Haiti. The nation of Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has about 80 percent of its population living in poverty, according to cia.gov. In addition, only 48.7 percent of people 15 and over are literate, in comparison with the U.S. who has the best and most technologically advanced economy in the world. Also, 99 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 15 is considered literate. Yet, people persist with the complaints that the education system in the U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world!
A little over a year ago, I had the pleasure of travelling to Haiti on a mission trip with my grandparents’ church. I spent a total of a week working on a school where the kids walked to school every day and was considered one of the best schools in the area; there was also an orphanage at the location. The orphanage was designated to girls and had around 50 girls from toddlers to teens residing there.
Let’s focus mostly on the school for today’s piece. While I was in Haiti, I had the pleasure of working on putting together a computer lab with some other people for the children of the school. When I say computer lab, I mean a room filled with 10 plus year old computers and a room that was made out of two shipping crates pushed together. Once we had put the lab together, some of the other people on the mission and I had to teach some of the librarians and some of the teachers how to use the computers. In Haiti they speak Creole, so the others and I had to speak to a translator and he would translate what we said to the teachers and librarians. Once we got through the language barrier and the teachers started to mess around on the computers, their faces lit up as if it was magic. It was insane to see an adult who had never played on a computer before. I can only imagine how the kids at the school would have reacted.
The owner of the school/orphanage was a native Haitian, however, his college education was from the U.S. The owner travelled to the U.S. on a visa and achieved a college degree from an American university and travelled back to Haiti to make a difference. He was able to open a school and an orphanage because of his opportunities in life and the fact that he got to come to the U.S. for his education.
Here in the U.S., Wyoming in particular, we as students constantly complain about Math 1400 ALEKS homework, having to write those response papers every week for discussions or even being forced to take a foreign language. We forget that many people don’t receive these same opportunities, and if these people did get these opportunities they would be able to change their world. We receive some of the best education in the world, yet we continue to neglect to be thankful for it. I am thankful that I got the opportunity to come to the University of Wyoming and learn from most of the teachers here at the university. Kudos U.S. for giving Americans a chance to further their education.
