Rosedanie Cadet is currently in Haiti teaching sustainable farming and providing locals with means of food preservation. Orcas High School senior Taylor Diepenbrock and his dad Steve of Morningstar Farm on Orcas helped Cadet with her project. For more information, visit noramise.org.

The following is the first entry from Cadet’s journal about her work in Haiti.

After 10 days, the project is progressing, at times incredibly fast and others at an infirm snail’s pace. We are being hosted by the First Baptist Church of Limbe’ where my grandfather was a deacon and both my mother and aunt sang in the choir. Our lodging is in the presbytery next to the church. As with most of the country, Limbe’ has haphazard electrical service. Fortunately we were able to bring a small generator so have our own source of electricity.

The week we arrived was a week of remembrance for the victims of the earthquake. President Preval had ordered all schools and businesses closed on the 12th. We arrived in Limbe’ midday on Feb. 13, as church services were ending. Being that the church is in front of the market and it was a Saturday, we made quite a sight arriving in the back of a pickup loaded with supplies and a mountain bike. Needless to say it was not a stealth entry into town.

Taylor and I attended Sunday services while Steve served as security for our belongings. After church, Pasteur Milca invited us to his house for lunch. Thereafter, our meals were prepared by Mrs. Milca and brought to us by their sons, Lumil and Nevski. A spectacle in itself. The boys delivered our meals and watched as we ate. After a few days I was feeling like an animal at the zoo during meal times.

Each day of our stay we have had visitors asking for help with their various projects. Some of their stories are heartbreaking, and I started feeling that maybe our project was a luxury given the immediate needs for food, clothing, and shelter of most of the people here. However, as the week progressed and we visited the proposed site for the plant and various farming projects, it became evident that this particular project of providing long term programs for the people will eventually feed their immediate needs by providing jobs and a sense of ownership.

Thursday, Feb. 18, was my 49th birthday, the first I’ve spent in my homeland in 36 years. Having not been able to sleep well for some days, I awoke in a foul mood which only increased when breakfast arrived, and there was no coffee. After breakfast we accompanied my cousin, Delano Cadet, a Pasteur at another Baptist church, to view the site of what he hopes will become a thriving fish farm. The majority of Haitians eat one meal a day and usually have no meat or protein. It is his dream to provide low cost protein to the people of the region. To reach the site we drove 30 minutes and hiked along the mountainside for another 30 minutes. The view of the rushing river below and the terraced hills were a balm to my sore mood, and I soon found myself fully enjoying the day. Upon returning to town we met with an engineer who gave us a rough idea as to how much it would cost for materials needed to build the plant – A LOT!

The icing on the non-existent birthday cake was a present of mango-colored “TEAM NORAMISE” t-shirts presented to me by Steve and Taylor. I had mentioned to Mimi (Taylor’s mom) that that was my vision for a project shirt, so she had a few made and sent to me with the boys. The thoughtfulness of the gesture brought tears of joy to my eyes and reaffirmed the timeliness of this project, for this last year of the first half century of my life is also a rebirthing of my life in my homeland.

Speaking of my homeland, it’s been very interesting being the female leader of our team. In a country where the women do most of the work yet are relegated to second class status, I must seem like quite an anomaly to the general populace. However, my family having been one of the founding families of Limbe’ has made it possible to open doors that might otherwise have remained shut to a ”mere” woman.

Steve and Taylor have returned to Orcas, and I find myself missing them while still looking forward to the arrival of the next team. We are now working to help local farmers and, at the same time, looking for land to buy in order to build a NORAMISE headquarters here in Limbe’. Please stay tuned.