I will always remember Jean Nelson wielding his machete and cutting sugar up into edible pieces for our university students to chew on when they visited his farm in Bois Joli, Haiti, most had never experienced such a raw, sweet treat. He would then slice the top off a coconut with a quick action of… more →
instalation du depulpaire a boisjolie accompagné quelques responsable
This past Monday morning, our team of interns and agronomists started the day bright and early to begin our hike up to Bois Jolie. Since we first arrived in Haiti, I have been anticipating this day. We were finally going to start our economic surveys. As part of the research we are conducting this summer,… more →
This year the Sewanee team came to Haiti bearing gifts of a different kind: scientific conclusions. After four years of conducting survival surveys during Spring Break trips, the research team put together a poster for Scholarship Sewanee. The poster included graphs showing the growth and survival rates of different species of coffee and shade trees,… more →
I first visited Haiti as a freshman on an outreach trip through the Office of Civic Engagement, our work was to collect tree survival data for the Zanmi Kafe reforestation project, which aims to use a payment for ecosystem services model to promote long term tree planting and carbon sequestration in order to protect the… more →
My team spent this past Thursday and Friday in Morne Michel. We arrived mid-morning on Thursday and spent the night, leaving after our survey work on Friday morning. This was our first of three visits to Morne Michel for our research and the physical differences between it and Bois Jolie stuck with me. For starters,… more →
My plane landed in the late afternoon heat in Haiti, and as I walked off the plane on to the tarmac, the warm, wet Haitian air rushed up to greet me. The following evening and day have been full of greetings with friends I have not seen in a year. The first face was of… more →
The question I am asked most often about the trip to Haiti is ‘What did you do there?’, and although I know exactly what it is I did, I find myself stumbling to explain our trip beyond the Zanmi Kafe program itself. On paper, the Zanmi Kafe partnership is working to change a cultural tradition,… more →
Jean Nelson examining his coffee berries, Bois Jolie, Haiti, March, 2016. Micharie running errands at dusk, while berries ripen on her mother’s coffee bushes (Mita Simone), Bois Jolie, Haiti, 6:30 PM, March 14, 2016.
Before leaving Sewanee for the Haiti spring break outreach trip, I had a lot of thoughts going through my head. This was my second time leading a group of students to the remote area of Haiti that I’ve worked in for three years now, and I was admittedly a little nervous. On the plane ride… more →