Welcome to Pandiassou

Community development can be ad-hoc... or there can be a true driving force that makes a whole town work in lock-step...  Meet Brother Armand and the Little Brothers/Little Sisters of the Incarnation.  This organization is involved in all the development occurring in the Hinche suburb of Pandiassou.  You see that orphanage attached to a local elementary school?  It's run by one of the sisters.  You see the agricultural/entrepreneurial school?  The teachers are organized by the Little Brothers.  And yes, the technical school is run by the seminary.  With 6 elementary schools, 9 nutritional clinics, and a community kitchen, if you want to engage in any sort of activity in Pandiassou, you'd better get a meeting with Brother Armand and get permission... otherwise, the community may not feel very participatory.  So after some informal conversations, yesterday I finally got an official meeting to lay out our intentions to work on the test pilot with the agriculture school in front of Brother Armand.  With official permission, I go to meet the students today so they can help me plan our surveys and production activities.  Wish me luck!