Dogs Get None

September 25 – October 5

            My usual Wednesday night post was stalled when my trip to the countryside was rushed upon me, then dragged out.  What I had anticipated to take two days turned out to be over four.  As educational as the experience was, I was antsy to get back to Christianville where my work waited for me.

            Earlier in the week, I had been tinkering with some trial techniques for the aquaculture system, which are intended to supplement the purchased fish feed.  My first test is with a semi-aquatic tuber (root vegetable) I found next to the pond outlet.  Having sent a picture of it to American scientists, they seem to think that it is some kind of arrowroot.  I had been placing various local plants in the ponds to see if the fish would eat any.  This particular plant seems to catch their fancy.  If it is arrowroot, it has about the same protein as the commercial fish feed we use.  So I began using it as food in a small, cubic meter basin.  The five fish in there have been consistently nibbling at it and seem healthy.  The arrowroot is thriving off of the nitrogen-rich effluent that exits the ponds, potentially serving a dual purpose of water remediation and feed supplement.

            The other trial was with something called periphyton.  Periphyton is the aquatic, largely autotrophic, microbial community that grows attached to substrates.  The periphyton grow using nutrients floating in the water, making the water cleaner for the fish and providing an additional food source.  Tilapia will eat just about any kind of organic matter that isn't wiggling (and plenty that are).  How do we foster periphyton in the nutrient-rich water?  Add substrate!  In our case, bamboo.  The idea is, administer some bamboo, the microorganism grow on it, and the tilapia graze on the microorganisms.  In fact, the fish farmers had already done this.  Their method of application was not optimal, however; they just threw in the bamboo.  This is not really good because whole bamboo floats, meaning (1) half of the bamboo is above the waterline and (2) the submerged half isn't getting sunlight.  To remedy this, Josue and I quartered the bamboo and strung it together with some fishing line.  Unfortunately, the fishing line was too weak and it broke as we put the bamboo back into the pond.  Now I am trying to find some twine or wire to tie it together.

            These trials (in every sense of the word) are an example of how work here is simple, yet slow.  Another hiccup came a few days later while we were collecting eggs from the breeders.  Most of the fish are treated with hormones to become males, which prevents overpopulation of the ponds, but the co-ed breeders are kept in a separate basin for (obviously) reproductive purposes.  Tilapia are especially easy to farm sustainably because they are mouth brooders: they keep their eggs and young safe in their mouth.  Other fish, like salmon, spawn in particular conditions, making collection more difficult.  With the tilapia, you just extract them with a net and empty the contents of their mouth into a container.  This container is then placed in a sterile hatchery, where the baby fish, called fry, are born.  Unfortunately, our aerator broke down once we had collected some fry and they all died.  Hopefully the eggs will be able to hatch after the lack of oxygen.

Please don't film me.

            While the fish have been undesirably rustling at death’s door, some undesirable people have been rustling at ours.  Just before midnight on one inauspicious nocturne, there struck three staccato reports that silenced the chorus of frogs and insects.  As it turned out, there were some would-be thieves who were trying to break into the one of the vacant houses on campus, upon whom the guards fired a triad of warning shots.  We in the guesthouse kept alert over the next two hours as another six rounds were unloaded.  Finally, one of the guards informed us that they would be posted at our front door to deter any ne’er-do-wellers.  I suppose the event had little effect on me, as I promptly fell asleep.

            It was about this time I welcomed a change of scenery.  The opportunity to travel was provided when I learned that Oscar, one of the Nicaraguan farm managers, would be going into the mountains as part of another nonprofit’s extension program.  Expecting to be gone Thursday and Friday, I was surprised at lunch on Wednesday when Oscar informed me that we were to depart immediately.  I hastily packed a tote and we were soon speeding to Port-au-Prince.  We entered the World Relief compound that Oscar does volunteer work for, and we spent the night.  Early the next morning we got into the "ambulance" (a Land Cruiser) and began our voyage outwards and upwards.  It wasn’t long before we left paved paths behind, bumping on rocky roads into the cool mountain clime.  The escarpments we skirted were unguarded, allowing for a full view of the dried riverbeds bellow.  One particularly steep segment was known as “chen jwenn okenn”; that is, ‘dogs get none’.  The ravine was so severe that only birds would be able to get at fallen bodies.

This Catholic priest prepares moringa leaves for organic fertilizer.

Almost all of the old-growth forest has been chopped down for firewood.

            After passing through one of the country’s two nature preserves, the ‘pine forest’, we eventually ended our journey at the town of Thiotte (pronounced ‘chott’).  This area was safer than any others we had been to yet, allowing Oscar and I to walk around freely at night as we ordered a beer and some fried street food.  The next day, we took an exciting moto ride into the jungle to speak to small farmers about using moringa, a local leguminous tree, as an organic fertilizer.  While in the sparse woodlands I saw how destitute some of the Haitians were living.  It was barely a step removed from tribal conditions.  The people were all friendly and interested in the improved agronomic methods that Oscar was teaching.  The lessons were long, and I did my best to stay my patience and take in the landscape.  Back at the hotel, I also met people from two different nonprofits – talking to them helped clarify what employment in community development is like.   After two days of education, we prepared to return home.  Unexpectedly, our driver was 5 hours late in picking us up.  During the return, we stopped in the pine forest at an enormous market, where I tried a few Haitian snacks.  It was then becoming late, so we spent another night in Port-au-Prince before ultimately returning to Christianville on Sunday.

Market in the Pine Forest.

            It is almost a month since I arrived in Haiti.  A large part of me is chastising myself for not having achieved any tangible results in that amount of time.  Another part of me, softly encouraging, is reminding myself that I have been learning something entirely new and that I’ve been taking steady steps towards making a change.  There is no point in rushing my work, but I need to keep in mind my December date of departure.  While not a waste, it would be a shame if I had not brought anything to fruition.  This next week I hope to begin germinating moringa seedlings.  Turns out this plant is not only useful in improving soil quality, but also the tilapia love it.  The plan is to plant some alongside the ponds, using the fish waste as a fertilizer.  Josue is also excited about developing a fish garden.  He is an excellent friend and coworker.  I think the two of us can accomplish something to be proud of, even in this relatively small amount of time.

Edit: it turns out that moringa is not leguminous, just remarkably hardy