Dear Supporters,
March
could not have been any fuller. More than anything else, March has been a month
of many visitors. This was all on
top of the normal and increasingly busy HTRIP activities of continued soil
conservation, food distribution, taking on new communities, and planning
demonstration plot konbits in new
communities. The month concluded
on wet but happy note of more than a few light sprinkles – an appreciated
reminder that the annual rainy season will soon arrive and put an end to this
dusty dry spell.
 |
| Four Yale Forestry students taking a break from field work to enjoy a much-needed (and pleasantly surprising!) popsicle in the community of Kounwa. |
The first visitor of the
month, Uma Bhandaram, is a fellow UCLA environmental science graduate and will
be with HTRIP for two months. Her
boss at an environmental consulting firm in southern California allowed this
Haitian hiatus because he is a firm believer in gaining international
experience, the benefits of travel and different world outlooks, and we could
not be any happier for it!The next group of visitors involved a little
more planning, but 20+ Yale school of Forestry masters students provided a
wonderful chance to show the program to a group of intelligent and motivated
students eager to help in any way possible. The class was divided into two groups; one focusing on
public health questions of the hospital and one focusing on HTRIP.
 |
| Pittsburghers Barbara Granito and Rob Long and HTRIP intern Uma Bhandaram near Barbes Dispensary with their gigapan camera. |
Within the forestry
group, Professor Gordon Geballe and I worked out three projects that could be
of benefit to both students and HTRIP. One group looked into possibilities for
the development of coffee production in the furthest reaching sixth section
communities of Barbes and Labon. The next group interviewed the HTRIP staff,
interns, myself, and anyone else they could get their hands onto to get an
understanding of how HTRIP works and provide feedback from a new perspective. The final group probably received more
than they bargained for when they offered to continue my UCLA undergraduate
honors thesis work. This involved
comparing Spanish Cedar tree growth from four 2006 communities and trying to
understand what local environmental factors might be causing the widely
differing growth rates between plots. This translated into four full days of
field word which they handled with impressive enthusiasm.
 |
| Allegheny College Professors Rich Bowden and Eric Pallant pose in front of the French Red Cross pick-up, as technician Frantz Antoine straps it down to prepare for the long and bumpy drive to Barbes. |
To fill the gap left by the Yale Students
departure, Lucy Rawson accompanied by some Pittsburgh and New York friends came down to spend time
learning about the program and creating a rich portfolio of videos and
photographs. They brought with
them a Gigapan – a device developed for the NASA Mars rover that takes a series
of hundreds of photographs and stitches them together to form one super high
resolution image. We started with
the Gigapan in Barbes, where at 3000 feet the highly detailed panoramic is sure to inspire wonder. We decided to take full advantage of
the trip and used this day to transport two 1000 gallon cisterns up to the
water short communities of Barbes and Labon. At the top of the water shed, these localities are
particularly hard hit during the dry season and getting enough drinking water
is a problem, much less trying to support a tree nursery. The cisterns might not be enough water
to support the 7000 trees we hope for from other communities, but it will be a
start. The cisterns were too bulky
to be transported by HTRIP’s land cruisers, but the French Red Cross lent us
their pickup truck which made easy work of the task. The driver deserves considerable
appreciation for making the four hour round trip twice in one day.
During this time, two
professors from Allegeny University also came to learn about the program and
make plans to send students down for a summer internship.
March’s education session focused on
agroforestry. We have been fortunate to have Ruth Portnoff’s excellent advice
and organizational skills to help implement the first full round of shade
tolerant crop trials in demonstration plots that have become sufficiently
shaded out. Planting these crops
will start when the rains start.
 |
| (Clockwise starting at left) Mathurin Dorcius, Ironce Pharelus, Ruth Portnoff, Uyless Misteus, Jack Devine, Adieff Jean-Charles, and Marielle Pharelus spend an afternoon in the office developing computer skills. |
Jack, Ruth, and Uma all continue to work
with the staff on their computer skills. HTRIP is incredibly appreciative of
their combined work and enthusiasm.
Lucy brought a much anticpated gift for the
Staff that comes in time to finish the seasonal filial plot control and in time
for the summer wet season. HTRIP owes a huge thanks to Little's Shoes in Pittsburgh and
Merrils shoes for providing a new pair of hiking boots to each technician at an
incredible price. And we would all like to thank the rest of our generous
supporters for making all the work we do down here possible.
The HTRIP Staff,
including Starry Sprenkle, Ross Bernet, Ruth Portnoff, Jack Devine, and
Uma Bhandaram
