Playing the game 'Ayiti The Cost of Life was a realization moment for me, because all of the terrible, frustrating and 'if only' stories in the game is the daily basis for someone who is in poverty. Every day is the hope that mom/dad will bring food tonight, will i live to see tomorrow, will I get out of this mess!? In the game you control each family member, the decisions they'll make, what they'll do when someone is sick, what to do to get money, all of those things.
Each decisions effects there lives for the better or the worse. When I played I chose to play for education. I choose education over health, happiness and money because if you have education you know which job to get to get more money and stay healthy. You also would know what to do to provent from getting sick and getting hurt from bad storms. When someone in the family got sick I would ignore it for the rest of the season, my rule is as long as there health is above 5/10 they can work or go to school.
I tried to get the dad to work in a place where if is safe and not too unpleasant. With the mom I would have her work at the market as a market women, where usually it is pleasant and not too much decline on her health. And for the 2 young boys they would work at the farm. The young girl would go to the best school possible, to get the most education and get the best job. If the children go to school the parents hope that the children will learn how to get a job, make money and thrive for a better future. the longest time I keep one child in school was 1 year and 3 seasons (at the second bets school possible). The main problem in school was that they would get really sick and have to drop out of school, or the poverty level would rise and the parents would not get enough money to pay the school fee's.
Where I come from if there was a hurricane I would just pay to get the window guarded, but in this game it cost 150 goud to do so, and usually I only had 150 goud. If there was a hurricane I was prepared, but sometimes it was a false alarm so I wasted all my money. And then could not afford all the needs to survive. In some countries schools are better than others and opens to a lot better and more opportunities' in life. Although in some countries where poverty is a threat and gender equality is not achieved, education is not so good and could give enough education for a basic and not high paying job and boys/girls might get better treated therefor only the girls/boys can thrive.
I think that the first year of education and the teachers were payed by taxes or volunteers. One year is enough to get some one a descent job and enough money to raise a family. Also trading could help, say I give you 3 cows for 6 months of education. Or living in larger families where the work load not be forced on 1 person, but on 5 people. Like jobs get done faster when you work together, so then the jobs would get done faster and work faster therefor getting more money.
Haiti- Disaster
A terrible earth quake strikes Haiti on January 12, 2010. Over 200,000 dead bodies layered Haiti. Children wondered the streets or what once was streets looking for food, health care, their loved ones and friends. The remaining population survived long enough to get health care, food and shelter from the Red Cross and help from multiply other countries all over the world. Critically injured Haitian earthquake victims were flown to emergency rooms. There was so many injured people flown to Florida’s hospital that they had to call off the airlifts for a week because the hospital was being swamped. Most orphans are now abused, sold for adoption and still alone with no one. Also some people’s dead bodies are still trapped under the collapsed buildings.
