“I will like to take you to de prayer place,” Kervens said as he took hold of my hand to lead me across the orphanage property. Several boys joined us along the way, until we came to the ‘Prayer Place’, a small clearing of land on the top of a cliff that overlooked the ocean. “Dis is where we come to pray.”With the beautiful Canal du Sud in view, we thanked God for His love for us. We thanked Him for caring for our physical and spiritual needs.
We finished with an ‘amen’ and the boys went back to their usual antics. Caleb, however, scurried up a tree. “He bring for you benzolive,” said Kervens. “Ben-zo-live?” I asked. “Wi.” This was not a Creole word I had learned. So I looked up at Caleb, who was now clear above our heads, climbing a skinny, gnarled tree whose small leaves I could not identify from the ground. Then I saw the flowers, the clusters of small, yellow-white flowers that could only belong to...could it be?!? Moringa!!!
Caleb came down with a large branch of moringa leaves which I quickly divided amongst us. “Manje, manje, sa se bon bagay!” I said. Eat, eat, this is good stuff! The boys looked puzzled, but after seeing me chew on the leaves, they all took a bite. Judging from their faces they did not like it. I was not surprised. Haitians, I had learned, did not like moringa.
On my first trip to Haiti, I brought with me several packages of Moringa Oleifera seeds. I was so excited to give them to Enock, the orphanage farmer, currently enrolled in a Haitian horticultural program. Moringa, considered to be one of the most nutritious plants on the planet, is a true superfood. In poverty stricken areas of Africa, moringa is grown because of it’s superior nutrient content - 92 vitamins, 46 antioxidants, high in protein, amino acids and omega 3's - and has helped reduce malnutrition and mortality rates during famine. Health food stores in America sell the powdered leaves for upwards of $50 a pound! The best news is that moringa is indigenous to Haiti and grows like a weed on the island. I was sure this Haitian farmer would be delighted to get these seeds for the orphanage.
Enock held the precious seeds in his hands. “Oh, I know what dis is. Benzolive. Yes, we feed dis to kabrit la.”
“The goats? You feed this to the goats? No, my friend....sa se bon mange pou moun. People should eat this!!!”
My Haitian farmer and his friends chuckled. "People don't eat dis." They then gave me that look. The look I was becoming accustomed to. The “ke blan femn se fou” look. The ‘that white woman is crazy’ look.
I may be crazy, but I am also stubborn. On my next trip to Haiti, I brought even more moringa seeds to Enock. He was still not impressed. I offered to sprout them during my stay and plant a hedgerow, as moringa makes a great edible fence. The seeds never made it back to the orphanage to sprout. Enock always ‘forget.’
I pledged to bring back more Moringa seeds on my next trip, but this time with a well made plan. I was determined to get seeds in the ground. I once read that Johnny Appleseed purposefully planted apple tress all over America in the early 1800's. If Johnny Appleseed could do it, so could I. Somehow I could convince Haitians that moringa is bon bagay...
On my last day in Haiti, we were driving our pick-up to Port. It was market day outside of Grande Goaves and we were stuck in traffic. Looking out my window, I saw it......a HUGE flowering moringa tree on the side of the road! “Benzolive...benzolive!” I jumped out of the truck and grabbed a branch. I went to the back of the truck and offered some to my friends. They politely refused. Enock was in the truck. “Kristi, Kristi...,” he said, shaking his head, embarrassed. He took a small cluster of leaves, obviously to be polite, then hid them in his hand and lowered it out of sight. I soon realized why.
Across the street from us was a group of young men sitting on the side of the road. They saw me jump out of the truck - I’m easy to spot in Haiti - and eat from the tree. They were now hysterical laughing. Almost doubled over, each of them. They laughed and pointed at me, and I knew just enough Creole to understand. “Look at that stupid, foolish white woman. She is eating what is for the goats. She will give herself a stomach ache. She is crazy! Li fe fou!” When I got back in the truck, my driver Meschac confirmed what they had been saying. Now he was obviously embarrassed and quickly drove us away from the tree and out of town. I turned the radio up. We drove along Route Nationale #2 and I ate the whole branch of moringa myself. The leaves were sweet and nourishing...
I started thinking during that drive. Where exactly is the disconnect here? In Haiti, one thing is for certain. You will encounter disconnects, inconsistencies and complexities. Now here was another I needed to ponder: Haitians go hungry, they are malnourished. They have little to no export crops. And yet, growing wild on their island is a nutritious superfood that Americans are willing to pay big bucks for. However, if you eat it, you are called crazy and are made fun of. This confused me, but I knew there had to be an answer in His Word.
I thought of this:
“What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.” 1 Cor 15:46
The Apostle Paul was talking of the first Adam, a natural man, and Jesus, a spiritual man. There is a principle here: the lower life proceeds the higher. Things that we see in nature seem to reveal what is going on in the spirit. Jesus often used farming analogies to prove spiritual points: the sower and the seed, the grain of wheat, the mustard seed, the budding and barren fig tree, the flowers of the field.
So why do Haitians prefer things like 'Miami rice' and white bread - nutritionally void foods - over something like moringa, one of the most nutritionally life-giving foods on the planet? Why do they spend their money on what is not good for them? Why do they dismiss something good for them and feed it to the goats?
Jesus posed a similar question when he spoke,
“They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13
I found this to be very true in Haiti. Despite the tremendous number of Christian missionaries and churches and Bibles and VBS’s that come to Haiti, I did not find many Christians there. The people practiced vodun. The churches practiced vodun. The children practiced vodun. Haitians loved vodun, not Jesus.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21
Haiti is a country that has not chosen life. They have not chosen natural life and they have not chosen eternal life. Physically and spiritually, Haitians are perishing.
I think about Johnny Appleseed, real name: John Chapman. Chapman, an American pioneer and eccentric horticulturist, provided food, cider and agribusiness to thousands of American settlers. He was also a Christian. Chapman saw himself as planting not only seeds but the word of God. He believed everything on earth corresponds directly to something in the afterlife, so the natural world and the spiritual (or mystic) world are intimately interwoven...An apple tree in bloom is both a natural process and a "living sermon from God."” (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2141/whats-the-story-with-johnny-appleseed)
Hmmm. On my next trip to Haiti, I will bring even more moringa seeds. Johnny Appleseed believed that if you study and love nature, it would promote your spiritual growth. Perhaps I just need to start putting seeds in the ground and see who would like to join me. Perhaps the boys and I will plant some more trees at the “Prayer Place.” Let the others laugh. Let them call us crazy. People thought John Chapman was crazy. Yet he almost single handedly fed the new nation of America naturally...and spiritually...because of the seeds that he sowed.
“Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Deut 30:19
To learn more about moringa, please watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcZzUkevbao&feature=related
If you would like to buy moringa products, please consider donating seeds to Haiti:
http://moringafarms.com/products/
Email me for more information: krisglow@yahoo.com
