It seems ridiculous to write this: apparently the family with its own (private) cistern is often 'wealthier' than those without. In a community of about a 1000 people, for example, there may be 15 cisterns...10 of them private. In a drought they can sell water, at least until it dries up. In the US we worry about what color faucets we have, and we may get upset when the government tells us not to water our grass (through our automated sprinklers) because of a water shortage.
[the photo to the left is of a broken cistern in need of repair]
Economically this is a farming community. They do have at least one carpenter (a Baptist pastor) but he's being transferred out. There are also a couple of masons.
They grow mangoes, many (17?) types of yams, coffee, plantains, bananas, corn, cassava, pineapple, coconuts, peanuts, black beans. Some have chicken or goats or maybe a cow. I've only seen a couple of pigs in Haiti so far, and only one in Pestel.
Here is a short video featuring some of the foods in Pestel.
The land is quite fertile for these things, but they need to be taught good farming practices. They don't know about irrigation, terracing, or even planned planting (most of it is a bit haphazard). Their yield could improve significantly through changed farming practices (which means educational opportunities!) and fertilizer and formation of co-ops. Getting the food to market is a bit tricky now because the one main boat that brought goods to Port-au-Prince on a weekly basis sank recently. This is the same one I wrote about earlier.
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