Working with People

One of the biggest challenges in Haiti remains working with people. We have a lot of frustration around this area. On the one hand – we like most of the people that work with us in the village. On the other hand - it’s very difficult for us to trust them to do their job and if we do trust someone – we’re often disappointed.

Some of the things we require seem very natural to us: watch your surroundings. If something is wrong – fix it. Think of ways to improve. We were hoping that the school teachers and directors would somehow adopt this state of mind but so far without success.

We currently have about 30 people working in the school and this number grows as we add buildings and programs. For most of them - this is the only employment opportunity. For each of the jobs, you can find dozens of other willing candidates. In my ‘western’ state of mind this fact would cause people to be very interested in doing good work in order to keep their job. In reality – we often have to remind people their promises and commitments. When we do approach people who are failing to do a good job, they usually prefer describing why other people are doing a bad job, and not talking about themselves. I think that my problem is with the expectation that people that are living under such harsh conditions would act different than people world wide.

Christine just started working as a cleaning lady in the new kindergarten. She has 6 kids, but they don’t all live with her. She cannot sign her name, but the two kids she sends to our school are both doing very well and getting good grades. Her other kids are going to other schools. She’s one of our favorite people in the village and watching her happily come to work in the afternoon makes me happy.