Earthquake recovery updates

Here are updates and links to earthquake impacts and recovery in Haiti. The Mompremiers are pouring the roof on a school they built this summer! Kristie emailed me and reflected that when I was there in January, they had no idea they’d be building a school. They also have a water pump, and a volleyball and basketball court, and have 2 families living with them. I have tentative plans to go down next spring for a week or two to work with their youth group.

The Saturday July 31, 2010 posting on this blog by veterinarian Kelly talks about the tent cities in the capital. Kelly and I talked tentatively about me coming down this fall to help with litter cleanup and manure composting projects she wants to do with youth camps. I’d like to teach the basic science behind these activities. If anyone knows about the trash system in Haiti please let me know! My friend Rhoda who taught me Kreyol this past year moved to Haiti and worked with Kelly’s group CVM for a week before landing a job with Samaritan’s Purse. This is SP’s first time in Haiti.

Here’s an excerpt from Kelley’s blog;

It is raining very hard every afternoon. Ticant's wife just called and asked if they could have another tarp as the rain is pouring in their "tent". The strong sun here makes the tarps and even the tents wear out VERY quickly. There are some of the tarps that are heavier and holding up better but the blue ones like we buy to cover something in the States don't last long at all. It is very hard...

At the camps you have to pay to use the toilet - just imagine if you had diarrhea. The reason for paying is that way the camp committees can pay someone to keep them clean. It's only like 3 goudes but still when you have no job...This is the reality of life in the camps and it sucks! I think though that now some of those who have houses will start to go back. I have heard though that some people are living in the camps who have houses and then are renting their houses to others to make money. I guess I can't blame them. There aren't many free handouts anymore but just being in the mud and so close to so many makes life difficult.

ECHO - Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization

I recently attended the ECHO Introduction to Tropical Agriculture week-long workshop in Ft. Myers FL. It's great for anyone wanting to learn more about poverty and agriculture methods to help people in developing countries. ECHO has a demo of just about everything that Dr. Randtke teaches in his Environmental Engineering & Science in Developing Countries class (CE495/895) at KU. It's a great place to network and meet missionaries and development workers. Pictures are of urban gardens for rooftops, the appropriate technologies (AT) intern showing a solar cooker (soy bean oil is used as a temperature indicator), a briquette press to make fuel pellets (the sign says Produce fuel from waste products: leaves, cornstalks, grass, sawdust, plant wastes, newspaper, junk mail, etc. Shred waste materials and soak in water; place desired quantity in perforated PVC and press; remove and air dry.) and a tilapia/duck pond in which the duck droppings feed algae which feed the tilapia fish. Thanks to the University of Kansas Professional Development Committee and my workplace for providing funds to attend this!

Charcoal (chabon)

These pictures show charcoal being sold along the road or in the market. Trees are cut and burned in pits along the hillsides to make charcoal for cooking. The little fuel (propane, etc.) that is imported costs too much for most Haitians. Also shown are the Haitian kitchens which are built outside. The larger brick one is at my hosts' house at UCI, they have to prepare a lot of food for missions teams. The 30 family members they took in after the quake made it a busy place!



2012 update - Here are more pictures of baking and cooking methods, all of which use charcoal: Roasting marshmallows over the stove in the UCI missionary compound. Women cooking up a lot of beans and rice in a church kitchen. The bread bakery at the Bohoc market. The new cassava mill and bakery at UCI.

Books about Haiti and Kreyol

These are the books and articles I've used as reference for talks I've given about Haiti, and others that are just good. These are linked to Amazon.com, but search Better World Books for used books and a good cause.

• Jared Diamond Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. See this commentary about Diamond's theories.
  
• Paul Farmer Uses of Haiti (2005), After the Earthquake (2011)
  
• Tracy Kidder Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003, about Paul Farmer)
• Wade Davis Serpent and the Rainbow
  
• Bob Shacochis The Immaculate Invasion (1994 US occupation)
• Center for Applied Linguistics Haitians Their History and Culture
  
• Steve Latta et al. Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Princeton Field Guide)
• Brian Crother Caribbean Amphibians and Reptiles (thanks LeeAnn for buying this for UCI)
• Zora Neale Hurston Tell My Horse About her time in Haiti in the 1930's - good history lesson for us today.
  
• Alejo Carpentier - The Kingdom of This World Historical fiction about the 1804 revolution.
  

Kreyol Language

• Roger Savain Haitian Kreyol in Ten Steps
• Dictionaries and books by Bryant Freeman, available at the University of Kansas Bookstore and for download
• Lots of Kreyol books through Educavision in Florida
  

The Price of Sugar movie

The Price of Sugar
April 13 • 7pm • Liberty Hall, Lawrence, KS

Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $5. Doors open at 6:45 p.m.
A discussion following will focus on the U.S.’s roll in global trade, as well as alternative economies like Fair Trade, and local resources for these kinds of products.

In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. "The Price of Sugar" follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights. This film raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what human cost they are produced. For more information and to see the film's trailer go to ThePriceofSugar.com.

Creole language group in Lawrence KS, Eske ou pale Kreyol?

I meet with a friend once a week to practice and learn Haitian Kreyol (Creole). Are there other Kreyol speakers in the Lawrence, KS area who would like to meet with us? Both to learn from us and to help us speak better Kreyol. Leave a comment and we could arrange a meet-up at a coffee shop.

Zanmi mwen ansemble ak mwen e nou pale Kreyol. Nou vle renmen ede! Eske ou vle ansemble ak nou ekri yon 'comment' e nou ka pale nan kafe boutique nan Lawrence, KS. Mesi!

The University of Kansas bookstore has a great Kreyol book section, and some are available for download.

Birding in 2010

Louiders took me on 5 bird hikes. He’s a great guide and knows the birds by sound. The best place to see birds was on the garata which have giant orange flowers (this one has a palm chat on it, the base is also shown) and grow on the side of the mountain. Had a great view of the plain pigeon (ramye), a very large dove that JeanJean remembers being numerous when he was younger. They are now threatened from hunting, I’ve only seen one per year. It made a distinct groaning noise like a frog. I also saw a couple flocks of parakeets (parich), one had 20 birds in it! These birds are threatened from people catching them to take to the Dominican Republic to sell as pets. JeanJean remembers large flocks of parakeets when he was young.

These are the birds I saw for the first time in Jan. 2010 (scientific names are in the master bird list): Green Heron (Ti Krabye Rivye) by the Gwap River in Pignon, Greater Antillean Grackle (Mèl Diab), Red-tailed Hawk (Malfini Ke Wouj), and Bananaquit (Kit). I also saw a burrowing owl (Koukou) that a man had in a basket and tried to sell me.

Louiders pointed out two birds that he knew but I couldn’t confirm for myself:

Yellow-faced Grassquit, (Kit) and Loggerhead Kingbird (Pipirit Chandèl) which was by the soccer field on Hwy 3. I might have seen a Flat-billed vireo (Ti Panach Bèk Plat) but the sun was at a bad angle.