While reading the news today, I found an extraordinary interactive gallery of Haiti entitled The Eroding Nation. I beg you to watch it. It is filled with dialogue, diagram, and photography that superbly illustrate one of Haiti's biggest problems--erosion. This tropical country was once full of beautiful trees, such as mahogany. But now, trees are literally nowhere to be seen. When we travelled to Haiti in March, we found out that wood is such a rarity that when people build houses, schools, etc., they have to actually rent the wood used because it is so expensive. Further, when wood isn't desparately needed, it isn't used. For example, you'll be hard-pressed to find a chair in the villages of Haiti that doesn't use goathide for the seat.

So please take a few minutes to explore Haiti: The Eroding Nation. I've visited this south Floridian article several times, and each time I find myself with my mouth gaped open when viewing and reviewing some of the photographs and video. If you've got an interest in poverty in underdeveloped nations, or if you are simply wanting to get a better understanding of where Faith and I hope to go to, you'll be given an accurate account by The Eroding Nation. It is truly a unique blend of life, beauty, poverty, and dread.

What wood can be found is chopped up and scorched in a process to turn it into charcoal. Women and children haul huge bags of the precious commodity up and down Haiti's roads each day.