Haitian Recollections and Haitian Returns

By Stan Hovey

Haitian Recollections and Haitian Returns is my gift to the Haitian people. The gift comes in two parts. The recollections part, is my sharing with the Haitians a piece of their history; which is relatively unknown to most people alive, today. It describes in words from my personal experience in Haiti as a boy in the early 1940s, coupled with many photos from my mother’s album how things were at that time. It was a very unique period, characterized by positive collaboration between Haiti and the United States—then it came to a tragic end! The details about this have never been clearly told nor seen before.

The returns part of the book is about my going back to Haiti to teach the children reforestation—and return to where I lived 65 years ago. It is about what I have learned, saw and did that the reader should think about when hearing news of Haiti.
This book reflects how Haiti and its people have returned so much to me over my entire lifetime. A specific program is presented for approaching the solution to Haiti’s reforestation challenges. It directly involves all the children in Haiti, can start now and can be sustained indefinitely. My own collection of recent pictures are used in this part to show how some things change in Haiti, but also, how many things take a very, very long time. Hope is there for Haiti and we all can assist them if we help them do what they wish and need. However, the Haitians must be actively engaged in anything others do, in order to take their country back from a devastating 500 year-long attack on their natural environment. We and they need to persist, but also, tenancy is required over a long period of time—200 to 300 years. By doing this, Haiti “returns” to all of us in immeasurable ways.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9781664148949

Stan Hovey

Stan Hovey lived in Haiti as a boy in the early 1940s. He experienced a busy life in the Haitian mountains with his parents until they had to leave, due to a revolution. He is a graduate forester, who has returned to Haiti teaching reforestation to children. This book is a gift to the Haitian people to share a little-known segment of their country’s history. He also, offers one of the solutions to Haiti’s reforestation needs.

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Copyright © 2010 by Stan Hovey. 566424

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

Library of Congress Control Number:   2010905033

Rev. date: 12/17/2020

To Mr. Bergemann Abeille and Charles Nissage who both became treasured friends of mine. Many other Haitians in the Jeremie area are in my heart also, but Bergemann and Nissage (as I call him) are sort of my kind of guys. Bergemann is a natural environment–focused teacher, broadcaster, choir leader, and interpreter with a most compassionate attitude. Nissage is an everyday construction painter who is searching for hope for his country and a tenacious worker who can do if someone will just give him a little support. I love both of these guys, and they are the type of Haitians that will make reforestation activities successful for their countrymen.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1

A Summary Of Early Haitian History

CHAPTER 2

A Boy Goes To Haiti

CHAPTER 3

A Man Returns To Haiti

Bibliography

APPENDIX NO. 1

Looking Northeast In The Morning From Jeremie

APPENDIX NO. 2

Tithing Trees For Haiti

Glossary

FOREWORD

What a shame that it took a terrible earthquake to draw the world’s attention to the conditions in Haiti. Well before the earthquake, Stan Hovey began his mission to promote tree planting in Haiti, a nation now nearly devoid of forests.

Extreme poverty there leads to a dependence on firewood and charcoal for cooking. The hundreds of missionary groups operating in Haiti have long emphasized tree planting, recognizing that a small stand of fast-growing trees near each house or community could alleviate the shortage of wood for local consumption. But the demand far exceeds the supply of available wood.

Of course, wood for cooking is only one of many reasons to promote tree planting. The need to restore watersheds in Haiti is beyond belief. And wood is needed for small local industry and for housing: even concrete or adobe structures require wood components. Also, agroforestry techniques can improve food production and slope protection.

The idea of enlisting schoolchildren to accomplish a national tree-planting program, one town at a time, is one of great merit. I suspect that these children will never outgrow their zeal for tree planting and will pass it on to their own children. The Haitian countryside can become green again.

This book, the result of a labor of love, brings to light the enormous changes in the Haitian landscape over a sixty-five-year period, as witnessed by the author. Haitians and non-Haitians will find it instructive, and it should lead us all to a better awareness of how important it is to conserve and better manage our forest lands. Mr. Hovey has done us a great service with this publication.

J. L. Whitmore

International Society of Tropical Foresters

PREFACE

I was waiting in the Toussaint L’Ouverture Airport at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2008 to return to Miami, Florida, on my way back home from a mission trip, where I was involved in teaching children reforestation. While waiting, I entered into a conversation with a Haitian gentleman, who happened to be a minister. I did not know his denomination but did learn that he lives most of the time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he frequently visits Haiti. As we talked, I mentioned I had lived in Haiti as a boy, and since his interest was piqued, I showed him my mother’s scrapbook with about 250 black-and-white snapshots and some other items from the time we lived in Haiti during the early mid-1940s. About seven or eight other people gathered around to enjoy the story as we talked and went through the photo album. Anyway, after viewing the pictures and talking, he said, "You know, you must make this available to the Haitian people. They need to see and know about this time in their country."

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The author with the photo album his mother compiled in the early 1940s while living in