Day 29 Rock projects and dragon fruit

Lower entrance area.

After the house was built we had piles of big rocks, little rocks, chipped rocks, gravel left around the house and a few piles of topsoil.

Now it is time to move them and use them.

While we wait for good rains to start, the guys have continued to work on terracing, and retaining walls.

Mini terracing between steps and clothesline 

Projects this week, continued work outside the basement doors by the steps and laundry line.


 Some of the topsoil from the piles is being used to fill behind new terraces.

Pillars ready to be planted around

Moving dirt, gravel around the dragon fruit posts, and then Cory planted them on Friday.

Dragon fruit.

There were about 10 different kinds of dragon fruit to be planted.

Types include: dark star, cosmic Charlie, purple haze, American beauty.

Unfortunately a few of the plants lost their labels so we will wait to see what the fruits look like to discover what kind they are or get more later from Fauche.

Work started just below the pond

Terracing below the cement irrigation pond.

Shrinking rock pile: future perennial kitchen garden site

Due to the drought, we are a month behind when the apples and some fruit trees were planted last year. 

It seems like the 3/4" rain early this week would cause the local corn and beans to start germinating and die if there isn't another rain soon. 

Please pray for rain.

Conference, new Kitchen and new fruit

On church Sunday 20 of 23 district churches were represented, as the men completed their conference.

Next year's goal is to have representatives from all 23 northern churches.

Great singing and worship. A bit loud with a borrowed sound system.

We sat outside with the overflow crowd, enjoying a nice breeze, nicer volume, and watching interesting children.

Cory was finally able to try out the new decibel meter he purchased...going to attempt to education folks about the dangers to hearing if exposed to very loud noises for extended periods of time.

The message reminded us that the Lord will provide 'Abundantly' for those who listen and follow him.

The men who attended the conference last week were the first people to benefit from the new school/campus kitchen.

Those who visited us will remember a dark, poorly ventilated area where the cooks sweated and worked to make great food for visitors and school students.

This summer the area received some needed improvements.

There will also be a place under a roof for the charcoal cooking.

They are working on getting propane burners for cooking inside...should be cheaper that charcoal.

In addition to the kitchen improvement they are working on modifying the building where our pastor lived last year and turing it into a dorm to hold 21 beds.

They've worked on the bathrooms and shower area.

Next week, the campus will be hosting the district's women leaders and the following week the pastors and leaders from the district and national church.

Finally after a few different plants producing dragon fruit (pitaya) flowers we got one to set fruit!

This is 'Dark Star' dragon fruit, a very vibrant purple color. Not strong tasting but a bit sweet and crunchy.  

The new types we're growing are self fertile. Very excited to finally have one fruit!

      

 We shared a taste with Cory's guys. Cory's first dragon fruit plants are still on LaGonave but needed a second plant for pollination. 

Old kitchen

Dragon Fruit Flower

This weekend we enjoyed seeing our first, full sized, dragon fruit flower blossom.

They blossom at night and remain open until almost noon the next day.

Cory collected pollen for future flowers on the dragon fruit plants on the bread nut tree that flowered earlier this year but did not set fruit due to lack of pollination.

This type self pollinates so we will carefully watch for a fruit!

A cloudy day outside, as we work on the book editing and school work.

The Vermaires should be on the road heading our way with a Haitian driver, as the Irvines were unable to visit at this time.

We will use this occasion to send down some items we no longer need to share with the other missionaries as well as send some plants to our friends in St. Marc.

Tomorrow the Compassion folks should be coming to campus.

Garden update

We are enjoying more variety of harvests as new fruits come into production.

Bushels of star fruits are almost ready to share with the summer conferences.

 This Ma'afala breadfruit tree came from the Breadfruit Institute almost 3 years ago, Aug. '11 as a 2 or 3 inch tall plant.

First harvest June '14. A few other people we shared trees with have also reported fruit set.

 Starfruit and a small Ma'afala breadfruit

 Guajilote, year old tree fruiting in a gallon pot. Looking forward to trying this.

 Bamboo sprouts.

Jackfruit. Supposed to be 'Super Thai' but can't tell the difference from our 'Black Gold' so not sure of the variety.

They are productive now for small 5 year old trees. Sweet aromatic fruit.

Looking forward to first pitaya/dragon fruit harvest now that one of the self fertile varieties has a flower bud.

Vanilla pods

The best for last... Due to a drier than usual year we enjoyed a great mango season April through June. Mangos rotted on the ground even along the main road just miles from Cap Haitian and the main road less than a mile from Port Margot. 

Many people nearly live on mangos while they are in season. Cory tried to limit them to about half of daily diet. 

The campus mango production ended abruptly in July, except for a few of the new varieties that are just coming into production.

 The photo is Okrung, Van Dyke, and probably Florigon, photo taken today. We also enjoyed Valencia Pride, Fairchild, and Choc Annon, along with all the Fransic and Fil blank we could eat, from huge campus trees.

May 2, Eli's SAT test and plants.

Today Cory and Eli will drive to Port-au-Prince so that Eli can take his SAT test tomorrow at Union school.

Please pray for this trip and that Eli can do his best on the test tomorrow.

 New location, new people, new test...

Cory filled up the truck with health books and trees/plants for 4 different groups working in Haiti.

They hope to be home tomorrow night.

This week I did not accomplish much studying, much studying of medicine.

 I did learn with my children as we worked hard on school items which had lagged behind.

 Many papers, tests and assignments thankfully corrected.

Next years curriculum list started and researched.

In less than 3 weeks we will again take a school break and travel to missionary retreat.

Cory's Haitian peach palms bloomed this week so he could collect pollen.

 Thankful it did not occur last week while we were away from home.

The first dragon fruit reached the top of the arbor.

Vanilla pods filling out.

Word on Facebook about Haitian adoptions: No referrals will be given until the parent interview / relinquishment system details get worked out.

 I understand why it would be best to have this done before matching but feel for the families waiting to match with abandoned children.

Praying for the new system to work out the problem areas…FAST!

Cory named this peach palm 'Sydney'

Anna and I plan to turn 'Friday family night' into a girl's night.

Not sure everything she has planned but I know we will laugh and have some fun.

She's cooking a surprise supper! Do not know if I get to help or not.

Agricultural Update.

While we hear that the first part of August no rain fell here, it rained a couple times since we arrived home including 2 inches the first night.

The Dragon fruit plants almost doubled in size since we left. Now Cory needs to find locations for the new varieties that he bought.

He may bring some plants to share with the folks on LaGonave next week.

The banana bunches are all staying on campus now that the word is out that there may be security cameras taking pictures.

While we've had a trail camera for a while generally it only takes pictures of folks walking through the garden and a few times at night the pictures were not clear enough or at a good angle to identify a thief.

Tasted our first 'Super Thai' jackfruit this week but unfortunately the guys did not watch it carefully and by the time Cory checked it was past the peak of ripeness. It was crisp despite starting to ferment so the texture is better than the mushy varieties.

Cory is working on getting peach palm seeds from CATIE's extensive collection of varieties in Costa Rica. The fruit are not sweet like a peach but are more like a small buttered potato and eaten after boiling in salted water.

[As for our adoption paperwork we should of filed here looks like we need to wait until the first part of October to see if they will send the paperwork from Texas to Haiti.]

New Week..New Conference

This week the women from the northern district of the Wesleyan Church of Haiti will met on campus.

Sunday's Special Music

I personally do not know how they do it. Most will sleep on thin mats on the floor of classrooms, the few hours they have to sleep.

They were singing well past 10 p.m. last night and singing before the sun rose over the mountains.

Main meetings will start today with additional women arriving from around the district.

We enjoyed the Sunday service that closed the District's Leadership Conference. Good singing, good message and good fellowship.


In three weeks we will heading to the airport to fly north to the USA.

 Eli and Anna study hard each day to complete the last 4 weeks of school in the next 14 days.

The dragon fruit arbor project continues with the curing of the first pillar and the second pillar poured yesterday.

Lemon grass divided up to share starts and the ladies can enjoy some tea.

District Conference, speeches and the first cement post

Tropical Storm Chantal went by with a small amount of light wind, a little rain and a very nice sunset.

The district conference appears to be going well.

On Thursday I shared for a bit about the first aid topics as before: splinting, holding pressure on bleeding, transporting people and in the afternoon we checked a few blood pressures.


That same night I ended up being asked to interpret the evenings sermon for the visiting American speaker, Robert.

With only 10 minutes warning I did not have much time to think about it. Pastor Denord stayed close by so I could hand over the microphone when I didn't know what to say.

Some of the words that tripped me up included: sanctification, commitment, anointment and ink.

Adult LiteracyClass

We attended last night's service as well and I'm very thankful that I only needed to help with the first night as last night's would of been much harder.

School went well this week with both Eli and Anna doing some extra lessons as we push to the end.

Anna's practicing more with the volleyball team [6 hours yesterday total from morning and afternoon practices] as they will play in Port Margot's town square on Friday.

Cory spoke to the district leaders this morning about agriculture and will hand out some artemisia plants and star fruit [to eat and then plant the seeds if they wish] and chaya starts.


Cory's big frustration, project this week consisted of pouring the first pillar for the dragon fruit arbor.

The main issues turned out to be the consistency of the cement/gravel/sand/water mixture and tying/taping enough to provide support so that the split PVC stayed together enough to hold the mixture in place.

Will see how it turns out on Monday when they plan to remove the PVC and pour the second pillar.