The agricultural exposition

This has been planned for months so I was anxious to check it out, not least because our rabbit raisers are planning to show off their rabbits.  Hope they find some buyers!

Today I visited the exposition for the first time, but I will have to return with gourdes.  Dieunico accompanied me to help explain everything, mostly in Kreyol. Today is a holiday in memory of a Haitian forefather named Jean Jacques Dessalines so there is no school  The speakers play kompa music loud enough to be heard at the presbytere (the rectory).  I would like to upload a short movie but I know the slow internet connection won’t allow that so I will have to settle for some photos.

The little sisters (Petite Soeur) a religious congration has increased the number of products they make.  They had all kinds of wines including parsley wine, wine from grenadine, mixed fruit wine that includes orange and others I would never have thought you could make wine from.  Note the "Ora et Labora" on the labels!  They also had a pomade for hair and a body cream made from papaya. 

The sisters also had a purse made from some kind of plastic table cloth that is quite attractive. 

I asked for a sample of the parsley wine because I couldn’t even imagine what it would taste like.  We were invited to the sisters’ house for a taste.  I think it had more alcohol than most wines, kind of like a sweeter wine like a port.  It had an unusual taste but was good.  I don’t think it tastes much like parsley!

Another booth on the large porch outside the primary classrooms had many kinds of jewelry, necklaces, bracelets and earrings as well as small handmade purses. 

There were several stands that had agricultural products such as pomdete (potatoes), patat (sweet potatoes), Malaga (?) Looks like another kind of sweet potato), chadek (tastes like grapefruit), papaye (papaya) tomat (tomatoes), kan (sugar cane) and ananas (pineapples).  Another booth had prepared foods including what looked to be peanut brittle, corn bread, and an assortment of preserves and peanut butter.  They also had sweet milk which I presume is made from canned evaporated milk and sugar, a kind of sweetened condensed milk.  As far as I know, there are no dairy cattle in Haiti, so the only kind of milk is either non-fat milk powder or canned condensed milk.

Another booth had prepared “chako” a kind of soup made from black beans and corn and apparently some kind of squash that we couldn’t find an English translation for.  The corn reminded me of hominy.  The soup was good!

I visited someone exhibiting rabbits, but unfortunately, no one has bought any.  In fact, there are few visitors to the exposition unfortunately!

Another thing I observed is common in Haiti, but somehow unbelievable: people making gravel by hand.  They take a hammer and a large rock and pound it into ever smaller pieces.  Many people earn their living this way.  Incredibly hard work beginning with hauling the large rocks to the continual hammering!