S'ak pase? That's Haitian Creole for What's up?
The typical Haitian response to
"S'ak Pase?" is "Nap Bule" (No worries). Literally, though
(and we just learned this from Ronald last night), "Nap Bule" means I'm in the fire but not burning.
This morning, the air has been
filled with a veritable choir of echoing roosters. Thankfully, the very kind rooster who, last
year, roosted about an inch-and-a-half outside our room windows, appears to no
longer be around. (I didn't want to say
this yesterday as doing so could have jinxed the whole thing. But...this morning, I feel safe in saying
that he is most definitely not here.) To
say that our rooster friend of last year was a bit confused would be an
understatement. Roosters are supposed to
sound their "cockadoodledoos" as the sun rises not EVERY hour, on the
hour, and THROUGHOUT the night. Speaking for
the whole team, we are all very glad that Mr. Rooster, like Elvis, has left the building. Had he reappeared last night, I am quite confident
that Allison would be gutting him this morning so that we could all eat him for
lunch after church.
I'm feeling a little tired this morning,
and, I imagine, most of our team is. The
past two days have been fabulous, but they have been long. Today is the Sabbath; hopefully, we will all
get a chance to take a little down-time before we launch into project-work
tomorrow.
If I recall, our agenda has us
working in the community garden for most of the day tomorrow. The people of Haiti are excellent
gardeners. One of the most intriguing
things I've discovered about some of their techniques is their method of
fertilization. There is a plant called
Madelem, which is not native to the island of Hispanola and, as such, is quite
invasive. The interesting thing about
this plant is that the Haitians have discovered that burying the plant's leaves
fixes nitrogen in the soil. So...rather
than using animal manure, which creates a host of water quality problems, the
Haitians use an invasive plant to enrich the soil. There are other plants that are used similarly, specifically Ligiminez, but Madelem is the one they use the most.
Okay...breakfast is in a few minutes,
followed by Church at 9a. Stay tuned as
more is certain to come later!
Jezu l'aime ou! (Jesus
loves you!)
Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)
1 comment:
Hey Guys!! Happy sunday. I made up fliers with all ur pics n names n this blog address on it. Im talkin to ppl at church bout u n we r handin out the fliers. n a grp of us actually joined hands n prayed for yall here in the volunteer break room. Be encouraged! We r w u in spirit n excited about God wrking thru u to bring His Kingdom to Haiti!
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