Yesterday, I sat down and did a yearly market evaluation of some of the products Haiti imports from the DR, and honestly, the numbers had me thinking… We really need to keep looking at agriculture as one of Haiti’s strongest economic opportunities. -2.19M kg of dried beans — $3.95M - 5.21M kg of sauces — $14.75M - 141K kg of preserved peas — $393K - 39.7K kg of dried onions — $192K And this is just a small snapshot. We’re already growing many of these products here. The problem is that we’re not producing enough, consistently enough, or at the scale needed to really capture the market. And that’s what gets me. If this is the kind of money moving across the border for just a handful of products, imagine what it could look like if we had a functioning agricultural sector. There is a market. There is demand. There is production happening already. We all just need to start taking the economic opportunity in agriculture seriously. 🇭🇹

I started an Instagram page for something we’re building here in Okap called Lakay Forward. We’re just getting started, but the goal is to create community, support, connections, job opportunities, and resources for people returning to Haiti… including deportees, TPS returnees, and others coming back after time abroad. It’s also for people already living here who want to connect, build community, and be part of creating more opportunities together. I already have a lot on my plate …but this feels truly needed right now.. and I’m excited to work with many others on this. If you know someone who could benefit, please share the page. We’ll be posting much more over the next few weeks. instagram.com/lakayfoward?ig…

Watching Homeland Security turn the end of Haiti TPS into something this cold is wild. I’m not going to fight cruelty with more cruelty. I’m not interested in shaming people who may be forced to leave the lives they built and return to Haiti. So maybe our response here in Haiti looks different: Welcome home. I want to build something in Okap for young Haitians coming back ..community, connections, opportunities, and people who actually want to see them find their footing here. However you got back, this does not have to be the end of your story.

Haiti is not a failed state. Haiti is a country that has been failed by its state.

🫶🏾🇭🇹🙏🏾

Living in Haiti means constantly witnessing this contradiction …beauty beside devastation, joy beside grief, normalcy beside something that should never be considered normal. And for people living in Port-au-Prince, that contradiction is even harder to ignore. You can be living your day, going to work, seeing friends, sitting in a restaurant, laughing, feeling safe in your own little corner of the city ..while somewhere else, sometimes only a short distance away, people are being murdered and families are being torn apart. That is such a difficult reality to hold. Because Port-au-Prince is not only violence. People are still living. Loving. Working. Creating. Raising families. Finding moments of joy. But that normal life should never make us numb to what is happening around it. Another massacre should never feel like just another day in Port-au-Prince. What happened in Kenscoff is not normal. No matter how many times it happens, it should never become normal.

Back to work today 🌾🇭🇹 We’re out in the fields using our rice harvester to help local farmers harvest more efficiently..saving time, reducing hard labor, and getting more Haitian-grown white rice from the field to the table. 📍 Northern Haiti

Living the life I’ve always dreamed of! 🇭🇹

New Aviva rider 🤭 📍Môle saint nicolas 🇭🇹

Route to Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti 🇭🇹