Land Institute Toilet Twa Ravin, Milot

Land Institute Toilet Twa Ravin, Milot

The Land Institute is a non-profit organization in Salina, Kansas that has worked on sustainable agriculture issues for the last 20 years. One of their programs is a graduate fellows program which supports graduate research throughout the United States focused on sustainable agriculture. Each summer the Land Institute holds an annual fellows conference where graduate fellows are able to come together with other academics and philosophers for one week to share experiences and learn from one another. SOIL Co-founder Sasha Kramer was a graduate fellow from 2000-2004 and has attended the fellows conference for the past 6 years. This past year the fellows decided to use their annual talent show (the Prairie Howl) as an opportunity to raise funds to build a community toilet in Haiti. Our first annual fundraiser raised $1100 for a SOIL toilet.

SOIL decided to build the toilet in the community of Twa Ravin, a rural section of the commune of Milot. We received a letter of request from a local peasant organization called Mouvman Jenn pou Developman Milo (MJDM). MJDM expressed not only the desire to have a community toilet but also to use the resulting fertilizer as part of their agricultural program. SOL worked with the local organization to construct the toilet in October and it was inaugurated on November 10.

The inauguration was beautiful with about 200 people attending. Many of those who came were kids who were spellbound by the SOL brochures and anxious to test out the toilet. The inauguration kicked off with some inspiring speeches by SOL members and special appearances by SOL's youngest members, Benik Nordeus (14) and Rosemond Jolissaint (16). Benik (or agronome Benik, as we call him).

Benik has been the inspiration for the Fatra pa Ekiste contest, as he is an expert at transforming all kinds of garbage into beautiful art. Benik spoke about his first experience in transformation where he made a beautiful tiny bicycle out of pieces of wire that he found in the street. He said "after that I made a house and some chairs and a bed and I am planning on making a helicopter."

With SOL's support and his incredible talent, Rosemond has now become a major celebrity in Haiti . In September he won Haiti 's version of American Idol after writing 18 original songs for the competition, all of which can move the audience to tears. Rosemond sang an incredible song for the inauguration about the struggles of peasant life in Haiti , the audience was spellbound. After that SOL team members did a rousing rendition of the ten steps to appropriate dry toilet use, getting the whole crowd to mimic squatting and wiping much to everyone's amusement. The inauguration ended with a guided toilet tour for erveyone in the community.

SOL, SOIL, and MJDM would like to take this opportunity to thank the Land Institute Fellows of 2007 for their open-minded generosity and enduring support.