completing my course on agroforestry through Trees for the Future—as well as my mental and physical preparations for this three week experience, it felt like the time to transplant this blog into what I envision will be a journey of hope and transformation not just for me but the people AND the land around Port-Au-Prince.

NEWSFLASH: We raised a little over $1300 on Saturday 4/23,  from an amazing group of people! !!! THANKS to all who came out.

What is “Burquenos Helping to Heal Haiti?” Well, for starters, we’re women from Albuquerque (Burquenos) and our project overlaps two forms of relief for trauma: acupuncture treatment and training health care workers with establishing small, subsistence gardens to reduce hunger and provide dark, leafy greens for reversing chronic malnutrition. I’ll be helping with the gardening plus an agroforestry design effort on land donated to the What If? Foundation for increasing food supplies for the daily food program. Acupuncturists Without Borders will provide the training as well as treatments for some of the residents of the parish served by the What If? Foundation food program. We feel this is a very dynamic collaboration and we look forward to working with this community.

Bowls ready for the children What If? Foundation food program

The posts to follow will bring you with me and the team heading to Haiti on May 23rd. Lots of things to do, packing, medical supplies, setting up appointments, collecting donations of seeds, jump ropes, soccer balls, too many details and still more money to raise. Whew!

If you would like to help cover the costs of transportation and translation while in Haiti, our housing, food and miscellaneous expenses, you may send a tax-deductible contribution to: AWB (Acupuncturists Without Borders), 909Virginia NE, Suite 211, Albuquerque, NM 87108. PLEASE indicate this is a donation for: Haiti Trip May 2011. Mesi anpil.

In this process, I’ve uncovered so many groups or individuals located in Albuquerque who are supporting Haiti in some way. It is truly uplifting to know that so many folks here in New Mexico feel a kinship with our Haitian neighbors and are doing their part. I’ll share more about them in upcoming blogs and when I have the opportunity to visit some of their service locations in Haiti.

Happy MayDay! Regardless of the snow, rain, wind and cold temps today, gardening is under way! Here’s the calendar for May according to the Farmers’ Almanac so get out there and PLANT:

May 2011
1st-2nd Poor Planting, Fine For Cultivating Or Spraying.
3rd-4th Favorable For Planting Beans, Corn, Cotton, Tomatoes, Peppers, And Other Aboveground Crops.
5th-6th Any Seed Planted Now Will Tend To Rot.
7th-8th Most Favorable For Planting Corn, Cotton, Okra, Beans, Peppers, Eggplant, And Other Aboveground Crops. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
9th-12th A Barren Period. Good For Killing Plant Pests, Cultivating, Or Taking A Short Vacation.
13th-15th Excellent Time For Planting Corn, Beans, Peppers, And Other Aboveground Crops. Favorable For Sowing Hay, Fodder Crops, And Grains. Plant Flowers.
16th-17th First Day Excellent For Planting Aboveground Crops. Second Day Favorable For Carrots, Beets, Onions, Turnips, And Other Root Crops. Both Days Good For Planting Cabbage, Lettuce And Other Leafy Vegetables, And For Planting Seedbeds. Second Day Good For Transplanting.
18th-20th Do No Planting.
21st-22nd Plant Late Beets, Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, And Other Root Crops.
23rd-25th Kill Plant Pests On These Barren Days.
26th-27th Favorable Time For Planting Late Root Crops. Also Good For Vine Crops That Can Be Planted Now. Set Strawberry Plants. Good Days For Transplanting.
28th-29th Poor Planting, Fine For Cultivating Or Spraying.
30th-31st Root Crops That Can Be Planted Now Will Yield Well. Good Days For Transplanting.

June 2011
1st-2nd Seeds Planted Now Tend To Rot In The Ground.
3rd-4th Plant Tomatoes, Beans, Peppers, Corn, Cotton, And Other Aboveground Crops On These Most Fruitful Days. Plant Seedbeds And Flower Gardens.
5th-8th Poor Period For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Clear Fencerows, Clear Land.
9th-11th Favorable For Planting Peas, Beans, Tomatoes, And Other Fall Crops Bearing Yield Aboveground. Sow Grains And Forage Crops. Plant Flowers.
12th-13th Extra Good For Planting Fall Lettuce, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collards, And Other Leafy Vegetables. All Aboveground Crops Planted Now Will Do Well. Plant Seedbeds.
14th-16th Poor Planting Days. Cut Hay Or Do General Farm Work.
17th-18th Plant Late Beets, Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, And Other Root Crops.
19th-21st Poor Days For Planting. Kill Plant Pests, Spray, Fertilize, Do General Farm Work.
22nd-23rd Favorable Time For Planting Late Root Crops. Also Good For Vine Crops. Set Strawberry Plants. Good Days For Transplanting.
24th-25th Cut Hay Or Do Plowing On These Barren Days.
26th-27th Good Days For Planting Root Crops. Good Days For Transplanting.
28th-29th Seeds Planted Now Tend To Rot In The Ground.
30th Best Day For Planting Root Crops. Excellent For Sowing Seedbeds And Flower Gardens. Good Day For Transplanting.

Permaculture is a design system based on ethics and principles which can be used to establish, design, manage and improve all efforts made by individuals, households and communities towards a sustainable future.

There is a growing buzz on the internet and social networking systems about a “different” kind of aid effort: a Permaculture relief corps. There is actually a listserve devoted to this discussion and articles are popping up all over engaging in this theme. Why Permaculture and what would a “permaculture relief” team look like? Here’s one article I found helpful on Maddy Harland’s blog Permaculture Magazine Editorial. She points out how the principles of permaculture design lend themselves so well to healing the Earth following natural disasters, and by extension, the people living there, as well.

Co-developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren back in the good ol’ days of the 1970′s, Permaculture deals with the basic issues of sustaining life wholistically by dealing with what is in front of you.  If you need water, look at where and how you can collect it, reclaim it, clean it, save it; don’t wait for the USAID truck to drive down your road with plastic bottles shipped in. (They may not come.) You don’t wait for heavy moving equipment, you create smaller versions of your system with your hands or invent simple tools. And you don’t let anything go to waste. (Something most Haitians have more experience with than I ever will.)

But why is there such poverty and lack of infrastructure and why has it continued for so long? The people and the island of Haiti have endured several centuries of interventionism by the United States and European nations under the guise of “stabilization.” In this interview by Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW!, journalist Kim Ives discusses how this has crippled the Haitians from recovering more rapidly from natural disasters.

People trained in Permaculture understand and honor systems for working together, by developing the best approach based upon the resources–human and otherwise–available. Rather than utilizing a cookie-cutter approach to any situation, PC’s carry in a value system, a way of looking at a situation and developing answers based on what they see and experience hand in hand with the local population.

And while a Permaculture Relief Corps couldn’t replace medical emergency personnel, its practitioners would be able to get other life-saving systems underway like composting toilets and rudimentary sanitation systems, water purification, solar ovens, and of course, survival gardens. Rather than watching the defunct systems continue to implode day by day, the PC relief workers could guide and empower the citizens on the ground to regain some of what they have lost. Here’s an article by Cory Brennan, one of the movers and shakers for this idea, that relates how Permaculture  can help to re-structure and revitalize an area after a disaster.

Permaculture systems create sustainable, long term solutions that incorporate the needs of the local population and its culture while training its citizens to replicate these systems when the PC workers are gone. Permaculture becomes a way to reconnect the various components or threads of community no matter how tattered they may be.

My blog on “outrageous gardens” is a direct result of my own permaculture training. I took one principle– “the problem is the solution” –to its limits and learned that you can create a growing space anywhere, anytime from whatever you have available and it’s probably more effective than what you had before.

So just thinking about all the possibilities related to a team of PC’s going to Haiti brightens my day, and there haven’t been too many bright days since Jan. 12th.

For more information about the Permaculture relief effort for Haiti, go to www.permaculturehaiti.org. There, you can also sign up to volunteer, request assistance or offer materials and supplies.

To participate in the on-line discussion and dissemination of information on this endeavor, sign up for the PC Relief listserve here.

To read more about some of the Permaculture work that was already in place in Haiti prior to the earthquake, check out: www.oursoil.org

And here you’ll find just about everything related to permaculture on the web.

This is an idea whose time has not only come but is fundamentally necessary for rebuilding Haiti from within. There are Permaculture relief workers on the ground in Haiti today and we’ll keep following their progress on my “Haiti” page. If you know of other PC Relief sites, please send them to me or add in the comments for this page!

“Permaculture is that art of the possible”

Graham Bell ‘The Permaculture Garden”