Brazil seeks the respect of the United Nations so the country started taking part in the Minustah mission to stabilize Haiti. I don't agree with their tactics and I think that if they really wanted to stabilize Haiti, they would have done it by now. Anyway, it's better than nothing and what happened here in Pindamonhangaba was really unusual. For the 260 Brazilian soldiers who were selected to go to Haiti a huge training course was prepared. This training has a goal to be as similar as possible to real situations that the soldiers would face there. To do so a lot of planing, people and resources are needed and this was the way I got involved with them. The army was searching for English and French speakers (since Haiti speaks a Creole language, a variant of French) and I accepted to be part of the simulations. It was totally voluntary and I took part of it with some teacher friends of the school I worked. I was a reporter, a school principal and many other roles to simulate situations as best as we could and we saw big trucks, guns, riots, explosions, engineering devices among others things and sceneries as the Forum which had the Haitian flag hoisted instead of the town's flag. Surely a different day in Pindamonhangaba.
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| Some new friends and us |
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| The flag of Haiti hoisted in the Forum of Pindamonhangaba |
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| The flag of Haiti hoisted in the Forum of Pindamonhangaba |
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| The flag of Haiti hoisted in the Forum of Pindamonhangaba |
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| Simulation of the suspicion of a bomb in the Forum planted by local Haitian terrorists against the United Nations |
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| Simulation of the suspicion of a bomb in the Forum planted by local Haitian terrorists against the United Nations |
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| Simulation of the suspicion of a bomb in the Forum planted by local Haitian terrorists against the United Nations |
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| Simulation of the help of water supply in a school which had problems with local sabotage |
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| Simulation of the safe transportation of important people in Haiti |
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| Simulation of a van of reporters which broke down and taking advantage of the situation some local people start a riot |
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| Pindamonhangaba was a war zone simulation for one day |
