We rose on our last full day at Ecole
St. Barthélémy to enjoy the flag ceremony for a final time. The children sang "How
Great Thou Art" in either French or Creole and we were thrilled to
recognize the tune. At breakfast, we enjoyed bread for the first time in
several days (after likely depleting the supply ourselves) topped with the
sweet homemade honey we've all come to love.
We planned to tour the northeastern
part of Haiti at some point during the day, including a jatropha farm known as
a pepinye, the town of Phiaton and Fort-Liberté. At breakfast we received the
news that our adventure would not be until the afternoon, so we had another leisurely
break. Several people napped, read or played cards, while some interacted with
the children at the school.
After lunch, we loaded into the tap-tap and began
our journey. We drove first to Fort-Liberté, where we drove through
the town and out to Fort St. Joseph, which sat on the rocky coast of Liberté
Bay by the Atlantic Ocean. All four of our youth shed their shoes and dipped
their feet in the astonishingly clear water. We then walked around the fort and
climbed to the top, where you could see the ocean all around.
We headed from there to one of the
jatropha pepinyes, where we saw how the plants are grown in rows and relaxed
for a minute under the only two trees in sight. Afterwards, we drove over to
see the building where the Haitians train people to farm the jatrophas. Here,
we saw several piles of shells and beans. A few of the youth retrieved beans
from their shells and sorted them into the appropriate piles.
We piled back into the tap-tap and
rode over to the beach at Phiaton, where Gary and Adrian had visited on their
trip to Haiti eighteen months ago. At that time the area was doing very poorly,
suffering from a loss of tourist activity. The people were very desperate and the
beaches were almost completely empty.
We arrived at a gate constructed
since that time and were surprised that they asked for an entrance fee. Our
interpreter, Edward, negotiated a fair price. We drove in to find what Adrian
called a "Haitian Fort Lauderdale." He and Gary were thrilled to see
that the area was thriving. Many people were swimming in the water and
structures had been constructed -- all great news for the people in Phiaton.
Again, several of us dipped our feet in and we enjoyed a few minutes observing
the area.
With our spirits lifted, we headed
to our last stop to see how the jatropha plants are placed in a machine where
the juice is removed. We were excited to learn about how each part of the plant
is used somehow, whether to create the biodiesel or for another integral process.
Unfortunately, when we arrived we
were unable to see the machinery, but Adrian and Gary shared the information
with us and we will look at pictures from their last trip during our down time
at the airport tomorrow.
When we returned we ate dinner and
shared our nightly devotion, then broke into small groups and talked about what
we will take away from this trip. Many of us talked about how much we learned
about the culture here and how excited we are to bring our newfound passion for
Haiti back to Athens to share with all of you.
We are excited to return home
tomorrow to family, friends and air conditioning, but the departure is
bittersweet leaving the people we have come to love here. We hope to continue
our relationships with them and will always remember our time spent in Haiti.
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