Benefit Concert

If you live near L.A. and want to see a Judith Hill concert at the El Rey Theatre, then you will want to check out this link.  She is doing a concert with proceeds going to buy food for NWHCM’s nutrition programs. Also, check out this link to Yellow Black and White a clothing line that is helping put on the show.

These Things Make Me Happy

#1 The kids playing soccer:
Ever since Matt Jump was here in Haiti the campus has become a sort of after school soccer league. We love the fact that it lets the kids actually be kids for a part of their day.

#2 The kids gardening:
The same kids that play soccer every day have watched their parents tend their farms for a good portion of their lives. They have also seen us try to grow varying plants in the yard. One day, when there were too many kids to make up only two teams of soccer, the third team decided to make their own garden in a plot of land in front of our house. They have planted moringa, corn, sugar cane and a few other things as well. I even told them that I would buy some produce off of them when the time comes.

#3 Elet Setting The Example In Town:
Elet works for the mission here in La Baie and I recently gave him both a solar oven and a Sawyer water filter in order to be a sort of advertiser in town. He lives right on a main road so people see him making stuff every day. He says that the oven is great because he does not have to buy charcoal. That statement brings me close to tears, Elet gets it.

Interesting side note:  Last week Elet was stung by a lionfish, he is OK but he was pretty sick for a while.  The interesting part is that everyone says these fish did not exist in La Baie until the hurricane.  I did some research and apparently many people think that hurricane Andrew has something to do with the population of these fish in the Caribbean after it destroyed home aquariums and washed fish out to sea.

#4 The Community Organization
For the past few weeks the organization has been putting together a plan to build a market in La Baie. We plan to start by offering various merchants a small start-up loan so that they can purchase goods to sell. If anyone is interested in helping out with these loans, send us an email.

#5 The Moringa Project/Garden
Last week I spent a large amount of time planting our garden. First we planted rows of moringa trees for an extremely exciting project that will be discussed in much more detail in the future. The next day we planted a ton of corn by hand, it was quite the task, but also a lot of fun.

There are other things that we would like to update you on as well. Hopefully, while we are in America for the month of December we will have time to update the information on this site and also add new pictures and videos to keep you informed of what is going on here in La Baie.

From The Economist

My cousin sent me this article, have at it:

Rebuilding Haiti: A step backward- “the dumping of the prime minister raises fears of drift”

Seloney

Please pray for the family of our friend Seloney (a construction worker for the mission), the man on the left. Seloney died today and left behind his wife (a cook at the mission) and his children.



Seloney was a good man and friend and he will most definitely be missed.

Not Good News

The Haitian Senate fired the Prime Minister this morning. At a time when things are relatively looking promising for Haiti, this is not good news. However, if she is replaced quickly and with a suitable person this could in fact be a good thing as the previous Prime Minister was oft accused of moving too slowly and impeding progress in Haiti (despite only having a year in office). Make sure to keep up with the news by clicking on the links on both the right and left hand side of this page.

Trees

Until we can move to the new campus on higher ground we are limited in what we can do in regards to a tree nursery for the sake of reforestation and also food purposes. However, we have managed to plant a lot of trees on the current property where we live and to also start a number of seedlings in varying ways. Below are pictures of some of the trees that we have been working on.

Avocado seeds germinating in water, we have over eighty doing this right now.

This is an, unfocused, picture of an Avocado seedling. We currently have three of these.

This is an Almond tree in the yard.

This is a Moringa tree, one of several in the yard.

This is a Kenep tree, Mamoncillo in English, and it is also in the yard.

A St. Domingo Oak tree in the yard.

A Mango tree, one of many in the yard.

A Coconut Palm that David Moore planted, one of many in the yard.

Hopefully the floods will stay away for a while and all of these trees will have a chance to grow, they are a great start to a reforestation project that will become much more organized and larger when we move to the new campus on higher ground, and after we start to figure out what we are doing.

Community Organization

Last week we started up a group that we actually first put together before the hurricanes, but was set aside until more recently. The idea of the group is to be a sort of community sounding board/development group that will talk about the problems of our community and also try to fix them.

The group prepares to vote on leadership.

Yesterday we held the vote for the leaders, of which Maxi (a schoolteacher and the man who will play a large role in the orphanage) is now among. He, along with six other people, will make up the committee of leadership and the group will meet every Saturday. Next week the group will pick a name and the following weeks we will discuss community projects and other ways to mobilize the people of La Baie towards the goals of development and dare I say, solidarity.

Discussing the voting process.

I am excited about the possibilities of the groups and while it was formed at my instigation, I will not play a directional role in it, rather I will be just another member, though admittedly one of which a little more will be expected.

Future projects include building a small market in town, working on the roads, and continuing some of the micro-credit programs that churches like Heartland (linked at the right) have started.

Everyone left with seeds to plant in their gardens.

More updates on the group to come.

Land of Higher Peace

This is a documentary that a friend of mine is working on, read the excerpt below:

Land of Higher Peace looks at the daily obstacles of AIDS-stricken, Ethiopian orphans through the lens of two philanthropic patriarchs: one who sold everything he had to build an orphanage far from his home in Switzerland, and another who returns with his American descendants after a 45-year absence.

Observing the pain and beauty of Ethiopia through the individually unique eyes of these families, experience the complex perspectives our lives can have on the past, present, and future of people across the globe.

From JamesWorks Entertainment, the acclaimed studio that brought audiences Di Passaggio, Theater of the Mind, and That Guy: the Legacy of Dub Taylor, comes a humanitarian film about the power of agape love at the beginning, middle, and end of people’s lives.

Land of Higher Peace is directed by Mark Ezra Stokes and produced by James Kicklighter and Kasey Ray-Stokes.

Principle photography begins on location in Addis Ababa and Gondar, Ethiopia on October 5th, 2009.

Check out the following links to the film:
Land of Higher Peace Official Site.
On Facebook
On Twitter
On YouTube

Make sure to tell your friends and keep looking at the website, which will be linked on the right under “Stuff You Should Support.”

Land Reform

Claude, a farmer in La Baie des Moustiques, walks from the plot of land he cultivates, but does not own (photo by Andy Olsen).

I (Curtis) have been mulling over some ideas the past few days, and this is one that I want to open up a bit of a round table discussion on, so I encourage feedback in the form of comments or emails. Also, please note that this is a long way from being an actual project of NWHCM, but it is just idea that I have had, and have yet to discuss it with anyone except Danielle.

In La Baie, and other places in Haiti, the most common trade or way to produce income is through agriculture. Almost everyone in our town does some type of farming. Also, just about every person in our town does not own the land which they cultivate. It is most common that the person who works the land rents it from someone else for a certain amount of money and a specific amount of time. At the end of that time period the owner is free to take the entire farm, and its produce as their own. Add this to the fact that the majority of the landowners are people who do not live in our town, or in Haiti for that matter, and that most of them are relatively wealthy people, and the situation looks even more oppressive.

What I would propose is that we take up the task of land reform in La Baie, and then perhaps in other areas as well. There are several different avenues that we could take for this project. One would be outright purchasing land from the owners and deeding it over to the peasant farmers who currently work it or to those who are so poor that they do not even have land to rent. Another possibility would be to keep the land deeded in the name of NWHCM and let the people rent, lease, or buy it at a reduced price, then using the amount of money that they paid as a startup for purchasing the next farm. I have also thought of buying the land and then giving to the people conditionally. For example, we could say that we will deed this farm to you under the condition that you will not cut down any of the current trees on the property, or on the condition that you do not sell it, etc. Again, these are all just ideas that I have tossed around, mainly while traveling around Haiti recently, and I am not sold on one idea or the other. The main idea is simply land reform, giving the land to the people who actually work it. As a side effect, one would also expect some type of economic improvement because of the money that was once used for the renting of farmland would now be used for other things.

I am well aware that buying land and obtaining documentation can be problematic in Haiti. There is no doubt that this project, if it were undertaken, would be a time consuming one. However, I think that the benefits to the people of Haiti would greatly outweigh any of the difficulties that we would most definitely encounter.

So talk amongst yourselves, I will give you a topic, land reform (that was my best Mike Myers impression). Leave comments and send emails, let me know what you think.

Monday Morning Update

Yesterday in Church, Maxi spoke on a passage from I Samuel 15:

22 Samuel said,

“Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As in obeying the voice of the LORD?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams. 

23″For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry 

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,

He has also rejected you from being king.”

Maxi, who is a teacher at the school and grew up in the mission orphanage, then went on to make two points. One, that simply going to church, being baptized, and giving offering, among other things, is not enough to please God, obedience is neccesary. Secondly, that everyone is quick to condemn Voodoo as evil (using the parallels of divination and idolatry above) but slow to condemn “rebellion” as in disobedience from God. In other words, there is no difference between the two, both are disobedience. That is something to think about, especially in reference to the argument that many make stating that Haiti is the way it is because of Voodoo. This passage and story could possibly be used to refute that idea, but that is another post in itself.

On another note, we added a lot of new links on the right-hand side of the page, make sure you check them out. Some are organizations that we are involved in or hope to partner with, or simply use their ideas. Others are ministries of friends or churches that support the mission, and still others are blogs of people who work with NWHCM, in other missions in Haiti, or just friends from the States. You will also find websites that we enjoy and causes that we think are worthy of support.

We will have more updates in the next week or so.