Mark Moran - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

Haiti Highlights: Day 7&8 – Wynn Farm and School Painting

I’m just writing up some of the highlights from our trip to Haiti as we continue our work for the Mona Foundation.

Day 7, September 18, 2009

I stayed home again as Ruhi went to film a CAFT teacher training seminar. I spent the time organizing my photos from the trip and writing up some more blogs and notes. In the afternoon when she got back, she worked with Christophe to translate and review footage while I did some work with my computer organizing files.

Day 8, September 19, 2009

In the mountains behind Port-Au-Prince, near a town called Kenscoff, there is an ecological sustainability project where CAFT will sometimes bring teachers to help them develop potential educational programs for their students related to the environment and preservation. It is at a place called Wynne Farm. They demonstrate solar cookers, paper making (which is actually much easier than you would think), the making of cooking briskets from used paper and composting and other similar activities. They are also working on developing various crops for Haiti such as Chinese bamboo and Sweet Passion Fruit from Mexico, that would be able to help the Haitian economy and ecology.

Big eggs (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

You can see Petion Ville and Kenscott here (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Made from Chinese Bamboo (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Looking inside (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Ruhi preparing to film (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Enole gives brisket making a try (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Gaby enjoying the paper-making process (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Ruhi and Mark (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Ruhi working (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Receiving a wedding present (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Me with our hosts (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

It was a nice chance to see the mountain areas of Haiti, having already seen the rice fields and beaches (if only for a moment). There is certainly an amazing amount of ecological diversity in Haiti. I was lucky enough to snap a few nature-type photos too …

(Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

An interesting flower (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

(Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Bamboo (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Walking (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Plants (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Bamboo (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Lizard (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

More polinators (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

House of Flying Daggers? (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

After visiting Wynne Farm we drove to Linda’s for lunch and then headed to Sue’s home to try and catch some of the students painting the new school as they prepare for their first day of class on Monday. One thing that Ruhi mentioned is that you can see quite a difference in the behavīor between the kids who have been living on the streets and have not yet received an education, from those who have lived on the streets but have been going to school for a while. Those with some education are more focused, disciplined and deliberate in what they do, even when away from school. It speaks to the power of education, not just in helping someone learn facts and figures, but with the development of virtues such as patience or humility.

Kids taking a break from painting (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Digging (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

(Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Painting after-math (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Kids painting (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

Ruhi films painting (Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

(Day 8: Sat, 9/19)

This occasion also marked the final bit of footage that Ruhi had to collect for this 6-country global documentary project. She’s been to Cambodia, India, Tanzania, Brazil and Panama, documenting, interviewing and filming educational initiatives just like those here in Haiti. It has been an amazing opportunity to see a part of the world I might never have known about and it has certainly changed my perspective on a few things.