Helping Haitian Angels

Cory, Gener and Yvon brought a few dozen fruit trees on Wednesday to plant at the Helping Haitian Angels orphanage, about 15 miles east of Cap Haitian.

A strong breeze comes in off the nearby sea most of the time and the climate is closer to semi-arid LaGonave than rainy Port Margot.

It has been a few weeks since the last good rain so it was a pleasant surprise to find the soil was good and deep, relatively easy to dig, and still moist.

Most of the trees planted are drought resistant, like mango, egg fruit and avocado. Since the soil is deep, other species will also probably do well.

A few each were planted of starfruit, jackfruit, black sapote, everbearing mulberry, peanut butter fruit, and a few others to see how well they grow.

A few kids helped plant the last few trees, and then carried water for each tree.

A second trip will probably be made soon to finish planting the area.

We pray that the future fruit will be a blessing to the children and spread to surrounding farmland.

Link to the Christian orphanage website:

http://www.helpinghaitianangels.org/

Peanut butter fruit and second visit to Second Mile

A thunderstorm last night added 1 1/2" to our summer rainfall totals and so far the area is wet.

Heat and moisture agrees with many plants on campus.

This week we all tried "peanut butter fruit" and at least 3 of us adamantly believe that the name should be changed as it sets your brain and tastes buds up for total disappointment.

 The pasty texture may be a bit like peanut butter but to us taste nothing like peanuts, more of a unique sweet, tangy taste.

Sunday we enjoyed watching Gener's two youngest boys get dedicated in church on Haitian father's day.

A funny moment when Gener went to return to his seat which he had taken with the men's Sunday school class earlier the Pastor briskly told him to sit with his wife and sons.

He grabbed his Bible and sheepishly returned to the front of the women's area.

Yesterday we worked hard on school work as well as finishing up our summer newsletters and June thank you notes. 


Thankfully we mostly finished before needing to unplug and turn off the inverter for the storm.

Today the kids and I continued with our school work while Cory and the guys headed with a truckload of plants back to Second Mile Haiti.

They enjoyed talking about the fruit trees and plants while placing them around the Second Mile property. 


They have good dirt, water and good gardeners so we expect the trees and plants will do well, providing not only nutritious fruits for the mothers and children at Second Mile but for the local families as well.



Since there is only one large tree on the campus there is plenty of room to plant.


The trees we planted included peach palm, acai palm, star fruit, jackfruit, breadfruit, everbearing bush mulberry,  barbados cherry, cupuasu (chocolate relative) large lime, lemon drop mangosteen, miracle fruit, bananas, ticazo vine and two types of bamboo. Also left chaya cuttings (vegetable bush), aloe barbadensis and artemisia (malaria medicine).

They shared fresh brown eggs from their chickens and a few pounds of their black eye pea harvest with us as a token of gratitude.

Always glad to share knowledge, trees and plants to those helping others.

On the way home the guys saw akee fruit and a different kind of breadfruit trees.