Michael Jackson Welcomes EkoLakay to the Neighborhood!
A guest post from SOIL consultant and long-time friend, Anthony Kilbride:
Michael Jackson once sang: “She was more like a beauty queen, from a movie scene,” but only in 2016 did we glean, that his muse was a SOIL EcoSan latrine!
How did we learn this? He showed up to a neighborhood block party in Port-au-Prince! Well, it was actually a local impersonator who lit up the Park Izmery stage with a blazing dance performance of MJ’s funky masterpiece, “Billie Jean.” He was just one of many guests who took the stage on a recent Saturday when a few friends of SOIL joined together to return all the love and support that SOIL has received from our Port-au-Prince community. It was also a great opportunity for SOIL to showcase EkoLakay, their household toilet service, which is expanding its service in the neighborhood.
Other artists who took to the stage in honor of SOIL’s work included the FriPèsi theater group from Cite Soleil, who had everyone in stitches as they compared SOIL’s EkoLakay household toilet to a fridge (well, they are both beautiful, fresh-smelling tools of hygiene); a Karate troop who wowed the crowd of assembled children and adults with their flying kicks and jumps through fiery hoops; a local dance group performing to the latest Haitian hits; and the main event, the musical innovators Lakou Mizik, made even more spectacular by a surprise guest performance of Haitian legend Jean Bernard Thomas!
The marketing event was a great success, with hundreds of households learning about EkoLakay for the first time, and a few families even signing up on the spot. It was a very special day, and SOIL should be proud that they live and work in a Haitian community which welcomes them with waves and smiles every day – and that the
y have built a local staff who are passionate about poop and EcoSan. We all feel blessed to be a part of this community, and the Park Izmery event was our way of saying thank you to SOIL and our neighbors.
Please enjoy the photos from the day, please keep supporting SOIL, and please listen to some amazing Haitian music, courtesy of our friends from Lakou Mizik and Jean Bernard Thomas.
As we say in Haiti when the music starts to play: Ayibobo!
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