Haiti Simulation
(Based on “Walk in My Economy” by Kathy Lemons modified by Brad
Gilmer)
Time required: 2-3 periods.
Major Economic concepts: Upper, middle, and lower economic classes,
devaluation, foreign exchange rates, the economic aspects of immigration
Instructional Objectives
1. Students will feel the effects of a devaluated economy.
2. Students will describe the economic reasons for immigration.
3. Students will exchange $U.S. for Gourde equivalents and make sure that
they have received the correct amount of Gourdes in return.
4. Students will pay bills in Gourdes.
Background Information: Haiti has gone through years of unrest and
economic hardship. This activity is designed to help the student understand
the decisions that an average Haitian has to make and how civil unrest can
devalue the currency affecting average citizen’s lives.
Materials and Preparation:
Money
Before the first day, the teacher makes “pretend” Haitian gourdes.
Copy the following sheets as many times as needed onto colored
paper. (Use a different color for each denomination). Laminate the
pages and then cut out the bills.
Divide the money into envelopes for the upper, middle and lower.
Write H, M, or L on the envelope.
Put:
a. 400 gourdes in the envelope for the upper class student.
b. 100 gourdes in the middle class envelopes.
c. 24 gourdes in the lower class envelopes.
FOOD
>Prepare “Food.” The following candy will be used to represent the food
that the student buys in the simulation.
Snickers bar – 3 full sized bars for the upper class student.
Tootsie Roll Pops - 3 pops for the each of the middle class students.
o Extra tootsie pops for the final “prize” when they make their
decision.
Small tootsie rolls or Jolly Ranchers - 3 for the each of the lower class
students.
OTHER
>Print the following grid and cut into slips. These will be used to draw for
the students’ lot in life.
Upper Middle Middle Middle Lower
Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower
Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower
Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower
Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower
Lower Lower Lower Lower Lower
>Bring a couple of cushions for the chairs for upper and middle class.
>Dice
Procedures for Day One:
1. Have the students draw to see what class they will be for the simulation.
This will divide the class into 3 socioeconomic groups: upper, middle, and
lower.
There will be:
1 upper class person
2 or 3 middle class people
The rest will be lower class.
*These are approximations based on Haitian society.
2. Present each person with his or her money in DOLLARS first. I just tell
them how much they have rather than giving them something that looks like
dollars. (This part can be omitted if time is short.)
1. The upper class receives $10.00 US dollars for doing business with
top clothing manufactures from the US.
2. The middle class receives $2.50 US dollars for working at a
clothing manufacturing plant.
3. The lower class receives $0.60 US dollars from their uncle who
works in Miami, Florida.
3. All the students must go to the “bureau de change” (change office) in
order to exchange their money into “gourdes,” the official currency in Haiti.
The exchange rate is $1.00 US to 40 Haitian Gourdes. As the students come
to the change office, trade their dollars for the envelope with the pre-counted
gourdes.
The students must use this money to live on for three days. The
student must pay for shelter, food, and transportation. Shelter and
transportation are NOT optional. Food is optional.
Display the following prices.
Upper Middle Lower
Class Class Class
Shelter 35 G 10 G 3G
Food 35 G 10 G 3G
Transportation 35 G 10 G 3G
The students will create their own budget based on what they their own
finances. They are not allowed to pool money or skip paying for shelter and
transportation. They cannot say that they will walk etc.
The upper class student will see that for the three days he will need 315
gourdes. He feels secure in being able to eat every day since he has 400
gourdes.
The middle class student will see that for the three days he will need 90
gourdes. He feels happy because he can just scrape by with 100 gourdes and
eat all three days.
The lower class student needs 27 gourdes to be able to pay all bills including
food. He has only been given 24 gourdes, so he must make a budget that
pays 18 gourdes for transportation and shelter for the three days leaving him
only 6 gourdes to spend on food. Since food is 3 gourdes per day, he needs
9 to eat every day. He must decide which day he will not eat while making
his budget. Watch that they do not try to steal other’s money or to borrow
on the good will of the rich. Haitian jail is always an option for those who
end up with more money than you gave them. The teacher knows who has
how much money at all times. Some will want to try to not budget for the
required Transportation and shelter, be careful of those. Never let them take
the money and envelopes out of the room. Often scanning counterfeiting
goes on. You know how much money they have. Make them stick to that
amount.
4. Have them discuss how they feel about their budgets and their plight in
the draw of life.
5. Seat the upper class person in the teacher’s chair at the front of the room.
Be sure to go on about if they are comfortable or need anything. Ask their
opinion from time to time to give a real sense of importance.
The upper classman will pay their rent, transportation, and food. They will
be given a Snickers bar to represent a whole chicken. They are encouraged
to eat it in front of the class.
7. Seat the middle class men close to the upper classman in student desks.
They can be given some moderate comforts such as a thin cushion for their
chairs, but nothing to compare to the upper classman.
8. The lower class men will be crammed altogether on the floor. This is
REALLY effective, but be ready for them to start emulating some behaviors
associated with a slum. If you do not want them on the floor, just push all
their desks together in one corner of the room. Print the sign that says “Cité
Soleil” (a huge slum on the outskirts of Port au Prince) They will have a
hard time getting to their desks and it should have the same impact. The
lowerclassmen will have enough money to pay rent, transportation and food.
They will be given one tootsie roll (small) to represent chicken feet for soup.
(If they don’t like the idea of chicken feet, they can say that it is pig’s feet,
which are eaten in Haiti)
9. Have students pay their bills individually for day one and give them
change if they need it. If they are eating, give them the appropriate candy
for their class. You might ask the lower class if they are eating today or not.
Rub it in. Make a big production of the rich guy. Always show his large
“chicken” and you always know he has plenty of money. No need to ask.
Do him first and treat him better than the rest of the class.
After all the food is distributed, the class will want to comment on the
fairness of the simulation. I would let them vent. They can discuss the
unfairness of the situation. Tell them that there is 80% unemployment in
Haiti. Ask if they know what the unemployment rate is in your community.
Procedures for Day Two:
On the second “day” tell them that we are going to repeat the process, but
announce to the students that last night the an armed faction has broken into
the presidential mansion, causing the president to flee the country. Today,
most of the world, including the United States has placed an embargo on the
country. This has caused the gourde to drop to a devaluated rate of $60
gourdes = $1U.S.
Discuss the meaning of devaluation. Discuss that this happened in Haiti in
the 1990’s when a coup overthrew the sitting president and several other
times in the past. So the students will have to make a new budget under the
new rates.
Here is the definition of devaluation from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devaluation
Display the new prices
Upper Middle Lower
Class Class Class
Shelter 38 G 12 G 6G
Food 38 G 12 G 6G
Transportation 38 G 12 G 6G
They must pay for housing and transportation but can choose to buy
food. Have the student pay bills and buy food if possible.
Day Three Procedures
(If time allows, I do more than one “day” in a class period)
(This simulation is crafted so that the upper class always has enough money.
The middle class has barely enough until the devaluation, and then they are
not able to eat all three days. The lower class can’t eat all three days from
the beginning and has to choose which day they won’t eat. They often
represent the “live for today” attitude and choose to eat on the first day.
They cannot even pay their bills (let alone eat) after the devaluation and just
hand over what little they have in the end.)
On day three the students must pay their bills and buy food if they can.
After it is evident that the lower class cannot even pay their bills, give them
the option to take a raft and head to Miami. Tell them that this is a risky
option. The waters off the coast of Haiti, Cuba, and Florida have a high
concentration of sharks. Many people that attempt this are lost at sea and
even if they make it other are caught and sent back by the US Coast Guard.
If they want to risk it, they will have to roll a die.
If it lands on:
1-lost at sea 2-eatten by sharks
3-Made it to Miami, but intercepted 4- Made it!
by US Coast Guard. Sent back to
Haiti.
5- Made it! 6-Made it!
If they get a 4, 5, or 6, they have made it safely to Miami, secured a job and
can now eat a tootsie pop/jolly rancher.
Have students generate with the teacher a costs benefits analysis of
immigration to the average Haitian. They then must use that list to make the
decision as to whether they will go to the U.S. or stay in Haiti. They are all
fed after making the decision if they can back up their decision with solid
reasoning as to why they made that choice.
Discuss who decided to risk everything to go to the US. Did the upper class?
Why or why not?
Costs/Benefits analysis of Emigrating to the United States
Costs Benefits
Costs/Benefits analysis of Emigrating to the United States
Sample Answers
Costs Benefits
Monetary costs such as paying Maybe get money to send
for boat/raft. home to your family in
Time it takes to get there. Haiti.
Danger of crossing Having a community that
Fear of trip will Learning a new
Death at sea language
Leave family Educate children in US
Leave culture Job/Money
Have to use new language
Have to live with other
immigrants
Have to find how to get a job
without papers
Discuss Immigration
How does immigration economically affect both the
immigrants and place where they have moved?
Why do people from Haiti risk all to come to the United
States?
What is the unemployment of your area? (Northwest
Arkansas runs around 2.6%- far lower than most of the rest
of the U.S.)
How many students want to work in chicken processing jobs?
What are the good and bad sides of immigration?
Is immigration an economic asset to your area? Why or why
not?
If you chose to go to the United States after the simulation,
why?
How do you feel about Hispanic immigration? What issues
are the same for them?
Post test (choose some of these questions for a pretest)
1. How did you feel when you made your original budget?
2. How did the devaluation affect your spending?
3. How do you think the current devaluation affects the
Haitian people of each of the three groups?
Lower
Middle
Upper
4. Realistically, what options do you feel these people have
when they do not have enough money to eat on? (Other than
turning to crime)
5. Did you decide to go to the United States or to help
someone go to the U.S.? If so, why did you make that decision
knowing what problems illegal immigrants have in the U.S. If
not, why or why not?
6. What criteria do you feel should be set for people to be
allowed to immigrate to the U.S.?
7. You have 220 dollars in U.S. currency. The exchange rate is
40 Gourdes equals $1 U.S.
How many Gourdes do you have?
How mush is one Gourde worth?
8. What does it mean to devaluate a currency?
9. How many centiemes are in a Gourde?
10. Give an example of each::
a. a currency
b. an exchange rate
c. a cost of immigration
d. a benefit of immigration
e. a strong currency
f. a weak currency
g. the unemployment rate