24 July .... Flexablity part Two or The Wild Giveaway

I explained to the ladies at the end of my health talk that the Lord had brought us to the North so that Cory's agricultural work could have an impact. As many of you will have heard me say-food and good nutrition is the basic foundation of health. The best doctor, medications or hospital can't do much for someone who is starving.

Cory's talk was much like the one that he shared with our supporters in the States. How he has imported many different types of trees to improve the variates and extend the harvest seasons.

He talked about disease resistant bananas and how we hope to be able to share with all the

churches and their communities. He talked about the importance of the Moringa Tree and how it can benefit everyone who has a few in their yards. He did a find job..maybe to good of a job?

He certainly convinced those present that they needed these trees for their families!

After this short talk he invited them to join him on a tour. Well I think almost every lady present went on the tour and we picked up some other women and kids on the walk to the house. We had left Eli and Anna at the house with a bucket of Moringa seeds and 100 small plastic bags to fill with seeds.......But I think we had closer to 200 people present.

Now I'll admit I was a bit worried about Cory's plants as he started down to where we have the banana plants, grapes, and other trees growing. Kids like to pull leaves off of trees. Cory also realized that the large group couldn't hear him well enough to make speaking worth while. So he decided to give out the seeds.

Now giving out anything in Haiti can be very tricky as no one wants to be left out which can be a real possibility as the word rapidly spreads about a 'gift' and the crowd swells. Well one mistake was Cory telling the ladies that we had 100 seed bags....when there

was obviously more than 100 people present. Second mistake was giving poor Eli the 50 or so handouts we had left over from another give way.

I soon decided I'd better rescue Eli and so I took the handouts and tried to get the ladies to line up. After a few minutes of being pressed in on every side by hands and ladies each begging for a paper I gave up. I had keep moving trying to get the ladies to trail into a line but it didn't work. Finally I looked at the tallest lady and handed her the whole pile and escaped.

Cory and I spent a while filling more of the small empty bags with seeds. Some ladies even took handfuls of 'extra' seeds because as they put it 'I have a lot of land'. We were thankful to have enough seeds for everyone. Need to copy some more handouts and get them to the leaders of the conference. I don't think many ladies were satisfied with my suggestion to find a friend who had received a handout and ask her to share.

Now will need to decide if we have enough seeds for the District conference and how better to control the dispersal of the seeds. Cory has already requested that Johntiny on LaGonave start to collect more seeds and send them North with those coming to attend the conference.