Haiti Pictures

We got back to St. Louis yesterday night. Boy was it nice to have a hot shower. Still, it seems a bit surreal to be back in the US after our week in Haiti. Back to the land of plenty, perfection, and my own naivety.
After a week of intense visual and cultural learning, it's back to the books. But before I get back into my routine, I want to get down as much of my trip as possible. I thought I'd do some of that while showing you some pictures from the trip. I did not take any of these pictures: these were taken by Cory or Robin, my industrious travel companions. All but the one marked are by Cory.

(Robin)

This is Robin, Cory, me, and Eddie (the Haitian carpenter we worked with) standing with the dryer. As we drove out of the gate, Eddie was about to put the roof on to finish it. We spent quite a bit of time working with Eddie on the dryer, and although the three of us have had more formal education that he has had, he far outstripped us in carpentry ability.


In addition to the dryer, we made charcoal from waste peanut shells. This picture shows the yellow-ish smoke from the peanut shells. Once that smoke turns clean, we cover the can with another can and seal it with dirt to let it carbonize in an oxygen-deficient environment.


Haiti is a pretty bleak place. 80% of the people live in poverty, some 50% in abject poverty. It has almost no exports, no internal industry, and only one real natural resource: concrete. Haiti is receiving so much aid from the largest political and philanthropic organizations in the world (like the IMF and WHO) to tiny churches supporting orphanages across the countryside. It's hard for me to believe that Haiti will ever be brought out of its terrible poverty. But just like the boy on the beach throwing starfish back into the ocean, the little bit we do means a lot to those people who benefit, however few.