Day 11 - Quite a trek!

This is what the sky looked like last night.  I like to think of it as a "Mango Sky."  Nice huh.

This morning it took a little while to get organized.  We're used to being on our way somewhere by 8:00am, but this morning maybe closer to 9:00 we headed for Las Cahobas.  This is where a Foursquare church operates high up a mountain.  It takes about 1 hour to walk up there if you're a Hatian (who climb like mountain goats) or 2 hours if you're a "blanc" (with the exception of Barry Hansen.)

Thankfully we only went up to the new property that Foursquare purchased for the church.  It's only about 45 minutes for us, but that pushed Jana's cramping leg and my pounding heart to the max.  Of course, the equipment and 5 gallon water bottle were brought up by the pastor and one of his buddies.  They hardly broke a sweat when one was carrying a full water bottle and the other was carrying about 80lbs worth of accessories for their tent.  Frantz was carrying a yellow weather-proof case called a "Sunshine Box".  With the solar panel inside, battery and interfaces, they can have LED lighting and charge cel phones.  Otherwise there's no electricity at the new location nor higher up.

What a view from their property though!!!

It really is quite spectacular.  While we were up there, we had a couple of candies for a boy and girl who dared to come close enough.  A few others just enjoyed the blanc-show from a distance.

Oh, yea, GOATS.  On our way up, we saw a mother goat with a freshly born kid.  It had to have been born today based on ... oh, never mind it's kinda gross.  Just take our word for it.  That was really one cute kid.  And then while we were working on diagnosing tent problems one of the fellow's wives came-by with a big aluminum bowl on her head.  In the bowl was a goat leg for dinner.  (DODGER, NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!)  The lower leg still had fur and a hoof on it.  I was told that leaving it thus, ensures the purchaser that it is indeed a goat-shank and not dog.

Anyhoo, on a more pleasant note (not really for some) while we spread-out the canopy for the tent to assess the holes and determine what needed to be done to repair it, this little guy crawled across it...

Returning down the hill we passed a few homes.  This one is a typical Hatian house.  Besides the huge ones that we saw going up the hill to Pastor Bellande's orphanage, I'd say 97% of homes are about 300 square feet or less.  Jana commented that we really could make do with a smaller home.

Oddly enough many of the nicer homes along main routes and in nicer neighborhoods are incomplete, and we never see anyone working on them.  You wonder if they've been abandoned or maybe had been partially built when the earthquake hit and its' owners left the country.  I'm not sure...

This had to have been one of the most beautiful drives we've done.  The mountains are lush and fertile.  When we pried the tent stakes out of the ground, it was nothing but rich black soil.  On the way we went past a place called "Terre Rouge".  They have a few quarries here with white & red banded earth that they're excavating.

Tomorrow is our final full day!  

Hope to see you all very soon and hear from you about your adventures!!!