At today's nightly meeting we had a bit of a reflection activity. Our staff told us that we have 86,400 each day, if we don't spend it one day, we don't get it the next. They went on to ask how we would spend it? To break it down and explain how much of it goes for each thing we do.
So I said, okay, I have 86,400 dollars, what do I buy? What do I invest in? What do I do? It took me a while to finalise everything because I kept changing my mind (and because I had to keep calculating the dirham to dollar exchange rate) but in the end this is what I said: $30 a day for food should be more than enough. Then, for now, I have $70 or less to invest in my brother and to support him in what he does. I will also have $1,000 a day to fund my own organisation, $112 a day to go to school, $1,000 to keep up my work in Abu Dhabi with safe houses, labour workers and conferences, $1,000 to support my family: my grandpa, uncle, aunt, great aunt and my direct family as well if they need it. Not want. Need. That leaves me with $83,188 that, for now, I will spend on projects here in Haiti.
First would be getting a trash system installed: a trash can in each house and a garbage truck that can come by each house in the area at least once weekly. This truck would also have to bring all that it collects to already existing landfill sites. If not that, then a better system or better place that is less negatively impactful to our earth. The rest of the money would also go to, not only a trash system, but a recycling program and all the other costs that come along with initiating such a project. Any remaining money would go to street clean ups and information sessions, to clean the community of the waste that has already been discarded and to educate them on the importance of not throwing their trash wherever they want. When the major costs of these projects are covered, I will use this same sum for a school in Terre Froide: get it built, get supplies/furniture, pay teachers and create a sustainable system. With any left over money, or, if there is none, when this project is over, I will take the same daily $83,188 and put it towards fixing the road that runs down the mountain here and to ensure that it won't collapse with the rain and erosion (which is why we've been building seis).
After I am finished with these projects here, I will use this same amount for other service projects around the world: a water pump for the school in Kampongcham, the village where we were in Cambodia, bettering the orphanage our school works with in Nepal, ending food waste in Europe, fighting for the human rights of the impoverished Paraguayans who have lost everything due to our meat consumption and any other project I can help with.
Any left over money I have I will use for my future organisation, for my Abu Dhabi projects, for University (when I go), to make sure I have a place to live and for service in general.
That's it, that was the breakdown of my 86,400 dollars and of course there would always be other things that could come up like medical bills, electricity, water and so on, but, idealistically, this is how I would spend it. (I had 5 minutes to come up with this plan so yes, I know, there are a lot of holes in it).
After everybody shared how they would spend their money, our staff took over again. They went on to explain that, obviously, we don't get 86,400 dollars every day, but we do get 86,400. 86,400 seconds. "How is what you all just said different? Do you spend your money differently than you spend your time? Which one do you value more? Are your priorities different?"
I said something that mostly everyone else in the group disagreed with, but I do think it is a valid point. I said that you don't have complete control over your time; you have more control over money. Everyone in the group said that that wasn't true, that you can decide what you want to do with your time. But no, the way I see it, we are obliged to go to school, (even if we don't want to), we have mandatory meetings you have to go to, we can't determine whether or not we'll get hurt and have to spend time in a hospital, we can't stop the fact that we have to sleep at least once in a while: all these things we don't have control over, yet they still take our time. They said that if you want to blow those things off then it's your own decision, and I do understand that. If your teacher said you have to come see her after school, that may seem mandatory, but no one's stopping you from ditching. If you prioritise soccer over your education and go to your soccer practice instead, then that's your own decision. And that's true. But, I'm sorry, you can't help that you have to sleep, that you get sick, that you have to shower, eat, go to the bathroom and whatever else: all those things affect your time; you don't have control over them. We don't have the power to decide whether we'll spend time stuck in traffic tomorrow or whether we're out of food and have to go to the supermarket and so on. I do understand how everybody disagrees with me, but only to a limited extent: yes, it's true, you do have the power to blow off responsibilities based on what you prioritise but there are also some things that are inevitable that take up your time.
Personally, I think I value time more than money. You can do a lot with time but no money, but you can't do anything with no time (or little time) but a lot of money. And yes, I do spend my money a little differently than I spend my time. For example, I do spend more time than money in school ($112 a day vs. at least 25,200 seconds a day), I spend a lot of time playing sports but not nearly as much money on athletic equipment, I spend time but not money (or very little of it) showering, sleeping, and so on, I spend a lot of time on homework and studying, but I don't pay to do that. So no, regardless of the fact that everyone else in my group seems to insist that time and money are spent the same, I don't think they are. Both reflect my priorities, but my money does more so than my time. The only thing that is the same between the ways I spend the two is that I dedicate (in my hypothetical situation for money and in real life for time) as much as I can of both on service, and that also reflects my priorities.
All in all, I just thought it was a really interesting exercise and it's something I will be thinking about for quite a while.
LM
So I said, okay, I have 86,400 dollars, what do I buy? What do I invest in? What do I do? It took me a while to finalise everything because I kept changing my mind (and because I had to keep calculating the dirham to dollar exchange rate) but in the end this is what I said: $30 a day for food should be more than enough. Then, for now, I have $70 or less to invest in my brother and to support him in what he does. I will also have $1,000 a day to fund my own organisation, $112 a day to go to school, $1,000 to keep up my work in Abu Dhabi with safe houses, labour workers and conferences, $1,000 to support my family: my grandpa, uncle, aunt, great aunt and my direct family as well if they need it. Not want. Need. That leaves me with $83,188 that, for now, I will spend on projects here in Haiti.
First would be getting a trash system installed: a trash can in each house and a garbage truck that can come by each house in the area at least once weekly. This truck would also have to bring all that it collects to already existing landfill sites. If not that, then a better system or better place that is less negatively impactful to our earth. The rest of the money would also go to, not only a trash system, but a recycling program and all the other costs that come along with initiating such a project. Any remaining money would go to street clean ups and information sessions, to clean the community of the waste that has already been discarded and to educate them on the importance of not throwing their trash wherever they want. When the major costs of these projects are covered, I will use this same sum for a school in Terre Froide: get it built, get supplies/furniture, pay teachers and create a sustainable system. With any left over money, or, if there is none, when this project is over, I will take the same daily $83,188 and put it towards fixing the road that runs down the mountain here and to ensure that it won't collapse with the rain and erosion (which is why we've been building seis).
After I am finished with these projects here, I will use this same amount for other service projects around the world: a water pump for the school in Kampongcham, the village where we were in Cambodia, bettering the orphanage our school works with in Nepal, ending food waste in Europe, fighting for the human rights of the impoverished Paraguayans who have lost everything due to our meat consumption and any other project I can help with.
Any left over money I have I will use for my future organisation, for my Abu Dhabi projects, for University (when I go), to make sure I have a place to live and for service in general.
That's it, that was the breakdown of my 86,400 dollars and of course there would always be other things that could come up like medical bills, electricity, water and so on, but, idealistically, this is how I would spend it. (I had 5 minutes to come up with this plan so yes, I know, there are a lot of holes in it).
After everybody shared how they would spend their money, our staff took over again. They went on to explain that, obviously, we don't get 86,400 dollars every day, but we do get 86,400. 86,400 seconds. "How is what you all just said different? Do you spend your money differently than you spend your time? Which one do you value more? Are your priorities different?"
I said something that mostly everyone else in the group disagreed with, but I do think it is a valid point. I said that you don't have complete control over your time; you have more control over money. Everyone in the group said that that wasn't true, that you can decide what you want to do with your time. But no, the way I see it, we are obliged to go to school, (even if we don't want to), we have mandatory meetings you have to go to, we can't determine whether or not we'll get hurt and have to spend time in a hospital, we can't stop the fact that we have to sleep at least once in a while: all these things we don't have control over, yet they still take our time. They said that if you want to blow those things off then it's your own decision, and I do understand that. If your teacher said you have to come see her after school, that may seem mandatory, but no one's stopping you from ditching. If you prioritise soccer over your education and go to your soccer practice instead, then that's your own decision. And that's true. But, I'm sorry, you can't help that you have to sleep, that you get sick, that you have to shower, eat, go to the bathroom and whatever else: all those things affect your time; you don't have control over them. We don't have the power to decide whether we'll spend time stuck in traffic tomorrow or whether we're out of food and have to go to the supermarket and so on. I do understand how everybody disagrees with me, but only to a limited extent: yes, it's true, you do have the power to blow off responsibilities based on what you prioritise but there are also some things that are inevitable that take up your time.
Personally, I think I value time more than money. You can do a lot with time but no money, but you can't do anything with no time (or little time) but a lot of money. And yes, I do spend my money a little differently than I spend my time. For example, I do spend more time than money in school ($112 a day vs. at least 25,200 seconds a day), I spend a lot of time playing sports but not nearly as much money on athletic equipment, I spend time but not money (or very little of it) showering, sleeping, and so on, I spend a lot of time on homework and studying, but I don't pay to do that. So no, regardless of the fact that everyone else in my group seems to insist that time and money are spent the same, I don't think they are. Both reflect my priorities, but my money does more so than my time. The only thing that is the same between the ways I spend the two is that I dedicate (in my hypothetical situation for money and in real life for time) as much as I can of both on service, and that also reflects my priorities.
All in all, I just thought it was a really interesting exercise and it's something I will be thinking about for quite a while.
LM
