Our Work is our Purpose

Our work is done. It was completed yesterday. We no longer feel as though we've any reason to be here. Today we were tourists. We went to the mountains and visited the Baptise Mission again. We ate lunch there and also looked in the gift shop again. We had a tour of the greenhouse. No, we had atour of one of their greenhouses. The point that I foound most interesting was about the reforestation project they are working on. It is going to take a very long commitment to see it really take effect in the Hait mountain areas. There is a need to reforest, yet that does not provide a high level of economic return. It may be the most needed thing to do, for the sake of the future of the land. But the question remains, 'what about an income now?' So, the work has to be addressed from many angles. And that is the challenge.

We went also to St. Jacques Fort. It was a fort built after the French were defeated and the Haitians had won their freedom. The fort was built for protection from the likely attack of the French against the newly freed slaves.  It was an interesting piece of history. We had a tour guide who was very helpful.

The highest mountain in Haiti is, I believe, are 6,000 ft. high. That is quite high, considering that the Rocky Mountains are 11,000 plus feet high, but at the base of those mountains it starts at 7 or 8 or 9,000 ft. high. So elevation gain is quite a bit more for these mountains in Haiti than the ones in our own United States. That is impressive.

Looking at the mountains with the steep mountainsides coverd with terraced garden plots I find most inspiring. I feel like the bear who went over the mountain to see what he could see. They draw me to want to go to the other side, just for the satisfaction of my own curiousity.

Let me give you some of the pictures I took. May some of them draw you to a place of feeling inspired and yearning to go over the mountains in your life.