My cousin sent me this article, have at it:

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Discussing the voting process.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

I have read the reports from this organization in previous years, but I happened to come upon this year’s report in the September issue of National Geographic. Here is the homepage for the Failed State Index for 2009, as well as the previous year’s reports.

A few notes:
-Haiti “ranks” number 12 on the list of failed states.
-Haiti is the only country in the western hemisphere in the top 40 (Columbia ranks at 41).
-Haiti ranks worse than Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and The Democratic Republic of Congo in “Progressive Deterioration of Public Services.”
-Haiti ranks worse than Pakistan and Iraq in “Criminalization and/or Delegitimization of the State”
-Haiti ranks worse than Sudan in “Mounting Demographic Pressures.”
-Haiti is tied for fourth (with Guinea) in “Chronic and Sustained Human Flight.”

I do not have too much to say about this, the numbers speak for themselves, check out the report for the rest of the information. Also, The Fund For Peace website is now linked on the right under “Human Rights Groups.”

Last week marked the annual celebration of La Baie, the town where we live. All week the sounds of reggae and Kompas (a style of music unique to Haiti, spelling varies) resonated throughout, not only the valley, but also our home, making it difficult to get any reasonable amount of sleep. As is common in many towns in Haiti, the annual party for La Baie brings in a crowd of people known as the “dyaspora” a word that means the same thing in English (Diaspora), a group of people who leaves a country for one reason or another to live in a foreign land. During the celebration it is customary for the Diaspora from that town to come back and visit. Needless to say the population of La Baie seems to have doubled this week and the number of vehicles has grown exponentially from the handful of motorcycle taxis and the two trucks that roamed the streets just a week before.

All this is merely a backdrop to the larger issue at hand. When the Diaspora return to La Baie, they always come with a development project as a part of their larger organization for the development of La Baie. Before I go any further please know that I am not writing this to denigrate any group of people, neither the Diaspora from our town or from any other. I do feel that these people are for the most part, well-intentioned people who really do love their hometown and country of Haiti. I also feel, as Bill Clinton has recently stated, that the Haitian Diaspora could and should have a huge part in the development of the country in all facets of the word. I can only speak for our small part of Haiti when I say that the projects of development for La Baie have not been widely accepted, and that there is a generally negative view towards these annual visitors, outside of the fact that they make for a new group of consumers for the vendors during two weeks of the year. Last year’s project was a town circle that was never completed, and now there is a stone circle at the crossroads of town that serves no purpose. One of this year’s projects was a system of two, unfinished, canals that run about fifty feet a piece and drain into the creek on the eastern end of the town. Another project for this year was a public lighting system that runs from the edge of town to the beach (where people no longer live). A third project is also still in the rumor stage as there are talks of paving the main section of road that runs through town.

The issue is not so much the fact that none of the projects have been finished as much as it is in the claim that they are in fact actions of development. Another disclaimer is warranted here in that I am not claiming that these works are in fact useless or that they do not bring a sense of pride to the people of the town, which I think that they do to some degree, rather their role as an agent of development. Below is a quote from Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen’s book, Development as Freedom:

Development can be seen, it is argued here, as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy. Focusing on human freedoms contrasts with narrower views of development, such as identifying development with the growth of gross national product, or with the rise in personal incomes, or with industrialization, or with technological advance, or with social modernization. Growth of GNP or of individual incomes can, of course, be very important as means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by the members of the society. But freedoms depend also on other determinants, such as social and economic arrangements (for example, facilities for education and health care) as well as political and civil rights (for example, the liberty to participate in public discussion and scrutiny). Similarly, industrialization or technological progress or social modernization can substantially contribute to expanding human freedom, but freedom depends on other influences as well. If freedom is what development advances, then there is a major argument for concentrating on that overarching objective, rather that on some particular means, or some specially chosen list of instruments. Viewing development in terms of expanding substantive freedoms directs attention to the ends that make development important, rather than merely to some of the means that, inter alia, play a prominent part in the process (3).

So what is the point I am trying to make? Development and modernization are two often confused, but inherently different processes. Building a town center, a lighted pathway to the beach (the same beach where the party took place all week, coincidence?) and fixing the road so that trucks can travel more easily (as mentioned before there are two trucks that operate in our town) in my opinion, are all efforts towards modernization, efforts that will make next year’s trip to the party that much easier for those who funded the projects. As Sen notes, this is not to say that these projects cannot be a part of a much larger idea of development, but that there are other, more important aspects of development, and in the case of the La Baie these projects do not appear to move the townspeople in that direction.

I (and NWHCM) are interested in development, “as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy” not in modernization for the sake of making Haiti look more like America or any other country deemed in a class of worlds above it. Paved roads, on which people who have no access to healthcare, walk on is not an example of development. Lights under which children gather to do homework at night, yet cannot read is not development. A town with more houses that have access to a cell phone than clean water is not development. Having the ability to voice ones opinion to a friend in a foreign country but not in functional government is not development. Rather, development is a process in which people receive liberties (not necessarily amenities) that they previously did not have. Keep in mind that we are not only talking about Haiti or other countries like it, but also America, having the pinnacle of scientific achievement and yet minorities and under-resourced families not carrying with them the same rights as others is not an example of development.

I simply use the example of this past week as a springboard onto this topic. We never want any project that we do to be accused of promoting dependency or colonialism, but rather genuine development. This idea is applicable to every single aspect of NWHCM from orphanages, to agriculture, schools, to water, and nutrition to churches. In fact this model plays out perhaps most importantly in the church. We never want to run a program or teach a lesson based solely on modernization or the Americanization of the church, rather all that happens should have its end in authentic growth, discipleship and of course development, obviously of a different type.

I hope you will excuse me for writing such a ridiculously long post. It is important that as more development projects are brought to us and as more projects are started here in Haiti that we all understand what development is and also the end goal. I would recommend the book quoted above by Amartya Sen for anyone who is interested. Please also remember that this is not an exhaustive definition or study on the idea of development, in fact it is something that I wrote in a few hours, but reflects many hours of thinking, I would be happy to talk to anyone who is interested and so please feel free to email me by clicking on the link at the top left of this page.