The plot

I know you're all wondering what Lisa and I did for the week we spent at MBH. Mostly, we planted a garden. This patch was cleared of weeds shortly before we arrived and flower beds were dug and enriched with some mightily expensive topsoil. 

The climate and fertile soil of Haiti collaborate to make perfect growing conditions. The hope is that the ground surrounding the house and clinic can be planted intensively with vegetables and herbs to make a more sustainable lifestyle. We dug and raked and moved dirt and planted seeds for several hours each day, usually in the heat of the day because we had been morning slugs. 

Behold, freshly planted beds of greens, carrots, beans, beets, melons, garlic, and many other exotic delicacies. 

Shhh, want to know a secret?

There's a placenta in the middle of the melon mound.

We call them "placenta melons"!

What did you expect? This is a birth centre, people! 

Where nothing goes to waste.

We sang rounds as we worked and talked to the chickens...

...and hung out on the shady side of the garden for as long as we dared.

The weather is Haiti is not unbearably hot at this time of year, but it is humid. By the time we were done working, a nice long shower would have been deliciously soothing, but it was not to be. Some days we had to go to bed in our sweaty, smelly state. If we were lucky, the power might go on in the wee hours of the morning. In which case, there would be this gradual waking of the household, taking turns in the shower and then sitting together at our computers. You do what you've gotta do, when you can do it, in this neck of the woods!

The trees by the chicken coop are banana trees. They are grown in many gardens and also seem to grow in the wild. The flower, which hangs at the end of the bunch of fruit, is fascinating, like something out of a sci-fi movie.

The clinic and surrounding gardens and buildings are in a walled compound. This gate is the only entrance and is ably guarded by Jason and Lucien. We didn't go outside the gate very often, which can make for a bit of claustrophobia. Most nicer houses have gates like this, as you will see later.