We left Terre Froide in the morning to go to the conference location: Forêt des Pins. When we were told that we had arrived, we looked up to see a big one story cabin, surrounded by, well, a forest of pine trees. As we walked inside the building, we all started cheering. There were tiled floors and concreted walls. There was a western toilet. And a shower. With running water. Even though it is rather dirty and the water is colder than in Terre Froide (i.e. freezing), as well as the fact that we have to share all of this with the other participants, we were too happy to care. As you're reading this now in your large, comfortable house, none of this might seem like that big of a deal. But it is. For us, it was like a miracle.
This conference, which will run for the next three days, is about discussing local and global issues and coming up with projects to solve these problems. All discussion topics will be generated by us: at the start of each day we will all write down the subjects we want to talk about. Each set of sessions will consist of six different topics, chosen based off of the majority. The first day will focus on debating and examining the issues and the second day will be oriented towards finding solutions.
There are 159 participants from 27 different communities in the area, aged 15 to 22, and, as few staff as possible. The reason for this being that every aspect of this conference is meant to be student run. Throughout the conference, all Global Potential participants, including myself, have specific roles that we need to carry out.
The conference takes place outdoors, in front of the cabin I just described, which also happens to be the girls' sleeping quarters. Inside, there is an open space/ common area and 5 rooms (with 2 single beds each)... but, there are 67 girls. No, there is not space for 13 girls in each room... It took us about an hour or so to sort everything out, but we finally did. In short, in that hour, I went from being in a room with 3 other Global Potential participants, to being in a room with 1 other Global Potential participant and 2 girls from Terre Froide, to sleeping on a couch outside in the common area, to being in an even smaller room than the first one, sharing 2 single beds with 2 other Global Potential participants and 3 of the Terre Froide cooks (total 6 people). Oh, and did I also mention that this "room" was in the kitchen? ...
I don't mind sleeping in the kitchen actually, we have our own bathroom that we share with 12 people and we're separated from everyone else. (Well, we were sharing the bathroom with only 12 people at first. As the conference went on, the 64 other girls as well as all the guys realised that our bathroom was cleaner than theirs: we ended up sharing it with practically all 159 participants). Another plus side to sleeping in the kitchen: we also get a bit of a midnight snack, and I'm not complaining about that.
When the conference is over, the majority of the participants will be coming back to Terre Froide with us for a day, because the next day (along with Tas and I leaving Haiti) they will be heading to another conference in Cité Soley.
As cold as it is here, and even though the sleep isn't the best, I really don't mind. So far, though it hasn't even been a day yet, I have learned a lot and I am enjoying the conference.
LM
This conference, which will run for the next three days, is about discussing local and global issues and coming up with projects to solve these problems. All discussion topics will be generated by us: at the start of each day we will all write down the subjects we want to talk about. Each set of sessions will consist of six different topics, chosen based off of the majority. The first day will focus on debating and examining the issues and the second day will be oriented towards finding solutions.
There are 159 participants from 27 different communities in the area, aged 15 to 22, and, as few staff as possible. The reason for this being that every aspect of this conference is meant to be student run. Throughout the conference, all Global Potential participants, including myself, have specific roles that we need to carry out.
The conference takes place outdoors, in front of the cabin I just described, which also happens to be the girls' sleeping quarters. Inside, there is an open space/ common area and 5 rooms (with 2 single beds each)... but, there are 67 girls. No, there is not space for 13 girls in each room... It took us about an hour or so to sort everything out, but we finally did. In short, in that hour, I went from being in a room with 3 other Global Potential participants, to being in a room with 1 other Global Potential participant and 2 girls from Terre Froide, to sleeping on a couch outside in the common area, to being in an even smaller room than the first one, sharing 2 single beds with 2 other Global Potential participants and 3 of the Terre Froide cooks (total 6 people). Oh, and did I also mention that this "room" was in the kitchen? ...
I don't mind sleeping in the kitchen actually, we have our own bathroom that we share with 12 people and we're separated from everyone else. (Well, we were sharing the bathroom with only 12 people at first. As the conference went on, the 64 other girls as well as all the guys realised that our bathroom was cleaner than theirs: we ended up sharing it with practically all 159 participants). Another plus side to sleeping in the kitchen: we also get a bit of a midnight snack, and I'm not complaining about that.
When the conference is over, the majority of the participants will be coming back to Terre Froide with us for a day, because the next day (along with Tas and I leaving Haiti) they will be heading to another conference in Cité Soley.
As cold as it is here, and even though the sleep isn't the best, I really don't mind. So far, though it hasn't even been a day yet, I have learned a lot and I am enjoying the conference.
LM
