Chabon

Chabon (Creole for charcoal) Project is coming along.  The top part is a working surface that is slightly angled so the run off water goes back into the lower tanks.  The bottom hole will contain two tanks or wet areas that will allow us to turn paper, cardboard, wood chips... into mulch.  The mulch is then squeezed so most of the water returns to the tanks.  It will then be placed in forms and we'll use hydraulic jacks to remove the rest of the water.  The raw material now has to spend a day or two in the sun and-- VOILA -- chabon.

Recycling- Alternative charcoal

Andre Dallaire, the bearded gentleman above, is from Quebec.  He's with us to train some of our graduates in making charcoal from paper, cardboard, trash, wood chips and sawdust.

Andre has been involved with Haiti over forty years and has worked full-time these last twelve years fighting against the deforestation of Haiti.  Benefits: a cleaner campus, savings (as we'll be buying less and less wood charcoal), job creation and a clean conscience as we won't be contributors to the real problem of deforestation of the mountainsides. 

Charcoal Problem

Here's a traditional cooking system.  It's also the most inefficient use of charcoal as the heat dissipates in all directions.  There are far better stoves available which would cut back on charcoal usage but the folks can't afford them.

 Our own Fery stands next to a pile of mangrove trees which were recently cut from a wetlands area just outside the town.  The pile will be organized and straw added to cover it.  It will then be set on fire and covered with dirt to produce charcoal.

A couple of ladies bagging the charcoal made from the wetlands' trees.  The menfolk were out cutting more trees when we took this photo.  They used to be fishermen but their boats were lost when a major storm hit last year and this is the only way for them to make some money.

Charcoal-making is the principal reason for cutting down the trees in Haiti which leaves the mountains denuded and incapable of withholding the waters whenever it rains so floods happen regularly now.  The people know this but have to feed their families so charcoal-making continues until an alternative source of income can be found.

Thinking ahead

We have a couple of dead trees on the property so we decided to cut them down and make some charcoal out of them. With the lack of fuel (including propane) we'll have need of charcoal.

Ecological charcoal

The small machine above makes these round brickettes (charcoal) from vegetable waste. Charcoal is usually made from wood [ten pounds of wood to make a pound of charcoal] and is the most used cooking fuel. As a result, Haiti is almost completely deforested. We will be starting to make our own charcoal brickettes as we have much vegetable waste on the farm, it is cheaper and keeps us from contributing to the deforestation problem.