We've had a bunch of trips in the last year. Life isn't usually this indulgent. So doTERRA does a Presidential Diamond trip each year with all the top leaders and executives in the company. This is different than the regular incentive trip.
We didn't really expect that we would be going. But we hit presidential a little earlier than we expected. So doTERRA invited us to come along.
I was reluctant. Mostly because I felt bad leaving again. But I am so glad I went. The kids had a fabulous time with Grandma Nancy! We were so lucky that she was able to come stay with them on short notice. And Soren really missed her when we came back. The first night we were home Soren woke up crying in the night and Jared eagerly went in to comfort him. And he just took one look at Jared and said, "Grandma Nancy" and laid back down and went to sleep. If there is one thing I know he got lots of cuddling and books that week, and I am sure he absolutely loved it.
We started our adventure by arriving in Port Au Prince after a long red eye flight. Then we took a bus from Port Au Prince to a scenic hotel that was in a very remote area of Haiti. We had a delicious lunch sorrounded by a really beautiful vista of green hillsides and the ocean in the distance. Another few hours and we arrived at our boat. After an hour boat ride we arrived at the Abaka Bay Resort.
Travelling as a group in Haiti is not an easy thing to arrange. Kudos to the doTERRA events planners. They did a phenomenal job. There are a lot of safety issues to foresee, and communication hurdles to overcome. But we loved the Abaka Bay Resort! We had the cutest little bungalow. We had a wonderful dinner with Haitian food in their restaurant with our group. Jared and I enjoyed a walk on the beach and we all went for a dip in the ocean. It felt so good after our long day of travel!
The next morning we took our boats and busses again and travelled to meet doTERRA's exclusive vetiver growers in the hillsides in Haiti. I call them hillsides, but I guess they really are mountains. Anyway it was such a fun day! The area they lived in is beautiful! It is green and lush and overlooking the turquoise ocean. If I lived in Haiti, I'd be heading straight for this little area. It was so pretty. Port Au Prince was filled with people packed together, and all the sanitation and other problems in an area with lots of people and little infrastructure to support that. This was just beautiful. The homes were small windowless cinderblocks. But they were often bright colors. Some had nice lawns that looked to be mowed by their goats. They hung their laundry out to dry on hedges of a prickly succulent. Everyone was so clean and I wondered how those mothers were able to get the clothes so clean. I lived in Russia and had to wash my clothes by hand for five months. It is hard!
Vetiver was introduced to the area by a German horticulturist in the 40's from what I understood. The area in Haiti where they grow Vetiver has extremely alkaline soil and is filled with calcium. Not much else can grow in the area. But it was perfect for vetiver.
We were able to visit the current distillery and see the new one that doTERRA has helped build and learn the improvements that are being made to make the whole process more efficient.
It was neat to hear how doTERRA's model of working with growers is helping to improve the lives of the people in the area. doTERRA refers to the model as co-impact sourcing. They work with growers to found local cooperatives. Working with the local community leaders and growers to meet the needs of their families and improve their lives and to also produce the highest quality vetiver oil.
The locals in Haiti have to pay their childrens tuition in December. So they had been harvesting the vetiver root too early in order to be paid when they needed the tuition paid. The root wasn't ready to be distilled yet and the end product didn't have therapeutic constituent levels. So doTERRA formed a cooperative that would pay the people in Haiti multiple times per year. But required the growers to agree to leave the vetiver in the ground until it was fully mature enough to harvest and produce a top quality oil that doTERRA could accept.
The cooperative also helped train the growers to make their methods more sustainable and efficient.
The vetiver is grown on mountainsides with little soil. The root is the part of the plant that contains the oil. The growers have always been paid based on the weight of the root. This motivated the growers to leave as much of the dirt and rocks in the roots as possible to maximize the amount they were paid. This was problematic because the soil is already poor and they need to shake the roots out so that the soil doesn't get depleted. As part of doTERRA Co-Impact sourcing they were able to pay the farmers in a different way so they were paid fairly without being motivated to remove the soil they desperately needed for the future.
The growers were also taught to leave every other plant in the ground when harvesting so that the unharvested plants would prevent erosion. They also taught the growers that instead of throwing out the leaves of the Vetiver grass, they could cut off the roots and put the tops back in the ground and it would keep growing.
Finally we were able to witness the opening of a new water source for our growers. This was absolutely the highlight of our trip! They currently walk several miles down a VERY steep and rutted road to get water every day. The process is like a long hike, and can take several hours per day. DoTERRA is working to install a well. But found there is only one person in all of Haiti with the equipment to do it. So while a well is scheduled, doTERRA wanted to solve the water issues for the meantime as well. They brought in two huge water reservoirs large enough to provide a stable and plentiful water source for their village. These people were very excited to have clean fresh water available to them on a regular basis! We attended a village celebration which included singing by the schoolkids. I loved all of their bright hairbows. One little girl wanted to wear my sunglasses. I felt bad because mine are a pretty strong prescription. My kids can't wear them for long without taking them off. But she was determined! I felt bad when I needed them back. She was such a cute friendly girl. I only wished I'd been able to practice my French. All that came out when I tried to speak was Russian and Spanish.
The people made signs that said "Welcome to you doTERRA, You are at home here." They brought us fresh coconuts, sugarcane and mangoes.
We delivered hygiene kits and some of the women in our group presented a Women's Health lesson. Many of the women in the village have babies at very young ages. Some as young as 12.
Hopefully some of what was taught was understood by these women. It is incredible to me that information like we have is not widely available. We forget how fortunate we are.
After this part of our trip, we loaded onto a private plane and headed to Punta Cana. It was three days in a beautiful tropical beach. We loved surfing on Macao Beach and snorkeling at Catalina Island. It was so great to be able to spend so much time with the other Presidential Diamonds and owners. I love the owners of doTERRA. They are GOOD people. People with the highest integrity. It was such a fun group. Everyone helps each other. We had so many questions from the other leaders and it was so great to be able to brainstorm and to get answers.
It was an amazing trip! I was so glad we were able to go. I can't believe that we get to do another one next summer! Ireland and Scotland are next June. I can hardly wait!
All of these pictures are from DR because we uploaded our Haiti pics to Jared's laptop, so I'll have to get those up later. They are the best ones!
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| I think lobster on the beach is Jared's dream come true |
