Date Nights to Build Stronger Families
With the success of the father/daughter date night, the PLH staff organized mother/son and husband/wife date nights. These days and in our area, Haiti has little to offer in the way of entertainment or places to spend a special night with someone you love. Very few restaurants are open and most people cannot afford to eat at them. The goal of these events is to provide a fun event for family members to attend together in a positive environment and to encourage families to take the time to continue to build their relationships with one another and continue to grow in their role as parents and spouses. All three nights were big successes. Unfortunately, the bus broke down the night of the husband/wife date night, so that hindered the attendance as people tend to see the bus waiting and then decide to come. Still, 20 couples came on motorcycles or walked the road down to the campus. Each event included music, dancing, games, encouraging words from members of the staff and community, and food. One of the highlights was watching the dancing. There were many laughs and smiles and special moments as the women danced with their sons and husbands. These events received a very positive response from the community, with many asking when the next one would be or regretting that they didn’t attend. PLH will continue to offer these events and looks forward to becoming a hub for social activities and community development.
Kitchen Progress
Construction is moving along for the kitchen building. The walls are up and the bosses are now preparing to pour the roof. This building includes a kitchen where meals for staff, guests, and events will be prepared as well as a laundry room and fruit drying room. Each of these rooms will provide jobs for local women. The next step is to acquire all the appliances, countertops, and supplies as well as the solar fruit dryer which will be placed on the roof of the building. This dryer is made in Haiti, by Haitian technicians, and with locally sourced materials. We are eager to see where the fruit drying business will take us.
U-Pick Fruit Orchard
This fall, we began planting fruit trees on the PLH campus to not only provide fruit for our own use but to be sold to community members and vendors in a U-pick format. We planted over 300 orange, grapefruit, lime, kenep, and guava trees. Soon after the excavation of the soccer fields, we planted mango, Caribbean cherry, and avocado trees, which are all continuing to make progress with the cherry trees giving a good harvest this year.
Christmas Week Events
This past Sunday, we held a staff Christmas party to honor and celebrate our staff and their families and the sacrifices and hard work that they have given to PLH this year. On Christmas Eve PLH will host the 2nd Annual Candlelight Service. We had a good turn out last year and everyone enjoyed learning a new tradition of candlelight carols and hot chocolate and cookies. To wrap up the season, a volunteer from the community has been practicing with children from the community each Saturday at the PLH campus for a Christmas show on Christmas Day. We hope that many parents will come out to watch their children perform and celebrate this special day together.
Christmas and New Year’s in Haiti
Christmas is not a big holiday in Haiti. While everyone knows the history of Christmas and the popular American traditions, it is not celebrated in the same way. Some people have a party with friends on the 24th and others treat it as any other day off. New Year’s, however, is a huge celebration in Haiti. On December 31, Christians attend church services, sometimes from 10pm until 6am the next morning. They thank God for the grace and health that he gave them this year and commit the coming year to Him. Those who don’t attend church, have parties and music and fireworks can be heard all around. Then the next morning, January 1, every Haitian will enjoy a bowl of pumpkin soup to celebrate Haiti’s Independence Day. Not a puree like you may imagine, Haitian pumpkin soup is more of a stew with beef, carrots, cabbage, plantains, macaroni, and slices of pumpkin. Haitians eat this soup as a symbol of their won freedom from France as, during slavery, slaves were not allowed to eat this French dish. While many Haitians today will tell you they are still slaves due to the difficult conditions in the country and the population’s powerlessness against the gangs and corruption, this does not stop them from celebrating their freedom, worshiping God as they welcome in the new year, and visiting relatives and loved ones.
