Haiti Trip Photo
Gallery
From February 14 through February 18 I visited Haiti as part of a
contingent to explore developing a technology related educational
curriculum. Firasat Khan from the Minneapolis
Community and Technical College and I flew from Minneapolis to New York on
February 13. The next day we boarded a 3 and half hour flight from JFK to
Port Au Prince the capital city of Haiti.
The sponsor of the trip was Jose Pierre a business owner of a company called
Marketware International (Marketware.net). Marketware is a software company in the financial services
industry. Also accompanying us on the trip were Jose's
wife, Bernie, Marie France Conde, a Pediatrician and Kenol Thys. Here are some pictures
of our group.
Our first night we stayed in Port Au Prince. The hotel had UN guards
stationed on the property. Our group had dinner with 2 pastors who were
on mission trips.
The morning of the 15th we boarded a charter flight and flew to Les Cayes (see the Map at www.travelinghaiti.com/map.asp) The pictures below are of the plane and southern
Haiti.
Firasat and I went to Haiti to conduct an
infrastructure assessment and feasibility study to determine if technology
based courses in programming, networking and online classes could be offered
effectively. We visited 6 schools in two days in southern Haiti.
Some of schools we visited included the American University, College of Saint
Jean, Mazenod University, and the Business and
Technology Institute. At each school we gave an hour presentation to
students and faculty and reviewed the facilities. The pictures below are
of our visit to each school.
American University
College of Saint Jean
A Public High School
Business and Technology Institute
The next day we drove 2 hours to visit a Catholic High School and Mazenod University.
Catholic High School
Mazenod University
After our visit to Mazenod we drove back to Les Cayes. We took a boat to a resort to prepare for a
presentation we were scheduled to give to the Haitian President, Rene Preval on Monday. We stayed in a resort call Abaka Bay. As you can see from the pictures it is
gorgeous and we were treated very well.
Abaka Bay
On Sunday we took the boat back to Les Cayes.
While in Les Cayes we stayed at the Imperial Hotel
which is where the President stays when he is in Les Cayes.
The hotel is owned by this man who is Kenol's
uncle. He is a retired government lawyer and considered one of the
Haitian upper class. He and his wife were very nice. They grow
their own fruit and make honey. We had bread and fresh juice for breakfast
each morning. The bottle he is holding is full of honey he harvested on
his property which is a lot about 75 feet wide and 200 feet deep.
No TV, no phones and soccer right out side my bedroom window. We
did have chickens running in the yard and the roosters woke us up each morning…. just
like being on the farm.
On Sunday night we flew back to Port Au Prince. On Monday we met with
President Preval to present an approach to
implementing a technology based education.
Now the work begins.
Read about our visit in the Haitian Press.
http://www.lematinhaiti.com/PageArticle.asp?ArticleID=11315 it is in French. for English translation cut and paste the text into Google
translate at: http://www.google.com/language_tools ...
More
Pictures at www.myspace.com/stevecreasonhaiti
but you need to get a free logon.
