Agriculture in Haiti

In July of 2017, I had the amazing opportunity to go on a mission trip to St. Marc, Haiti. With nine other college students and two chaperones, we ran a summer camp for fifth graders at the Good Samaritan School. During the week, we taught the students in the morning and traveled to our adventures around the country in the afternoon. On Tuesday of our trip, we headed to a rice farm owned by Gerald, one of the workers at the school.

When I heard that we were heading to a farm, I got so excited! I missed the farm at home and could not wait to see what a farm in Haiti looked like. When we arrived at the farm, we saw the huge rice fields, with workers up to their knees in the plants. This was my first time seeing a rice farm; the fields were much larger than I expected. In the fields, horses, cows, donkeys, and other animals were tied without water or shade. I figured it must be hard for the animals, but they need to take care of the people first.

We walked on a path through the rice fields into a different part of the farm- coconuts. When we mentioned that we never had fresh coconut water, Gerald instructed to one of his helpers to climb up the tree and throw down some coconuts for us to try. Soon after, the boy scurried up the tree, twisted the coconuts off of the tree, and threw them down to the ground. When he had about twenty down from the tree, Gerald had a local man cut into the coconuts with a machete for us to drink the coconut water. It was so good! After hiking around the super hot farm in Haitian heat of July, the coconut water was so refreshing. Once we finished our coconut water, we handed our coconuts with the meat to some of the children from the farm.

After the stop at the coconuts, we headed to the processing facility of the rice. The people worked very hard to shell the rice and lay it out to dry. When we were in the building, Zach, another Millersville student, held a little boy while Quinn took an unforgettable picture.

The visit to Haiti and the rice farm is something I will never forget. The people of Haiti inspire me everyday to be a better person from yesterday. Visiting another form of agriculture in another country was very enlightining and I will be sure to remember their practices of minimalism and efficiency when I work to grow my farm.