INTERNATIONAL CAMP REPORT

The International Camp took place from June 5 to June 25, 2004. It started at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC with the representatives of eight participating countries. First, we went sightseeing in Washington D.C. We visited monuments like the White House and some international museums. We also took part in country presentation and we gave a presentation about the cultural aspect of Haiti. After these ice breaking activities, we started to attend an intensive program about debate. This Program included components of communication and leadership. We also participated in some debate workshops. The seminars took place during the first week and we worked very hard learning about two debate formats: Public Forum and Legislative Debate. We spent this first week discussing issues related to national service and training for the international competition that would take place in Salt Lake City on the following week.

The next week, we were received in Salt Lake City by the host families who had to take care of us for the whole week. From the first day, our host families made us feel at home and helped us to adjust ourselves to this new life. The next day, we began to observe some American debate rounds and prepared speeches for the tournament. After two days of observation, we participated in the international tournament by competing against American students in the two debate formats. One of the two Haitian teams (Chrismedonne Fleurantin and Derby Rousseau) won two debates out of four for the public forum. Moreover, Chrismedonne Fleurantin received a distinction for the legislative debate because of his convincing speech. Finally, the tournament ended with the awards ceremony for the winning teams. And the international group ended its stay in Salt Lake city with cultural activities like a party, a visit on the snowy mountains and sightseeing in the city with the host families, before coming back to Washington for the last week.

The last week in Washington was used for debriefing on the content of the program. We still took part in some debate shows. We went shopping and we visited nice places around the city. We had the opportunity to visit Gettysburg in Pennsylvania where we discussed civil war in the United Sates. Our trip to the USA ended with parties and unforgettable moments through a great atmosphere of love and friendship. And we, all the Haitian participants came back to Haiti on the June 25, 2004.