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Fondwa/Jacmel/Aux Cayes July 08 |
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July 19-27, Fondwa, Jacmel, Aux Cayes, PaP Haiti
This trip was different from the previous ones. I decided to stay the whole week, as the first group of students would be graduating from the University of Fondwa. This group consisted of the seven business students which started in the founding year 2004. The students of the Agronomy and Veterinary Sciences which started at the same time have a 6-year program and thus will graduate in 2010.
I arrived on Saturday afternoon. Again the American Airlines flight was almost two hours late. Amenold and Vital picked me up at the airport and we had to drive to a mechanics shop in PaP immediately to have the starter in his car replaced. As we waited for the mechanic to return with the new starter, Amenold and Vital decided to buy plates of rice and beans and pork from a street vendor around the corner. After they finished Vital put the rest of the food out for the dog who had been sitting there with us. The dog sniffed at the food and walked away! They both started to feel pretty awkward, but the food turned out to be good after all.
When we arrived in Fondwa, I spent the evening with the teachers discussing, as always, what we could do to improve the future of Haiti.
Sunday afternoon I went with Max, his brother’s wife and her son, who where staying at his house, to the beach in Jacmel. On the way back we stopped at a Texaco station. This gas station is somewhat unusual, as it had a basketball court in the back. This evening they had a final game of the local league and the gas station turned into a sports arena, before the game we watched a dance performance to Haitian music by a dance group. It was a somewhat surreal experience.
Sunday morning as well as Monday morning and afternoon we had the last classes with the seven graduating students. We finished their part in the “water filter project” as part of the project management course I had taught this past semester.
The report will be the starting point for the other six business students who will be entering their third year in September.
The success of the water filter project depends on the support of the community leaders. We used the current water project as a case study. This project consists of a storage tank at the source in the valley, a 1/2 mile long pipe to bring it to the storage tank under the restaurant at the main road and a pump and generator to pump it up the hill. In this case the peasant community had not been involved in the planning of the project and therefore does not seem to understand it nor support it. An example is that some people have unscrewed the pipes half way up to get their water at that point. We are trying to explain to the people that we want to filter the water and then give it to those most vulnerable, the very young and the old. We had the water tested at a lab in Miami and it tested positive for coliform bacteria, though not e-coli. It definitely needs to be treated before consumption.
Our plan is now to sell the idea of the filtered water to the community leaders who in turn can explain it to the peasants.
It is very beautiful in Fondwa this time of the year. Everything is lush and full. I actually got lost on my ½ hour hike from the house in the valley to the restaurant on the road in Tombe Gateau. The course of the foot path changes as the fields it crosses are being planted and harvested. Where I used to walk there were now rows of six-feet high corn.
On Tuesday the students and the four of us drove to the beach for an afternoon of fun after 4 years of study. We had a great time, eating fresh seafood, drinking Prestige, swimming and playing in the water.
Wednesday I worked on finishing the grades for the students. Then we had a meeting about the future of UNIF with Sr. Judy representing APF and Max, Amenold and Vital of the University. Unfortunately for UNIF, the rector Max Delices had decided to leave his full-time position at the university and continue to work with the Hospice St. Joseph in Port of Prince. He will still be helping us even after he no longer will be living in Fondwa. He is currently working on obtaining the long awaited accreditation with the Haitian state university system. This will be very important for UNIF, as many grants require this accreditation. Before leaving, Max will present a plan with recommendations for the next 5 years to the Board of UNIF in Haiti.
On Thursday Max, Amenold and I left for the Cayes, a city in the South of Haiti, about 120 miles from Fondwa. The plains around Cayes provide one of the major rice-growing areas of Haiti. It was beautiful to see the rice production in full swing. We talked with the people from the company which leases or owns many fields in the area. The work with imported machines from China which provide a simple technology for the various needs of production. Even with the onslaught of subsidized and free rice from the US, the company is still able to sell its rice at a profit in Haiti. We stayed at the house of Max’s sister-in-law who is the mayor of the community outside Aux Cayes. Friday morning we spent on one of the beautiful beaches outside Aux Cayes and had a great lunch at one of the many little seafood restaurants along the beach.
After Amenold and Vital dropped me off at the airport I was informed that the flight to Miami had been cancelled. I called Michael Neumann who asked the Bishop in whose house he was staying if I could also sleep there. Graciously the Bishop allowed me to stay and I was picked up again by Michael and Ospri. Ospri is the driving force behind many projects in Haiti, several involving Partners in Progress as well. We went to the famous Hotel Oloffson, where we exchanged ideas over some cold Prestige. After breakfast with the Bishop and two other pastors I was dropped off again at the airport. In the usual chaos I finally discerned that my flight was to leave sometime around noon. I seem to spend way too much time in airports. I am also increasingly bothered by the ecological impact of my frequent flights. Hopefully we will be able to get the bandwidth from the satellite provider to get the distant learning project off the ground. That would allow us to give classes from the US while opening up the possibility for UNIF to transmit classes to distant areas within Haiti. At this point I am planning to cut back my schedule from monthly visits to once a quarter.
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