Salt Project Update

It's been slow forming a co-operative of salt producers. I first hired a man with legal and accounting training to write the co-op’s charter and internal regulation. Although he has experience writing such documents he seemed to lack the motivation skills to get the people excited about working together. After a week of work he turned in a two pages that amount to little more than an outline. As well he said that the $60 dollars a day we had agreed on paying him was a fine wage for a day wage but he now also needed a new technical wage, something in the order of $5,000 dollars. When Ewan let him know he would not receive this unagreed upon sum he was fine. When Ewan asked him to sign a little slip of paper stating he received the money of his original contract he blew up. It turns out the slip is usually used when paying unskilled day labors. I wasn't present for the tirade but it end with him saying taking the money was beneath him and storming out the office. The new guy I found works for the Haitian Department of Agriculture and trained specifically motivating and forming co-ops. He'll start Monday and I hope things go a little better.

Leasing the land for the AMURT pilot salt works has its own troubles. I signed a contract on Tuesday to lease a plot from a land owner. Wednesday morning at 6:40 AM two old guys found me and told me in a harsh tone "You can't lease anything without our consent." I'm finding out nothing is as simple as it should be. Previously I had been trying to purchase some land from these same old guys but over the course of a couple weeks they never turned up with the correct paperwork and they didn't really know what they owned. So it seems because they don't know where their land is, they feel they need to oversee all land deals just in case it's on their land.

Progress is always slow in Haiti and so I’m far from being discouraged. I’ve been spending part of my time looking for other ways start spending the grant money while the co-ops and pilot project are being sorted out. Many Haitian salt producers have suggested digging drainage canals to protect the salt basins from the annual flooding. Acting upon this idea I studied the aerial photos, talk with locals, and even rode my motorcycle inside the dry riverbeds to locate all areas of flooding. Since the floods are such dramatic events it’s been easy to rally the people into action. One community in particular that was skeptical investing energy into the new method of salt production is hugely enthused about the drainage canals, they want to start work Monday!

Just today I learned we'll be receiving addition funds to create a GPS database of all the salt basins. The huge deficit of information has plagued every NGO in their attempts to reform and modernize the salt industry. No one in Haiti could even give you a guess as to how much salt is produced, or who owns the basins, where the salt is sold or for how much is it sold. Finally knowing the answers to the most basic questions will be hugely important.