level 9
As you can see, all ages are mixed.  

Other Information
      The majority of Haitian communities have a primary school. Secondary schools, on the other hand, are generally only found in major cities. This means that even if somebody has the money to pay for secondary schools, they may not be able to afford transportation to the city. 
      If they stop their education after primary school, the jobs they could find include truck drivers, factory workers, anything working with machinery and other forms of, generally, manual labour. Getting a good job requires the continuation of their studies, but, unfortunately, people can't always afford it. And as I said, even if they do continue all the way through university, finding a job afterwards will still be difficult. 
      Since levels one through six are free, there are several issues with primary school. The main two being that they aren't always of great quality and also that the majority of teachers don't get paid. As a result, they quit, and Haiti is facing a problem with a lack of teachers. 
      All in all, since school isn't mandatory, the main challenge in getting kids to attend is that they have to have motivation to want to go. If they can't afford it, they stop after level 6 which leaves them with limited options for the future. On top of that, if their parents need them to stay home and work (to help make an income for the family), then that stops them from attending as well. This is just a general introduction to the educational problems Haiti faces. 

LM

      For one of the sessions today, I attended something called 'The Goat Project'. There were some other interesting topics, like leadership and libraries, at the same time, and as much as I wanted to go to those, I could do that in a conference in any other country. This project, on the other hand, isn't something I will have many other chances to learn about. As a result, I decided to take the opportunity to discover something new. 
      The Goat Project is something that Terre Froide has already done in the past through their youth organisation, l'Association pour le Développement Culturel des Jeunes de Terre Froide or just ADCJTF (The Association for the Cultural Development of the Youth in Terre Froide).

What is the Goat Project-
      Basically, they get a female goat and a male goat to breed. The offspring are then distributed to different youth within the community. The person who receives a goat has to take care of it and can eventually kill or sell it, if necessary. 

Purpose-
      There are several different purposes to this project, all of which I find really interesting. 
      In some sorts, it's micro financing... Haitian style. It teaches them business, responsibility, the importance of taking care of animals and more. It can also help them if they are ever stuck financially. 
      In order to be able to sell the goat or its meat, it has to be well fed and healthy. Taking care of the animal teaches them to be responsible and also shows them how to support something other than themselves and their families. This project can additionally teach them- only to a limited extent since they might end up killing the goat- animal rights. I've noticed that animal abuse is a big problem here and the Goat Project shows them the importance of taking care of the animals, instead of hurting them. If they don't, then they won't be able to sell or trade it, thus destroying the micro financing aspect of the structure. 
      For micro financing, since they don't have any products to sell, they've adapted the system to something that they do have. Once they've learned responsibility, how to take care of animals and so on, they can then sell the goat. They could either kill the goat and sell the meat and/or hair coats, keep the goat alive and sell only the hair or, they could sell the live goat. If they do end up killing the goat, but decide they don't want to sell it, they could also use the animal's coat, and eat the meat; keep it for themselves.  
      This is important because, you never know, things could go wrong and they could end up with no money. But, if they need it, this allows them to have a back up. In some senses, it's a security blanket: the goat can either be food for them to eat or it could supply them with the money they need to buy food. 

Process- 
      All they really have to do, as a community, is fundraise to buy one or more pairs of goats. I checked with one of the families here who already have one and they said they weren't expensive to buy. This means that the first steps of the project are: fundraising, buying the goats, and getting them to mate. Volunteers or project leaders take care of the parent goats. While the offspring are getting to the right age at which they can leave their mother, evaluations are being run in the community. The leader(s) of this project go and find households that need the benefits of the program most and that are fit to take care of the goats (won't end up abusing them. Once the baby goats are ready, the chosen households will get the offspring. Meanwhile, the parents will continue to mate, which means the project continues for more "rounds". 
      Since the community didn't have to buy the offspring- only the two parents- the chosen families don't have to pay to receive their goat. As a result, the family won't be in any sort of debt or financial trouble due to their participation in the program. 
      They are included in the project without having to pay anything, which shows it is affordable and the system keeps going until the parents can't mate anymore, which shows it is sustainable. 

Thoughts-
      Personally, I find this concept really interesting. It's a good example of Haitians using the resources that they do have to help themselves. It additionally shows how Haitians, generally, never give up; they are all determined to do what is in their power to help their community to advance. Even though they don't have the means to start typical micro financing, they are still able to make their own system and that's really cool. They are being independent and self-sufficient through this project, and on top of that, the fact that it's sustainable and not too costly is also great. All in all, the project is really unique and I am glad I attended this session. 

LM

      After the three sets of discussions today, I have decided that I do like our set up of sessions and the fact that we have six choices for each set. The topics were really interesting, but I did personally prefer the smaller groups: we got better discussions going and heard from everyone. I'm glad I can understand Creole though, because despite the fact that it was one of the main rules of the conference, no one translates more than half of what is said. I sort of understand: why would they? There are 5 nonHaitians and 150 Haitians, it's a waste of time for them. It's fine with me, but for the few people who don't comprehend, there's no point in sitting through the sessions. 
      Regardless, I feel like the discussions were a bit too short. As soon as we would get into the topic and really start coming up with good ideas, it would be over. At each group, we would get a poster on which we were supposed to write down the things we talk about. This was very effective because it helped us focus on the key points and stay on topic. The only problem with this was that (even though we were supposed to) we didn't present our posters right after the discussions (when people were still attentive and thinking about the topics). Instead, we saved all the posters for two sets of sessions (so 12 posters) and shared them all after lunch (when everyone was exhausted). After 3 presentations, if not less, no one was paying attention. I didn't like this at all, I felt like no one was listening and if that's the case, we might as well have been doing something else. It just felt like a waste of time. I can't blame people for drifting off, it was a lot to sit through, but I think we were being counterproductive for no real reason. 
      Another strength of this conference (as well as GIN conferences) is that it's student run: we organise and lead all activities, and that's great. Since Global Potential's focus is empowering youth, these conferences support that goal not only through the fact that we attended and contributed our ideas, but also through the opportunity we were given to lead. 
      This experience is very interesting for me because, not only am I learning about Haiti's problems, but I'm also learning a ton about Haiti as a country and its culture. I look forward to the rest of this conference. 

LM