the best juice so far

While I was in Haiti, I was introduced to a yellowish round fruit that I'd never seen before. I hunted in my dictionary; no grenadia listed. No one I asked seemed to know, even the sisters. I wanted to find out because this was (and still is) at the top of my juice list. Well, I've finally found someone who knows: it's passionfruit. And based on a Google search, the yellow variety (there seem to be quite a few).

Here's how you make grenadia/passionfruit juice:

After washing the grenadia, you take the end of it off with a knife and scoop the inside into a strainer. It's a deep yellow-orange covering dark seeds, rather like a pomegranate, except that you don't eat the seed part. Add some sugar, which I am told helps detach the fruit from the seeds. Add water and sugar to taste. In Haiti, this usually means a lot of sugar, as it is a tart fruit, but I prefer it with just the sugar from the straining.

Fried Plaintain

Choose a plaintain. The riper it is, the sweeter it is; green ones taste more like potatoes, whereas the riper ones are a little more like bananas. I'd like to see if this works with bananas as we know them in the US, too.

Next, cut it up and squash each piece, top down so that the little brown bits are still in the center. My host family uses two wooden paddles. I wonder if a flat spatula on a cutting board would work.

Dip each piece in salt water before putting in the frying pan with plenty of olive oil. When they are crunchy on the outside, they are ready! Drain them. Paper towels would probably work well here.

Serve hot.

how to eat a mango

1. Learn to identify the sound of a falling mango: rustle-rustle-thump. Go collect it. Alternatively, wait for the winds before a big storm, stand beneath the mango trees, and make sure not to get hit by falling fruit.

2. Method one, learned at the Port-au-Prince convent: Slice end to end, starting at the wider end, off center (along the side of the flat center seed). Using a fruit knife, go around the edge of the fruit inside the skin, then cross-hatch. Eat with a grapefruit spoon, if available. Do the same to the other side. Then lose all sense of neatness by peeling the middle third by hand and just having at it with your teeth. Go wash your hands and face. Don't even begin to think that a cloth napkin will suffice for cleanup.
3. Method two, learned in Darbonne: without making a cut in the mango, bang it on all sides till it becomes mushy inside. Make a small hole in the skin at the top, and drink the mango pulp from it.

4. Method three: Peel it with your teeth - or for those of us who are a little fussier, with a knife - and just eat. Over a sink, if possible.

5. Have a hose ready. Perhaps you should have eaten that mango while wearing a bathing suit...

6. Bliss!

7. Start listening for that rustle, rustle, thump! Surely there must be another mango around here somewhere!

Dancing Down the Aisle

As I got online just now, I found the following video on the Yahoo homepage:

http://video.yahoo.com/watch/5606140/14713924

It's of a wedding procession in which the wedding party, men and women alike, dance down the aisle, mostly in couples. And it's spreading quickly on the Internet.

Well, Haiti thought of it first.

I've been meaning to write a blog entry on wedding traditions here, and this has motivated me to do so.

The wedding at which I preached had the most beautiful set of dancers - eight couples doing a sort of half-dance, half rhythmic march to recorded music. They stopped when they were all in and danced in the aisle. It reminded me of a minuet or a stately Virginia reel. This is a traditional part of the service.

Next there was a couple with the woman dressed as a bride (but not as fancily); this couple did a more complicated dance with turns. Right before or after them (I've forgotten) was a little flower girl dressed as a bride, with two more women up front similarly dressed (known as annonceuses or premieres mariees preceding the bride herself). Then there were a couple of little ringbearers, a boy and a girl (again, dressed as a little bride). It is my understanding that these annonceuses are a newer tradition, but one that has become typical here.

Finally, after all the dancing couples and children were in, they formed a line on either side of the aisle, where they had stayed after dancing. They made an arch overhead, rather like the Virginia reel, with the bridesmaids' flowers held above.

The bride and her godmother came through the arch to greet the groom and the godfather, who had processed in with the clergy from the sacristy and were waiting up front. The four of them sat facing each other in chairs set on a large square white quilted pad, two on one side, two on the other, while the rest of the wedding party sat in the front pews. I never did figure out who the parents were, assuming any were there.

There were a couple of special kneeling rugs for the couple, as I recall, but I no longer remember if it was for the blessing or for some other part of the service.

An interesting note:

It is the tradition in Haiti to have godparents for more events than your baptism. Even graduating classes are given nominal godparents. However, godparents for a couple getting married are not only witnesses, but people to whom the couple should be able to turn for advice down the road. They are expected to attend at least one of the premarital counseling appointments as well. In this case, one of them had to come in from far away and was given a waiver, but Margarette and I did the premarital counseling session (a first for both of us seminarians) with the couple and the godfather beforehand.

There was the usual exchange of rings and vows according to the Book of Common Prayer (French translation).

One tradition I had never seen before and which I really liked was at communion: the bride gave the groom communion, and the groom gave it to the bride. As the sacrament of unity, it seemed very appropriate on some level, though I will confess I haven't spent the time to think through the theology of it in any depth. Communion in Haiti is done by intinction: the priest or other person distributing communion dips the wafer in the wine and places it on the tongue of the recipient. (It felt odd to me at first, but since my hands get dusty unbelievably quickly here, I was soon grateful.) As a result, it looked a little bit like an American bride and groom feeding each other wedding cake, but with so much more significance and reverence.


All in all, it was a lovely wedding. I wish Thania and Jhonson (no, that is not a typo) much happiness. Keep this young couple in your prayers as they grow together.

views from the hills above Port-au-Prince

In the first photo, you get a good idea of downtown Port-au-Prince and its harbor. You can see the Palais National, the big white building to the left. Moving to the right about half way across is a huge pyramidal (almost conical) monument whose significance is unclear to those I've asked. On the right is the pink and white Roman Catholic cathedral.

Now, for those of you who have been wondering where we are, you have to look a little harder. In between the monument and the RC cathedral is the Episcopal Cathedral, Sainte Trinite. Look for a rust-colored roof. It's below the last harbor crane and just above a large office building.

The second photo gives you a view of the ships going and coming from the port.

heavy laden

People are carrying heavy burdens.

What can we do to share the load?

it was a dark and stormy night...

...in Darbonne a week ago Monday. I was in Port-au-Prince, where it was less stormy, so I missed the excitement when the tree came down right next to the rectory.







Yes, he is cutting up those logs and branches with a machete. No chainsaw. Hard, hot work.