I just returned from a month of volunteer service in Haiti with my Haitian daughter-in-law and my son. We worked for both the Baha’i community in Haiti and for a local NGO called CAFT, which is dedicated to improving the quality of education in Haiti. Our services were in several areas, both urban and rural including and between Port au Prince and Jacmel/Lavallee. At all times we were accompanied by local Haitians whose projects we were supporting, and by a few expatriates from various countries who have been living in Haiti for over 30 years and consider it home. Between conversations in French, English and Creole and across the many people we met in all social classes, we received a pretty good cross-section of information and opinions, history, local humour and on-the-ground experience. During our stay we were not once in a hotel. We lived, slept, ate and did whatever the local people did in various areas so our experience was not in any way sugar-coated. I present this background because the context in which one goes to any given country is important to the observations one forms while there and afterwards.
I am not so arrogant as to assume that whatever I saw and experienced in a month in Haiti is entirely accurate or unbiased, but I think I have a grasp on some of the issues that keep Haiti in a rut and also the promising tendencies that can move things towards progess. First some historical context: the people in Haiti have been subjected to over 300 years of conquest, colonization, religious leaders who told Haitians it was their fault they were poor and uneducated, and of course cruel dictators. People talk frequently in Haiti about their difficulties trying to overcome the “slave mentality” that seems endemic. Think of it this way. Let’s say your parents, grand parents, great grandparents and a few generations back were tortured, maimed or killed if they showed any initiative or made any mistakes. Something so minor as breaking a glass or missing a period in a sentence could result in death. Add to that the issue that Haiti is a male-dominated, adult-centered culture and women or youth who speak up pay dearly for that indiscretion. Those who feel free to speak and act in Haiti are usually the lighter-skinned, wealthier class who benefited from favoritism during every past regime and who believe themselves superior to their darker skinned brothers and sisters. Haitians learn early whether or not it is their place to speak and what the consequences will be if they do.
This has resulted in a peculiar attitude that has both a bright and shady side. Haitian patience and quiet dignity in the face of deprivation and misery is noble and inspiring. On the other hand when so much is always taken away, people live without taking charge of any aspect of their lives slowing to a standstill any progress that could have been made.
Here is one of the many examples we experienced. At one of the schools where we worked the school’s water reservoir was damaged during the earthquake. Instead of making the trip into town to buy the necessary supplies to repair it, the school simply used a 50 gallon can they happened to already have. The school had 600 students, about 50 staff and hosts of doctors coming to conduct clinics who stayed at the school grounds when they were working in the area. Water lasted about 90 minutes each day on a good day. When the school finally consented to spend the $40 in repair supplies the reservoir was fixed in an hour and the entire school had water 24/7. What held up the decision? The school officials (yes three officials to make the decision on whether or not it was a necessity to spend $40 to repair the reservoir) were afraid to make a decision that, if there were any glitches, they could be blamed for. They also didn’t want to spend the money on prevention and maintenance when people were eating only once a day already. So in the toss up between having washing and cooking water and immediate food, the choice was immediate food. Of course lack of water slows down and limits the access to food so it becomes a vicious circle. Get the picture? The virtue is patience and forbearance in the face of crushing obstacles, the vice is paralysis based both on fear and the difficulty of deciding between one neccessity over another.
Because we spent a lot of time with teachers, children and youth, I can honestly say that the Haitian children are a dream to teach. They are obedient, respectful, eager to learn and willing to concentrate through the most horrific of conditions so they can read a bit better, understand a bit more math or just listen to whatever the teacher knows that they don’t know. The students have very little in the way of school supplies so they take good care of whatever they have and nothing is wasted. They also do not complain about sitting 8 to a bench meant to hold 2, or alternately on a broken chair with only two legs and most of the seat and back missing. If a student gets really upset they have a temper tantrum of about 2 seconds and then get back to work. It is easy to break up any arguments or fights because the students listen to the adults and stop when they are told to stop.
That is the good side. On the not so great side, they never speak up, have no idea how to think critically and when asked to give suggestions or solutions, freeze up and sink into the ground with embarrassment. Students will humiliate and ridicule any student who has a wrong answer because there is never a question that doesn’t have one and only one correct answer. If you don’t get it, you will be teased for days. So it is better to remain silent and not reveal your confusion. Teachers get about three months of training at a normal school and have only two tricks up their sleeve: rote repetition and yes or no answers. The response to any student who does not get the right answer is to humiliate and hit the student. They have no books or resources, not even a black board and chalk in some cases, only a few schools have computers and if they do access to the internet is very limited and sporadic. Students will share a text book, if they have any and if not they memorize the text book from repeating it with the teacher. The good side is that Haitian auditory memories are spectacular and they can recite entire books. The down side is that they often have no idea what they are reciting.
In keeping with the mandate of the NGO we were supporting, we did a few things to improve this situation: we taught the teachers educational games, and participatory and small group techniques they could use with no or limited resources. We also showed the teachers how to get students to create an idea or work on a concept as a group by making an “idea soup” whole-class discussion. Everyone contributed an idea to the soup and then they decided what they had all learned from each other and from this process. The teachers and the students used all the new ideas and techniques almost immediately and were hungry for more. It’s not that people don’t want to do anything differently or better, rather they don’t have many examples or models to follow and little access to things that would inspire creative thinking.
What is keeping Haitian education so backward? No national decision to educate all the children and weak standards for schools (only 20% of Haitian schools are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, the rest are private schools or community schools and can choose to follow the Ministry’s mandate or not). Where there are standards there is no one to enforce them and any existing enforcement is punitive rather than supportive of change. If you are fortunate enough to have some money in Haiti, you can get a basic education for your children. Otherwise you take them with you to the market place to sell vegetables and send them to some dubious fly by night “school” every few months when you have a bit of cash to pay the school fees. The same paralysis that keeps homes water reservoirs from being fixed keeps the Haitian decision makers from making a firm commitment to the education and health of its people.
But how is Haitian education moving forward? Anyone who learns anything shares it with a group and the group adopts it quickly. Working together towards a common goal is something Haitians know how to do. They help each other and make sure people’s needs are met. There is a sense of sharing and collective responsibility resulting in many local civil society initiatives everywhere. This is probably why so many international NGOs found it easy to move into Haiti, because the people are already working collectively in spite of the issues of initiative, fear and poor decision making we already explained.
Something we learned to be careful of is that in a collectivist culture it is considered a bad thing to stand out from the group. So we made sure anything we did was in line with the CAFT methods or the initiatives of the local Baha’i communities and would enable groups to move forward without putting individuals in the spotlight. In the rural areas where the Baha’i community members live in close proximity to each other, the movement forward is astounding and inspiring. The entire community is engaged in group learning, collective action and resolution of community problems. The system does not work as well in the cities yet but if neighborhoods can focus to make the same progress, it could.
It is my conviction that as the grass-roots efforts of local Haitians and the strategic support of those individuals who have the advantage of education and experience in Haiti take up the task of building their country, things will improve. Maybe not quickly or without frustrations, but as people take ownership for their lives, the evidence of growth is inspiring, sustainable and culturally appropriate. Hopefully this local movement will overcome the inertia and corruption of the national decision makers and their dysfunctional institutions. All over the world we see people starting to work with unity of vision. This is what we saw happening in small ways in Haiti and that is what we need to focus on to overcome the current obstacles. What we pay attention to grows; let’s pay attention to the developments and encourage them instead of focusing solely on the tensions and misery in the worst tent camps. This is difficult to do. I certainly found it a challenge not to succumb to complaining and to stay focused on what was working. But it has to happen if we want to see positive change because we can’t afford to perpetuate any more hopelessness in Haiti. I want to see reporters finding and focusing on the many local initiatives and small group community efforts because that will encourage more of it to take place.
To end this piece I will leave you with the image of an eight and ten year old boy who decided to move a pile of rubble themselves instead of waiting on machines and officials. They used their hands and a broken plastic cup. They were barefoot and bare handed. But after a couple of days of work they had reduced the rubble from eight feet high to six feet high. I want to honor those boys and all the Haitian people who have both the patience and the courage to continue in spite of misery, confusion and deplorable conditions. This is the strength and the power of the human spirit. It is the power of positive volition and the power of unity. “Haiti cheri, nous sommes avec toi. Men anpil chay pa lou.” (Dear Haiti, we are with you. ‘Many hands make light labour’.)
