Straw homes and other natural builds in Haiti: Paradise chez Alius

March 31, 2011

Deslandes, Haiti

Several days ago we went to a site to look at potential bamboo for the roof of the washroom- it was at Alius’ place. When we arrived, we were suddenly in paradise, surrounded by fruit trees of all kinds (mango, coconut, banana, papaya), and it was several degrees cooler. We happened upon Alius’ house, which is clad in teche, a type of leaf pulled from a tree. He was nowhere to be found, despite St. Geste calling him…so St. Geste went looking for him. At one point, he called out to us, laughing, to come see Aluis. Alius was napping on the ground, above his corn plantation that is in a wetland, above the river. This beautiful elder awoke from his dream state to be surrounded by 3 blancs and St. Geste, and he burst out laughing- and continued to laugh for quite a long while. We decided that his bamboo wouldn’t work for the roof, as it would need to dry adequately before going into the building, but he really wanted to give us each a coconut so we could drink the milk. He has ample fruit, which he sells at market, and he said he doesn’t need to ever leave his property- small wonder, in a bit of paradise like that, I can’t blame him. He was quite tickled by our visit, as we were with ours. I hope to have another opportunity to visit him before leaving.

Alius' home, bermed into the earth, made with tache leaves

Alius is a beautiful soul!

Alius wanted to give each of us a coconut- here is his friend, climbing the tree to cut them down

Our composting toilet facility is going a bit slower (maybe even a lot!) than we anticipated, despite good progress. It has been incredibly hot here the last few days, with each day getting successively hotter, or so it seems to us (confirmed by some local folks too!). The heat makes us move slowly, but most of our delays have come from lack of materials. Yesterday, for example, we were waiting on lumber for the roof (can’t use bamboo, as it is fresh, and would need to be dry before using), and we also needed bamboo leaves for stuffing into the clay/straw wall cavities. Finally, at the end of the day, we headed to the fields ourselves with a charming group of young helpers, and collected the leaves.

I learned a lot just walking around with these young boys to go find the bamboo leaves- they are all incredibly knowledgeable of their natural world, with all of them being able to point out irritants in the plant world, which plants were medicinal, which were edible, and so on. One of them quite astutely remarked that Haitian peasants can just go walking to find an abundance of fruit trees for food, while Canadians have to work, then go shopping and spend money for food- he feels that they are more rich than we are. I have to agree with him- Haitians are far more rich than North Americans, in so many ways.

Rolling up the tarp filled with leaves

This is quite a wheelbarrow full of bamboo leaves!

Trekking home with our bags of bamboo leaves for the washrooms

We did a test chamber of the clay/straw mix the other day, and it seemed to work out fine- I wasn’t sure how the bamboo leaves would behave, but so far so good. This entire build has involved making substitutions, being resourceful, and ‘making do’ at other times, as materials are hard to come by here. We are quite confident that the building is well tied down to the foundation, and will be both earthquake and hurricane resistant.

Benitta came by to the jobsite to see our washroom, and we had a nice chat. I mentioned how incredible it is that women work such long days in Haiti- she agreed- all day long, she concurred. And then I mentioned that some men don’t seem to do much, while others work hard, but that ALL women work all day long, and she agreee, all day long.

A beautiful woman from Deslandes, who had come to get water from the tap

You really can’t ever work or volunteer in Haiti (and survive) unless you are highly adaptable. You have to throw out any prior sense of scheduling and expectations of timelines, and just….go with the flow. Point in case, Jim is here from Mexico to work on the new block machine with the crew (and it rocks!), but they had to spend his first day here trying to get the machine going (it was supposed to all be done before he arrived by their mechanic). So, they had a couple of half days of productivity, and then yesterday morning, the crew had to sit there, waiting for gas for the machine! It took the entire morning to get gas there, and the crew lay patiently in the shade. They were anxious to get going, but without being stressed about the delay.

Jim, teaching the crew how to use the hydraulic earth block press

Ian & I poured the last section of floor on the washroom yesterday- over an earthblock base. This resulted in a mere 1.5 inched of concrete, verses 4 or 5 inches, so we’ll see how it holds up. Less cement is always good!

And today, we have enough material for wall stuffing to be able to invite a couple of classes out to help us stuff walls- I really wanted to do a participatory build, and am excited to have kids involved. I’m thinking that with our various delays, in order to achieve our goal of finishing the roof & the walls, that we will need to rope in some extra hands over the next few days, both from the crew here, and from kids & parents. The biggest challenge will be collecting enough bamboo leaf material in a timely enough fashion. I think we can do it….but what we realised yesterday, is that we won’t have time to go back to Grassroots to help install a bamboo roof on the composting toilet facility. I had (naively, now, because I’ve been here for almost 3 months total now!) originally thought we could quickly bang off these washrooms, and then scoot back to help with the roof, but silly me! Here we are, hoping we can even finish these washrooms before leaving!

I find myself enjoying the simplicity of my life here- I wake up early each day- earlier as time goes along (these days, 4:30 or so), and am out of bed by 5:30am. Mornings are a symphony of cocks crowing, and the foot traffic has already started. I saunter over to the outdoor kitchen and do the dishes. This has been a good way to start the day, being immersed with women folk, listening to banter and laughing along with them. My creole is at a stage where I can half understand about half of what is going on, which allows me to then ask pertinent questions for clarification.

I can imagine spending lengths of time here in the future. I am not drawn to the larger centres, but find myself being quite content in the village, which is lively in its own way, but quiet at night. There aren't nearly as many burning plastic smells here in Deslandes as you find in either Verrettes or Port au Prince.

There was a death in our midst yesterday. An elderly couple live at St. Geste’s place, in an open building. The man became sick and died at the hospital (same hospital mentioned earlier), and they say it was cholera. I don’t suppose it is confirmed, but it is quite likely that it was cholera. Pity, when it is clearly treatable. Speaking of cholera, on our bamboo journey yesterday, the kids wanted to ‘show us’ the river, so we went down to the Artibonite River, and they immediately stripped down to go swimming. We gave our white arguments against going into the river, stating that they might get cholera- and they said, oh no, the cholera has already floated downstream…we debated, not really wanting them to go into the water, and not wanting to have to go in ourselves to save them, should that occur, but in the end, we realised that kids want to be kids, and they clearly are still in the habit of swimming in the river, and here was an opportunity for them to cool off on what was the hottest day in our stay here to date…so they stripped right down and plunged into the water, giggling and splashing one another with water. Ian had told them not to open their mouths, but they all dove in and came out sputtering up water.