02/21/09

This morning my roommate, Jonny, and I were planning on going on a hike, but we had woken up to find that it had rained through the night. Normally, that wound't make a difference, but around here, things stay muddy for a long time after a rain since there is so much bare ground. Instead of going for a hike early this morning we just got a few things done around the house. I had some tests to grade so I spent some time going over them. A few hours later we wanted to get out and do something.

I called Thom and we decided to head over to a nearby fort. It is only about a twenty minute walk, so it didn't take too long to get there. I guess there isn't much history on the fort, but it was once controlled by the French and then taken over by the Haitians. It was very old and had begun to fall apart. One wall had fallen off and was lying on the coral just off the shore. You could see that when it was built there was a lot of coral used instead of rock to mix within the concrete.



We spent some time hanging out on top of the fort and then headed back down to where an old powder room was. I took a few pictures, but didn't go inside. The room was fairly small, but the unfortunate part was that it was filled with trash so it wasn't worth going in. Below is a picture of my friend Brennan shoving me into the powder room.




On the way back, we were walking down the street and Thom noticed a lady who was selling a number of things outside her home. She didn't have a lot, but she did have a nice variety. I was looking to buy some charcoal. From what I understand, charcoal here is made by first burying dry wood which is ignited and then covering it with freshly cut wood). This is then covered in sand to keep it smothering. I don't know the exact process, but the point is to burn it but not completely. This way you can cook with it without getting all the smoke that you would from regular wood. In any case, I bought some for the sole purpose of grinding it up and putting it in my compost mix. I have a compost pile I am using to get some rich soil for growing plants, trees, and vegetables. I haven't been able to grow too much with the poor soil that was in the pots that I have. It is mostly sand and what I want to grow isn't thriving like I want it to. I had bought the charcoal because wood charcoal has potassium (potash) which I need to add since I have a lot of coffee grounds that I put in as well. Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen so I am working on making a fairly balanced soil.

The woman was also selling coffee in little bags (enough to make a few cups of coffee). I bought one bag and when I made it, the coffee came out nice and rich. It was vary dark, but that was expected because the coffee grounds were black. I don't mean they were really dark brown, they were black. I almost thought they might have been burnt, but they hadn't been. I also bought some "tablet" which is like peanut brittle. I don't know if I spelled it correctly, but this stuff is very good. After I tried one, I turned around and bought half the container that she was selling. It was very good. It's just like peanut brittle, but not quite as hard.