Our week of Earthaware teaching, RED campaign, PepsiCo, Nike support and incredible local community involvement wraps up with the co-creation of a huge public sculpture and memory wall at the Parc St. Pierre public roundabout/fountain in Peitonville, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
We arrived, spent a week coordinating things, found five great project directors on the street, were given use of a public park by the city Mayor and Police Chief, were issued a contingent of 27 Nepalese UN soldiers and saw the participation of over 1,000 people, most of whom are part of the 7,000+ people who live in the tarp village covering the rest of Parc St. Pierre.
We gathered rubble, including rebar, from the earthquake damaged buildings, found organics from the jungle and plastics trash which covers the city streets: we cleaned the area and our materials then organized it all and got to work. We also recieved donations of materials from a local Sisal company, Pepsi, Nike and several local contractors.
Without having a firm plan we let the event form itself by beginning contruction on a ceremonial arch built aside a tree. From there work proceeded to include two hut-like structures, a wall of nests, a wave form that wrapped another tree and numerous small openings for viewing and kids to play through.
The greatest Haitian Creation came towards the end when mostly the women decorated the 80 foot diameter structure with flowers and weaving, all the while singing and dancing and chatting away.
We also made toys from thge materials and has adhoc playtime. We learned about the materials we were using, the effects of man made materials on our environment and ways to reduse the use of wate genterating products and packaging
We look forward to an annual return to Haiti to spread the Earthaware teachings and revisit the friends we made there.