Today we got a taste of hard labor in Haiti.  We had been asked to work at a plantation farm that supports widows.  It turns out, it is at the nursing home facility that we had visited in the past.  The plantation farm was a freshly plowed field that had a few trees, but not many. We were told that they were not planted properly in the past, and had not produced.

So, while the Agronomists marked the proper location for each tree, we started carrying the trees to the field, about 75 trees in all, about a 100 yard distance.  We were helped by not only several young men, but also several young boys, and even some of the residents of the nursing home. One particular lady wearing a pink nightgown was outrunning just about all of us.  All that is, except for AnnaLee, who I now refer to as beast mode. Not only did she run circles around us all, but she basically was the job foreman, getting instructions from the agronomists and passing them on to the team.  Mostly because of her, we planted 48 trees before we left for our next activity.

As we were finishing the trees, we found out that the children we were sponsoring had been brought there to see us.  Deanna got to spend some time with Douvenson, and Tonja and got to spend some time with Yvenson.  We also got to meet Yvenson’s sister.  Douvenson wants to be an engineer, and Yvenson wants to be a doctor.  They are both in the third grade at the same school.

After lunch we walked around an area down by the beach and prayed with several families. We got to visit some families who are a part of the 410 Bridge goat program and pray with them as well. One of the goats had just delivered two babies the night before, a boy and a girl.  We were even serenaded by a bunch of small children who sang us a song they had learned at church.

We closed out the day attending a conference on breast cancer. A doctor from a local clinic gave a presentation to raise awareness.  We were very impressed by our local trip leader, who had been translating Kreyol to English for us most of the week, but during the conference was translating the doctor’s Spanish to Kreyol as well.

For now, it is time to settle in and get some rest before another big day tomorrow.  We get to go to one of my favorite places, Pastor Michel’s farm.

Written By: Dave Breaux