Friday, June 16, 2006
Adventures in Haiti: The Tree Planting Edition
Greetings friends far and wide,
these days we get up at 4 AM or before to be at one of the 22 tree nurseries
at dawn when the local population is expected to show up with baskets,
plastic containers, buckets, and calabash shells to pick up trees. It's
early but great fun and lots of chaos (mostly because standing in a line
isn't natural-- remember grade 1-- and many here haven't done it so push to
the front, stand in the middle of the path, and call out "mango, manGO,
MANGO" until you get one or, worse, beg your friends who work in the tree
nursery to give you whatever you want out of ORDER which drives us anal N.
Americans crazy and provides obvious insights into Haitian politics.
We DO love the work. Growing trees in the sunshine. It's like hugs for the
heart. See photo of Matt handing out mangoes to the young ones (on the blog
site). We do mangoes last as a bribe to get folks to leave (that's why they
all have their containers on their heads). the truth is as all my degroots
can tell you, it's just fun hanging out in a pepinyè/tree nursery!
getting up at 4AM means. . . you go to bed in the rain . . . well . . .
ideally. It seems to rain for a few days and then stop for a few days.
This has caused a bit of havoc in our tree distributions which start with
the rains. It's a crazy, but very rewarding time of year because it is the
culmination of the last 8 months of work with MCC's 22 local tree nurseries
and school tree nurseries (for their 1st year). We don't have the final
figures yet, but we hope that we will reach our objective of planting around
375,000 trees this year.
We will post a few pictures on our blog site, so head on over there if you
want to see what a tree distribution looks like. Although the pictures don't
do justice to it, it will at least give you a glimpse. Of course, if you
were to visit at this time, you'd see for yourself how fun and crazy it is
all at the same time.
On a personal note, we are planning to be in Canada for a few weeks in July.
We will probably bump into at least a few of you. I (Matt) will head out to
Vancouver for 5 days to be with my brother and sister-in-law and my
nephew/niece in utero, as well as some great friends that I haven't seen in
forever. The plan is to catch up, fish, eat and watch Holland win the World
Cup!
Hup Holland Hup!
The rest of the time will be in Ontario. I (Esther) will spend most of the
time with A&T family in Sarnia specifically Lake Huron where we'll catch up
with Matt after Vancouver. After we get back to Haiti in mid-July, we are
hoping that they be a darling baby arriving ! Of course, we are excited, and
ANXIOUS too. The first-time parent jitters I guess. Please pray for us as
we will be new parents and we're also going to try some ancient/modern
things like adoptive breastfeeding (I, Esther am already on drugs, herbs,
and breast stimulation so we can partially feed our babe naturally) and
diaper-free (we've never seen a disposable and rarely a cloth diaper on a
Haitian baby). We'd appreciate your prayers and support already (especially
Mama Natty herself Tanya Black). So, the next time you hear from us, it may
very well be the baby news!
(For parents with babies 6 months or under, do check out Ingrid Bauer's
Diaper Free. It's obvious and could save a land from being filled.)
Stay tuned, and be well.
Don't forget to check the blog site for pictures:
http://www.mattandestherinhaiti.blogspot.com
Matt and Esther, planting trees in Haiti, with big smiles!
prayer requests:
1. rain for Dezam area and all of Haiti
2. health and goat proofing for the new young trees being planted daily
3. health for the mother and baby in utero that we hope to adopt and our
several siblings who are expecting as well.
4. health for our young laundry woman's daughter who is 7 months pregnant
and suffering without explanation.
5. safe travels and happiness as we get together with family and some of you
too
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