February in Review

It is so hard to believe another month has already flown by! Thank you all so much for your ongoing encouragement and support as we continue work here on La Gonave. February has seen a lot of continued work in the Aquaponics and nursing arenas.

One big role we play with the Aquaponics garden is to find and fix issues that are unique to the Haitian environment we live in. It seems like we have found a lot in this month! We have had an infestation of little red worms that love to eat the roots of plants, especially cabbage- a favorite at the Village. These worms have been a mystery, but we think they may be mosquito larva or somehow connected to the mosquitoes. We have been working to get rid of the pests and save plans, but it is a slow process. We have started to plant a lot of new plants to replace those that died (416 cabbage seeds yesterday!) and are hoping for a clean start. Nicolas and the older kids at the Children’s Village have continued to work so hard on and take ownership of this project. We have seen a lot of good growth in the garden this month, too. We have loved having both large and cherry tomatoes and have seen lots of growth in the fish!

A sad cabbage plant after attack of the red worms :(

One of our very tasty tomatoes

Our HUGE fish ready for their March 1st weighing

A few of the kids helping to haul a harvest up to the kitchen

I, Allison, have continued to work with both the Haitian and American nursing students. I am loving the opportunity to teach this students the profession of nursing, not only skills, but caring well for patients and the importance of education. This is a very stretching process as the clinical focus for the American students started out with maternal/newborn care and is now pediatrics, neither of which I have had experience in since school. Needless to say, I am also learning a lot!

At the beginning of February, we had the great opportunity to participate in the annual Summit meeting of many organizations doing work all over the island of La Gonave. It was another opportunity to see we are not laboring alone here, get new ideas, and see how we can collaborate to achieve more. Jason did an amazing job sharing with the group about the Aquaponics system- his stretching experience for the month!

Jason presenting at Summit

Another of our hopes is to use our home as a guesthouse to welcome teams to Anse-a-Galets and host other missionaries who are in town. We had the opportunity to host some other missionaries and translators for Summit. It is a challenge to host in this place that still seems so new to us in so many ways, but we have enjoyed the opportunity to open our home, build new friendships, and serve in this way.

The Janofski's with us and the Tucker family, who stayed with us for Summit

We so appreciate your prayers and ask that you would continue to pray for our focus to be on the Lord, that we would show His grace in every situation, for discernment in thinking about taking on additional work/projects, and wisdom as we work in the garden.