The Beginning
The beginning of 2005 by air, by bus, by train. People are arriving from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and even Switzerland. Some are early, some right on time and some are late. Everyone are here to begin a new challenge at The Kaospilots.
Christmas is over. A new year has just begun, and as always Denmark is welcoming us with clouds and wind on a rainy day. One might feel like the sun will never shine again. Inside the buildings at the Kaospilots is a different atmosphere. Something new is starting and people are tuning into it. Stories about the holiday and expectations to the coming year are flying across the rooms. The students from Team10 are gathering for the first time in months after having finished their individual assignments during their third semester.
Its time to get together, create common meaning and realize what the months to come are about?
How many different kinds of Havana Club is there? How old is the best one and what is the price in Cuban pesos? Where do you buy the best cigars? Donde vives? Can we use Visa? Who is bringing their computers? Is it possible to buy shampoo and toothpaste on Cuba? How may tampons do you need for tree month? Hola como esta? How much paper do we need to bring for workshops? Is it possible to buy a bike on Cuba? Which vaccination do we need? Anybody called Ibis? Or Danida? I know someone who has been working with distance education in Mozambique. I have a contact to a Salsa orchestra. Como te llamas? Is it possible to use the Internet on Cuba? Where are we going to live? Can we make our own food? Are we going to eat beans and rice every day? Is it raining much in Havana? How warm is it in February? How do we organize ourselves? Caordic? Traditional? Like a plant? Soy estudiante de una education alternativa que se llama pilotas de caos. How should we document the process? Should we make a film? How do we get the whole world to talk about distance education? Can our project help to make more balance in the world? How do we make ourselves unnecessary in the project? Who can take over the project? How do we sell the concept? Navigo en caos. When are we coming home?
The Project
The story of a poor child with no shoes, bare feet walking miles upon miles in the baking sun on a rough road to and from school is a classic. To some even a cliché. It is however reality to many children throughout the world. And to just as many, it might be what they can only hope for, but never will experience. This goes for children as well as young ones and grown ups. They will never experience and benefit from education. That is a sad reality in the world of today. But it is not the only one.
Some are educated, some have shoes and some don´t have to walk on unpaved roads and hide from the sun. This is the reality of 35 students from The KaosPilots. Their life is situated in the luxury of the Scandinavian societies. However, they now urge for the sun, for bare feet and for doing something for those less fortunate. At least when it comes to education.
In spring 2005 The KaosPilots Team10 flies abroad to search for possibilities of creating Universidad Para Todo (University to everyone). The project will take off in Cuba, but hopefully spread across the world.
The project is about developing educational concepts that will serve educational interests in third world countries.
By strengthening the educational systems in third world countries, we believe poor people will gain increased possibilities of improving their life conditions. Thereby the situation that characterizes todays world will become more equal.
Team10 of the KaosPilots are going to Cuba for three months on the 15. of February. The purpose is to gather knowledge about education in third world countries. This knowledge will be the basis of a business, which can exist by delivering services connected to education in third world countries. Concepts and a business plan will be presented to potential investors later on.
Entrepreneurship is to many related to the dream about easy business and profit. With this project we want to show that alternatives can be realized in the world of business. We wish to be entrepreneurs creating possibilities to others than ourselves. We wish to enter a future were we can meet other young people from other parts of the world as equals.
Some of our most important competences as KaosPilots are creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation. By combining other peoples experiences and knowledge we hope to create strong and innovative concepts, that points towards a future, which seems to be characterized by change and challenge. This we will do by facilitating workshops with the Cuban people, by hosting creative idea-development and by testing ideas in pilot projects. Keeping a close contact to the local society and including them in import questions according to education will secure that needs and possibilities will be taken into consideration. In other words our project will grow from the bottom-up.
We have chosen to work on Cuba for several reasons. One is that Cuba is a third world country with education as a high priority. Therefore there must exist a large amount of experiences and interesting thoughts in the educational area. Another reason is that by challenging of our mental models and the reality as we know it, could be a precondition to innovation. Only by placing ourselves in a new situations and new places, where known pictures of the world dont match the reality that we know, will the truly new and innovative ideas emerge. We will do this by going to Cuba.
Another important part of the project will be the stories and events we are surrounded by. These will be told and documented through articles, a documentary and our webpage: www.??????.dk.
We hope that this project has awakened something in you, and matches your values and beliefs. Perhaps you wish to come along, support us or help telling the stories from this project.