The Place Where We Live

I’ve been trying to stick to my commitment to walk to and from work a few days a week. So far I’ve only been averaging one day a week but I’m hoping my days will increase as the weather continues to warm up and I don’t have so many after work commitments that require me to get home sooner rather than later. However, yesterday was an ideal day to walk and I’m glad I did because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have discovered a new store in Monroe.

My husband met me at work at 4:30 and we made our way to Vince’s for a few chili dogs (a sure sign that spring is here.) After our quick dinner (which we spent muttering under our breathes and scowling at the people feeding french fries to seagulls!) we started to make our way back home. Instead of going back down the bike path and crossing over the MLK bridge we decided to cross over the Rossler Street bridge and walk down Front Street to First. As we were walking down First Street towards Monroe we saw a store-front on the right-hand side that we’d never noticed before. The window was painted with a little logo of a smiling sun and a sign that said:

Independent Energy 
Alternative Energy Specialists

I nudged my husband. Alternative energy specialists….in Monroe!  

The store specializes in consultation, sales and installation of geothermal, wind and solar power systems. They also sell generators, wood stoves, and a variety of produces related to energy efficiency.  The owner, Jason, used to operate the business out of his home but opened the storefront (located at 17 West First Street) in January.

My husband and I had always talked about the possibility of installing solar panels or doing other things to make our home more energy efficient. However  the technical aspects and potential costs something like this always seemed daunting and I always figured we’d have to go out of Monroe (Ann Arbor or Detroit) to find a company that would specialize in something like this. And here we were talking to the owner of a local place that was doing just that!

We talked for a while with Jason. He was very helpful giving us a free copy of the new 2006-2007 Renewable Energy Design guide and catalog and informing us of the potential opportunities for tax credits that Michigan homeowners may eventually get for making energy efficient modifications to their homes. And, knowing that we weren’t at a place where we were quite ready to make these changes Jason showed us some of the varieties of compact fluorescent light bulbs. That’s one easy change that we’ve already begun making in our house.

Anyone interested in alternative energy options for their homes should check out “Independent Energy” in Monroe.  For more inforamation call (734)384-9655.

Did you know that that there is a CSA organic farm  in Monroe that local community members can join? It’s called St. Mary Organic Farm and it is operated by the IHM Sisters.

For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t before joining a few years back) CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. A CSA is a group of growers and eaters who share the bounty (and risk) of local food production. Members purchase shares of the farm and then recieve weekly produce of  over 25 varieties of organic vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers over a 16 week growing season. Members can buy working shares (where you put in a minimum number of working hours per month) or non-working shares (where you can just come and pick up your produce on a weekly basis.)

I  became a member of St. Mary’s organic farm a few years ago. While there are a number of benefits to become a CSA member here are a few of my own personal favorites:

1. While I like the idea of growing my own organic food at home, I have realized that I am not a good gardener. Okay I stink. Last year I planted strawberries and I got a yield of three!  As a member of the garden I don’t have to worry about it as much because  I have the privilege of working along-side experienced people (it doesn’t take much to be more experienced than me) through the whole process of planting, maintaining and harvesting the garden.

2. When I’ve planted a garden at home in the past I usually end up looking at the work that goes into it as another houshold chore. When I go out to work at the organic farm I look at it as more of a communal experience. I get to meet new people, socialize and spend time out doors. In short, it’s fun!

3. Because I am part of something bigger than myself (and because I’m paying for my membership) I feel a greater sense of responsibility to put more time and effort into the the farm. When I plant a garden at home it’s much easier to neglect it.

4. Growing my own food makes me put more thought into what I eat and where it comes from. It also challenges me to be more creative in my cooking. For example, I usually would never buy kale or for myself at the store. However, when I get it as part of my share of the CSA I’m forced to come up with a tasty way to prepare it so that it won’t rot away in my fridge. (Hmm..maybe I’ll have to network with LunaPier Cook  on some clever recipe ideas this year!)

If you’re interested, there are a limited number of memberships available for this growing season of the St. Mary Organic Farm. Planting will begin in May. A working membership is $325 plus a minimum of 8 work hours per month (from June through October) and  a non-working membership is $475. These prices are comparable to other CSA farms in Michigan and the average  cost for a working share comes out to around $20.00 dollars a week. Which, when you think about how much you would spend for the same amount of organic produce at the supermarket (which usually shipped in from another state and not nearly as fresh) the price is definitely worth it.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the garden, let me know and I’ll e-mail you the contact info of the coordinator.  

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. I have decided that I am going to walk to and from work.

I live on East Sixth Street. I work on West Elm Avenue. According to the MapQuest, I live approximately 1.26 miles from my workplace. The approximate drive time is 4 minutes, although I would argue that with stop lights, school buses and your average traffic flow it takes be closer to 6 or 7 minutes to drive to work.

I drive this route every day…Tomorrow, I am walking.

I’ve been at this job for a little over four years now. Every year in the spring I talk about how I’m going to walk more or at least ride my bike…just once a week, twice a week maybe.  I know it’s better for my health. I remember how much I used to walk when I was a student in Ann Arbor and and enjoyed.  I remember how much I like walking around cities when I travel and feeling so cosmopolitan I know that by avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about hundreds of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year and cut back on my greenhouse gases.

But I never do. Why? Because, I’m a lazy American who is addicted to convenience. I love getting out of bed at the very last minute and seeing if I can beat the traffick lights to get to work on time! Let’s face it…walking to work would mean waking up an extra twenty to thirty minutes early. And then what would I wear…I can’t walk to work in dress clothes, can I?

Tomorrow I’m going to do it. I can’t promise that I’ll do it every day but I’m at least going to try to do it a few days I week. This time I mean it.

So what was it that did it this time? The answer: The road to Fondwa.

Fondwa is a small community in the western department of Haiti. Before
1988, there was no basic infrastructure in the area. People had no access to
roads, potable water, health care, education, or electricity. While there are many parts of that last sentence that I could extrapolate upon…for the time being, I’ll focus on the word road. The road that has been built in the last twenty years in Fondwa is literally a rocky dirt road cut out of a mountain.

Yet, I woke up every morning at 5 a.m. to the sound of people carrying their goods up the road to sell at the market. I watched kids walk to and from school in sparkling clean uniforms on that dirty dusty road. I watched women, young and old,  carry gallons of water on their heads down he road to Fondwa. I watched donkeys and farmers and their equipment making their way precariously down that road. I met a young women walk an hour down that road and back just to bring my us a bag of coffee from  the factory where she worked.  

I heard a story about a teacher at St. Antoine school in Fondwa. Although there is a dormitory for teachers there was one teacher who lived in a nearby village. Rather than stay in the dormitory he decided that it was more important  be home with his family every night. So, he decided that although he didn’t have any means of transporatation he would make the trek from his home to school and back every day so . For him, this amounted to a three hour walk in the morning and a three hour walk in the evening every day  Six hours of his day…up and down a mountain just to get to work.

And I can’t even get out of bed an extra twenty minutes early to walk to work,  save a little gas and cut back on my greenhouse gas emissions?

Hearing this story it made me think: What does one during a three hour walk? What do you think about? I would imagine you have plenty of time to take in the sights and sounds.  Listen to the animals Smell the fresh morning air. Stop and say hello to the people you pass by…and if you pass by the same people each day you’d probably make a few friends a long the way.

It makes me wonder. What am I missing by just zooming to and from work every day instead of taking the time to GET THERE and walk it and experience?

It’s no Fondwa road. But it’s worth experiencing.

I have writers block.  I think it’s because of my trip to Haiti. 

Think about it.

I get this idea for in late January/early February to write a blog about supporting local businesses in Monroe. A very noble idea. I write a few nice posts about how exotic it is to have sushi in Monroe;  how ideal it would be to have a downtown bakery; how nice it is to have a blues festival; how fun it is to have a quaint little  candy shop etc. etc.  Then I go away for a week to Haiti… and I come back… and I feel different… suddenly I can’t just sit down and write easily about the virtues of buying  paczkis from Monica’s Baker Boy vs. Meijer when I think about the fact that there is  a country that ’s just a two hour flight from Miami where there are so many people that  are  struggling to get food and clean water every day.

It suddenly makes pazckis a little more frivilous to talk about and really puts the phrase “Fat Tuesday” into perspective.  

So I say to myself, I’ll write about Haiti instead.I sit down to write…. Nothing comes out….I’m stuck. I think about Haiti. I think about it all the time since I’ve been back. I’ve been telling stories non-stop to my husband, my family, people at work. Stories that roll off my tongue so  easily and the images are so vivid in my head. But when I sit down to write I don’t know where to begin. Nothing comes out.

At the same time I worry. I worry that every day that passes that somehow my experiences will become lost to me or will fade away like a dream that you forget as soon as you wake up.

The stories are like snapshots in my head. The irony of two homeless men sleeping at the base of the statue symbolizing libaration in  Port au Prince.  Images of women hauling gallons of water for miles on their heads with no hands down steep rocky roads. The story of the teacher in Fondwa who walks three hours a day to school and then walks home again for three hours in the evening just so he can be with his family. The faces of orphaned kids like three-year-old Midline who walks around cheefully singing “Selavi, Selavi.” (That’s life.) 

Yet at the same time, I know eventually (even after writing about it and sharing my pictures and telling my stories) the memories will fade. I know I’ll never forget this experience and how it’s changed my live.  But inevitably I’ll sink back into my comfort zone and it will begin to become easy again to talk casually about the newest restaurant I or coffee shop in Monroe,  or the best place for a microbrewed beer (Would you believe, I’m taking  class right now to become a certified beer judge. Some kids in Haiti can’t even afford to go to primary school!)

At the same time I can’t and won’t feel guilty.  My guilt wouldn’t do me or anyone else any good. And I can’t just pack up and move down to Haiti…nor would I think that would be the the answer even if I could . All I can do is be here…and be me…and live with my experiences and carry the people and stories of Haiti with me. I can start by realizing that Haiti is just one place. Poverty exists in many other parts of the world…in the United States…in Monroe and I can ask myself, what do I do with that, right here in the place where I live? 

Selavi….That’s life…?

Hello to everyone out there in blog land. I’d like to apologize for my neglect of this blog in recent weeks. I was gone on a trip to Haiti from March 3-10. Before that I was preoccupied with tying up loose ends at work and getting ready for my trip.

Over the next week or so, I hope to use this blogspace to write a bit about my trip and share some pictures. It’s amazing how travelling to another country and experiencing how the people there live can impact how you think about the place where you live.