Haitian Brothers: Wilus and Wilner Exil

Photo by Mark Hare, PC(USA) mission coworker in Haiti

by Mark Hare
PC(USA) mission coworker in Haiti

Wilus Exil and his brother Wilner live in the remote community of Leodiyag, in the fourth administrative section of the municipality of Hinche, Center Department (Department Centre). Wilus, the older of the two brothers, has worked in the Road to Life Yard project since April and Wilner since November 2006. Each morning, the two brothers leave their homes between 3:30 and 4 a.m., walking about one hour, crossing the Samanà River and climbing two hills to reach the friend’s house where they keep their bikes. From there, they have about a 30-minute bike ride down the final mountain to reach the center, where we begin work in the Road to Life Yard project at 5:30 a.m. They are almost never late, even when the Samanà River floods, which is nearly every time there is a hard rain — two or three times a month during the six-month rainy season.

Wilus became involved with the Road to Life Yard project when he participated in one of the first workshops we held, teaching basic concepts of vegetable production. At that point, Wilus had become a member of the Association of Planters of Bassin Zim (APB), the organization in which the mission worker Mark Hare has been involved since November 2004. During the meetings of APB, when Wilus and Mark would meet, Wilus would tell Mark about the vegetable garden he had started in his land near the river. A thriving garden, Wilus would say, which seemed a story not entirely credible, given that it was the middle of the dry season — January and February 2005. But when Mark finally visited in November 2005, he did find a thriving garden, with most of the techniques taught in the workshop carried out correctly, including a beautiful little bed of moringa.

This 3' x 12' bed of moringa was providing greens for the family two or three times a week, according to Wilus’s calculations at the time. Wilus also kept track of the vegetables his wife took to the market during the first season and was impressed with what cash this small piece of land (about 20' x 50') was able to produce, besides all the vegetables that he and his wife were putting on the table for themselves and their four children, as well as giving away to the neighbors.

By 2007, Wilner had also begun serious production in an even smaller piece of land (originally about 25' x 25') right by his house, a 10-minute walk from the nearest permanent water source. Focusing in particular on moringa, Wilner planted close to a hundred trees in about half of the garden space. During a recent visit, at a time when the price of dried beans was beyond the reach of most people in the area, both Wilner and his wife agreed that moringa leaves had become the “beans” for their family, complementing on a daily basis the rice, corn and sorghum they put on the table for their five children. In addition, the garden patch has provided papaya for home consumption and for sale, quantities of eggplants, hot peppers and tomatoes, as well as parsley and chives to help flavor the food.

Toward the end of 2007, with the help of three or four of his fellow crew members, Wilner extended his fence and nearly doubled his original garden area. He and Wilus have also trucked more than 30 tires across the river and up the mountain, using burros as well as on their own backs or the backs of family and friends. In 2007, Wilus moved his garden patch up by his house, fencing in one corner of the yard and establishing two vegetable beds planted to moringa, as well as papay, banana and a system of vegetable production using about 15 old tires. With the help of funding from the Road to Life Yard, both Wilus and Wilner hope to have installed simple cisterns and gutters at their respective houses before the end of November, which will allow to them maintain high levels of production further into the dry season. Used carefully, the water in the cisterns should be able to last through the middle of January. Even during the rainy season, the cisterns will reduce labor, particularly during the frequent periods of two to three weeks when there is no rain. In the tropics, the heat requires vegetables to be watered daily. Wilner has also begun including some ideas for improving goat production and both brothers are including red worm production in their gardens in order to take advantage of the benefits of the vermi-compost.

As Wilus and Wilner’s gardens have flourished, the interest of the neighbors has increased and the two brothers are frequently asked for help and advice in installing similar systems in the neighbors’ yards. Technicians and agronomists from other organizations, while visiting in the area, have complimented the brothers on their work and asked them where they learned so much. Most of the members of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) community group in which the brothers participate agree that this system of yard production is something they want to include in the work they are doing, and they are looking at ways to make that happen. This is a good example of the advantages of working with a local, grassroots organization such as MPP. The structure, the mentality and the organization already exist which can allow a good, usable idea to take off quickly with relatively few resources.