Harvey in Haiti

[jinman]

Well, if you get a chance you should tour the Barbancourt Rum Distillery. They were damaged by the earthquake, but the distillery is one of the primary economic engines of Port au Prince.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Yep. Last year I was working with the UN and we could see the Ministry of Health up the hill from the airport about four miles away. It would take at least two hours to drive each direction. Too hot and dangerous to walk so it would literally be almost a day's work to have a single meeting. Meetings never started even close to on time as participants were stuck in traffic for hours.

Just trying to do site assessments at the hundreds of encampments was horribly inefficient primarily because of the transport issue. Lack of effective government and way outgrown infrastructure were more of a problem than the earthquake itself.

There are a lot of meetings here. I haven't decided if that is because all anyone feels comfortable with doing is talking about it or if it's a poverty in crisis ritual.

They drive here the way I drove in Nam forty five years ago. We haven't had issues with accidents and such and the few times I've been off base we've maneuvered pretty well. If you pause you are passed. The faint of heart fail this driving test.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great to read and see what you are doing Harvey!!!! I love the things you think up to solve a problem, or create what you need to get the job done.

Eddie

 

[IslandTractor]

Well, if you get a chance you should tour the Barbancourt Rum Distillery. They were damaged by the earthquake, but the distillery is one of the primary economic engines of Port au Prince.

Good rum too, especially the reserve versions. Nice sipping "whiskey".

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I don't drink, not a religion thing because I don't go there and am usually irritated by those who do. So I doubt the tours will be on my schedule.

I explained to my wife about a week here that I felt like it was 1965 and I was in the Peace Corps. I'm much closer to being three times the age of most of those around me here than I'm to being twice their age. It is an unbelievable experience to be with kids that are special beyond measure. Nurses, doctors, and people donating their skills and passion to help others without blinking an eye.

No meals served here at the compound on Sundays. I ate local earlier. So they pool some funds and are having a feast that is east coast mexican made with local Haitian products. It is special to sit here and listen to the joy of life that is the young when they are most alive.

These kids live in tents. No a/c, sporatic power, it's been off almost all day and now it's on, bucket showers, and they are exposed to some of the best and worst that humanity can offer on a daily basis. They pay $105.00 per week to have these facilities along with two meals a day six days a week. They provide the tents themselves too. There's also the internet, slow but available most of the time.

I live amongst heroes.

I forgot the toilets. The are compost toilets. You do your business in a bucket and cover it with rice hulls or sawdust. There are two of them here.

If you ever sense me starting a pity party please slap me. twice.

 

[txdon]

Harvey, thanks for the update. A whole different culture, but yet the same, without life's convinces. I like the comparison to road kill, it kind of brings things into perspective. I can see the usage of the plastic waste, but I can't see the end. Unlike you I would be devastated with the pollution and the influx of phthalates from plastics in the food chain and just concentrate on detoxing myself. Your one plastic bottle at a time philosophy is inspiring and overwhelming at the same time, especially after seeing the picture of the dump. I'm looking forward to more info in your new culture and your interaction with the people. I hope they appreciate your problem solving and creative abilities. Just like I thought this will be a very interesting thread.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Morning Don,

Those pictures aren't of the dump. I haven't been to the dump yet. The photos with the man walking on the water is of a canal that flows from the mountains to the ocean. Along the way raw sewage and trash finds its way into the canal. That location is no more than a couple of thousand feet max from the ocean. One good storm and it is out to sea forever.

There are many challenges here. One of them lies in what five years ago was declared the most dangerous slum in the world by the UN. Cite Soleil is where those pictures were taken. That trash you saw wasn't created by the citizens of Cite Soleil but we are trying to find a way to get them involved in cleaning it up. The trash was generated by those up stream that are so much better and more important than the people who live in the biggest slum in Port Au Prince.

An interesting thing is walking through Cite Soleil you don't find trash in their streets like you do everywhere else in town. This is not because outsiders have paid them to clean up their streets. It's because the citizens themselves have decided that if they want a better place to live then they have to do it themselves. If you want to find hope in Haiti you go to Cite Soleil.

They have even started planting trees.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I have a dream. That dream is of an excavator lifting the trash out of the canals and placing it into a large tank. That tank contains a cleaing solution that kills bacteria like ecoli and cholera. Then the trash is rinsed and placed where sorting and processing takes place.

There are some conventional recycling of plastic bottle programs on the island. I've already talked to one about them having processing equipment at this location to pick up the bottles that they want. The really bad stuff like the film and foam plastics will be processed into building blocks for housing. The organic based stuff like paper will be processed into briquettes. Charcoal is the most common cooking fuel here in Haiti.

The big problem for me in this dream is the sanitizing tank. Someone mentioned to me the use of salt water. The ocean is right there. There has to be a salinity level that will kill the bacteria. It would be the most cost effective and natural solution I believe. If you know anyone with the skill set and knowledge to find the answer it would be wonderful.

We want to clean up the plastic trash and provide a way to make the best homes at any price. But we don't want to make Haitians sick doing it.

 

[slowzuki]

Sun / UV is a very good sanitizer. Combined with air, aerobic bacteria break things down quite well.

 

[IslandTractor]

If you want to find hope in Haiti you go to Cite Soleil.

.

Not sure I agree with that. When I was there last year Cite Soleil was openly run by violent gangs and thugs. Urban warlords controlled the place. The local police would not go there at all and the UN security troops would only travel there in heavily armored convoys. We had to have one of our teams extracted by the 82nd Airborne after a dispute over who was calling the shots in a latrine clean up and drainage operation! Maybe things have changed but for a long time Cite Soleil has been a great example of how little authority the Haitian government has even within the capital city and it represented the type of lawless post Armageddon society one usually associates with Mel Gibson's early movies.