Breaking Ground in Haiti

Today was another productive day of agricultural education! We started off the day by continuing to prep the ground for planting. While we were utilizing the plow and teaching students how to plow ground we had a serious discussion on conservation tillage and the importance of conserving and building up soil. It was great to see the Haitian students taking what we had taught them and turning around and teaching their classmates.

After our time in the fields we had a great workshop on problem solving in agriculture. This was an interactive workshop that got the students out of their comfort zones a bit. It was rewarding to hear the students excitement that we were asking for their thoughts and expertise in solving agriculture problems, instead of others telling them what to do.

Following lunch we split the students into two groups and worked side by side with them to assemble a post hole digger for the tractor, that will be used for a variety of applications, and a workshop on how to research material utilizing the internet. We are excited to see how they will use both the post hole digger and research knowledge to move things forward.

Late afternoon we traveled to one of UCI’s nearby feeding centers that provides three meals a week for the local children. We assisted with serving the children a rice and bean meal. We didn’t spend as much time at the feeding center as usual as a rain shower moved in. The unseasonably rain gave us time this evening to visit with each other on the front porch of our dorm and enjoy papaya juice from the nearby “juice bar.” Once again we ended this evening with intense games of spoons!