Karen Bultje

Double Harvest uses irrigation to water their fields. Green is everywhere!

Eggplant is growing in this field.

Crops are being picked by hand.

Neals's cousins together with their family keep Double Harvest going. Their focus is to be a self-sustaining mission; that the fields and other income generating activities can support the missions' focus in areas such as education, church, and medical care. They are not 100% self supportive yet, but they are working towards being this one day.

Aquaculture fish harvesting is done at Double Harvest.

These serious of fish tanks produce 250,000 pounds of tilapia fish each year. The maximum that the tanks can handle is 500,000 pounds of fish each year.

Fish are put into their tanks according to size.

It is a simple process if you have the proper equipment

These filters filter out the bacteria growing in the tanks.

Immediately after the earthquake Double Harvest started providing the surrounding community with food. The fish in the tanks were harvested right away and given to the people.

Neal Hegeman is listening to his cousin explain the tilapia fish project.

Double Harvest sells their produce to the community, to street vendors who then enter into the community and to local businesses.

The water is changed in the tanks frequently and the discharge water is used to irrigate the fields. Nutrients in the tank water from the fish enter the ground as fertilizer for the growing crops.

If you look closely enough you can see the fish swimming in this tank. Tilapia is a good fish to eat. The Haitian people love to eat fish and the tilapia is readily accepted as part of their diet.

We were given a tour of some of the farm equipment that is used at Double Harvest.

This pile of rice hulls will be used as compost.

Long rows of piles of compost.

They discussed how methane produced from the piles of compost could provide a source of fuel for the generators used to power the filtration/circulation system of the fish tanks.

Currently the methane gas isn't being harvested from the compost piles.

The farm also has a chicken business.

Chickens and their eggs are sold.

The chicken are housed inside this building.

Lots of cute chickens :)

In another building are another variety of chickens. As I undersood it these chickens are raised as broilers ready to get plump and sold for their meat!

It was great to hear the history of Double Harvest from the family who started and continue to run the mission.

Double Harvest also has a nursery and greenhouse where trees and tropical plants trees are grown.

Maybe one day they can export their plants to other countries.

At the back of the rows of compost piles I saw this cow bird. A compost pile is a good place for this bird to search for tasty bugs :)

Erol is holding a copy of the Haitian Education Curriculum. There is a book for the grade levels of 1ereAF to 6eme AF. Janise took a look through the curriculum and said that it is similar to the Canadian curriculum. With teacher training it is possible for Haitian teachers to perform at the same level as their Canadian counterparts. The curriculum is there for the education system. It just needs to be properly applied by Haitian teachers.

Teachers take pride in their work. Haitian parents place their hope and confidence in these teachers to educate their children.

40 teachers took place in the seminars from various schools and locations. From the mountains of Kenscoff, the Leogane area, here in Port-au-Prince and a handicapped school, they came to learn how to be better teachers.

The older guys here at Coram Deo peeked over the classroom walls to watch the activities taking place.

Jn. Eddy Alexandre is in his 2nd year of university. He is studying accounting.

His younger brother Herode is a teachers assistant here at Coram Deo. He recently wrote his Rheto exams (Grade 12).

Node is a handicapped woman who works well with our kindergarten students. She has a neuromuscular disease that is making her progressively weaker over the years.

At the end of each seminar a meal was provided for all the teachers who attended the seminars. Marie cooked a big pot of food.

Every month we are part of the food distributions of Love A Child. We receive 25 cases of Feed My Starving Children Manna Packs. This lasts through the month and helps to keep our food costs down.

A view of the curious bystanders looking into the classroom.

Each group of teachers formed into teams to answer questions.

They were excited and got right into games. This activity showed the teachers how they could make their classrooms more fun and learning friendly :)

The Coram Deo teachers won the competition :)

It will be interesting this year to see how the teachers interact with the students with these new activities.

At the end of the last seminar day, certificates were handed out to the teachers who participated in the seminars.

These certificates mean a lot to them. To their employers it shows their initiative in professional development.

Janise put a lot of work into preparing these seminars. A few of the guys here at Coram Deo worked at translating the seminar outlines into Creole.

Pastor Napoleon is one of the pastors who we sponsor to participate in the Pastor Training Seminars at the Christian Reformed Ministry Center. He brought a group of his teachers from Leogane to the teacher seminars.

A couple of the teachers posed with their seminar certificates.

Pastor Pierre came down the mountain with 7 of his teachers from the Kenscoff mountain region.

This teacher participated and brought her daughter along with her.

Joanna is a teacher's assistant in one of our kindergarten classes. She never completed her education but takes pride in being a teachers assistant. When she comes to work here and even attending the seminars she always dresses up nicely. She is proud to have received a certificate.

Gelia is one of the teachers in our kindergarten program. She is an amputee due to the earthquake. She has a lot of determination and doesn't let the fact that she lost a leg stop her from doing anything.

Thank you Janise for all your hard work in preparing the seminars and taking on the challenge of training 40 teachers. Thank you too to Erol for his translating skills at making the seminars a success.

Through these seminars I was able to set up contact with these teachers from a handicapped school in Tabarre. We hope to visit them and see what we can do to encourage and support them in their work with handicapped children here in Haiti.

Neal Hegeman stayed here at Coram Deo for a couple of nights on his way to and from the Dominican Republic. His uncles started Double Harvest around 30 years ago. Neal hadn't visited Double Harvest since 1985. A couple of his cousins were at Double Harvest when we drove out there.