Holiday Fundraiser

ImagineHaitian.org will be one of the beneficiaries of the Alternative Giving Fair sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, Indiana. The fair offers people the opportunity to donate to a variety of local and international charities in place of buying traditional gifts. Those who donate to ImagineHaitian.org will receive one of the two cards shown below, which they may give to the person in whose name they made a donation. If you are interested in participating in the Alternative Giving Fair, please contact imaginehaitian@gmail.com for more details.

What’s Next?

It has not been easy to decide how to move forward from my incredible experience as a Compton Mentor Fellow over the past year. However, I have decided two things:

1. I will enter the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington this fall. I plan to pursue dual master’s degrees in Public Affairs and Environmental Science with a focus on sustainable development.

2. I will continue my involvement with the reforestation and biofuel project in Gonaives through an organization called ImagineHaitian.org that I have been developing over the past few months. I hope to find broader support for the organization so that it will be less about me and more about a collaborative effort to improve the environment and the standard of living in Haiti. Currently, my Haitian partners and I are desperately seeking additional support for our tree nurseries. Please contact me if you are interested in helping or have any questions about our work.

End of Compton Year (Future Plans Coming)

A Wedding, a Conference, and Jatropha Galore

With Cherline and Michelet outside the church in Port-au-Prince. Waiting for the bride to arrive.

An international wedding party.

The happy groom.

What a cake!

Girl time with Mireille, the bride.

With my poster at the jatropha conference in Port-au-Prince.

My pre-hurricane house in Gonaives, still surrounded by water 9 months after the storms.

The sad remains of the pre-hurricane nursery.

Cherline and Claire, carefully crossing the mud to investigate a flood-damaged house.

A grim reminder of the flood's power.

Water everywhere, 9 months after the hurricanes.

Ripples.

There's good news, too: the new nursery has taken off. The seedlings, mostly fruit trees, are now being sold for one Haitian dollar (about 12 U.S. cents) and planted in and around Gonaives.

Fruit trees--I believe these are kowosol (soursop), but I'm not positive about that.

The benzolive (moringa) has shot up over the last couple of months.

Mini-terraces built by a women's organization that is partnering with us to plant jatropha in Mapou.

Madame Antoine, the head of the Women's Association of Mapou Rolan, surveys a field that is being planted with jatropha.

Planting jatropha cuttings.

More planting in Mapou.

Digging holes to plant jatropha. Mango trees in the valley. Terraces and eroded slopes on the mountains across the valley.

New growth on a jatropha cutting planted in late March in Passe-Reine, where we are partnering with a peasant association.

Seeds developing on jatropha planted in Passe-Reine in late March.

Fields prepared for jatropha at La Croix, where we are partnering with a peasant association and a church.

More fields for jatropha at La Croix.

Nursery being constructed at La Croix.

Jatropha cuttings in La Croix.

More jatropha cuttings in La Croix, with my lovely tour guide Marie Grace showing the way.

Newly planted cuttings line the path.

Heading down the path on our jatropha walking tour.

Preparing jatropha seeds for planting.

Our proud jatropha team. The four on the left are members of the La Croix jatropha committee. Preval, on the right, is from the Eben-Ezer Mission in Gonaives. The other guy was just hanging out with us cause we're so cool (he has spent time in France--can you see the cultural differences?)

One more photo, just for fun: while in Gonaives, I attended a prayer vigil for two friends who were soon to be married (not the same couple as above). When the vigil ended around 2 a.m., the women pulled out a "bouillon" (soup) and started passing bowls around. Apparently, one bowl wasn't enough for these two...

School Celebration in Gonaives

On June 19, the Ecole Pilote Internationale (EPI) at Eben-Ezer Mission of Gonaives held a celebration to honor the end of a difficult but successful school year. Below are two short video clips from the ceremony. The first shows the students singing together. The second features part of a song by my friend, Cherline, who is a kindergarten teacher at EPI (my apologies for the orientation of the video — I could not find a way to rotate it).