Santa comes to Haiti

It seems very different to be celebrating Christmas when the noon day temperature is around 42C. The School Pageant was yesterday and they did a wonderful job and I enjoyed it despite it being in Creole. Santa even came in the same suit he uses at the North Pole.

We are playing Christmas music, Sandra, Shondi and Karen are baking, the turkey is thawing and we will go to our church Christmas Day Pageant practice shortly. I have been ordered “no work” for two days.

When I first came here in 2005 it was very rare to see small song birds. I assume it was do to the use of DDT and such things. In following years there was a noticeable increase in numbers and this year there seems to be a remarkable increase.

Every Saturday at 6:00AM we walk along the canal and river. It is so beautiful to see the scenery and to see all the workers heading to the fields to work, or heading to market with their produce, or coming back after milking their cows.

There is a saying here that a rich Haitian is one who knows where his next meal is coming from. The Haitian people work very hard  to feed their families.  They are In the rice fields working just as soon as they can see. They work so very hard to feed their families. All the tilling is done by hand with a hoe with an eight foot handle.

When they harvest they strike the stocks by the handful against a log to get the rice off. Usually onto a tarp so they do not loose any. After that they must clean it and then take it to the mill to have the husks removed and then they can sell or consume.

Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you for your support.