Oh, How does your garden grow?

by Jimmy

Have I mentioned that I like my garden? The first couple of experiments have not worked out very well. I grew great weeds, but my beans, and watermelons sprouted then died. My first batch of seeds did not germinate from what I could tell. I did finally get some tomato plants and some corn to grow. These I have just transplanted into the garden bed.

And now that I can get corn and radish to sprout quickly, those are my favorite vegetables. This is Haitian corn, so I am not sure that it will be like the sweet corn we are used to in the States, but at least it will be corn that I grew, and I can always feed it to the chickens.

I have been able to grow exactly two carrot plants in the big buckets, and that is after planting a ton of seeds. I think I have old seed, so I will look forward to updating my supply come Christmas.

I wonder what I can get to produce from 40 square feet of dirt. I water it twice a day, and am really liking it. I have never successfully gardened before in probably 4 or 5 half-hearted attempts, starting when I was probably 10 or 12. The only product that I can remember is tomatoes, and I don't even like tomatoes.

So far, I have 4 different types of beans started, tomato, corn, radish, lettuce, popcorn, squash, cucumber, cilantro, and parsley. Tomorrow, I hope to plant some more herbs, and finish out the square foot garden. And then I can decide on building another bed, or buying the bigger pots to grow more stuff in. (The recycled coke bottles didn't work out so well.)

Speaking of plants and such... Becky and I tried to go for something more of an adventure this last weekend. We attempted to find the organic farm up the mountain. Unfortunately, we did not connect with the owner. Maybe this weekend.

We did however get to eat at the Baptist Mission. It is always nice to go up the mountain, since it is always so much cooler, and just a really nice place to get out, eat, walk around, and feel relaxed.

They even have a small zoo. A Haitian class of students perused the zoo while we walked through, and the small monkey entertained us all. The kids' reaction to the monkey entertained us the most. After visiting the single monkey, peacocks, and goats, we meandered down a delightful path through the forest. Being surrounded by green is a luxury we do not always have in Port-Au-Prince. Though we have the tremendous advantage of the property we live on, our trees have lately been covered with a thick coat of gray brown dust. (I drove the motorcycle this morning and came back with a thick coat of gray brown dust.) Add the heat down here, and the mountains are so much more delightful.

So we walk down the flower flanked trail, large green trees on both sides, steep wall to one side, and a sharp incline down the other. We stop to take a picture.

Pick a flower, and place in the hair of my beautiful pregnant wife.

We continue to enjoy the beauty of God's creation, and around the bend in the distance notice a peculiar construction... Is it a water trough to guide water away?

Upon closer inspection, it becomes more apparent. It is the trash chute used by the mission. I shouldn't and wasn't too surprised. It's juxtaposition threw me however. The view above...

The view from the chute...

The view of the ravine below the chute...

The trash did not surprise me all that much. Some things in Haiti just are. Trash is one of them. I keep trying to find the bright spots. Big trucks pick up trash. Old ladies carry huge bags of empty plastic bottles on their head. Fires are set to trash piles to reduce bulk. Trash on broken sidewalks next to businesses remain swept into the gutter. I compost.

Oh, Haiti! How you continue to challenge my view of things. Just one more thing I get to think about, ponder, and wonder about the possibilities.

You Might be Celebrating Thanksgiving in Haiti if...

by Jimmy

...you gorge yourself so much on Beth McHoul's feast that you don't eat dinner.

...visiting friends only a couple miles away takes 40 minutes to drive between them.

...Skype is how you celebrate with your family.

The Heartline Academy kids came up with a list of 30 of their own Thanksgiving in Haiti lines, and presented them to the masses that came to Beth's widely known and more widely coveted Thanksgiving meal. I started counting people and stopped at 50, as that was just when the food table opened up and everyone started to move around. Needless to say, many went uncounted. The kids performed wonderfully. I was a little surprised at how nervous I was for them, with that many people present.

(photo stolen from Heather, as our camera battery failed after 3 not-so-great pictures)

Also, to stay with Burton family tradition, for my holiday days off, I worked on the yard and my garden in particular. I spent Wednesday hauling dirt 100 yards in a wheelbarrow, shoveling that dirt into two 5 gallon buckets, and carrying them up a flight of stairs, then up to the roof on a stepladder, and concrete ledge to my waiting garden bed. After only about 32 buckets of dirt, the bed lies nearly full. I am so excited. I keep thinking that we will have fresh vegetables that I will actually eat in just 3 months time. We will see how that pans out, both in HAVING something and then EATING some of them. I will remain, however, an optimist.

As I was finishing that evening, the birds came to roost like usual in the tree just outside our door.

One of the birds became a bit ambitious and tried to roost higher in the tree than others.

It caught its leg in between two branches, so of course being the kind, considerate soul I am I laughed and called my wife to share this moment.

... and mounted a rescue.

Of course I had to stop and pose with the dumb bird before releasing it from its perch. As dumb as those birds are, I still so thoroughly enjoy having them around, feeding them, and watching them. Thank you Barney and Joanna for the opportunity to first raise them.

And there is my recycled garden bed, just waiting to be planted. I like it.

Changes....

Well here's one change - the baby inside me is growing so much! Blows my mind every time I think about the fact that God is growing - knitting together- a little person, our child, inside of me.... how awesome.

Cabrit yo

This weekend Jimmy went with a Haitian friend to buy some goats.

He'd been talking about getting a goat since we got it here.

However, he may have never actually done it without his mom's encouragement.

When she visited a couple weekends ago they talked goats and she told him he needed to get one and she wanted to buy it for him as her contribution to our "farm". So she had him talk to people about what it would take to get one and left money to buy a goat for us.

So since them Jimmy has been reading and talking and thinking goats.

The Haitian who is in charge out at the property we live at has apparently been wanting a goat too, so they went together and Jimmy bought both a male and female goat and the Haitian bought another female goat. The hope is that the goats will help "mow" Jimmy's lawn that he has been working so hard on, provide free fertilizer, milk and baby goats - not to mention lots of entertainment. Although I have heard horror stories about goats, so far they seem to be quiet and well tempered, somewhat ambivalent toward us, but atleast not obnoxious.

I'm sure Jimmy will want to tell more later, but for now, here they are.

"Cookies and Cream" - or Cece

"Milky Way"And "Snickers"

Baby Burton Update

23 weeks today.

That means only 18 weeks to go (give or take a few).... crazy.

When the baby was measured this week at my pre-natal he was 22cm long- right on target.

He has reached the active stage where I feel him moving around and kicking throughout the day.

This is fun.

I am feeling very well - no more nasuea, able to take my vitamins and gaining good weight.

Supposedly I am at the "best" point in pregnancy and should enjoy it while I can before I get as huge as a house. :o)

We found out this week that there have been some changes and we won't be able to deliver the way we had hoped... so we are praying and discussing our current options for delivery. Please pray for wisdom for us and just the right birth for our little one.

A "baby belly" pic:

Daily Life in Haiti

by Jimmy

One day as I was completing some small chores around the house, I thought of the many small Haiti chores that come along with living here. Chores here are very necessary, but things you may never think of in the States. I took some pictures to document.

Electricity: So many things here are related to electricity including the water. We have our electronics center...

Our inverter charges our batteries (which are on just the other side of the wall behind the inverter) whenever we have EDH (city power). EDH comes on for 8 a day at the most. Zero hours per day for 3-4 days at the worst. Task for the inverter is to constantly monitor electricity usage so as to not drain our batteries too quickly, turn it off once the batteries get to low, and then move on to the generators.

At night I turn on the small gas powered generator if needed so as to not disturb the neighbors. The big one I turn on during the day to charge our batteries. Going to buy gas or diesel are probably once a week chores. Making sure we have electricity to power our fans and fridge tops out the priority list.

When we have to run off the small generator, the floor of our apartment suddenly turns into a maze of wires. (Actually it stays a maze of wires, we just have to rearrange the maze.)

And just to make sure we do not use too much energy, I had to unscrew the big round bulbs and install one energy efficient bulb.

We did experience a 4 or 5 day drought of electricity in which we received rain every day, but could not get water to the top of our two story storage tank. So we had to improvise and move the big generator around to our water pump. I was starting to get a little worried when our massive water tank in the ground got to half full, and we still could not run our well pump even with our big generator. Fortunately, EDH came on that day. One more chore though, is to make sure we have a full tank of water, and if not, run the pump when we have electricity.

And even though we have a well, I still have to go to the store every 3 days or so to purchase drinking water. If I go in the afternoon, there are a group of young boys who are glad to escort me across the busy street for "one dolla". I must insist that I can do it on my own.

There are several nightly routines that I follow. The first is to brush my teeth, without tap water of course.

Then shower with our always trickle of water. Literally we have the water pressure of next to nothing. Wash one arm and then the other...

I must make sure we have ice for the next day. No automatic ice maker, and all filled by hand.

The evening starts with a visit right at 6:00 from our night guard. I store the shotgun in the apartment until he comes by to pick it up and hopefully not use it until 6:00 the next morning. It's hit or miss whether or not he has to use it.

After the wonderful supper my amazing wife cooks I will (most of the time) do dishes. Our tiny one bowl sink will barely hold anything, so we had to adapt. Two big plastic bowls are now our sink. One for cool to lukewarm dish soap water, and the other for bleached rinse water. And after we are done, I have to dispose of the bleach water downstairs so as to not mess up our septic system.

Some nights, (not too often), we bring out the TV and watch a movie borrowed from friends. We have computer speakers now, so we don't have to lay right next to the laptop speakers in order to hear it. We did have a treat the other night and made two big bowls of popcorn. Never knew learning how to pop corn in the pan as a kid would turn out so handy.

And finally bedtime... The biggest responsibility of the evening lies in securing the castle against flying invaders. A quickly learned mosquito net lesson has turned into nightly routine. You MUST tuck in the bottoms of the net between the mattresses all the way around. Or somehow the mosquitoes who stay under the bed during the day will find their way inside.

We sleep well, secure from flying bloodsuckers, the fans right next to our ears drowning out the preacher next door who extols loudly, or the horns honking, or the roosters crowing. Wishful thinking on the rooster. He is up bright and early at 4:30, almost just in time for me to get up and accept the shotgun back at 6:00. Sunshine at 5:30 and another day of routines begins.

Live by Faith

Live by faith - song by Chris Rice

I can’t feel You movin’ inside
I don’t hear Your voice whisperin’ in the night
And I’ve never seen You with these eyes
Am I a fool, am I just a fool?
They ask how I follow what I can’t see
Why I trust in a love that my arms won’t reach
I don’t need You, don’t need You, to prove it to me
I’ll be a fool, yes I’ll be a fool

‘Cause blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin’ but never receive

Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin’ on

Holdin’ on for another day

‘Cause that’s what it means to live by faith

So I cry for Your help while the world looks on
And they laugh at my hope when all hope is gone
But I’ll just keep prayin’ when answers won’t come
Am I the fool, am I just a fool
For standing alone while they mock Your name

"Well if your God is so good, tell us why all the pain?"
I’m not sure, not so sure that God is to blame
So don’t be a fool, please don’t be a fool

‘Cause blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin’ but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin’ on
Holdin’ on for another day

‘Cause that’s what it means to live by faith

In a world where our questions are haunted
‘Cause life’s not as fair as we all wanted
Where the innocent die, we ask why
And still we await the reply...

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin’ but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin’ on

Holdin’ on for another day
‘Cause that’s what it means...it means holdin’ on for another day
‘Cause that’s what it means to live by faith
Yes that’s what it means to live by faith
That’s what it means to live by faith, to live by faith...

This is what we talked about at church today. Active faith. That moves from our head (believing He exists) to our hearts (trusting him unconditionally because of his character and judging all circumstances by what we know of Him, not judging him by our circumstances) to our wills and hands and feet (obedience to him being more important than any other pursuit in order that we would bring Him glory)

Don't we all need more faith?..... The righteous shall live by faith. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can move mountains. Faith is confidence in what we hope for. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

A few prayer requests:

Jimmy and I have been focusing more on studying Creole and our goal is to have a good grasp of it by Christmas. Pray that we would be committed to putting in the work and for God's grace to help us learn.

We have been praying since before we came that the Lord would make it clear if he has any particular work for us to do in addition to teaching the Heartline children. Please pray for wisdom as we continue the think through this question and remain open to whatever he may have and for faith to obey in anything he would ask.

There is a team of 10 in from Austin this week helping with some different projects. Pray for them and a fruitful trip.

Pray for the teen mom house. 3 of the moms just had their babies!