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.