This is a Cacao fruit. It opens up, and inside are a bunch of seeds, like a pomegranate, but bigger. There is a white flesh covering the brown seed. You can suck the fruit part off of the seed, and spit the seed out. A few of us (Not me. I was warned before I did it...) Tried chewing the seed. Yuck! What did I do when I was offered some? I tried to take the spit out, sucked on seed from the wrong side of the shell! I was the subject of much laughter. I didn't realize why they were laughing, until one of the teenagers showed me what that side was for. Then we all had a good laugh together, and I took from the other shell. It was really good. I don't have a picture of the sugar cane... but, the story goes like this: When we arrived at the village, they were all sitting around eating it. We eventually asked for some (Not a rude thing to do. In fact, you can ask for anything. But, its also acceptable to say no, without explanation. A great practice I wish we adopted here in the U.S. ) Well, nobody wanted to share. So, we said "No problem, no problem..." BUT then they all went outside the tabernacle (The place they meet for church, sort of like a garage port...) and started EATING SUGAR CANE IN FRONT OF US! So we asked again, and again they didn't want to share. After a long silence, a little girl said "You want to buy?" And Mark laughed and asked her why she would try to sell it? As it turns out, there were some Blancos in the village a couple of days before who bought it... Mark said "No."
I am not going to get into all of the details of whether or not we should have bought it. We had good reasons for saying no. Yes, this is a country where this kind of thing CAN help them. But, we also had reasons for not. Primarily relationship. (At least, thats why I wasn't going to buy any.) Buying from them would have set us up just like all the other rich, white, Americans who come and purchase anything they want. This village has just been adopted by my church, Church Project Greeley, as our sister church. We are funding the construction of their church building, and supporting the pastor of this village. But more than throwing money at a situation, we went to create a RELATIONSHIP with them. We will go back there again and again and again. They needed to come outside of themselves and let us into their lives. The inner workings of their village.
Guess what? A teenaged boy went home and got us a couple of stalks of sugar cane. And he gave them to us. When we went the next day? They had a bunch for us. And they shared their bread. Possibly their weeks worth of bread, for us. I'd say not buying the sugar cane was a wise choice.
So, sugar cane is so, so good. You chew the stalk, and kind of suck on it, and then spit out the tough stuff. You only get the juice out of it. I began understanding how their lives go... they lack in a lot of "real" foods, and quite frankly, its so hot there you don't really feel like eating, but these fruits they have can level your blood sugar and keep you feeling energized.
This is a river we stopped at for lunch one day, on the way to Bo Joint. It was in this beautiful jungle-y area. My friend and I were careful to point our cameras and our eyes in this particular direction, since there was a naked man bathing in the river behind us...
This is the truck we rode around on the whole week we were there. We sat in the back. If you look carefully you can see the benches. I liked to stand and hold the rail, because I could take in more of the sights and smells of Haiti. Plus it was more cooling to have the wind blowing in my face. In Haiti there are no rules on the road. There is a lot of honking (Just to communicate. Not like here, when you honk, you have rage.) There are many Motos... Motorcycles... driving between two cars passing each other, in either direction. We saw a couple of car accidents. Mostly involving tipped over trucks. There is a high rate of mortality when it comes to the road... People were piled on top of trucks, and they were especially skilled at fitting four people (Yes, I saw four people) on a moto, and sometimes they would be carrying live animals, like a goat, in a bag tied to the side of it. It was delightful. (I am being serious. Delightful.)
So, this is the last photo for today... the troops are getting restless. My day is calling. This, my friends, is the church they are building in Bo Joint. As you can see, it is in the newly developed phases... While the VBS team was there playing with the people the men went back to town to get some more brick... clearly its running low. When the truck arrived and we finished our activities the children RAN down the road, laughing, and excited, and started helping unload the block. There were little bitty things carrying these cement blocks... they have so much pride in their meeting place. Its going to be the central part of the inner workings of their village. A school, a place of worship, a meeting place for other functions... They were all so excited, and everyone wanted to pull their own weight when it came to finishing it. I saw another, recent photo this past Sunday at church. The walls are completed! I can't wait to go back and have church there, with my brothers and sisters of that particular village! (And, a side note... most places had septic bathrooms. At the very least, a covered hole. Here? Its really in the backwoods. We had none of that. A tinkle trip took a hike. It was very... freeing.)
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