27th January

Yesterday afternoon Cory and I explored the garden and trees. Most of the areas contain various fruit trees or banana plants. The land looks much different than it did 3 1/2 years ago.

The lower area near the dorm/current church location changed from a marginal garden area to an banana plantation shading a large number of exotic fruit trees. As the trees grow bigger the banana plants will be relocated. The last few years of mulching, charcoal dust and proper drainage transformed the soil into productive land.

Most of the trees need additional growing time before producing fruit but we found some ripe bilimbi. This fruit from Asia is very sour and can be used in juice, jelly, relish or sauces. Cory plans to try to them in jelly as soon as they ripen a bit.

The big green gourd like fruits are cassabanana. Cory learned about this fruit at Epcot.

We don't know when the fruit will be ripe to try but looking forward to it. Cory more than the rest of us if I had to guess. Can be eaten raw or used as a juice or jelly. The immature fruit can also be cooked as a vegetable. The vine clings to a Moringa tree.

School took up most of today. Elijah happily moved from just chemistry math to experiments. One of our chemicals must of evaporated on the trip as all we found was a empty labeled bottle. But we moved ahead and just filled in that information from the answer key.

Still no real news about Haiti's runoff elections. Cholera numbers continue to drop. My folks continue to prepare to arrive next week. Big celebration for the Fauche Kid's Club planned for Sunday afternoon. Book editing continues in preparation for the second printing.