Picture Time!

Weekends here are very slow, so I've got oodles of time to catch up on blogging! Some people at the house here actually live in the town of Milot, about 30 minutes away, so they go home on the weekends. Jack just left on Friday, so I'm the only "bla" (white person...very flattering word, huh!) around. Wisnell is a student and he goes home for most of the day on weekends to see his parents. Tony, our house manager and security guard extraordinaire is in and out. So it's just me and Tikka, our dog. We really bonded yesterday since it was just the two of us. She is an imperfect yet welcome outlet for affection since Elisabeth is so far away!

Here are some pictures from the trip to Le Bourgne!



We passed on a couple of pickup trucks with long, extended beds and tarps for shade to take us to Le Bourgne. Apparently, Wisnell and Erinold were wanting to wait for this van, which has air conditioning. The only problem was that we waited 2 hours in the heat for a two hour ride! Jack and I were complaining! Well this van obviously started undergoing some repairs, so we caught the next one, a pick up truck without a tarp! Oh well, se la vi!



This is a shot looking down the street to the right of where Jack and Wisnell are looking in the next picture.



Jack and Wisnell! Erinold disappeared for a couple of hours - I think he found a friend or something.



Now this picture is shot looking in the direction that Jack and Wisnell are looking in the previous picture (and a little to the left). Those houses don't look very secure on that hill!

quick update

I went on a trip this weekend to a small town called Le Bourgne about a two hours' drive from Cap Haitien. I went with Jack, an American student at Notre Dame, Wisnell, a Haitien who works for SOIL and is also studying English, and Ariand, another Haitian dude that the SOIL people here know who has some family in Le Bourgne. We didn't have electricity there so I've been away from the internet. Tomorrow is my first full weekday in Cap Haitien so it'll be exciting to see what it is like. The house I'm staying at is teeming with people - employees who live here, people who help with the cooking, and other friends who just drop by to hang out. We also have a sweet dog named Tikka. I'm diligently studying Creyole, but it takes time!

Hope everyone is doing well.

-Ethan

Arrived in Haiti!

My bike ride is done, and it was super fun, although predicatably hard at times given the heat and whatnot! I LOVE Warmshowers.com, the hospitality website for people who are doing touring rides across the country (foreign countries as well). I stayed with so many wonderful, nice, and interesting people along the way from NC to FL!

Here's an update on my day in Haiti so far:

After a long delay due to mechanical issues, my 8:30 AM flight finally left at 3 PM. I had a good flight, and all the Haitians waiting at the terminal were super friendly and had lots of energy. They were apparently discussing the whole topic of Wycliffe Jean running for Haitian President.

Anyway, I was relieved that the airport wasn't as crazy as things in India or Nepal. (Ebeth and I traveled there earlier this year). I found Amy, my SOIL person, relatively quickly. There were also some Mennonite folks arriving that day so I thought that was interesting. One group was MCC and another seemed to be a conservaitve Mennonite group (a woman had the head bonnet thing on and said she was Mennonite). I had thought to myself if I couldn't find Amy, I could go with the Mennonites and use their resources to find out where Amy and the SOIL group are. (If for instance, the lateness of my flight screwed things up with the SOIL schedule). Of course, everything was fine.

One thing that was scarier (but still fun) than INdia/Nepal was the motorcycle ride to SOIL's office and my lodging. THe roads were worse than Nepal, many were unpaved and very rocky/bumpy, and it's noticeably hilly. The trash isn't nearly as bad as India and Nepal which is also nice. Just based on what I have seen, it will be easier to adjust here than India/Nepal. I think I will like it a lot here. I've met a lot of neat people at the place I'm staying. SOIL doesn't have room for me at their offices, and I'm staying just two blocks away at a "Coalition House" shared by several NGOs. I currently have a room to myself with three beds in it, and two fans. I'm most excited about having a fan. That is great! Makes a HUGE difference. Also, there is an internet place right across the street, and on the top floor people have computers with internet access. I'm at the cafe across the street now.

Tomorrow I fly to Cap Haitien, a town in the north, where SOIL originally started. Their operations up there are now largely Haitian-run and managed, which is a good thing. Cap is definitely supposed to be less hectic than Port-au-Prince, and there is even a super fun festival in Cap this weekend that I should be able to go to. It'll be interesting to see what I will get involved with up north, in terms of projects and helping out. I'm planning to meet with the Haiti MCC (Mennonite Central Committee - an organization that does development work, mostly by supporting local initiatives) at the end of August and I'm curious if anything fruitful will come out of MCC learning more about SOIL. I really think their goals and methods line up very, very well and at the minimum I think they would both be glad to know that the other exists and be encouraged by that.

That is all for now. Love to you all,
Ethan.

Lots of biking

I'm currently in Savannah, Georgia in a beautiful thunderstorm being enjoyed after some excellent Thai food with my hosts, Mike and Patty. The riding has been intense, with all the stuff I'm carrying on the bike (food, clothes, tent, sleeping bag, etc.), the extra drag, the extreme temperature/humidity, sunlight, and so on. I definitely overestimated what I can do in a day, based on my experience with century rides in a controlled setting on my racing bike. Oops! 95 to 100 miles is definitely my limit, with 90 being better, and 75 being comfortable. I went 95 today towards Savannah, and fell short by 15 miles and was graciously picked up by Mike. I was rolling along at 9-10 mph at that point, just drained. In general I didn't and don't feel too bad at all, I just can't go fast on my bike! (And my butt hurts a lot while sitting on the bike seat).

Overall it has been a great experience. I enjoyed camping on my own, and I've really enjoyed my hosts so far through warmshowers.com. I stayed in Charleston, SC the last two nights, having arrived two nights ago after a 12 hour day of biking (8 AM to 8 PM - UGH!) but had a rest day there. Cedric and his housemates and friends were awesome. We went to a going away party for some of their friends that were moving to NYC (so Ebeth and I will hook up with them there!), and on my "day off" went to the beach, swimming in a pool, enjoyed root beer floats, and just hung out. They were a fun group and very active in community affairs, sustainability, and the like. You meet such interesting people through this whole hospitality thing, it's great! I've got to hit the hay now for another long day of biking tomorrow. I have 120 miles to get to Folkston, which is totally unrealistic, and Mike is being kind enough to drop me off far enough that I only have about 95 miles to go.

I've heard more about Haiti as well so I will try to put that up later!

Haiti Sneak-Peak

A few days ago I enjoyed receiving an email from a SOIL administrator in Haiti answering a barrage of my questions – until then I had no idea what any of the practicalities of my accommodation would be! It turns out there is a house near the SOIL office in Port-Au-Prince that is shared by a couple of other NGO's working in the area. The house itself is used as common space, and most people sleep in the yard in a tent. I was highly amused by the tentative-sounding email asking if I would mind sleeping in a tent the whole time I will be there...and further, if I could possibly bring my own tent! Luckily I was planning on bringing a tent anyway for the first couple of days on bicycle when I'll be sleeping in national parks! So instead of leaving that with my Great Aunt Jane in Tampa, I will bring it to Haiti. (I'm leaving my bicycle with her. Everyone is always curious what I will do with it! Then I take the Amtrak to Miami and fly from there. Tampa to Miami is an impressive 250-280 miles and I don't have the time to ride almost 1,000 miles!)

I will also be responsible for paying for my own food, which luckily will cost only about $5 per day. My first week I will likely get a tour of a compost facility that is being built in Port au Prince, I'll get a “toilet tour” (whatever that is!), and probably get to see a public composting toilet being built. I'll have a lot of flexibility and independence in my schedule since everyone is so swamped with projects and work, so I'm hoping I'll find a project that I'll naturally want to attach myself to and go from there.

The trip is coming up!

I'm getting excited about the bike ride coming up - my bike's being tuned up, I've been putting in some good pedaling miles, and have my route confirmed. For 6 of the 8 nights of the bike trip I'll be staying at random peoples' homes, facilitated by the cycling hospitality site www.warmshowers.com. It has been so fun to be in touch with these people who are willing to host bikers passing through and who are excited to share their passion for biking, adventure, and hospitality. Many people in this "outdoorsy" crowd are also concerned about the environment and so it's been encouraging to hear all the support not only for the bike ride but the work in Haiti. One person even researched me on google and found this blog and made a donation!

Elisabeth and I have been back in the states for a little under two weeks now from our trip to Nepal, India, Thailand, and Cambodia. We completed a stressful apartment-hunting trip to New York City by bus. Manhattan is a crazy place where money is king even more so than I expected! (Elisabeth is about to start her Ph.D. program in physics at NYU in Manhattan.) The brokers were more pushy and "in your face" than the touts in India!

I've also heard from the folks at SOIL about what to expect in my first week, my accommodation, and so forth. Flexibility has been key since they are so busy and it was useful to be fine with not knowing any details until the last minute. I'll post more on this and some related observations from my earlier travels in a subsequent post.

Recent Update from SOIL

A quick update on what is going on in Haiti with SOIL, and thus perhaps what I might be doing when I arrive!! ---

SOIL is working with OXFAM Great Britain on ecological sanitation in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Port-au-Prince - this is where the displaced people from the earthquake are staying. It would be really interesting to work in this area, as proper sanitation is important for the quality of life in these camps. It must be hard enough for people as it is, so you don't want them getting sick too! It's also a great chance to show that wastes can be dealt with properly, even in emergency situations.

A new composting facility is being started in Port-au-Prince. It will be exciting to be a part of that project.

From the SOIL website:
• As of June 15, 2010, we have installed 44 urine diversion toilets and 16 arborloos and composting toilets accessible to children and handicapped persons.
• Our toilets are scattered throughout the city in 15 neighborhoods including Delmas 33, Nazon, Jake Toto, Bwa Grifen, Delmas 3, Karade, and Cite Soleil.
• We are clearing the land for our pilot compost site and expect to begin work there by June 21. In addition to this primary facility, we have started 2 smaller compost bins in Delmas 33 and Cite Soleil, where composting of the toilet materials (poop!) has begun.
• We have trained 53 masons to build UD toilets, and have also trained 12 people to set up and maintain a compost site!