Peace Prize

I am pleased to report that my friend and associate Justin Ricot in Haiti was announced as one of the three 2021 heroes awarded the Cité Soleil Peace Prize.  The deep significance of the award can only be measured against the background from which it comes.  Cité Soleil is generally regarded as one of the …

Growing Tomatoes in Arizona

Growing tomatoes in Arizona is challenging, but easier – though I can’t be certain – than growing tomatoes in Nome, Alaska. Over a year ago, Dwight and I spread a thin layer of wood chips – he calls them compost, but to me, they are wood chips – over the acre or so we are …

Learning Patience

I was not born a patient man. Two things have helped me improve my patience in recent years:  my dog Clarence and agriculture. Clarence’s curiosity and playfulness combined with his great strength make him a handful, but I learned much from his trainer, Becca with K9 Offleash Training in Minneapolis.  Through four hours of training, …

The Faith of Job Garden

I have an idea.  I call it the Faith of Job Garden… My objective is to re-ignite the direct-giving program my friends and I created in 2017 and operated through 2018 to support the Guepard Boxing Club in Cité Soleil [GBCCS].  During that time, we fed upwards of 300 Haitian children, three days each week.  …

Guepard Boxing Club: Helping People Help Themselves

Two weeks ago, we discussed ‘the Education Triangle:’ the student, the parent(s)/guardian(s) and the teacher/school.  We noted that very few parents of the 20 children from Guepard Boxing Club who we send to school in Cité Soleil, Haiti have had formal education.  The role of the guardian under these circumstances becomes one of encouragement because …

Education: the Grading Scale

We fund the tuition and other school costs (uniforms, school supplies, etc.) for 20 Guepard Boxing Club (GBCCS) children.  The annual cost per student for the 2017/2018 school year is $250 USD, a bargain by U.S. standards, a near impossible dream by Haitian standards where the average annual per capita income is less than $500. …