September 9th

This week Wednesday, in addition to remembering and praying for all the lives changed on 9-11,  we will celebrate 21 years since moving to Haiti.

We are very thankful for the ways the Lord has used this country to strengthen our faith; shaping and growing each member of our family; and for allowing our family to share His love with many folks in many different ways.

Last week Wednesday we hiked down to the village. Fritz and I headed out first, with Ti Louie and Cory catching up with us right as we reached the first houses, a 50 minute walk.

It took us another 45 minutes to reach Pastor LeGrand’s house, with a short break for Cory to talk to a man near the church. 

We had a nice visit with Pastor’s family meeting a young man who’d studied agriculture. Pastor had planned to come visit us that very day and expressed his appreciation of the visit over and over.  He and Jr. Claude plan to come up to visit us and see the trees and plants that Cory has growing in the nursery. 

One of the decorative plants in his yard, cranberry hibiscus, they were unaware could be eaten or of its vitamins.  We enjoyed picking young leaves to snack on when living at Fauche and look forward to our plants here growing so we can do so again.

After a nice visit we headed to the other side of the village, stopping for a moment at Ti Louie’s house to see his garden. We spent a bit of time at the building site of a second church with Cory once again explaining that we’d like to share some fruit trees with the village if we can find responsible people who own fenced-in, livestock free areas.

Then the long climb back up the mountain…this time taking 2.5 hours on a much straighter with steady grade, but scarier path (following remnants of old colonial path). We were thankful to reach home. 

The rest of the week Cory and the guys worked on improving the fence by completing a section where bushes had been the only barrier as well as piling rocks on some places where small pigs could push under the fence. They also planted a sweet potato garden.

Fritzlin and I continued with our schooling and I finished the last edit of the Konsey book index. Anna started classes and Eli completed his 4th week at work as well as celebrated turning a year older. 

Offerings to the spirits

Not much left of what is probably a colonial era trail
 leading to the coffee plantation

Rock below our home looks like a gator head