Weekend Report.

Birthday Picture.

Wednesday's trip to the market went well. The trees and plants sold well...for about $15 American. The real befit of the trip can be measured in the education that occurred while the workers answered questions about the plants and trees.

Gener in the orange shirt holding a tree.
Evon stands just to the left facing left. 

Campus hosted a Compassion group last night. The normal Friday night video on campus did not happen due to electrical problems and an electrical storm.

School went well this week with lots of learning. In less than two weeks we will be joining the Lutheran team in Cap Haitian for a second time and enjoy Fall break by helping out for a week of medical work.

Ag. book translating and editing continues. Please continue to pray for this important project!

Internet continues to be spotty and slow hindering my ability to post and post pictures. This also means that one of the sticks needs to be shared-between all four of us.

School and office work share the highest priorities. Sadly we cannot figure out how to download our Kindle books with the new system.

[by clicking on a picture you can enlarge it. ]

Garden visits. Bedonia Update

This morning Cory and his guys headed out to visit some gardens across the river. They drove down the river, past Ti Bouk and then walked through a valley to the base of a mountain.

The valley along the river consists of small homesteads and gardens. Main crops seen: bananas, yams, breadfruit, taro, cacao [chocolate tree] some beans and corn, coconut, bamboo. Too wet for mangos due to the high humidity but too dry for rice this year.

The majority of orange and grapefruit trees in the area have become diseased and are dying.

They stopped and chatted a while with a man who identified himself as a community leader of local group of planters, who hope to advance the area. Very interested in the plants that Cory can provide, he invited them to attend a meeting of the group.

The work on the second Creole book continues. Andy brought some corrected sections by yesterday and picked up a few more. Cory continues to edit the Creole while I put in the corrections today into the computer.

Goal one = to have the first levels of translating done by the end of September when we head for the USA. There I plan to shape the information into book form. On our return to Haiti we can have a final proof reading done before sending the book to the publishers.

Please pray that we can find the right folks to proof the book as we want the Creole to be simple but correct.

Bedonia's paper work arrived in Haiti so the next step is the Embassy appointments on July 3. If they receive the needed medical visas then tickets will need to be purchased. Currently only 30% of the ticket costs are covered. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Puppy and Translation Frustrations.

The month of May started out rough with the disappearance of Anna's puppy and one sibling. Lots of theories but most folks did not think we would be able to find them. Prayers. Tears. A hard time focusing on school work.

But Pastor Immanuel's son Onix did not give up and in the late afternoon he and Pastor came walking up to the house with the puppies in hand. The mother, [perhaps trying to distance herself to wean them?] lead them down and across the ravine near our house. Then when the neighbors big dog challenged her she left the puppies.

Cory made arrangements yesterday for Anna's Hershey and a second boy puppy who will be staying on campus also as a watch dog to received vaccines. Jean Pierre should be picking the shots up this week.

School continues. French class delayed by our teacher from yesterday to today. Not our favorite class but we know our goals. For Eli not to have to take a foreign language in college and to improve our communications with the Haitian people.

Wrote an couple E-mails to Calvin this week and received some input on Eli's high school plan from the engineering department. May set up a second visit to campus this year.

Cory's been battling goats on campus this week. His guys filling in the holes in the fence row and leading goats away. Goats and imported fruit trees do not mix well.

The young man who we hoped would help translate the second book remains busy in college. So I started the last couple weeks using a on-line translator to do the first level, then I read what it wrote and edit as much as I can, which is not much considering my weak agricultural Creole.

Yesterday I struggled with my computer as well. The monitor sickened in February so Cory bought me a second monitor. Well yesterday I could not type normally-so I asked Cory to edit a bit of the book and check out my computer. Well apparently my mouse pad is on strike and the click button sticking. The result: when typing suddenly the cursor flys back up typing in the middle of the previous work. Not very productive for work. Very productive in producing frustration and stress and very, very slow work.

So a couple more road blocks with working on the book. On a positive note I asked several folks to consider writing devotionals for the book and received 4 positive responses! Please pray for this project.

New Aloe Project!

How much do you know about Aloe?

Collecting the baby plants.

Likely you know it is good for mild burns like sunburns but did you know that the gel from the leaves of the Aloe plan also contains anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral properties.

The gel absorbs quickly through the skin, into the joints to help alleviate the pain of joint strains and arthritis.

For swollen eyes due to conjunctivitis placing a cut leave on the eye will help.

Potting the baby aloes.

Drinking the gel can help regulate one's immune system. Although mostly consisting of water the gel also contains vitamin B12, other vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and more.

For folks with stomach problems like ulcers drinking the gel can help. While I cannot talk myself into drinking the slimy gel, by adding it to a banana smoothy I can enjoy the health benefits without any taste or texture.

Cory transplanted 5 plants near the house last fall, offspring from an original plant. Yesterday the Moringa Mountain Project 'branched' out into a new area learning how to care for the baby plants.

Ready to grow and multiple.

Now Eli and Anna will be in charge of aloe care and transplantation.

A great family project: medical, agricultural and sustainable assistance for the Haitian people.

Cory showed the kids how to: gently pull up the baby plants, replant and taught them how to care for the plants in order to maximize growth and proliferation.

The original row, now thinned out.

While they transplanted the baby plants [34 new pots] I read a school book aloud. A home-school perk, being able to complete school work while working on projects.

Our goal: to be able to provide Aloe plants to any delegate who wants one, attending this summer's conferences on campus. [At least for the women's conference which over 100 women will attend.]

 A handout [part of the next Creole book] will be available sharing the many benefits of aloe, how to prepare and use the leaves, and plant care.

Plant people may note that our plants are Aloe barbadensis not the more commonly known Aloe vera.

Aloe plants we hope may someday grow next to every Haitian home.

A mother plant, replanted horizontally to encourage lots of baby plants.

Effects of living overseas

Most of my duties the last two days consisted of normal home schooling tasks: reading, organizing, helping, grading and discussions. Not very different from thousands of home schoolers around the world. But in thinking about what to write about today I realized parts of our day directly tie into our missionary life overseas.

• Cory sent 2 E-mails today for pastors who needed the information sent.
• Rinsed a head full of lettuce in bleach water.
• Did not go to clinic Monday because of rain. [Local school also cancelled because of rain]
• Sent an E-mail inquiring about the outcome of a medical phone consultation to LaGonave Sunday night.
• Blogged-don't know if I would if we lived in the USA. [this also means a lot more picture taking] 
• Hired Eli and Anna to clean the guest house monthly and prepare the guest house before teams.
• Sent mail out and then sorted mail that comes once a week to Haiti on Missionary Flights International. 
• Worked on a couple translations in Creole and attended French class with Eli and Anna.
• Checked to see if any of the 140 Moringa tree seeds sprouted during our rainy week.
• Typed up a Creole list of natural remedies and what they are said to treat, and started to try to translate the names into English. 
• Spent time yesterday researching editable insects.

The last two items concern the second book I'm putting together that will focus on natural medical remedies, underutilized plants and sources of nutrition [insects] and agricultural information. I received permission from ECHO to simplified and translate some of their technological notes [noting where folks can read the full articles in French] I'm hoping that Andy will be able to translate the natural medicine and ECHO information from French to Creole without any help. Then once he gets the translated information to me I'll only need to type it in and arrange the information. 

So while I wait to see if this method works or not I'll be researching additional information like editable insects to include in the book. Most children in Haiti can use any help in nutrition they can get and one way is to teach them about plants and foods that the adults overlook, like insects. 

I'm learning a lot while making Eli and Anna nervous. Just yesterday Cory found a nest of ants in the kitchen cupboard but he baited them and Mme. Rosemary cleaned them up before I heard about it. In talking to her about eating of insects world wide, I confirmed with Mme. Rosemary that children in Haiti do eat insects at times. So if I can educated a few folks about nutrition, safety and ways to cook insects I figure I can help a few folks, after all over 80% of the world intentionally eat insects. 

[Cory just caught a female Rhino beetle [he does not like them as they eat palm trees]...will see if I decide tomorrow to see if I can clean her and cook her. Think I need a good night's sleep before doing anything rash. 

Second picture thanks to Anna going out to chase chickens in the yard before 7 a.m. and finding this interesting mushroom.