Take the plastic challenge.

Litter is a problem in many countries, and Haiti is no exception. There’s little waste management infrastructure in our area, and often the best you can do is sweep your trash (plastic, metal, paper, whatever) into a small pile and burn it. As you can imagine, this presents its own challenges. A better strategy here is to either recycle your own consumer byproducts (using cans and bottles as planting containers, refilling the same bag of flour in the market) or avoiding waste altogether (choosing a refillable glass soda bottle over a plastic one). I know trash management is a large and complex issue, but becoming aware of how much we participate in the problem is an important step in finding a creative solution.

We were talking about this with a few of our fellow MCCers, and decided to step it up a notch. The challenge is simple:

No new plastic for one month.

No wrappers, no bottles, no lids. No see-through windows in cardboard boxes. No plastic buttons on clothing. No new flip-flops. I don’t even know if this will be possible, but trying will at least help us become aware of how much plastic we have in our day-to-day lives.

Why plastic? Even those advertised as “biodegradable” often don’t break down for decades, making our temporary containers a rather permanent part of our environment. Anybody for a vacation to the Pacific Trash Vortex?

Since I assume you’re all already doing things like foregoing Styrofoam, recycling, and using cloth shopping bags, I invite you to participate in No-Plastic June. You can keep the plastic you already have around the house, but don't purchase any new plastic for one month.

Then tell us about it! We’ll be posting here about our attempts to be plastic-free, so please feel free to leave comments about your own challenges and successes.

May Retrospective

Wow, how the weeks fly by! Here's a little of how we've been filling our time this month:

The Great Cherry Meltdown.
Our resources in Dezam are limited even compared to those of our coworkers in Port-au-Prince, so when I learned that there were cherries in Port's local markets I felt discouraged and more than a little jealous. But lo and behold, I found this in front of our house:

And this behind our house:

And this at the MCC office:

The lesson, it turns out, is to keep my eyes open to what's happening all around me. It might just be the thing I think I'm missing.

Visitors from the North.
Hooray for:
Beth & Jason! We had a fantastic time showing them our favorite haunts, checking out the local arts scene, and cooking up a tasty cherry crumble. After receiving B&J and Bryan's parents, and hanging out in Dezam with the Steckleys last week, we can say again that we LOVE having visitors (hint hint, for those of you weighing the pros and cons of trekking to the Caribbean this year...). It's really what makes it possible for us to keep living in the Artibonite Valley. Well, that and the internet.

Taking to the seas.

Last Sunday a group of MCCers, visitors, and friends headed to a small island off the coast of our small island home for a day of snorkeling and splashing in the waves.

For photos and details, click through to Rebekah H.’s blog.

Induction into MCC's Ajan Anviwonman Program.
Well, we didn't actually become Agents, but the Environmental Education Program welcomed 30 new students (2 from each partner school) as AAs. These kids were selected by their teachers based on their enthusiasm for protecting the environment, and MCC's program plans special activities throughout the year to encourage them to pick up trash (or reduce their trash creation in general), plant trees, and spread the green word to other kids.

Changing of the Season.
Goodbye dust, hello mud:
After months of hauling water from the river for our garden, the rains have come and brought everything back to life!

We hadn't realized how much we missed the sound of rain until we started hearing it again. This means that our water worries are over (no more driving to the river to find water for our garden) but our electricity worries have begun (less sunshine means less time for our solar panel to convert rays into power).

The arrival of Bryan’s first true love.

I’ve become a bike widow again, but I don’t resent for a minute the pleasure he gets from tooling around on two wheels. We cannot thank the many hands that made its arrival possible. Danny and Courtney pulled it out of their basement and got it boxed up, Beth and Jason lugged the thing around a few airports and Frazer Mennonite paid the oversize luggage fee. We can't thank you all enough for making this happy reunion possible – THANK YOU!

You never forget how.

May 1 is a national holiday (Agriculture Day), and we decided to spend the long weekend in Port-au-Prince for some always-needed out-of-Dezam time.Our friend Ben just bought a bike a few weekends ago in St. Marc, which brings the total number of bikes at the Depps' to 2. On Friday morning Ben and I decided to go for a ride. Port is built on a hill, so everywhere is up or down and we decided to go up first to get the hard pedaling out of the way.

I hopped on the Ardis Silver Bike, which bears a sticker proudly announcing that it was handbuilt in the Ukraine. Ben was riding his new, circa-1980 Trek road bike. We pedaled out to the main road and start cranking up the hill. Immediately my heart started thumping and my lungs turned to fire. As I was cranking up the hill I put my head down and just thought about breathing and spinning the pedals. Maybe I was taking in too many deep breaths of exhaust, but fatigue hit me hard and I asked for a breather. Okay, not so bad, I haven't been on a bike in 9 months so what can I expect? We stand, I breathe, we continue on.

Another mile up the hill - wham-o, I start feeling nauseated. I pedal over to the side of the road where I, um, expeditiously empty the contents of my stomach onto the pavement. What a milestone: first time I've ever experience exercise-induced sickness. I got it out of my system and drank some water. I didn't feel 100% sick, just the very urgent need to throw up. (I guess I didn't look too bad, as Ben told me he wished he had his camera. Thanks.) We continue to the top of the hill in Petionville where I chicken out, deciding that it's best we turn back as I don't want to throw up again.

We tear back down the road, passing cars and buses. The feeling of speed, wind and weightlessness from the top of a bike was amazing and I remembered why I missed biking so much. So it sucked to throw up from biking (and it's only the 4th time in my life I remember throwing up at all), but well worth it. In a few weeks some friends are coming to Haiti to visit us and they agreed to bring my mountain bike with them. Now I have this crazy nervous anticipation eating away at me, first because I can't wait to ride more and second because I'm not quite sure I can handle it. Ah, let's blame it on midday heat and lungfuls of exhaust.

Bring on the hills and the heat. It's worth it.