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.
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.
straw bale house
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.
chicken coop
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. :)
i'm still in cap haitien (the north) and, as i mentioned in the last post, i got a gig translating and assisting for a permaculture training for a group of 19 impressive youths from different regions.
the training, which wrapped up on january 25th, was a success and a lot of fun, too. it was a nice opportunity to work w/ friends, hunter and sabina, glean some of their know-how and escape at night for a drink or two.
we made sure to get the class out of the classroom as much as possible (site visits & field trips are the best). we toured a diversified organic garden, a rice farm, and a cassava cooperative. then we had a couple days of fun (mixed w/ learning, of course) hiking up to the citadelle (a historic mountaintop fortress) and spending our last day at the beach.
these guys love permaculture [!] and at the house where we're all staying, they have set up a sweet container garden; read: old tires, cans, rice sacks and gallon jugs ... all chock full 'o veggies. love this stuff. :)
i recently completed an intensive 2wk permaculture design course in northern thailand. it was an awesome experience; i learned a lot, and i got to study/work with a fabulous group of folks. the course was hosted by the panya project and we also visited a bunch of other really cool farms & projects. here's a sampling of photos from the trip. let me know if you'd like some more info on the course &/or these farms. cheers.
i'm calling it quits on ol' worwick and on korea all together, at least for a while. life here has been good, to be sure, but the feeling in my bones tells me that the time has come to move on. yeah, yeah... i DID just sign on for a second year in march, and i'm not typically the quitting type, but hey. this feels good.
i'm finding it harder these days to live each minute in the present and am rather dreaming of days without late paychecks, lesson plans, yellow dust and crowded subway commutes. ugh.
scheming forward to days full of fresh-picked tropical fruits, salt water, sand and soil. and further experimentation with love. yeeeeeeeee.
so. money has been spent. reservations and registrations (some) have been made. dates on the calendar have been marked. this change is finally in the real.
july 16th is my last day of work and i fly to thailand on the 19th... and i'm positive that those 2 free days in between those dates will be nothing short of hectic. packing. goodbyes. shipping boxes. give-aways. etc. gotta love those crazy, frantic, transitional times.
once in thailand, i'll be spending a couple of weeks up north at a sweet farm and educational center (the PANYA PROJECT and PUN PUN, their neighbors) for a permaculture design course. after that, i'll do a little traveling around the area (laos, vietnam, cambodia, we'll see) before flying back to the best place on earth, hawaii nei.
that being said, i still have about 6 WEEKS [!]left in the land of the morning calm. my plan is to max out both my garden and my tent, play outside and chill w/ my closest friends here as much as possible. make the most!
i like to remind myself w/ these wise and clever words by eleanor roosevelt:
"yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift... that's why it's called the present"
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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