09/06/08

Today we went downtown to do a little shopping. By shopping, I mean the bare minimum as there really isn’t much to buy. We went to two grocery stores which are smaller than most convenient stores and I bought a few bags of coffee. After that we went to a plant store. A plant store in Haiti is basically like walking into a person’s property where they have plants in pots that you can buy. It isn’t a designated business like in the States. For the most part, every business is attached or part of a person’s home. At the first plant store we went to, the person was using 5 gallon water jugs for pots. They use the water jugs that are used for in-home water coolers. They cut the funneled top off, filled the bottom with dirt, and then drill holes in the sides for excess water to drain out. To minimize waste, they take the top which was cut off and flipped it upside down which at this point looks just like a funnel. They take these and drill three small holes in them where they will put wire through to create a hanging basket.

After the first plant store, we went down the street a little and went into another plant store which had a little better variety. When we were walking around back, I noticed a star fruit tree. Of course I wasn’t going to buy the tree as it was nearly full size and bearing fruit, so I asked if I could buy a single star fruit. The woman there asked a man (who I assume might have been her son) to take one down. She gave it to me and said it was a gift, then proceeded to tell me to keep the seeds so I could plant my own. I have the seeds, but haven’t planted them yet. I will very soon!