Saturday trip to the country

We loaded on the school bus (it's literally a yellow school bus from Michigan) and traveled to KaMaurich. It is a rural beachfront property, housing a small church. There had been other buildings that were flooded out. The area is beautiful. Mountains surround an inlet that is a lovely beach. We witnessed fishermen hauling in a net. Jesse, Lynn Scheerhorn's son stepped up and helped pull the nets in. The fishermen did not want us to take pictures but since Jesse was helping they allowed us to snap a few. The nets did not yeild much of a catch and the few fish caught were very small. This is another challenge. The waters are fished out. As they continue to catch the small fish there is no way for them to grow to produce more fish.
The group climbed the mountain to catch a beautiful view of the surrounding terrain. Joan and I stayed back to watch over the backpacks and cameras. The fact is we were just a little tired and it was a good excuse! I was able to snap a few good pictures of bananna trees in blosson with fruit growing. Not someting I see every day. After the climb most of the team took a swim and collected shells. The locals think it is cold here because it is spring. They were surprised to see the crazy blan (whites) swimming!
The hour long ride to and from this town was very interesting. There was a very large market on the way on both sides of the road. It was highly populated. There was livestock, food, sugar cane, tires, kitchen ware and everything else immaginable for sale. Many a buyer was seen with one or more livestock attached to a rope, pulling it toward home. Lots of donkeys with a rider and their purchases were carefully staying out of the way of speeding busses and transports of all kinds. The rules for driving in Haiti are a bit different than we are used to. Pedestrians do not have the right of way and horns are used to signal oncoming traffic. So picture the people, the vehicles and the animals all fighting for a bit of turf with lots of loud noise in 90+ degree temperature, on a two lane road with twists and turns, and farm animals staked out on the berm to graze while laundry is drying on the bushes you'll get a pretty accurate picture.
Saturday evening we went out to dinner at a restaurant. We pre ordered as the chef needed to purchase the food in advance. Restaurants are not commonly frequented so special plans were made for us. The menu was very eclectic. Creole, chinese, curry dishes and spagetti were some of the choices. Goat, lobster, shrimp, beef and conch were some of the ingredients. Everyone was quite satisfied with their meal. It was yet another great experience in a week of very many great experiences.