Living in Kenscoff at Lakay Wynne

Early in 2003 I vwayaj'd up to Kenscoff with Thor BonHomme to visit the Wynne Farm. The Wynne family was having troubles with big shots trying to confiscate their land, which straddles the top of the mountain, looking north over Port au Prince and south to andeyo. The Farm began about 50 years ago when the patriarch of the family started renting land to farm on. Over 40 years they turned a barren rocky mountain top into a bountiful fruit farm and pine forest with Incan style terraces creating new fertile land where erosion had done its worst.

The Wynne family had a small house within their lakou which they offered (almost in jest) to rent. I took them up on it and the yearly rental was used to finish fixing up the house. We moved to Kenscoff in September 2003.

Following the disatrous floods of the rainy season 2004 people started talking about actually doing something about reforestation. The years since the fall of the Duvalier regime have seen not only political chaos, but the ecological destruction accelerated. Increasing population (from misery, it always happens) and decreasing agricultural incomes (from increased food imports and the abandonment of government support for planters) resulted in faster felling of trees in the countryside. Peyizan have nowhere else to get money.

Jane Wynne and friends of hers have recently completed the legal registration of Fondation Wynne pour l'Environnment and their first real project is the preparing of 24,000 pyebwa (trees) for the replanting of the countryside around Gonaives. At least 3,000 people died in a gros inundation there in September. The country just 20 miles east of here saw another few thousand die in May 2004 when Fond Verette was swept away (it is built in a river bottom) and Mapou became a lake for a month.

Avocado, Zaboca, are the first to be planted. Janie put out the word to the children of la montaigne and 15,000 grenn zaboca (avocado seeds) came into the lakou. They were stored under pine needles while planting soil could be mixed up and 12,000 plastic sacks prepared for the seeds to sprout in.

One picture here shows a Mighty Mac chipper machine from way back. Papa Wynne brought it here for the farm in the 1970's. The engine wore out and was carted off to a shop which couldn't fix it. A five horse Briggs & Stratton cannot be fixed? Jeeze. A small engine repair shop would be a reasonable business to start here. We found a place in Port which can sell a new one for 800 US dollars. They are about $220 in the US from a catalog. We are trying to get the MacKissic company (they still exist, yay)to tell us what modern engine and centrifugal clutch to get to put this thing back on line. Someone could make a donation to Fondation Wynne to get the chipper going perhaps?

The second set of pyebwa starts are to be benzolive. This is a leguminous tree that makes many seeds in big pods. It fixes nitrogen like any legume and grows fast. It is hoped that 24,000 baby trees will be ready to plant by April 2005. Finding country farmers who will care enough to take care of them long enough to escape the browsing of cows and goats will be the problem then.

name: lakou.html created: October 28 2003