Week 1 in Haiti - Update from Port-au-Prince

It’s been a long time since I’ve updated but as some of you already know, I’m writing you now from Haiti, having started working with the organization Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) in Port-au-Prince.

Now that I think about it, I should probably take a step back and explain the past few months. Last time I posted would have been early November and much has happened since then!

What I suppose is technically most important is that I graduated, completing my Masters of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with a concentration in Environmental Studies (shout out to the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU). Academically, the largest part of this graduating semester was of course my thesis, for which I completed field research last summer in northern Haiti. This past semester was spent writing, editing, writing and finally getting the document to an academically acceptable place for my committee. The final product, entitled Community Environmental Preservation Initiatives in Borgne, Haiti can be found here http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/403/. Since I highly doubt that you’ll read the whole thing, I have pasted the abstract at the end of this post. Though many other non-professional/academic things have happened (mainly my robust interest in Cuban flowers), I will move on to my current position with SOIL.

Though I’ve written about SOIL previously, I will recap their work briefly but I of course encourage you to check out their website at www.oursoil.org. A new website is on its way soon but for now, there is much valuable information to be found there.

My own summary of SOIL and their work goes something like this…

Often times in developing countries, the basic necessities that we take for granted in the United States are lacking or altogether absent. This is the very unfortunate case in Haiti, where a large percentage of the population lacks access to public sanitation (i.e. toilets). Though this is especially true in the countryside, it is also true in some of Haiti’s poorest communities, where even before the earthquake there was no proper way to treat human waste. Since the earthquake, with such a large number of people displaced from their homes and living in tent communities, the public sanitation situation grew even more serious. While pit latrines or other types of toilets exist, there is no way for waste to be treated properly and so it is collected in large tanker trucks, hauled out to an area near the city dump and emptied into what are essentially ponds full of human waste. (Because of the graphic nature I won’t post images but this youtube video sums up the situation pretty well: http://bit.ly/nahpbT ).

--> ENTER S.O.I.L.

In ameliorating this problem, SOIL employs a unique type of toilet that takes human waste and turns it into nutrient rich fertilizer. By separating the urine (which is sterile and can safely be diverted into an underground gravel pit ground with no health hazard) and the feces, which is mixed with bagesse (a type of mulch that is a byproduct of the sugar cane that is used to make rum, in this case its from the makers of Barbancourt rum), the waste becomes an easily compostable damp mulch (that was a very long sentence but roll with it please…). The mulch is then taken to a separate compost site where it is concentrated in large bins for a few months. Concentrating a large amount of compost allows for enough heat generation kills too the harmful pathogens present within human waste (including Cholera). Though compost piles generally generate a great deal of heat, it’s typically even easier to generate heat in Haiti’s sub-tropical environment (I can personally attest to that as the sweat drips down my forehead while I write this). This New York Times video is a bit old but sums things up well…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb9AiHkhg5o

Finally, here is an article about our Executive Director Dr. Sasha Kramer, who was named one of National Geographic’s emerging explorers.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/sasha-kramer/

I encourage you to check out their very important work and consider supporting SOIL in any way you are able. I certainly could not be more proud to work for such a fantastic organization. As a sort of cliff hanger I’ll leave a few of SOIL’s other amazing qualities for future posts. Let’s just say for now though that Kreyòl is the name of the game…

So, on a slightly more personal note, I can imagine that some of the family and friends network are probably wondering: “What are Craig’s living conditions in Port-au-Prince?” Well, if inquiring minds want to know, I’ll tell you…

SOIL has a very lovely two-story house that they rent in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. The upstairs serves as living quarters for some of the staff and the downstairs is a kitchen and the principal office area. Of course just about every nook and cranny is covered with potted plants of some kind (were a green organization!). The house has plumbing (water is pumped up to a tank on the roof from a well) and a few flush toilets but most of us prefer to use the household dry-compost toilet which is a much smaller version of the toilets described above.

With this model, a 5 gallon bucket handles the solid waste/bagesse mixture with the urine separated into a smaller container that is meant to be emptied daily. The house itself has very nice tile floors , many large windows and a huge wooden stairwell that curves up through the center of the house.

I will have more updates soon but it’s already been a long week and quite frankly the heat is killing me…

Please find the abstract of my thesis below.

All the best from Port-au-Prince,

Craig

___________________________________

In examining the opportunities that lie within the larger context of Haitian development efforts, mending the strained environment upon which Haiti’s fragile rural agricultural sector depends must be a priority. Though related to other pieces of the Haitian reconstruction puzzle, the question of mending the Haitian environment comes down largely to the best way trees can be incorporated into Haiti’s existing agricultural systems. With this in mind, the purpose of this thesis was to complete an analysis of the work and practices of the community organizations of Borgne, Haiti. The organizations of Borgne have mobilized toward environmental development and the preservation of remaining natural resources through a community-wide tree-planting initiative that provides thousands of trees per year to local residents. Beyond an ethnographic assessment, this thesis explores greater implications of the project as a grassroots development model that may potentially be replicated by other communities and organizations throughout Haiti. Field research was completed on site in Borgne in the summer months of 2010. The primary methods employed in data collection were Participatory Action Research and semi-structured interviewing.

The Story of Haiti and How You Can Help - (Take 2)

In looking back this probably should have been my first post as it was what first inspired this blog. Since I wrote this SOIL has been working in Port-au-Prince to try to alleviate the dire need for toilets and proper waste removal. I also believe they have started their first compost site in/around Port-au-Prince. You can check for updates on the SOIL website at www.oursoil.org They are doing great work.

I will have another post up shortly with a few thoughts on development efforts in Haiti.

_____________________________________________________________

Those of you that know me well (and even those of you with whom I have not been in recent contact) know that at some point in the last few years I dove headlong into the rocky, treacherous and beautiful cause that is Haiti. Haiti has in so many ways become my life. It consumes my mind through research, my mouth through a fellowship to learn its language and my heart through its very existence.

To paraphrase Amy Wilentz, who has written extensively on this distinct phenomenon: Haiti is not a place into which one can take a sample or half-heartedly commit, rather Haiti grabs you with its giant claws and doesn’t let go. You feel as if it is grabbing you for a reason, like it has been waiting for you—and when you find out it hasn’t, you thrive on its rejection.

Though most are familiar with Haiti’s problems (including the international press, which has long painted Haiti as a dangerous and savage outcast), few know it’s deep and hardy roots, which stand fast as a base for the tree of liberty in the Western hemisphere. Haiti was the second country (behind the U.S.), to garner independence from its European colonizer. The legacy of that colonial power (the French, who called their colony “Saint-Domingue”) is one of raw brutality, torture and bloody sweat. As we labor to help Haiti in the wake of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake I believe we should know and understand the story of these people.

French plantation owners committed unspeakable atrocities on their enslaved West African imports—unspeakable to the point that most of the female population was sterile, or was worked to death before being able to reproduce. It was quite frankly cheaper to import new slaves than take care of those already in the colony. Imported slaves developed a common language that was primarily a mix of French and West African languages. Given this tumultuous origin, it is no surprise then that the language that emerged—Haitian Kreyol—has long been called “the language of survival.” Though rumblings of resistance were previously met with harsh blows, in 1791 the slave populations of northern Saint-Domingue rose up under the leadership of Voudou Spiritual Leader Dutty Boukman (or “Book-man”, so called for his reading abilities). Following a ritual at Bois Caiman, the slaves began a thirteen year rebellion against their French oppressors. Initially armed with nothing more than long machetes used for cutting sugar cane, the slaves rapidly began to organize under the leadership of General Toussaint Louverture, an educated former slave and devout Catholic. Though Louverture was captured, his armies eventually defeated French forces under the leadership of General Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

On January 1, 1804 just months after dealing the French their final blow at the battle of Vertieres, Dessalines restored the name “Ayiti” or “Land of High Mountains” in the native Taino language and infamously declared that in defeating the French he had “avenged the new world.”

Truly the forces of good defeated those of the purest evil, that is what a successful slave rebellion represents, good over evil, right over wrong, liberation from chains and oppression. Despite this polished and hardened moral victory Haiti was made a pariah by the international community. The United States did not recognize Haiti for sixty years after its independence and France refused to trade with its former colony until the young nation agreed to pay today’s equivalent of $20 billion in reparations for property lost during the Haitian revolution. It was of course that $20 billion that forced Haiti into a cycle of debt and deforestation (much of the islands tropical timber was felled and sold to raise money to pay reparations).

Since its existence Haiti has been punished for its success—punished for being on the side of good in defeating evil. Call it racism, call it jealousy, call it ignorance or call it disrespect, the fact remains that the victory and legacy of Haiti and the Haitian people still represent the ultimate moral triumph of any age and any place on earth. Good defeating evil is rarely so transparent. Despite decades of challenges that range from environmental degradation to political instability to outright occupation by foreign powers (the U.S. occupied Haiti for 19 years from 1915-1934 to “protect American and foreign interests”), this moral victory endures. Despite the stereotypes of voudou practitioners, the boats of refugees that sink under the weight of desperate souls trying for a better life, and the yearly devastating hurricanes, this victory endures and lives within the soul of each Haitian.

Thus it should be with great anticipation that we seize the opportunity to be a part of the cause of the Haitian people, which since the beginning has been the cause of good over evil.

Everyone wants to know how to help, and not just for the now but for the future as well. I am fortunate enough to have traveled to Haiti three times, and was present on the island when the latest disaster struck. I believe I have found an organization that is employing effective and innovative solutions to common problems. The program is called Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihood (S.O.I.L.) and to speak candidly, they build toilets.

So you may be asking yourself how can I be advocating for the building of toilets when the capital city lays in ruins? My logic is plain and direct, this organization has developed a method to change human waste into nutrient rich compost, all the while teaching basic public health and enriching Haiti’s topsoil, which is severely depleted after years of deforestation . Improper sanitation breeds disease, drains resources and prevents community growth. Further, massive deforestation has created a cyclical problem leaving Haiti vulnerable to Caribbean hurricanes, mudslides, and desertification so severe that large crop yields are hard to come by, which is what forces Haiti to depend largely on imported food.
Through this organization’s work they have reached into the villages in northern Haiti and developed partnerships with the local people and organizations. They have been doing the on-the-ground work that has taught them where the needs of the people really are for years, and now that chaos has erupted in the wake of the earthquake they are well positioned to, in the short term get supplies to the people that need them most. They are small, agile, thrifty and their long-term connection to the people of Haiti will not fade after the cameras and microphones of the world media are shut off. Perhaps most importantly, I have witnessed firsthand that this organization operates under a very basic ethos, “Tout Moun Se Moun” or “All People are People.” They are well connected to both American and Haitian organizations that are on the ground doing disaster relief now, and they will continue their valuable work over the long term.

As I close I must present the awkward request for your charity. At the very least I urge you to remember the story of Haiti, their triumph over enslavement, their fight for freedom and recognize that they deserve liberty from the narrative that paints them as primitive, uncivilized or looking for a handout. They share all of humanity’s desire to sing in the glory of self sustaining sovereignty. This is a story that must be told so please correct misinformation, and fight ignorance of Haiti’s story. If you can, I urge you to give to the organization S.O.I.L. by going to www.oursoil.org (you can also follow one of the directors blogs, Dr. Sasha Kramer is currently working in Port-au-Prince). I pledge that from what I have seen, this group will continue their valuable work, allowing Haiti to move beyond survival to a place where they can prosper.

I urge you to give both now and in the future.

Participate in the cause of good, invest in Haiti.