After our visit to SAKALA, we planted trees throughout the community of woodworkers that surround the Atis Rezistans along the Grand Rue of Port-au-Prince. We sourced compost to amend the dirt through SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods), a worthy organization who is working on increasing dignity through community sanitation in urban areas while providing compost to augment soil fertility in larger scale agriculture projects. Some neighborhoods in central Port-au-Prince suffer from lack of plumbing infrastructure, which means people use pit-toilets that need to be emptied by hand. SOIL is working through these conditions by producing ‘humanure’ in an admirable effort to alleviate challenges in densely populated areas that have grown without basic amenities that are taken for granted in more developed areas. Basile Wesner is an elder wood sculptor whose home is an open air yard tucked within the folds a strong woodworking community. He strings up a tarp on his four poster bed to protect from rain, and otherwise lives beneath established trees in a relatively natural setting. In tune with the medicinal qualities of endemic plants, Basile acts as a steward for the new young trees. From the woodworkers, we sourced wood-shavings from their lathes to use as a sort of mulch to protect the young trees. In return, we planted more trees in raised corner beds outside their modest homes.
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