Floresta-Haiti Travel Journal Excerpts
By Gaynor Reeves

Tap Taps
Port au Prince arrival, so many hands willing to carry your baggage (it was difficult to hang onto it). The city is bustling and soon we were traveling west amidst very busy traffic. A pleasant city with wonderful colors and art identifying "tap taps". I delighted in all the sounds and sights.

Father Albert
Our arrival in Cherident was late afternoon. Father Albert had encouraged the local youth to hold and conduct church services every night for 2 weeks. The number of devoted young people was as impressive as their singing and their organization of the church service.

Beautiful Mountains
In 15 areas in these beautiful mountains, Floresta has formed small cooperatives and provides loans to individual farmers. Our day was spent interviewing farmers who are members of the co-op. Travel over unbelievable ruts in a dirt road is very slow (also very hard on the Floresta vehicle). We enjoyed a pleasant walk from the road to the individual farms.

Her Delightful Baby
Madame Ocius and her delightful baby posed for a photo. We stopped to admire 2 grafted mango trees. These trees will be producing fruit with in 2 years instead of 7 years -- this is one of the skills provided by Floresta-Haiti employees.

A Farmer's Home
Conducting the interviews showed us into the farmer's homes where we could glimpse the basic way of life. Small homes, usually two rooms, with very basic necessities. ALL the farmers expressed the need for water and reliable seed for future crops, plus natural fertilizers or compost. Crops grown in this mountainous area are corn, beans, sorghum, and some cabbage but with difficulty. Fruits are wild orange, mango, breadfruit and breadnut.

Life on the Farm
Each farm has a small number of animals, perhaps a cow, sometimes a pig, chickens and turkeys, plus a few sheep, these are subject to diseases but Floresta is teaching the importance of vaccination. The children are many and the pride of the families. Farmers use a large portion of their money to provide education for the future generation ? some are in Port Au Prince and many are at schools away from home. The children return home only at vacation time. Schools are not free in Haiti and some children have to walk 2 or 3 hours to reach school on very difficult roads.

My one week in Haiti passes very rapidly and soon it was time to bid farewell to newfound friends. I cherish the memories of vivid Haiti.