***Formerly unposted, from 2011
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.
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.
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.
It
was a delightful walk down to the farm with the kids to get the bamboo.
They are so interesting, and inquisitive. They started asking lots of
questions about Canada, especially in terms of what we grow there in
terms of food. One little boy commented that in Haiti, they are lucky,
because peasants can walk outside and pick lots of food to eat, whereas
in Canada, we had to work all the time and pay money for things (we
hadn’t told him that- but he was bang on!), and he thus felt that they
are ‘rich’. And he’s so right!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
