More thoughts from Laura

Day 5:

This island is an enormous paradox - it is so incredibly beautiful, but there is also unbelievable poverty here...unbelievable poverty. Yesterday, we went to a tiny island near Ile-a-Vache (the island was maybe the size of a city block) and it was filled with grass huts. I couldn't believe an entire community lived on that little island. We were told there were about 100 children (although we only saw about 30) and there is no school and no teachers on the island. So, the children (and most of the adults on the island) have never been to school. They also have no medical services - a large portion of the children had hernias and just about everyone we spoke with (adults and children alike) had major dental problems. Whatever we end up doing down here in Haiti, I really hope we are able to at least get a teacher and some books (and a soccer ball - the kids really wanted a soccer ball :) to that island....

Today, we took a boat ride to one of the major towns on the island (there are no vehicles on this island - people get around either on foot, horse, or boat), and it was market day, so a lot of people were in town selling fruit, fish, and all sorts of other things. The roads in this town were a mixture of mud, rocks, puddles of stagnant water, human and animal excrement, and trash. And, most everyone was walking around barefoot. The whole time, I couldn't help but think about the kinds of diseases that were being transmitted...It was interesting though, to get to see a different part of the island to get more perspective. The area we are staying is definitely more rural and this area seemed to be the island's "city" - especially on market day. While we were there, we got to see a few schools, the hospital, and we met with the mayor of the island.

Everyone we meet with here talks about how corrupt the national government is, and they make it clear that they have zero trust in the government. It is easy to see why. Places like Il-a-Vache and that little island we saw yesterday really do seem like they have been forgotten by their government. I shudder to think what this place would be like without the strong local community leadership we have seen and the foreigners who have come to build and finance schools and medical facilities where the government has failed. Now I understand why 80% of the schools here are private. Private schools here are not exactly what we think of in the US - they are so many private schools here because the government hasn't provided enough schools - so NGO's, churches, or individuals (locals and foreigners) have stepped in to help out. Each of these private schools still has to be certified by the government and they have to follow the national curriculum. Students' families also have to pay a fee for school, as well as pay for their books and uniforms. The stories we have been hearing indicate that people barely have enough money to feed themselves, I can't imagine having to pay for school on top of that. But, for many, school is a priority.

Day 6:

Today was a hectic day. We left Il-a-Vache early in the morning, and caught a boat over to Les Cayes (the nearby city). In Les Cayes (or Eau Cayes as many call it here), where we had a series of meetings until noon, at which point we started our 5 hour bus ride back to Port-au-Prince. While in Eau Cayes, we met with the Minister of Education of the South, the director of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), and the director of the Diocese schools. As I mentioned previously, most of the schools in Haiti are either run by religious organizations, NGO's, or private individuals, so it is important for us to get full perspective on the schools here. Also, importantly, we learned yesterday that CRS provides professional development for a significant portion of the schools on Il-a-Vache, and probably throughout Haiti as well. One of the things we keep hearing about in terms of the plans to rebuild the education system is that there really needs to be more of cohesive system here; in other words, rather than the majority of the schools being run by a variety of different people, the government needs to step up and provide more educational opportunities for Haitian children (and of course adults as well...but that is a whole other story...). When we spoke with the Minister of Education, he said the goal is to flip the current numbers (20% public; 80% private) to make 80% of the schools here government run. Of course, with everything we have heard about the government, I have to wonder about the feasibility of that. It is easy to dream, though, about a more cohesive, networked, well-oiled system here, one where teachers are regularly paid and sufficiently supported and trained, students are feed, schools are structurally sound, resources (books, chalkboards, desks) are available, and, importantly, education is free for everyone...

Ralph's Ramblings

Again, apologies for not posting earlier but below are some thoughts that I (Ralph Bouquet) have collected over the past few days...

July 15th, 2010
Today I walked through scenes that 5 hours later still have me suspended in a state of shock and disbelief at the sheer amount of grief and despair that I witnessed. The tent city across from the totaled nation capital revealed a complete lack of any relief system. No food banks, no security, no leadership. The huge amounts of money towards relief that we’ve heard thrown around the media for the past few months seem to have done absolutely nothing in mobilizing the most basic of resources into Haiti. Instead, what we saw were people relying on the most basic systems of survival and community available to them.

July 16th, 2010
Today we visited a school in Petionville organized by an amazing woman. A complete grassroots effort, her school truly demonstrated the power of human perseverance in the most difficult of circumstances. In just 5 years, she has created a school that before the earthquake served nearly 500 students, completely organized by a community effort. When we asked her how the Ministry of Education in Haiti assisted her in her efforts she merely laughed citing a history of the Ministry being completely ineffective in providing any organized system of support. Our meeting with leaders of organizations that manage many of the private schools in Haiti generated similar results as the participants remarked that the Ministry of Education was not a consistent source of support for their efforts in providing support to their private schools. Given that only 20% of the schools in Haiti are public, it is clear that these schools have a very difficult problem in their hands since any resources that the Ministry has will most likely be focused on the public schools. After our meeting we left for the airport to travel to Le Cays. On our way a faucet literally opened in the sky and rained poured for about 45 minutes before eventually subsiding. However, our flight was delayed for an hour. After we took off, I was surprised by how smooth the ride was and when we landed in Le Cays I was greeted by a completely different picture of Haiti. Our bus ride through Le Cays to the shore revealed a much more rural Haiti than the PAP we had seen the past few days. Amazing vegetation everywhere and while still poor, I got the feeling that many people were able to survive in this environment. We got to the shore to take a boat to the island off of the southern coast of Haiti called L’Ile a Vache and what proceeded was the most amazing boat ride I have ever taken in my life. As we left the shore, the sun was setting behind us and to the south we could see lightning from a thunderstorm in the mountains. I couldn’t speak during the entire trip and could only watch the pattern of foam and waves trailing the boat as the lightning grazed the orange and purple sunset. The ride took about 45 minutes and we finally arrived at Port Morgan which was built into an amazing hill right on the shore. The hotel is simply one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Simple with an idyllic touch of the Caribbean, I’m completely in awe at the beauty of L’Ile a Vache.

July 17th, 2010
We were greeted by a torrential downpour this morning. After the rain subsided and we had lunch, we took a walk down to a small village close to the hotel. One thing I noticed about the Port Morgan Hotel is that it is built right into the community without any gates or fences to separate it from the rest of the village. We passed several people and children walking along the beaten path who graced us with consistent greetings of “Bonsoir.” We were walking to meet with several teachers from the island and a school director of the school we were meeting at and upon our arrival we were greeted by about 9 teachers who would be attending. As customary in every Haitian “reunion,” the meeting began with a prayer led by the school director who was also a pastor and after brief introductions we began to discuss the problems that the teacher felt they were facing in their schools. Again, there was a common theme of the government not paying teachers in public schools and many of them lamented the fact that they were essentially volunteers being paid once a year by the government and relying on alternative sources of income to support their families. The conversation took an interesting turn when we began to discuss NGOs and their presence on the island. The teachers described how historically the island has been neglected by these organizations and from what I’ve seen, outside the efforts of the few individuals from the States we have met, that seems to be the case. After briefly describing our plan and the relationship that we would like to build with them, the teachers stated that any program we developed would only be successful if it did not go through the hands of the government. Amid a few laughs grounded in a dark reality was the sentiment that they would never see any of the change we described if the Haitian government was managing this money.

Reflections from the first few days...

Hello everyone, we haven't had much access to internet since we've been here, so it has been hard to keep this blog going. But, each of us has been writing a little something each day, so we will start posting our reflections piece by piece. Here are mine (Laura) from the first few days...

Day 1: Today was our first day in Haiti, and we spent the day in and around Port-au-Prince. This is an interesting time to be here - it is six months after the earthquake, and still very little progress has been made in the reconstruction of the areas hit by the earthquake. We can see the effects of the earthquake everywhere. The streets are lined with tents - in fact, every possible open space has turned into a tent city. Even at the hotel where we are staying, just across the street there are tents as far as you can see...it is very hard to walk into our hotel every day when thousands of people are sleeping on the streets just outside. I just read that there are still 700,000 people living in tents in Port-au-Prince. 700,000 people? Even being here, and seeing it, I still can't even fathom how it is possible that 700,000 people are living in tents in this city...

Day 2: Today was incredible. Yesterday, we were just soaking things in, or at least trying to, as we drove around the city and walked around our neighborhood, but today we actually got to talk with a number of Haitians in a variety of contexts. Early in the morning, we took a tap-tap (trucks that drive around the city and people hop in the back to get where they are going - it cost us 8 cents for our trip) - and we were incredibly lucky, because we were with one of our new Haitian friends, David, who brought us to his neighborhood and had arranged for us to visit a number of schools. His neighborhood was one of the worst hit. Walking through it, I almost felt like I was on a movie set - it was so surreal. There was rubble and flattened buildings everywhere. It was particularly hard to see all the collapsed schools. Amidst all of that though, we met some absolutely inspiring (and unbelievably resilient) people. All of the schools we went to are run completely by local community leaders - none of them are receiving any help from the government, and most of them aren't receiving help from any aid organizations either. They are completely on their own. These school leaders are personally helping to feed the children when they come to school hungry, and one of the woman we met even helped to pay the rent for some of her students' families so they could stay in the neighborhood and keep going to school. The "classrooms" for these schools were outside, with nothing much more than tarps over their heads. Even if there were school buildings, the students were afraid to have class inside because of the trauma from the earthquake. I am still trying to process everything, and I am sure I will have much more to say later, but for now, I have to run...

Day 3: What a strange experience this has been...the first two days we were in Port-au-Prince - amidst all the sadness and resiliency - and last night we took a little plane to the other side of the country, then a boat to an island called Ile-a-Vache, and this morning I woke up in paradise. It was dark when we arrived last night, so I didn't really have a sense for how magically beautiful this place is until this morning. And what a shocking difference from where we were just yesterday. I can't believe we are in the same country - it feels like we are in a different world. With that said, there is still intense poverty and incredible need here. This is a quite remote community, and the teachers and administrators we have spoken with have explained that they feel like they have been forgotten by the Haitian government (and the world). Most of the schools here are financed by foreigners who have moved to the area. We will be here for the next few days, and will get to see a number of schools and meet with more community leaders here as well. Apparently a lot of Haitians have moved to this island since the earthquake, so it is an interesting time as everyone is trying to adjust. Of course, even before the earthquake, there were plenty of difficulties here with education. We spent the morning speaking with a local teacher, and he was telling us that teachers here often go months without pay, and it is not uncommon to go years without pay. I really can't imagine...the people here are incredible. There is such a strong sense of community and deep commitment to education. I am truly inspired...

The beginning...

Hello! We are an applied international development research team from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, and we are starting this blog in order to document the beginning of our work in Haiti. Our trip (July 15-23, 2010) is the first step of a longer-term redevelopment project in post-disaster Haiti. Our goal for this trip is to concentrate on building partnerships with the Haitian Ministry of Education, international and local NGO’s, and community leaders - all of whom are working to rebuild the country’s educational system.

Our team includes: Dr. Sharon Ravitch, faculty at Penn; Dr. Wagner Marseille, an assistant principal in Philadelphia and Haitian-American; Ralph Bouquet, also Haitian-American and currently in Penn GSE’s TFA master’s teacher education program; and Laura Colket, a doctoral candidate at Penn GSE in Educational Leadership.

Throughout our trip, we will blog about our experiences – and we will be posting videos help document our trip as well. Please keep checking back – and of course we would love to hear from you too!