Ayiti: The Cost of Life

This is a very well designed game that I found over at World Changing.

It is about the struggle of a family of five trying to survive in rural Haiti. At the very onset of the game you are posed a question, ‘How will you play?’ Will you go for the most happiness? The greatest wealth? The best education? Or your family’s health? All of them make sense, but each has their own caveats. Then you pick what each of the family members will do for the first season. Work? Go to school? Farm? Rest at home?

At the beginning everything was going well. I had plenty of money, and one of the children was even in school. But then Marie gets a cold: Okay, you go rest for a season. Then Patrick gets bloody diarrhea while farming: Okay, so you go rest at home, too. And since Yves is in school 3/5 of the family isn’t working. Now it isn’t going so well. You are 40 Gouds in debt, and things get worse from there: hurricanes, cholera, depression. It just keeps adding up.

As things got worse, I found that I was getting pretty angry. I was yelling things like, ‘Why are you getting sick NOW,’ and ‘Why are you so depressed? You can’t even work,’ and the like. Then I realized that the point of the game isn’t really to ‘win,’ per-say, but my frustration was the point. That is exactly what it must be like to be in that situation (I can only imagine though, thank God!). It’s frustrating because nothing seems to go well. Nothing can make it better. If you work too much you get sick; if you don’t work enough you go hungry. It’s pretty much a situation of mutual assured destruction.

I encourage you to try it out, and share my frustration. It might be the best way to understand how other people live (in a very limited sense, of course). When all of your family members die, and you have no idea what you could have done differently, you’ll know what I mean.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life

Finally, some officers!

Fitting with the title from the last post, I have some officers, finally! I sent a facebook message to the students in the Habitat for Humanity Whitworth facebook group explaining what is going on with the club. And I also requested that if anyone was interested in being Vice-President, Secretary, or Treasurer to let me know. And three people did! Which is perfect, because that is the exact number of main leadership positions that I need. So, pending a discussion with them and deciding their roles, I have an advisor and my officers. Awesome! Worst case scenario is that they all decide they don’t want to do it anymore, but I don’t realistically see that happening.

Thank you Lord for granting me the knowledge to be patient and let you work your plan! And thank you for giving me people that want to be a part of my visions to help Spokane and people in need of decent, affordable housing!

I’m so happy right now.

Finally, an Advisor!

Well, it happened today. I finally found a faculty member that was interested in advising Habitat for Humanity Whitworth. I’m so excited! Thanks Mr. Spaun! I have another meeting with him and a student leader from SERVE, a campus volunteer kind of program. The three of us will meet next Tuesday (hopefully) and discuss ways to get the club started. Hopefully we will have an informational meeting in the near future for anyone who is interested in joining the club. The next big step is to find officers! Keep my efforts in your prayers!

And there is one other thing to keep in your prayers as well. My friend Jenna’s brother’s best friend, Randy, is deployed in Kuwait. He was recently injured and the doctors are still trying to figure out which antibiotic to give him. From what I understand he isn’t too badly hurt, thank God for that. Just keep him, the other soldiers, and Brandon’s future deployment to Iraq in your prayers! Thanks!

Leave me a comment, as well. I love getting them.

PS I had the highest traffic to this site the other day. 25 views in one day. Pretty sweet!