Bassin Zim cave

Tracey King (right), a fellow mission co-worker stationed in Nicaragua, was at the Joining Hands meeting that MPP hosted at it's national training center in Papay, June 2nd, 3rd and 4th. After the meeting ended Thursday, Tracey stayed an extra couple of days with us. Friday, June 5th, after helping us lay out one cistern for the group, APB, Tracey spent the rest of the morning working with us on the cistern at Diamene's house. In the afternoon, we visited Bassin Zim waterfall and caves, with a couple of local friends, Frank (left) and Roger (middle).

Remember the other blog

Don't forget to check out Jenny and my other blog, on Word Press. I'm using blogger to catch up on old news, and to publish some of the bigger photos (you can click on the photos to see them closer to full-size), and I'll use the wordpress for "new" news (like the birth of Jenny and my child, when that happens), as well as for background information about MPP, what MPP's Road to Life Yard-Moringa project is all about, what we do, exactly with Moringa and what Jenny's work is all about in MPP's Integrated Health Center, "Mironda Heston."

Here's the link:

http://hareamark.wordpress.com/

An afternoon on the beach--Caracol

Cersine Louis (left), Agame Elfraïs's godmother and Agame (right),

on the beach where we spent pretty much all afternoon, swimming and playing.

On Sunday, May 31st after we attended the Episcopal church service in the morning in Cape Haitian, Agame Elfraïs, one of the crew members on the trip, took us to visit his godmother, Cersin Louis, who lives in the community of Caracol, on the beach, east of Cape Haitian (Google Earth coordinates: 19º 41' 41.80 N, 72º 01' 26.22 W). Before heading to Caracol, we picked up five friends from Papay studying agriculture at Fundation Vincent in Cape. (Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are by Mark Hare, all rights reserved)


Agame's godmother and her family put together a feast of fried fish, rice and salad. When we met Cersine on Friday, May 28th, we asked her if they could make a meal for all six of us. She said, "Sure!" Saturday, when we asked if it might be okay to invite another five people, she said "Of course!" When we showed up with one more extra person, nobody even blinked. There is a Haitian proverb, "Manje kwit pa gen mèt" which more or less translates to mean, "Once food is cooked, no one person has dibs on it." We did provide some funds from our trip budget to help pay for the ingredients of the feast. Photo by Agame Elfraïs, all rights reserved.

Paul Jean (left) and Cersine's father (right). Cersine's father borrowed a neighbor's fishing boat and took us out a few hundred meters out into the sea, then some of us swam back to shore. Paul Jean was our host from Terrier Rouge, where we slept the whole time we were in the north and northeast. Paul spent all Sunday with us.

On the raft--Marimode St. Amour, with two other guests, enjoying the ocean for the second

time in her life. Maridmode is one of the hardest workers on the Road to Life Yard crew.

The Road to Life Yard in Limbé

Fritzner, a member of the Limbé "Road to Life Yard" crew with his African redworms. Fritzner learned about raising worms during his internship with us in February this year. We provided the group their starter worms when Fritzner and Marimerci left at the end of February. Photos by Agame Elfraïs, all rights reserved.


One of our stops, during the crew trip to Northern and Northeastern Haiti, was to visit a youth group in Limbé (Google Earth coordinates: 19º 42' 24.61 N, 72º 24' 14.82 W). Two of the key leaders in the group are Agricultural Technicians who worked with MPP's Road to Life Yard-Moringa project crew for fifteen days this past February. Frizner and Marimerci's time with the Road to Life Yard crew was part of their post-graduation internship.

We visited the Limbe group on Monday, June 1st, after visiting the organization SOIL in Cape Haitian. After leaving SOIL in downtown Cape Haitian, it took us about an hour to reach Lembe going south on National Highway #1. When we arrived, we were all astounded by the amount of work Fritzner and Marimerci have initiated in their home community. I thought the visit would be a quick, social visit, a couple hours at most. Instead, we spent over four hours visiting house after house where Fritzner and Marimerci and the crew they have put together (which they have named the Road to Life Yard crew #2) have helped women put in vegetable gardens. Fritzner and Marimerci also had arranged for a simple meal--boiled breadfruit and vegetable stew made from production from their own gardens. Afterwards, the Road to Life Yard crew participated with members of the community group in a brainstorming session, talking through some of the problems they have encountered as well as what form future collaborations between MPP and the group might take, which at the very least, could mean two or three crew members going to Limbé for a few days to lead a workshop for the group. We were also able to connect the group with the organization we had visited in the morning--SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods: http://www.oursoil.org/

Top photo: Fritzner with one of the women who have started a home vegetable garden.

Middle photo: The garden the community group does together.

Bottom photo: Fritzner in his own home garden.

Note: Clicking on photos will show an enlargement of each one.

The Garden Under the Cliff--Rainy Season

This is Agame's uncle's garden by the Papay creek (left), during the rainy season. The piece of land which Else Elfraïs planted to bananas, sugarcane and tayo (a rootcrop), is in the background, hugging the base of the cliff. The land planted to bananas late last year is towards the front, with the creek (left and in front) forming the boundary. Else hoed the bananas and planted corn between the plants at the beginning of the rainy season, so he will get a harvest from this land, even as he waits for the bananas to begin producing.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Agame's uncle is using his land and water resources incredibly well, and is making a decent profit. He has had no technical training and is working with small amounts of money for investment, as he can get it, from his own or his family's resources. For more information about this garden, check out the April 10th posting.

Agame and his uncle took Danny Blank and Nathan Lehmkuhl to see the garden the second week of June. Danny and Nate spent ten days with MPP as part of a technical exchange, sponsored by a number of friends and supporters of the work of MPP's Road to Life Yard project. (Photo by Mark Hare, all rights reserved)