Sunday, May 26, 2013

Congrats

Junior Team
Senior Team
The finals for the Southern Department's Interscholastic Soccer Competition were held last week.  Guess who won in both categories?  Yup!  Espwa's two teams (Junior Division consisting of seventeen year olds and younger and the Seniors consisting of eighteen year olds and older) came home with the trophies.  We celebrated their victories in the Quad with a few speeches and lots of good food.  Congratulations to the boys, the coaches and managers for this terrific and well-earned accomplishment.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Haiti Verte

Yesterday we celebrated Haiti's version of Earth Day.  The government announced the planting of 1,200,000 trees in an effort to reduce the deforestation problem-- a good beginning that has to be sustained if we don't want all the good topsoil of Haiti running down the mountains into the sea.

Here's a shot of our young boys and girls carrying their seedlings which were planted in a nearby field.
This is Rivaldo proudly planting his cherry tree.

We marked the day with several agricultural activities including planting 100 cherry trees on our property.  It was a concerted effort, young and old side by side, digging holes, planting the seedlings, watering...

This is a photo of our tree farm in Demion which is about a half hour from here on a motorcycle.  These trees (mahogany and cedar) are five years old.  Our plan is to harvest a percentage of these trees every year to be used in our carpenters' shop and, of course, replant new trees.  It's a small project in the grand scheme of things here but it is a step in the right direction.  Hope your Earth Day was as much fun!