Remember Hurko?

The company that listed it will build a similar housing and retail structure on La Gonave, is still in the mix.  The above photo is an idea that Hurko gave me last year as to what they are considering building on La Gonave, but didn't give a timeline.

Recently the company stated they will build the hives at La Gonave, or finance the building of the initial hives.  They are planning on the eventual training of building the hives to locals.  I have also talked to the company about my plants for the honeybee project and they feel that it makes great sense to have a small scale economy of beekeepers.  Beekeeping on an island is a good thing as it will keep the bees there on the island, so those that do leave the hive will not travel to the mainland.  It keeps potential disease that may hit the mainland from impacting the bees on La Gonave.  The company is still very interested in working with La Gonave and building up the economy.

Potential plans for light manufacturing could be in the works as well.  Don't expect major scale, but possibly just a few workers initially and then more as time goes on.  We are planning on teaming up with Hurko in this manufacturing efforts which will be more along the lines of farm utility equipment.  The product would only sold in Haiti, made by Haitians.  Below is a similar item that we are considering building for the farming community.

Below is a mail cart with old metal wheels.  The wooden carts built by Hurko would be all wood, with large pneumatic tires that can handle several hundred pounds.  The carts would be made so that a person can haul groceries, several large buckets of water, bales of straw, mail, etc.  When a crate is added, these carts can haul live goats, rabbits, small pigs, and baby calves.  The biggest users of this will be farmers but also groups that need to haul large amounts of items effortlessly.

These type of carts were big in Africa where in many places there was very little roads, and few cars.  These wooden carts allowed people to move goods easily from great distances with little effort.  So instead of carrying large amount of water for 1 mile, one could pull a cart hold several buckets of water cutting down on the amount of time one would spend at a given chore. 

Some have argued that these carts can also help in times of medical crisis where you have to move an immobile person from place to place, so some African governments purchased these carts for those purposes since ambulances were too expensive to buy.

While this would not be something that hires hundreds of people, nor will it allow La Gonave to compete with Detroit on manufacturing, it does give the locals of La Gonave an opportunity to make life a little easier.  Also the carts are designed to cost less than $100 to purchase.  As more details are worked out with Hurko Co. and ourselves on the handcarts, I will post the details.  This would also be something that would have to be discussed with the city of Anse-a-Galets or Pointe-à-Raquette for a small manufacturing site.

Go Gonave!