Rains, garden work, and coffee

 

One more coat of sealant

September tends to bring more rain up here in the mountains and we've even had a few mornings wrapped up in cloudy mists.

Most afternoons this month the guys hurried down to their homes in the village trying to beat the rains.

 Nothing like a few hours of continuous mopping up from leaky walls to motivate us to pull out the partial gallons of sealant and once again start painting around the rocks by the kitchen, trying to get them water proof to protect our nice plywood cupboards.

The guys continued work on the yard behind the house; moving rocks, building short rock walls, removing piles of gravel or dirt left from the house construction, and finally planting in the newly uncovered good topsoil.

Happy to find good topsoil after hauling out much gravel

They also weeded some of the corn today.

With only a couple of months or so left before dry season, some of the work is winding down.

So the guys are only working part time now for us. 

Fortunately for them a neighbor down the road has some work digging gravel.

Coffee plant, need more than 1,000

After waiting a year, and continuing to ask, we finally received not only coffee seeds to plant but also 37 baby coffee plants! 

We were told that this type of coffee is 'old coffee' probably left  from the days when the plantation produced coffee. 

So while the few coffee plants in the village have ripe beans, we will try to get seeds planted so trees are ready for planting at the beginning of next rainy season, hopefully on the new property once it is surrounded by a fence. 

A newer coffee variety started producing in two years in the neighbors garden. This old variety is a larger tree and will take longer, but will likely prove much more profitable.

Squash

Rutabega

Recent harvest

Coffee, avocado (which we are also planting) and tomato

Cabbage doing great!

Clean curtains?!?! Technically, Yes.

Those of you familiar with adoption home studies likely know that the recommendation for house cleaning runs along the lines of ‘do what you normally do’.......

However in my opinion the motivation of a social worker’s visit to check out one’s home, is a once in a life time motivational opportunity on par with having a coupon for a free gallon of  delectable chocolate ice cream.

Why would I not use this chance to spruce up the house?!?

Generally we aim for a clean house but not immaculate not being willing to put in the time, effort and cost to maintain that level of clean preferring to channel those resources into learning, family time or doing other things.

That being said, most of you who know me know that my Dutch cleaning genes do kick into a higher gear when teams or family come, especially my mom or mother-in-law.

One task that generally occurs before one of their visits did not occur this year despite both of them visiting at different times this winter/spring. My curtains did not get washed.

So this task landed on the list I’m calling ‘in honor of the home visit’ list. Knowing the dangers of putting off jobs like this one until the last minute [after all we could get a few days of rain making laundry problematic] we decided that yesterday’s sunny afternoon would work well to accomplish the task.

Cory, the family expert on stain removal [Interestingly the neatest person in the family who’s clothing almost appears to resist stains.] tackled the job with reportedly ‘the utmost care and delicate handling’. Ok maybe not in those words but he did said he was careful.

[After proofing this Cory wished to add he hand washed these and then used the kind, 'gentle' front load washer to complete the job]

I feel that the evidence speaks for it’s self and tells a much different story!

He claims that the sun must have weaken the cloth. Funny curtains from widows facing 3 different directions all suffered from strong sun.....

I know some strong laundry ladies who could rub a stain so hard that it, as well as the cloth disappeared. While Cory is strong, suspect the stain remover was stronger.

The goal of washing the curtains did occur. And the remaining remanents are much cleaner!

If I did not trust him I’d say he’s trying to get out of ever washing curtains again.

These did not have fringe before the wash!

Considering that the chore only occurs in this house on average once a year I find this avoidance tactic a bit overdramatic.

Thankfully we still have one week to see what we can come up with for curtains.

Wonder if my sewing machine still works?

Time to get creative and 'make do'.

Work on and about the house and electrical system.

Cory drove to Limbée yesterday to visit the bank and make a few purchases.

The official road repairs remain in the future but people have filled in the ditches enough for small trucks and motorcycles to pass.

The house roof looks good-will see how it holds up this weekend if tropical storm Isaac remains on his projected path over the DR and Haiti. Praying that either the storm turns or weakens enough to only provide a soft rain.

Cory is working on the details of a trip to Southern Haiti next week which would not work out if Isaac causes flooding and road damage.

Yesterday Cory and the men also pulled up weeds, cut down ferns around the house's foundation and dug holes to let anti-termite treatment soak into the ground. Hopefully this will discourage the insects from entering our house and eating our woodwork.

The passion fruit trellis on the front side of our house was moved from it's first location on the royal palm [where it kept getting hit by heavy, dead palm fronds] to the near by mango tree.

Several small green fruits made the move without problem.

The small grape vine will now stand by itself. Growing very slowly it may take a few years before it needs additional support.

This morning Cory retrieved the four batteries he had lent the clinic and connected them again into our system.

This will allow the clinic to use the solar power from our house to provide for their needs.

This should save running the generators which consume between $100-$150 USA dollars of gas a month.

This does not include maintenance issues and cost.

The rest of the day Cory worked on the campus electrical wires.

Eli, Anna and I worked on school.

Roof and Breadfruit Updates.

Cloudy days this week allowed the men to scrap and sand the rusty roof to the point that this morning they washed it off and started painting.

Wednesday thunderstorms sent a welcome rain storm that gave our dry area more than 1 inch of rain. Already the hillsides look greener. The roads yesterday contained many puddles and large holes full of rainwater.

Yesterday as a family we traveled in the afternoon to Cap Haitian to listen to Haiti's new USA American ambassador, Ambassador White give a short speech.

The setting of the meeting which was open to all Americans in the area not just wardens a very nice hotel, the Hotel Montel Joli. We dropped off two of JohnPierre's daughters and wife in town while he escorted us to the hotel.

Notice the feet! Mine would protest. 

We chatted with a few folks we know and met a few new people before heading home. The rough roads always remind us to be thankful for homeschooling and limited trips. 

Cory will return again to Cap Haitian tomorrow to attend a wedding of family friends and allow some of the guests an easier ride.

The rest of us will work on some school work and house cleaning.

Today the road in front of campus remains quite as a protest in Port Margot again has closed the road to through traffic. Earlier in the week a peaceful protest was held asking for electricity and paving of the road. Government power was on last night so today's protest focuses on the road condition.

Roots at 2 months.

We heard last night from the hotel's owner and fellow warden that the road should be paved by the end of December.

 Better roads do not cause as much wear and tear on vehicles and human bodies as long as accidents do not occur.

But alas better roads allow faster driving which causes more serious and deadlier crashes. So I greet this news with mixed feelings.

The small breadfruit cuttings thrive in the shade house!

Some cuttings only took three weeks to grow inch long roots and will be ready to move out of the shade house to the regular nursery area in about 6 weeks.

In a few months these trees will be ready to be disturbed and planted in local gardens and yards.

Hot on a tin roof!

Hot and muggy today as I walked down to clinic. I passed 10 people, age range roughly from 8-70+, waiting to pump water into 5 gallon buckets to take to their homes. Thankful for running water in the house and not having to carry any home.

No one waiting in line at clinic and the lab/pharmacy still locked up. Hoping this means folks are healthy and not just that everyone's running late today. The cholera clinic looks nice painted white with green trim but I left the camera at home, so no picture.

Eli and Anna started their last 20 lessons of the school year today. Learning today will need to overcome a new, but thankfully temporary challenge.  Now generally I like our tin roof, especially the noise of a light rain falling on it. Other noises-the startling bang of a mango, the overpowering roar of a hard rain or the scraping/ sanding of rusty tin just rattle in my head.

Today because of some clouds Cory thought it would be good to have the guys try to sand off the rust and prepare the roof for painting. The sun keeps trying to break through the clouds so not sure they will complete this task before the heat drives them off the roof.

Then the roof will be painted hopefully before the new solar panels arrive so that they can be put up soon. Why do we need more solar panels you may ask remembering that we generally have more than enough power for our family and even share with the school?

The maintenance of the campus continues to be an big issue. The main power needs that the new panels will provide will be clinic power for lab testing [changing the clinic batteries for power at night] and pumping water into the cisterns for our house and the campus.

 A smile from yesterday.

Intentionally getting out of ruts.

Confession-it started with a thought that the living room set up needed some mixing up 'just because' but quickly changed into solid reasons why to change the room.

Perhaps my nature needed good, intentional  reasons to justify the work but within a couple days the room looked different.




Intentional improvements.

• Couch now safe from rain.
• Opened up the doorway to hall.
• Able to get into the lower half of the big cupboard easier.
• Old, cupboard with glass no long bumped when going to the hall way
• Cat can no longer enter the old cupboard through the broken glass on the right side.
• Easier access to storage in boot box for movie equipment.

Extra bonuses

• Can see light switch.
• Can sit on couch and chat with the cook.
• Added chair.

I'm working on climbing out of a few more ruts: skipping exercise, putting off my Rosetta stone French study, yelling at folks from a couple rooms away rather than getting up to talk to them face to face, not giving my full attention to my children when their talking to me...to name a few.

This week I've heard my own voice echoing in my head 'Dare to not compare' more times than I care to admit.

Thanks to all of you who sent messages after I shared that blog-means a lot to know I'm not alone in my struggles. 

Wonder what other problem areas I am accustom to that I could intentionally improve? With effort, and the Lord's help, I can change for the better!

Breadfruit Tree Update.

Remember those small trees carried in a horizontally held carry-on from Michigan back in August? Baby plants

The trees continue to grow well and some have already been divided into a second tree already! Yeah. Three of the original trees died from dehydration during travel therefore a 98% survival rate.

The baby plants that contained branches when brought to Haiti were intentionally potted deeper so the soil covered the base of the branches.


Now, less than three months later, you can see that both branches grew roots which allows them to be separated into new trees.

This process can be repeated every few months for exponential multiplication.  By cutting off the growing point and removing the biggest leaves Cory can force the small trees to make more branches.  Roughly half of the trees will be allowed to grow normally while the rest will be used for propagation. By propagating the trees in Haiti the shipping fee and initial purchase price can be saved.

Today I'm thankful to live in the tropics. While hanging our clothes out to dry my eyes noted the green mountains and trees surrounding me. A gentile breeze will dry the clothes while the 84 degree temperature feels great. Sunshine brightens the day-not harshly but just right.

Praise-Dad doing well. Beth completed her 4th chemo treatment yesterday.

Prayer-Todd, my brother with an gout attack.
 LaGonave's Compound manager's 6 year old daughter died this week.

Happy Birthday, Cory!

Fitting that Cory's birthday falls so close to Canadian Thanksgiving because we praise the Lord for him and are very thankful for him.

Cory's birthday will be low key with some special food, hugs and cards. As he can be difficult to buy for the kids and I told him that the visit back in August to the Asia supermarket would be his gift-he bought many exotic fruits that he wished to both try and gather seeds to bring back to Haiti.

The solar panels which arrived last week now reside on our roof. The recent cloudy days enabled the guys to work on the hot roof without to much trouble. This morning with the sun shinning fully on the panels our input shows an additional 500 watts which more than doubles our old system. YEAH! The next issue to be dealt with will be at some time replacing our aging batteries.

Yesterday Cory visited Ti Bouk, Pastor Emmanuel's church down the river from us to share bamboo plants. The people excitedly accepted the 40 plants that Cory brought and requested that he return next week with more. Cory plans to offer additional churches bamboo before returning to Ti Bouk. The distributed bamboo will grown and be able to be shared with others in time.

The bamboo can help with erosion as well as be used in building and furniture. As many of you know some types of bamboo can also be eaten but we will not be focusing this aspect for now.

Thankful for Cory: his love for the Lord and us, he shops, he's generous, he's ticklish, neat, clean, forgiving, good at packing, good driver, likes to teach about plants, smart, good steward of money, cooks, loves plants, supports Kid's club and video ministry....and much more!


Pray for cholera patients increasing numbers throughout Haiti because of the rain. Many Haitian schools started this week.

29th June House pictures and flowers

Another full day of school completed.

Major thunderstorms yesterday and a few rumbles passing though this afternoon.

Red bananas ripening on the tree in the garden. Remember how I told you the locals believe that the mother plant needs to have born fruit before you can transplant the baby shoots but John Pierre let Cory talk him into moving a few.

Now those plants are being watched carefully. Even JohnPierre has expressed doubts. We're praying that all the plants do well so that Cory can be believed. If this idea changes in the area people would be able to move the smaller plants at a younger age.

A few pictures of the house-summer time flowers in bloom.

26th Sept.

OK this is just for you daily checkers. I know there are a few and don't want to disappoint you.

Yesterday was another good day. Forget how many we saw in clinic. When clinic finished and folks had gone home or to the lab we went to check on a lady who was 'singing' in the delivery/ER.

Another first time mom. Another gal to encourage and coach. Another baby introduced into the world. Another hour of isometric [almost] work for my fingers and arms-that remain sore today. Now I need a nice expecting mom, to come in during the day, who has no medical issues or complications so that I can talk Chris through the delivery and not have to strain my arms.

Cathleen kept school running as Cory was busy restringing a ground electrical wire for the house. This is so that we can charge our battery system when the government power is on.

This morning the kids and I did a bit of house cleaning, a bit of school and planted 200 more Moringa seed cups. Chris and I have started giving out trees in clinic to those who want one.

There is a meeting of the Northern District pastors today on the campus. Chris and Kathleen will be introduced. They continue to accept folks into their English Classes-set to start on Oct. 1st. Cory is also planning to start his Gardening Class on the 1st.

5 Sept. Mr. Fix-It

Sometimes the plan of the day doesn't make it past breakfast. Yesterday when we awoke and opened the bedroom curtains this sight greeted us and changed Cory's plans. When you live out in the country it helps to be multi-talented and live with a Mr. Fix-up.

We may not have danger of ice storms breaking the electrical lines but we do live with the risk of falling palm fonds getting hung up and breaking them. Week before last a frond broke the top strand of Cory's barbwire grape vine support.

.

Anyone know why ants are attracted to electrical lines? They were only on the half that was connected to our house. Not the half that government power comes through when it is one {one day for a decent amount of time [about 12 hours] in the last week}.

Because we have no clue when the power will come on or not the power line needed to be fixed. So Cory and Gener worked on it. Cory also had to deal with the cow damage in the gardens and all the way up and into the nursery. We suspect that the night watchmen from the clinic have been tying their own cows up at night to graze on the compound but this time the cows got untied.

There will be a meeting about this problem soon, with the Pastor in charge of the campus, hospital administrator and district superintendent. There is a meeting today by the district committee and one thing on the agenda is to discuss the expectations for the English classes.

Nice to have someone who can fix things about even if he is happier working with the trees than on the electric. Today he is heading to the University down the road to pick-up some cooking banana trees.

Aug. 24th

Monday:

• Cory got up 40 minutes late to leave for Port.
• Up just before 6 a.m. to find the refrigerator smoking.
• Helped Anna make Angel food cake for Kathleen's birthday which dripped big time into the bottom of the stove, which my darling son got lit for me.
• Same darling son cleaned out the soot from the propane refrigerator and relit it while I cleaned the whole top of the frig and all the stuff that had gotten a light dusting of soot.
• Started 'real' school [counted the above as real life learning] about 1 hour late.
• Went late to clinic after talking to the cooks and orienting Kathleen about home school. Mostly her job is to keep my kids focused on school.
• Down to clinic to introduce Chris around and see some patients. Met a team of 5 Haitian dentists who are serving here for two weeks. Saw about 6 patients-sent for labs. Sent another lady 7.5 months pregnant with a BP of 258/148 to the next hospital down the road. She admitted to not having been on her medications for her high blood pressure. Baby had a normal heart rate. But we didn't have hardly any medications to give her-did give her a one time dose as she went out the door, hopefully to get medical treatment before she has a stoke or dies.
• Ran out of propane-arranged to have tank replaced. Eli again lights the stove and refrig.
• Check of E-mail and forward of Embassy warning of protests scheduled for Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. Told Cory when he called from LaGonave.
• Lunch.
• School.
• Labs complete so back down to clinic [this time with Anna who had trouble today getting her school work done at home]-another referral. Education of the lab technician on the new handheld glucose machine. More school. Done about 4:30.
• Computer time.
• Supper at 6. Left overs.
• Will read to kids while they do dishes.
• Showers.
• Bed.

14 August 09

Only 4 more days until we will go to the airport to pick up our new team members Chris and Kathleen.

Only a little over 4 months when we will go and pick up yet another couple who we were told today have been approved as GO-Net Volunteers, serving 3 months from late December 2009 to late March 2010. So we welcome Bill and Elaine to the Northern Wesleyan Team.

Cory has been working on putting up two new solar panels. Because of the heat he has had to work on them in the early hours or late afternoon. Two new panels with one old one were producing 3 times the power we had before. Also the other two old panels are set up to a second controller-so we are likely between 4-5 times the solar energy [an it is hazy today-no full sun] that we were collecting yesterday.

Yesterday we woke up to a kitchen floor covered in tiny red ants. Cory has them under better control today----or they moved on by us.

Conference appears to be going well. We attended service last night

Jan. 10th

Cory's plumbing project is complete at the house. Before covering up all the pipes he decided to make a test run. Good thing! As all the water came up a pipe that he thought had nothing connected to it and he had left open. So he had to rethink things and melt some more PVC pipe to have shower and sink drain from the guest bath to under some of his trees.

The school week went well. We are now working on French daily. Glad that people can hear better than the computer. I may never be able to order fish or call for a police man-but maybe the kids will be able to do it for me.

Cory is starting to plan for his first agricultural class. The bananas here are sick and he wants to let the people know. He has the first class set for Jan. 24th and the nearby churches will be notified. He is also working on an order for banana pups from the USA that are said to be resistant to the diseases that those here have.

The church members yesterday worked on cleaning out the new hall and yard. This is because last Sunday it was announced that if the building were cleaned up that church would be held there. We understand the plan to be to hold church there and start tearing down the old building with plans to rebuild.

Dec. 15th

Nice quiet weekend enjoying some reading and Christmas videos. Had a bit of rain as well which is nice for the trees.

Today-school and a couple hours helping out in clinic. I saw 12 people-fever, pregnancy, high blood pressure, acid reflux, colds, a re-check for a skin infection. Still waiting for labs so must of had a good size clinic at the end.

Cory and the guys are working on the plumbing at our house and then will move down to the House of Hope [guest house]

We are still enjoying our school books and all agreed to use the same curriculum next year. We are planning on being done by the first of May for our trip to the States. We will start the next year up on our return in July.

I'm feeling better but ready to be winding up the day. Thanks for the prayers.

Sept. 14th

Church in Fauche today was held in a school class room. The church had lost a number of pieces of tin last week due to the storms. There were many requests of prayer for the country of Haiti and especially Gonaives. There is a collection going on of clothes, money, shoes and so forth that will be sent to the devastated areas.

We are doing well. Cory did a large amount of clothes mostly by hand only using the washing machine to wring the water out of them. We have some Artemisia drying. We started up our small generator to charge our battery system. We have been restricting our power used to checking the computer a couple times a day, filtering water, and some computer time for school.

Cory was happy to see that in one weeks time we had used less than a gallon. About 2.5 quarts were used for household electrical use and the rest was to pump water into the cistern and watering his newly planted trees.

We are very thankful for the two solar powered lamps that Kentwood church had given us years ago. I used them some on LaGonave when she had to go to the hospital at night. Now we used them to finish up supper and read before bed. Early bed times with the kids in about 7:30 and adults following within an hour.

Report are that a tanker did make a fuel run to Cap Haitian this weekend but we haven't yet heard if gas prices have dropped from the $12 a gallon on the streets. Thankfully we don't need to buy any quite yet.

While Cory was charging batteries and doing the laundry I worked on updating the medical blog. So if you haven't visited in a while there are photos and information about the 50th celebration on LaGonave. http://wesmedhaiti.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your prayers for Haiti. It will be a long time before the country recovers from the loss of crops, lives, homes, roads and bridges. Please continue to pray for Haiti.

June 7

The trees are doing well. Even the ones that Cory was worried about are growing new leaves!

We have had a week of afternoon rains.

Cory spent Thursday working on replacing electrical connections that had corroded-so we can now receive government power again. Yeah for our side! Gas is over $5.50 a gallon so the generator gets expensive.

Eli and Anna have been promoted to 6th and 2nd grades and did well on their report cards. Friday after dropping some extra uniforms off at the school and picking up Anna's report card we continued into Cap Haitian.

Cory and I had labs drawn and we all had skin TB tests done. We were all impressed with the needles that automatically retracted. Cory will return for the results and a price list of labs in a couple of weeks.

Returned to find them putting the compound gates up by the road. They took down part of the fence and made a temporary bridge for our truck to cross the ditch. We are not planing to leave until Tuesday and by then the gate will be set.

The objects from the last blog were still in the same spot, 2 1/2 days after Cory first saw them. This is along the main road connecting Port au Prince and Cap Haitian, the two biggest cities in Haiti.