Life Lessons and Permaculture in Haiti
Teaching and Volunteering in Haiti
Apr 21, 2011
I have deep gratitude in my heart to all of you for supporting me with my initiative in Haiti and for helping to make this possible through your donations, helping to spread the word, and sending positive energy. As I prepare for this trip, I have a sense of being in touch with the oneness of our humanity.
The Monday after the tsunami in Japan, I spent the morning volunteering at our local day hospice program, giving Reiki and guided imagery sessions. I experienced that day that "All of this is Me". At the level of energy, there is no separation between Japan, the hospice clients and myself. Japan and my hospice clients are teaching me that I can let go. As I embrace my life purpose, I find it easier to live and to accept the impermanent nature of my life, that at one moment or another I will die. All of this, including our loss, our suffering, our transformation and our healing is part of our shared humanity. I go to Haiti with this spirit. I hold Love, Intention and Vision for humanity in my heart. I intend to plant seeds for the kind of world where People Care, Earth Care and Fair Share are our way of life again.
My Upcoming Work in Haiti
I'm experiencing a mix of disbelief and nervousness to be going to Haiti, finally, after all these months of planning :) I'm leaving on May 2 after we finish teaching our intro to permaculture course on May 1. The morning after I arrive, the plan is to immediately join a Permaculture Design Course (PDC) that is being hosted by the Love and Haiti Project, and taught by Larry Santoyo and Hunter Heaivilin.
After speaking with Demeter, my contact and host at AMURT, we decided to use the funds I raised for AMURT ($1400 USD) to sponsor two Haitian students to attend the PDC and for me to attend as a teaching assistant. These two students will be a core part of the team I will be training team in the four weeks following the PDC.
As it stands now, my plan is to run two 5-day trainings to train community leaders and AMURT staff in Port-au-Prince. The first session will be for women only and the second for men and women together.
The 5-day training will cover:
Day #1 - Leading Groups in a Cooperative and Holistic Way
Day #2 - Permaculture Principles in a Garden
Day #3 - Permaculture Principles in Other Areas of our Lives
Day #4 - Cooperative Communication and Conflict Resolution
Day #5 - Preparing a Workshop
My goal is for the students to prepare and plan their own 1-day workshops for their communities on themes such as starting a garden, composting, cooperative and respectful families. Two other members of the AMURT team will hopefully train with me so they can give the 5-day training again to others in the future.
People are an Important Resource and Power Outage Reminders
May 4, 2011
It's 5:50am and I've been awake since 4am, resting and relaxing on my mattress under the mosquito net and listening to the sounds of the morning – first the roosters and dogs, then the people and motorised vehicles. At 5:18am it was getting light outside and my skin was already feeling a bit sticky. I feel happy and grounded.
Yesterday, at the airport in Montreal, I met a man who founded a non-profit in Haiti more than 20 years ago; he grew up in Haiti and now lives part of the time in Canada. The non-profit's office was destroyed in the earthquake. His staff asked him soon after “Where will we meet?” He told them to meet under a tree. For the first three months after the quake, he asked all of the staff to volunteer their time to help get things started again. All of them stayed on and volunteered. The computers had also been destroyed and all they had left was what was in people's heads. They were more or less starting from scratch. He said to me that he learned from this that people are the most important resource.
I`m staying at the apartment of two friends who work for AMURT. Soon after my arrival, one of their neighbours, a little girl, about 4 years old, walked right up to me and gave me a hug. As I bent to down to talk with her, she gave me a kiss on the cheek. At the school a block from here, while sitting in the AMURT office, three little girls came up to me and gave me hugs and kisses. It warms my heart and spirit to be welcomed immediately with so much affection and interest from these little girls.
My friends didn`t have power in the apartment for about 36 hours. Usually they count on having power for a few hours a day, enough to charge up their batteries, computers, cell phones, etc.; this time the outage was longer. Dinner was cooked under a battery-powered torch and on a gas stove. We talked and ate with candles and flashlights. Yesterday, there was no running water during the power outage. There is a big bucket of water in the bathroom and another in the kitchen. Even though the power came back on after dinner, I was still looking forward to bathing myself from the bucket in the shower. The water in the bucket seemed a good temperature; I used about 10 cups of water.
I felt comfortable and at ease. It felt good to slow down and appreciate the food and water. This is a really helpful reminder for me as I think of what life could be like without all the infrastructure on which we rely in developed countries – the electrical grid, running water and fuel for transportation. Once before, I bathed with a kettle of boiling water and a bucket of cold water. Last night, it was maybe 20 or 25C, so it was comfortable without heat and comfortable bathing from a bucket. When I think of the cold climate we have in Perth, Ontario, I realise again the importance of a redundant source of heating that doesn`t rely on electicity (both our gas furnace and wood pellet stove require electricity to run) and other ways of cooking. If we had a wood stove, we`d be able to keep ourselves warm in the winter, do some basic cooking and boil water. A home-made 'rocket stove' would offer a simple back-up stove; a cob oven would be nice option too.
It`s 6:10am and there`s a resounding echo of uplifting music coming from somewhere in the neighbourhood. 6:27am and there`s a man`s voice coming over a loudspeaker in the distance and a chorus of voices in the background. I wonder if folks are already at church. Wow. I`m already feeling hot and I`m not even outside.
We talked last night about plans for the two 5-day trainings I`ll be giving. We`re also planning for me to visit the AMURT sites in the Northwest and to coach the team in the NW through a permaculture design for one of their sites and the projects that could be based there.
I`ll be joining Larry Santoyo and Hunter Heaivelin`s Permaculture Design Course for the next 14 days. Looking forward to more inspiration and going deeper with all of this work.
I`ve been here for less than 24 hours and it seems already like a couple of days. The energy and vibe feel familiar and comfortable to me in this moment. Just surrendering to the sounds of the motorbikes and trucks, and amazed by the church music which sounds more like a pop-rock concert now. It's not even 7am. Greetings and blessings on this day and this morning, from here in Haiti, to you, wherever you are.
Language as a Problem and a Solution, Culture as an Edge
May 8, 2011
I had expected that the language difference (me speaking French and not Creole) would be a challenge for me in giving trainings and facilitating groups here. I accepted that this would be a learning edge for me, which would push me to find new and creative ways to facilitate people's learning process.
On my first day at the PDC (which I'm attending as an assistant), during lunch, I asked one of the Haitian students how he was doing. He asked me something like “Could you tell me, exactly what is permaculture?” Having just spent the weekend facilitating an Introduction to Permaculture with a group of 27 people in Ottawa, I was happy to share my understanding; questions similar to this were still fresh in my mind. I started talking with this student, and little by little, our small nucleus of conversation grew until most of the Haitian students were sitting with us, listening. A few of them explained to me that the language was a challenge for them. Neither of the teachers nor the translator are native Creole speakers and some of the students couldn't understand the material as clearly as they wanted. About three-quarters of the Haitian students could understand me clearly in French, so I've been spending lunch and breaks usually with a small group of students, answering questions, clarifying concepts, and giving guidance on their design projects in French. I'm really enjoying being able to offer support in this way and delighted that this gives me a chance to connect more personally with people.
A few of the Haitian folks I've chatted with in class, at the AMURT school and on the street have asked me about Canada and have shared about their lives. I've been excited to hear about the gardens, schools and children's programs people have started, and to know that some of the students in the PDC have ideas about new things they could do. A few people have invited me to visit their homes and the projects they've started in their communities.
Our different linguistic and cultural backgrounds have added a layer of richness for me in listening to Larry's stories. Several times while teaching, Larry shared a funny story, which was met by immediate laughter from the students who understand English. A couple of times, the translator retold the story in Creole, which was followed by a second round of laughter from the Creole-speaking students and some of the English-speaking students listening to the story being retold. I remember that the story about composting toilets translated well into Creole; I think our understanding of minimising opportunities to be in contact with kaka is fairly universal :)
I'm grateful that the “problem”, which was the language barrier, has become an opportunity to slow down, listen, reflect and connect more deeply. The extra time and information I have to share is being transformed into learning for other people. We've found a way to turn the difference in language, the edge of where our French, Creole and English meet, into a new opportunity. In this fertile ground, we are learning about permaculture and each others' cultures, developing friendships, seeding possibilities for new projects and collaborations, and taking care of people. Earth care, people care, and sharing the surplus; I would say that we are touching the essence of permaculture and laughing a lot in the process :)
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Earthship building. The walls are made of old tires and the roof of the big dome is insulated with styrofoam food containers; the outer finish is cement. Rainwater is harvested into a cistern (structure on left) and used for bathing. Greywater from bathing is used to flush the toilet. Blackwater from the toilet is passed through a constructed wetland system and then into the garden beds in front of the building.
Choice is Power – Lessons from Cité Soleil
May 16, 2011
What stands out for me in these last two weeks in Haiti is the people. I'm reminded that, in any life circumstance, we have choice in how we live and how we meet the world. Dr. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust, wrote about how people found freedom, choice and meaning even in the concentration camps. He wrote about men in the camps who walked around comforting others and gave away their last pieces of bread. I've met people like this here; to me they are everyday heros.
Earlier this week, I was invited to visit a neighbourhood in Cité Soleil with one of the design teams from the permaculture course. We visited three households and interviewed the residents about their daily lives: how they cooked, bathed and went to the toilet, how they got their water, food and fuel. We heard about how one home had been built and how another had been destroyed in the earthquake.
In one family, there was a man who lived in a tin house with his adult son. Inside the house, there was a baby less than a year old, sleeping naked on a dirty cardboard box on the floor. I asked the man whether this was his grandchild. He said no, this was a friend's baby; the friend was sitting outside. He explained that whenever there were children in the neighbourhood who needed a place to stay or food to eat, they would come here. He said he was like the father of the neighbourhood.
We asked him about the small garden he had in the corner of the yard. He explained that he had taken seeds from some of the fruit the children had eaten, planted them and watered them; when he saw that plants started to grow, he put up a make-shift fence to protect them from the animals.
He told us that since the 80's, they've been playing dominoes every afternoon and that everyone is welcome to join them. Sometimes someone prepares food and shares this with the group. When he has the means, he prepares food and shares this with the group.
It seems that people who are generous of spirit are rich here, no matter their living circumstances.
In another household, there were four siblings living together. We spoke with one of the brothers, who was probably in his late teens. We asked about how they cooked. He told us that they had prepared one meal that day and that he did not have the means to know where their next meal was going to come from. I think his parents work in La Gonave, at least an hour away, and brought them money when they could.
I felt incredibly touched, humbled, grounded and uplifted to be there. I want to support people who are living like this and they are probably to be found in every neighhourhood in Port-au-Prince. I would love to see every family learn to grow their own food, harvest their own rainwater, at least in the rainy season, and turn their poo and pee into soil fertility. I truly believe this is possible. There are food scraps amongst the plastic at the market and along the rivers; the goats and pigs eating in the garbage are evidence of this. Instead of pooping and peeing in chemical toilets or on open ground, people could be harvesting their urine and composting their humanure. These are all resources waiting to be transformed.
I realise that I have privilege, and yet, WE ALL HAVE CHOICE. I have privilege in having a wide range of choices. I choose to be here and I can return home to Canada, to our house with running water, electricity, fridge, garden, car and bicycles. I can choose to drink filtered water, boiled city water, city water straight from the tap, filtered water in bags, rain water, river water, or runoff in the streets. In the permaculture course this week, one of the teachers said that he'd taught in much better conditions than this and heard people complain. And yet here, even though we were hot inside the classroom, it happened several times that there was not enough food at lunch, and one day one of the compost toilets was full and the handwashing water was empty, we didn't hear anyone complain. Probably all of us understood that these were luxurious conditions compared to life in the camps around us; I think our responses reflected this understanding. So even if there is not enough food for everyone to have a plate, we still have choice. We can choose to share our meal with someone else, or give our plate away, or be grateful that we already ate once today.
In the camps and in Cité Soleil, the choice to turn waste and pollution into useful resources exists. We have the choice to work towards this and to support others in making this step. The 'groupement' model of cooperative groups is common in Haiti and has applications in community organising, microenterprises, vocational training, emotional support and political activism. The groupement model is a clear example of the power of collaboration and the power we have to improve and transform our lives, especially when we work together. Today, as I'm preparing the training program for AMURT, I'm realising that we all have these choices: to step fully into our own lives, to envision a better future, to work towards transforming our communities, to support each other, and to take the first step. Choice is power and we have it.
After 13 days of being here without a day of rest, I spent an afternoon at the beach with friends. On hindsight, the beach was similar to other experiences in PauP - more people than I expected, more noise than I enjoyed, people calling us 'white' and trying to sell us things. Seeing the cows grazing near us and looking at seashells helped me get away from the crowds and city...
A Moment of Grace
Jun 2, 2011
One of the little girls was over at our apartment and was hungry; in that moment, I struggled with the fact that I have food, usually three times a day.
I remember a friend's story about two little boys. One of them said to the other “We are all One” and the other said “Yes, but why are we wearing different shoes?” Being with that little girl, I struggled with how different our circumstances were. We have very different shoes. I struggled with my own belief that we are all One.
I spent the night at an all-night kirtan, singing devotional songs, dancing, meditating, and sitting out in nature. Inside the main space, there was a group of about eight children sleeping on the floor. As I sat beside them to meditate, my heart flooded open. They are orphans. I cried to think of my little nephew and how much family and community he has around him. These orphans have didi ('didi' is like a nun) and the women who volunteer at the house. They have no other family than this. I cried to realise that there are plenty of children here in Port-au-Prince who have even less than this. These kids are fed and clothed and loved. When a child stirred or cried, someone from the group would go pick him or her up. I found it so beautiful to see this kind of care and community. I can't imagine how it would be to grow up without family around me, nor can I imagine how it would be to be rocked back to sleep by a caring stranger while people sang devotional songs around me.
I sat down beside one of my friends who was holding a little boy. She asked if I wanted to hold him and he stretched out his arms to me as she passed him to me. I held him, rocked him and danced with him. Somewhere in those moments with him, I was filled with a sense of Oneness again. There was something simple and powerful in being deeply present with him. Somehow, I think that my presence was a comfort to him and that his presence was a comfort to me. I could describe that moment as an expression of Love that went far beyond our differences in life circumstance. To me, we seemed to be wearing the same shoes in that moment. I'm so grateful for these moments of Grace here.
A Drop in an Ocean and Sowing Seeds
Jun 2, 2011
By this time next week, my plan is to have given two 5-day trainings; trained over 40 teacher-trainers, community animators, and agronomists from three organisations and five sites; and coached three teams on their projects using permaculture design. It's been a full few weeks.
I've worked almost every day and most evenings, though I have managed to go to the beach twice and go swimming at a pool once. I think my body is getting used to the water, food, weather and noise. I'm waking up regularly and comfortably around 5:30am. While in Source Chaude in the Northwest, I walked to the top of a small mountain at the end of each day. It was so nourishing for my body, mind and spirit, to be alone and in nature, to see eroded hillsides replanted and covered in swales (ditches on contour to help catch rainwater and prevent erosion from flashflooding), and to have a 360 view of mountains and ocean in the distance.
I've had moments of feeling lost and surprised during my trainings and coaching, as well as feeling joyful, inspired and hopeful. I've spent so much more time than I ever would have expected in preparing and revising training materials, and after each day of training, preparing and revising the materials yet again. This work has been far from simple and my hope is that with every revision, both the content and the process become more culturally appropriate and more self-sustaining in the long run. What an example of observing, interacting, and accepting feedback. It's a reminder for me that every system is unique, with its own needs and challenges. To work with any group, organisation, garden or piece of land intentionally and intelligently, I believe we are asked to observe, listen and take note of what is working and where there are opportunities for improvement.
I'm learning to smile about things here and to improvise accordingly. This morning, we learned that yesterday, it was declared that today be a national holiday. (I've never heard of a national holiday being declared the day prior to the holiday; things are definitely different here from what I'm used to!) Around 7am we were phoning people to tell them that our training was still on. Even then, our group of 43 was down to less than half this morning. And it was raining, which meant that people who were walking, riding motorbikes and taking public transit were coming late. The benefit was that I got to have in-depth conversations with the handful of people who arrived on time.
So far in my trainings, two comments have stood out for me. We've been working with three design principles (a bite-sized version of permaculture design). In the principle we call “multiple functions”, we've been finding multiple uses for anything from a plastic bottle to a chicken to a garden. We also made a list of all of the resources available at the school, in the garden and in the school kitchen. After this exercice, one of the participants said that although people often think that Haiti is a poor country, she could now see how rich it is.
In the communication part of our training (adapted from Nonviolent Communication), we've been focussing on needs and finding new strategies to meet both parties' needs in a conflict. Another participant, who trains other teachers, said he thought these tools would be valuable for all teachers in Haiti. He gave us an example of how a teacher would call a child stupid or an imbecile and would grab him by the ear. He said that even though this training is “just a drop”, he's going to carry this with him in his work and beyond.
The work I've done here seems to me like a drop of water in an ocean. At the same time, I think we're sowing seeds and weaving new possibilities. Through our design and communication tools, I believe that people are finding a new way of looking at things. Some of the participants have said that they now realise that what they thought was garbage can actually be a resource to them. And now with a conflict, they can be creative and seek new strategies.
Part of me can see months of work here; I feel a little regretful to leave in a week and a half. And a part of me is looking forward to going home, getting my hands dirty in our garden and reconnecting with our community projects there. I'm looking forward to sleeping in and not being woken up by dogs, diesel engines, loud music and people shouting (hearing the sound of the rain in the trees is such a luxury for me in PauP). I'm also looking forward to coming back, following up with these projects, giving the next level of trainings, and continuing to deepen my relationships here. I'm so grateful to have community in Perth, Ontario and to engage with community here in Haiti. My life seems so rich with connections, opportunities and learning. I wonder what possibilities tomorrow will bring?
Transforming Waste and Creating Connections
Jun 5, 2011
I've been training a team of four teacher trainers and two agronomists to replicate a 5-day training that I've designed for AMURT called “Creating My Community”. After doing five days of “pre-training” with them, we are now training a larger group of almost 40 participants. In “Creating My Community”, we are focussing on three design principles from permaculture (multiple functions/stacking functions, multiple connections/beneficial relationships, and starting small) as well as the concepts of universal needs and multiple strategies to meet our needs, which come from Nonviolent Communication.
I think one of the main challenges has been conveying that these tools can be applied to every area of our work (and our lives for that matter). The design principles, at their simplest, are encouraging folks to be creative and to find multiple functions for any waste material, such as plastic bottles and food scraps. We've talked about using plastic bottles to start seedlings and for mini drip irrigation; to make art, jewelery and toys; to teach students about math, shapes and colours. I truly believe that one of our key tools is our own creativity! We've talked about having two containers in the classroom to separate food scraps from plastic. Especially knowing that classroom supplies can be scarce, I find it heartening to think that the waste stream can become a resource to them.
More importantly, however, I think the teachers, agronomists and community animators (facilitators) are seeing new possibilities for working together and in their larger communities. I described the Cité Soleil project (two local volunteers from the project are attending the training) and their intention to clean up and beautify the neigbhourhood and beach, creating new opportunities for tourism. We discussed the importance of awareness raising in tandem with any clean-up initiative; without collaboration from the local residents, any clean-up work would very likely be undone in a matter of days or weeks. The teachers could help get the message out to students and parents. Locals could be trained by agronomists to grow a variety of plants for food, “small” wood for efficient rocket stoves, and bamboo to deal with humanure (which in many sites here is a waste material and poses a health risk).
In one exercise, we created a list of resources (including “garbage”) for a site called Cineas, where there is a school, a garden and a kitchen. After identifying all the resources that are renewable (on the site) and free or abundant, one of the teachers noticed that practically none of the classroom materials were renewable or free. He also noticed that almost everything in the garden was renewable. This led us to a discussion about how the teachers and the agronomists could work together to find more materials from the garden that could be used in the classroom. We talked about how we could write on or cut shapes out of banana leaves; how some plants can be used to make baskets and rope; and how other plants can be used for natural dyes.
Similarly, we talked about collaboration between the animators and the agronomists in Cineas and Source Chaude where AMURT has tree nurseries. In Cineas, the agronomists have already been working alongside the animators, giving weekly workshops to camp residents. To help get the gardens started, the team had been purchasing compost to give to the residents. We discussed possibilities for simple exchanges with the residents. For example, residents could bring a bucket of food scraps in exchange for a quarter bucket of compost, or they could collect 30 or 40 plastic water bags (which can be used to start seeds in the nursery) in exchange for one seedling.
In our training, we are encouraging more exchange, mutual support and beneficial connections within our teams and local communities. As I see diverse groups of people coming together from different places and with different professional backgrounds, talking together about raising environmental awareness, cooperative ways of dealing with conflicts and building community capacity, I'm understanding that this training has been valuable to people. And more importantly to me, it sounds like the learning, the exchange and the vision will continue, long after I'm back home in Canada.