Learning About Haiti

Many of you know that we are learning about world geography this year in our home school, using My Father's World Exploring Countries & Cultures. This is Jenny, she goes to our church, and she's from Haiti. She mentioned that she loved to cook, so I asked her if she'd come and cook us a traditional Haitian meal. The kids and I picked her up and headed to the grocery store for supplies: beans, rice, chicken legs, potatoes, beets, carrots, hot sauce, plantains... My kids had never tried a plantain!

I was full of questions about her country, like "What do kids play with in Haiti?"  Her answer was: "mostly the same things, but boys love playing soccer most, and girls like to play house".  Caleb wanted to know "What do you eat for breakfast?"  Her answer was: "scrambled eggs, bread, and spaghetti"  Hmm, my husband likes spaghetti for breakfast!

In Haiti, they speak french and creole. I went to Youtube and found Christian worship songs in french! I also went to Google to find pictures of Haiti. Sometimes, technology is awesome!

It took her 2 hours to cook! The kids were in and out of the kitchen, standing on chairs to see. They liked seeing her squish the plantains between two plates. We had rice with beans, chicken legs with a sauce, potato salad made with beets and carrots, and fried plantains with a spicy cabbage slaw to go on top of them. Caleb and Rebekah loved the fried plantains with the slaw. Even Matthew had a fried plantain! It was all delicious!

After she left, I read a page in our Windows on the World book abut Haiti and then we prayed for her country and her family. What a wonderful time we had. Thank you Jenny!