I’ve spent the last 15 days at the grassroots united compound in port-au-prince and I’m all sorts of stoked, jazzed and inspired about what’s going on here. Grassroots united is a disaster relief org that set up shop in Haiti right after the earthquake in January, 2010.
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| earthship | |
They’ve basically rented a chunk of land, conveniently situated by the main airport, plunked down a bunch of shipping containers full of medical supplies and started operating as a distribution hub and logistics facilitator for any and all organizations working in country. They work with a lot of sweet partner orgs and, just over the past year, they’ve helped a helluva lot of people and have diversified their capacity to make a positive impact. this bunch likes to work hard and party harder.
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| straw bale house |
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The compound now serves as a demonstration site for alternative building and appropriate technologies that are ideal for disaster prone areas. They've got an earthship, a dome, a straw bale house, a hexayurt, a treehouse, container housing and there's a superadobe structure in the works. and they've got composting toilets, chickens and a greywater system.
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| chicken coop | | | |
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right now, they're hosting a permaculture design course with the vast majority of the participants being haitian and this is what brings me here. i was invited to translate for the course and i'm so glad to be here. the permaculture instructor, larry santoyo, is a diamond in the rough and i'm learning a lot, as usual. doors continue to open and the road keeps rolling out behind me. :)
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