I decided to document my day in photos, with a bit of commentary. Just an ordinary-miracle kind of day, here in Fort-Liberté, Haïti. Beautiful sun, shared laughs and plenty of sweetness ;-)

 

Wake up to blue skies and my room, as seen through the mosquito netting.

My first thought is to see my plants. Here is my mini balcony garden, and view from balcony (into the neighbouring high school).

I recently planted a baby avocado tree (about 5 months old) which inspired me to start more avocado trees. This is how you start ’em… prop the seed up in water until it sprouts roots and leaves and then transplant to soil (in pot or otherwise).

and I get excited when the beans start to flower.

This is my bathroom. No more to say here. Y’all know what these are for :-)

This is my morning yoga session on the roof.

This is the panoramic view from my roof. Ahh. Mmm. Yay. The Bay in particular is yay.

 

My car (shared with colleague) parked; our street.

Rodlin, nephew of the manager of the house I’m renting. Helps us out plenty. Like when we need to pump water from the underground bassin to the storage tank on the roof. This morning he took care of that for us too.

 

The little store across the street. Nadege smiling from ear to ear as she heads back from the market with fresh food… potatoes, spinach, mangos, papaya…

I’m at the office now. Here’s Olivier behind the receptionist’s desk printing out some docs…

 

and here is Pono enjoying a morning coffee. He’s our go-to guy for just about everything… power, mechanical stuff, rental, errands, cheque deposits.. you name it, this guy can do it.

 

Myriel, the cleaning lady at the Chamber.

 

A rare treat, vice-president of the BOD stops by for a morning visit. He’s headed to an important conference in Limonade.

A rare day where I get to enjoy my lunch at home. Nadege has prepared delicious spinach and beef casserole with fresh potatoes. So good !!

This is ‘Rue la Paix’ (Peace street) that I walk up and down a dozen times a day to get from home to work and back again.

On a conference call, in the (relative) quiet of home.

Needed to get to the library to extend a book loan. I met Jean who gave me a lift. Turns out he speaks Spanish even though he’s never been to a Spanish speaking country. “I have a ton of books at home and I learned all of the vocabulary like that”. I am freakin’ impressed by Jean’s linguistic abilities.

Next to the library there is a small TV and radio station. This is Willinx, who runs the show and also happens to have bee-hives on top of his building. He promised me honey last week, but his wife gave my bit away to someone else. So today I got my fresh honey harvested for me right in front of my eyes. Fresh, unpasteurized, straight from the hive. Sooo good !!!

Here’s Willinx suiting up for the extraction.

He says he took over the bee-keeping tradition after his father passed away.

 

All of this delicious honey for me !!! Here it comes, comb and all. We were snacking on it in the meanwhile, of course.

 

Here’s a view from Willinx roof, right near the entry to Fort-Liberté.  Here you can see beyond to the rice fields past the city. And way yonder… the mountains.

 

Back at home and winding down the day with colleague, friend, roommate, Ruth.