I ask Willie and Milos (who speaks French) to talk with me a moment. I ask about the woman. Well Milos says, she has many of the symptoms. Has she been seen by a medecin (doctor)? Oh yes but he is not sure. Where is the medecin now? He is with the woman but will leave soon. Can I speak with him? Yes of course.
Since I had made it a point to read up on the disease only a short while ago, my mind reels at the potential for it to devastate this community. As we walk the short distance to a village gathering place where the woman is being kept comfortable, I start sharing what I know. I tell Willie and Milos how the disease spreads, and why the communal bathing pool can make matters worse IF it is Cholera. I also explain the role the animals can play in helping it to spread as well. I dont even bother to discuss the implications for the farm project since we would be using the same water source. I tell them it would be better to have everyone use buckets in the old shower stalls rather than continue to use the river, but that would only be mandatory if it were Cholera.
We meet the medecin outside the covered gathering place where the crying and praying is fervent. The young Doctor introduces himself and seems a little surprised and worried. I ask if it is known what the woman's illness is. He says it may have been caused by something else and that tomorrow she will either get better or not. I ask if there have been tests of the water supply. I explain the communal water supply and bathing situation, the animal traffic etc. He says he can test for it if we can give him a sample. I take his sampling tube and tell him I will give him the sample to take with him. Milos and I go to the pool and I reach in the test tube and take the sample. I cap it and as if to make sure he feels included hand him the sample to give to the doctor. He seems a little reluctant to take it from me, but does.
WE return to the nursery and farm site. Today, while we await soil test results, we are preparing the area. In spite of the distance from factories, distribution centers and storefronts, there is a surprising amount of trash that has collected around the perimeter. Since this had been a soccer field, and since plastic takes decades to degrade, we are facing several containers of wrappers, discarded tin cans, obiquitous plastic bottles (there is no recycling program which is surprising on an island that produces none of its own plastic), old dish pans, plastic buckets, sandals, shoes and assorted items of cast off clothing. This is not a critical component of farming but helping them to take pride in the beauty of their own community would go a long way to improving their idea that Haiti is broken, diseased, helpless and a place God has forgotten. Among the teenagers especially (who are all eager to be my friend because they think I can help bring them to the US with me, and I often wish I could!) they see the pretty homes and easy lives of the american television series and think that all they need to do is leave Haiti to find a better life. It is hard not to agree with them. But I frequently stop to look at the surrounding mountains as clouds form and disperse, as their color changes from chalky to verdant, from beige to ochre to chartreuse with the changing vegetation and wonder why they don't also see the beauty here. When I stop to admire the view from this plateau surrounded by mountains, I tell whoever is nearby how great it is and they are not much impressed. I suppose it is the same with us, an ocean view house becomes stale after a time too. I ask Willie about the attitude of the young people who all hate their country, his response surprises me. “Perhaps when this project is built, they will have a reason to want to stay.”
We dig down two feet and berm soil in a large rectangle and use it to temporarily hold all the debris we have raked and cleaned from the field and bordering vegetation. There is a man who is responsible for health in the village who hands out dust masks and a two pairs of gloves. A very thin teenager, (and there are several hanging out because again schools are closed for potential election problems) asks me repeatedly if he can have a job. Since there are only limited tools and almost no materials have yet arrived, I tell him for the fourth time that our priority is for adults who have children. He is persistent. And that he is hungry. I tell him I would very much like to see his home and meet his family. He takes me to a very small building and shows me his room. But where do your parents sleep? We are all here in this room. There are no screens, no curtains on the doors, no doors only openings. He shows me a small bowl of vegetables and greens (barely a soup bowl) that they will have for dinner for four. I ask him if he will take me on a tour of the fields, I would like to see what else is growing here and how it is being cultivated. I tell him I do have a small job for him and that I will pay him for his time in taking me around. He smiles like a cheshire cat and, and we start off.
Immediately, upon crossing the log/bridge of the river we are in fields of waving green sugar cane grown on raised mounds. In between in no particular order are small holdings of vegetables, a few fields of rice, the occasional coconut palm, mango, and even a few tropical oak trees. With an older farmer who owns one of these 'jardins' a few days later I repeat this tour to ask why there are not more trees since they are doing well, and if the cane makes as much money as the other crops the land could be used for. He thinks there had been many more mangos but that after many had been felled in storms that they were never replaced. He does not know why. He thinks that the vegetables can be planted more frequently and that they produce more but he is not sure. Considering the allottments of land I am seeing, it could only be more efficient to have a combination of both. Particularly if the trees can shade more heat sensitive plants from afternoon sun. This small farm concept has recently found favor among those proposing sustainable and organic methods for the decreasing amount of arable soils in underdeveloped nations. The downside of the chemical agriculture used in the states is the contamination of the water supply and degradation of soils. Neither of these are acceptable options, nor is the cost of chemical fertilisers and pesticides affordable here, where the average Haitian earns just five dollars (US) per day.
The fact that there are mangos growing here s very encouraging as our plan is to grow 10,000 trees of which 2,500 will be mango trees for replanting. I ask about other species of trees that he knows of in the area. There are not many, mostly coconut palm, mango, a few citrus, some papaya. He takes his craft seriously and is delighted to talk about how the plants are grown, planted, cared for what problems they have, what season rains arrive, what the summer heat is like. I look admiringly at several varieties of vegetables. They seem underproductive, and a little stunted. But he tells me this is their normal size and productivity. Although there are many vegetables, there is surprisingly little diversity. Lots of potatoes, some small cherry type tomatoes, some habanero peppers, some eggplants, not much more. We find a squash that has seeded itself along a path. He says it is very good eating but does not always grow well. I cant wait to see the results of the soils test to be able to see what is causing these issues. I ask about the use of compost and manures. He says that some know to use it and other don't. Clearly we have seen soils that are richer, darker, containing more humous that others which are light and powdery looking. I say a silent prayer that what I have taken on can really make a difference, even as I begin to realise how daunting a task it may be.
Chemicals are almost non existant because of their cost. The Haitian farmer is ahead of the curve was organic for centuries before the term was popularised to sell produce in developed markets. In fact Haitian Coffee is marketed under the trade name Haitian Bleu, as one of the best organic coffee varieties available.
I'm always complaining about New England's short growing season as such a limiting factor in harvest and productivity. And how unpredictable the weather is! We can have a killing or severely stunting frost well into late May in Foster. A wet and cold season can ruin the warm season crops with a blighted disdain for the best of my efforts as easily as a drought can delay when crops can finally be brought to market. The season at our altitude (one of the highest in Rhode Island) crashes to a close on a clear moonlit night usually in early October. Stealing my crops like a thief in the night. I have spent many a windy October night harvesting hard green tomatoes for Aunt Alice's famous green tomato pickle recipe, well after midnight, until my fingers were numb. I have gotten up after midnight at other times and wearily pulled houseplants indoors by flashlight, always trying to remember all of them, or finding the forgotten covered in white frost the following morning. I always dreamed that farming closer to the equator and removing temperature swings would make for a paradise for farming!
And now here in Hatte Cottin, I see that the tropics has its own set of limitations. Here warm seasonality is replaced by rain seasonality. Temperature swings replaced by searing summer heat of one hundred degrees. Rich, New England mildly acidic soils of 12- 18” of depth are more than adequate to grow crops whose roots only need 6 inches. Here the soils barely cover and inch, are more alkaline than I have ever encountered and are overlaid on porous coral aggregate. These conditions can make for their own extremes. And yet there are plenty of plants thriving here. I rarely see an infestation of pests. In spite of the seasonal dryness in the soils, there is no drought stress, no wilting in high noon, no yellowing or chlorosis in the leaves. Strangely there are few weeds in evidence. Among the corps I have seen, the phenomenon of adaptation for decades must have already acclimated them to local conditions. Whatever new varieties I introduce may take a time to adapt themselves. And possibly will benefit from hybridising with the local varieties as time permits. I wonder whether they will do even as well?
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