They're Back! Those Wonderful Church Bulletins! Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services (Summer, 2007 Release).
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The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.
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The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
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Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.
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Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.
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Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
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Miss Charlene Mason sang 'I will not pass this way again,' giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir They need all the help they ca n get.
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The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: 'Break Forth Into Joy.'
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Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
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A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.
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At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be 'What Is Hell?' Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
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Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
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The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thur sd ay morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. Is done.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
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The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan Last Sun day : 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Did you know?
Haiti (English pronounced /ˈheɪtiː/; French Haïti pronounced [aiti]; Haitian Creole: Ayiti), officially the Republic of Haiti (République d'Haïti ; Repiblik d Ayiti), is a French and Creole speaking Latin American country located on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, in the Greater Antilles archipelago. Ayiti (Land of Mountains) was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island. The country's highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft). The total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi) and its capital is Port-au-Prince.
Derivation of the name of the country
The name Haiti comes from the Taino word for the entire island of Hispaniola, Ayiti, Quisqueya or Bohio which means "Mountainous Land". The French staked their claim on the entire island based on the settlement of Tortuga and Gonave Islands by French pirates in the 15th and 16th centuries. The colony was officially incorporated by France in the early 1600s. By 1697, with the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick with Spain, the French took the western third of the island, which they named Saint-Domingue (a gallicization of the Spanish name, Santo Domingo ("Saint Dominic"). During this French colonial period, the colony earned the name “La Perle des Antilles” ("The Pearl of the Antilles") due to its economic prosperity and importance. The Spanish kept control of Santo Domingo on the eastern two-thirds of the island.
With the declaration of Saint-Domingue's independence from France on January 1, 1804, following the Haitian Revolution, Revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines restored the original Taino name as a symbolic gesture of honor to the Taino people and as defiance against European rule.
Now you know!
Haitian Currency! What it looks like!
The Gourde (HTG) is the official currency of Haiti. The gourde can be further subdivided into 100 centimes.
The gourde was formerly pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 5 gourdes to one US dollar. Since then, however, the gourde has been placed on a floating rate. In light of the former peg, five gourdes are often referred to as a "Haitian dollar." Five centimes, in similar nature, is referred to as a "Haitian penny." In select regions of Haiti, prices are denoted in Haitian dollars rather than gourdes and customers are left to multiply the dollars by five.
Haitian Coins - 1895
One gourde (Papa Doc) Papa Doc Duvalier Overprint
At the end of the Baby Doc Duvalier regime the one and two gourde note were over printed with a red circle and slash across it with the date of the end of the Duvalier regime—February 7, 1986—printed below in red [right>]. The overprint was placed over the image of Baby Doc on the 5 gourde note and his father the infamous Papa Doc, François Duvalier.
Subsequent notes were replaced with images of figures from the history of the Haitian Republic.
Source: http://www.travelinghaiti.com/haitian-currency.asp, http://www.gocurrency.com/countries/haiti.htm
The gourde was formerly pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 5 gourdes to one US dollar. Since then, however, the gourde has been placed on a floating rate. In light of the former peg, five gourdes are often referred to as a "Haitian dollar." Five centimes, in similar nature, is referred to as a "Haitian penny." In select regions of Haiti, prices are denoted in Haitian dollars rather than gourdes and customers are left to multiply the dollars by five.
Haitian Coins - 1895
One gourde (Papa Doc) Papa Doc Duvalier Overprint
At the end of the Baby Doc Duvalier regime the one and two gourde note were over printed with a red circle and slash across it with the date of the end of the Duvalier regime—February 7, 1986—printed below in red [right>]. The overprint was placed over the image of Baby Doc on the 5 gourde note and his father the infamous Papa Doc, François Duvalier.
Subsequent notes were replaced with images of figures from the history of the Haitian Republic.
Source: http://www.travelinghaiti.com/haitian-currency.asp, http://www.gocurrency.com/countries/haiti.htm
Haiti Cherie a song by Jacques Sauveur Jean
Hope you guys enjoy this music! The style is called Kompa. I will talk about our music style in a later post.
Revolution, Independence, and the New Year
Haiti's Soup Joumou
(e-SoupSong 32: December 1, 2002)
ONCE UPON A TIME, the people of Haiti had special cause to celebrate on New Year's Day. It was January 1, 1804, and after a savage 13-year struggle against their French masters, they had at last achieved independence.
What better way to celebrate than with the very soup they had been forbidden as slaves to eat? Ahhh, soup made from joumou, the delicious and aromatic pumpkin, so different from their usual daily allotment of precisely one ounce of salted meat or fish and one bottle of lemonade. During the independence celebration that happy day, so the story goes, a huge kettle of pumpkin soup was made in the city of Gonaïves, and everyone present was served a bowl. Why? A special communion to forever forge the bonds of brotherhood and commit to a bright national future.
I wish it had been that easy.
Haiti: that "pearl of the Antilles"; that "only successful slave uprising in the history of the world"; that "eldest daughter of France and Africa" that rejected its European heritage--it hasn't been an easy road. In fact, it's been said that far more blood has spilled there than sweat, and there's no counting the buckets of sweat that were shed by 700,000 slaves over 100 years on some 7,000 sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, and indigo plantations.
What nation today is routinely excluded from travel guides on the Caribbean? Haiti.
What nation has the lowest literacy rate in the Americas? Haiti.
What people, caught in the crosshairs of historical karma and environmental disaster, have the lowest daily calorie intake in the western hemisphere? Haitians.
From the time King Ferdinand of Spain congratulated Columbus on his Christmas day landfall near Cap Haïtien then declared open season on West Africans for his New World sugar plantations there, Haiti has been a land of warm and gracious people racked by violence and suffering.
Here's some history behind that heavily symbolic kettle of new year's soup: After the 1492 landfall, Spain stayed long enough to kill off the native Arawaks with Old World diseases, import sugar cane cuttings from the Canary Islands, and establish plantations with African slaves...but then left Haiti to the French in 1697 (Peace of Ryswyck) when she found easier pickings elsewhere in the New World.
France wasted no time. Under Kings Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, she transformed those depopulated mountains and valleys into cash crop factories of sugar, indigo, and cotton. How? With 2,500 African slaves in 1698...that jumped to 10,000 in 3 years...and to over 500,000 by 1791--culled largely from tribes in Congo, Angola, Dahomey, Guinea, and Senegal. Their treatment was so horrific, so inhuman, that I haven't the heart to tell. They died like flies and had to be constantly replaced by new shipments from Africa.
So what happened in 1789 when the French people rose up and proclaimed Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!? After all, the French National Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man clearly stated, "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights."
Oh, well. Ahem. National Assemblymen in Paris said, oh yes, we guess that means Haiti too...or at least the freed mulattoes there, those fine sons of Frenchmen and their African slaves. No way, said the racist colonialists in Haiti--and they conducted such a tough lobby that the National Assembly reversed itself in 1791.
Haiti's mulattoes could not believe their ears. It was the last straw. They immediately joined their education, knowledge, and considerable military experience to those 500,000 enslaved Africans--and Haiti exploded in revolt. In August 1791, Vodou priest Boukman Duffy convened slave rebel leaders in the forest overlooking Le Cap. Illuminated by flashes of lightening, they made incantations...they slit the throat of a pig and drank its blood...and they formally swore death to all blancs, which they carried out to the letter with pruning hooks, machetes, and fire. In November, Louis-Jacques Bauvais' mulatto troops attacked and burned Port-au-Prince, slaughtering whites wherever they found them. They sported white ears as cockades in their caps and committed atrocities against women and children I just don't have the heart to tell.
And that was just the start.
Great leaders arose to lead the revolution. Ill-fated Toussaint L'Ouverture, who died in a French prison lamented by poet Wordsworth: "Thy friends are exultations, agonies/And love, and man's unconquerable mind." Henri Christophe. Jean-Jacques Dessalines. And these former slaves led their people first against their colonial masters, in the name of the French Republic. Then against Spain and England, who pounced, chops slavering, when they saw the Pearl of the Antilles slipping from French hands. Then, finally, against France herself, when First Consul Napoleon sent brother-in-law Leclerc and 55,000 crack officers and men instructed to, as he confided to foreign minister Talleyrand, annihilate the government of blacks in Haiti and restore slavery at the first opportunity. "Rid us of these gilded Africans," Napoleon later said, "and we shall have nothing more to wish."
Thirteen long years, all told, of tit-for-tat torched cities, slit throats, scorched earth, attacks, betrayals, mass executions, sieges, torture, encirclements, and despair, not to mention 10,000 deaths from malaria and yellow fever. Dessalines' ultimate winning strategy: koupe tèt, boule kay, cut off the heads, burn down. In the end, some 300,000 Haitians died and 50,000 French--and in the end, the French were defeated. General Rochambeau was given 10 days to pack up his army and ship home.
Which brings us back, harrowed, to the dawn of 1804 and that kettle of soup joumou.
When the last French ship had cleared Le Cap, Dessalines sent word to Gérin at Les Cayes: "There is no more doubt, mon cher général, the country is ours, and the famous who-shall-have-it is settled." In Gonaïves, he divided up the war chest--8 gourdes per man; he dispersed his army to the principal towns; and he sat down with his generals "to ratify in ink what they had written in blood."
On January 1, 1804, people started gathering at dawn at Gonaïves' Place d'Armes. Dessalines mounted the Autel de la Patrie to speak. He recited the cruelties of their enslavement in Kreyol, so everyone could understand him, and he declared that Haitians would forever after live free and die free. "Long live independence!" he shouted at the end of the ceremony, having no idea what a difficult life it would be. Cannons were fired; church bells, rung; people cheered; and, they say, kettles of fragrant soup joumou perfumed the air, ready to be ladled up in a mass communion.
It's a great image. No wonder this soup has become the touchstone of Haiti's fervent wish for peace and freedom--its symbol of communion and brotherhood--a beacon that shines through today's dark days of poverty and continuing political strife. One thing is sure, on January 1, Haitians around the world make it and eat it and share it precisely to remember the past and to hope for the future.
Oh, and there are lots of other stories about soup joumou too. Some say, pure and simple, it's a good luck charm for the new year--and you better eat it cause it's bad luck if you don't. Others say, no, it's really to cleanse and purify the body for the new year...and don't eat anything else til midnight, when you can eat an orange and count your luck in the coming year by its number of seeds. Others yet say it honors the Vodou god Papa Loko, keeper of African spiritual traditions, and that it reliably "lifts up a man's soul and makes him prophesy."
There's something to that last comment. This is a fabulous stuffed soup--bright yellow-orange and sensuously African with an opulence of meat, vegetables, and the Caribbean bite of lime and chilis. In Kreyol, you'd say it was stuffed with vyann, joumou, kawot, seleri, zanyon, nave, pomdete, malanga, and shou...and spiced with piman bouk, ten, lay, and sitwon.
Pat Solley
Resources: Alix's Corner at Discover Haiti website, Madison Smartt Bell's All Soul's Rising, Roseline Ng Cheong-Lom's Haiti, Devra Dedeaux' Sugar Reef Caribbean Cookbook, James Ferguson's Traveler's Literary Companion to the Caribbean, Robert and Nancy Heinl's Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492-1971, National Assembly of France's "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," 8/26/1789, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, Mirta Yurnet-Thomas' A Taste of Haiti, William Wordsworth's Collected Poetry, and an assortment of encyclopedias, articles, and websites.
this article is available in its entirety at: http://www.soupsong.com/zdec02.html
(e-SoupSong 32: December 1, 2002)
ONCE UPON A TIME, the people of Haiti had special cause to celebrate on New Year's Day. It was January 1, 1804, and after a savage 13-year struggle against their French masters, they had at last achieved independence.
What better way to celebrate than with the very soup they had been forbidden as slaves to eat? Ahhh, soup made from joumou, the delicious and aromatic pumpkin, so different from their usual daily allotment of precisely one ounce of salted meat or fish and one bottle of lemonade. During the independence celebration that happy day, so the story goes, a huge kettle of pumpkin soup was made in the city of Gonaïves, and everyone present was served a bowl. Why? A special communion to forever forge the bonds of brotherhood and commit to a bright national future.
I wish it had been that easy.
Haiti: that "pearl of the Antilles"; that "only successful slave uprising in the history of the world"; that "eldest daughter of France and Africa" that rejected its European heritage--it hasn't been an easy road. In fact, it's been said that far more blood has spilled there than sweat, and there's no counting the buckets of sweat that were shed by 700,000 slaves over 100 years on some 7,000 sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, and indigo plantations.
What nation today is routinely excluded from travel guides on the Caribbean? Haiti.
What nation has the lowest literacy rate in the Americas? Haiti.
What people, caught in the crosshairs of historical karma and environmental disaster, have the lowest daily calorie intake in the western hemisphere? Haitians.
From the time King Ferdinand of Spain congratulated Columbus on his Christmas day landfall near Cap Haïtien then declared open season on West Africans for his New World sugar plantations there, Haiti has been a land of warm and gracious people racked by violence and suffering.
Here's some history behind that heavily symbolic kettle of new year's soup: After the 1492 landfall, Spain stayed long enough to kill off the native Arawaks with Old World diseases, import sugar cane cuttings from the Canary Islands, and establish plantations with African slaves...but then left Haiti to the French in 1697 (Peace of Ryswyck) when she found easier pickings elsewhere in the New World.
France wasted no time. Under Kings Louis XIV, XV, and XVI, she transformed those depopulated mountains and valleys into cash crop factories of sugar, indigo, and cotton. How? With 2,500 African slaves in 1698...that jumped to 10,000 in 3 years...and to over 500,000 by 1791--culled largely from tribes in Congo, Angola, Dahomey, Guinea, and Senegal. Their treatment was so horrific, so inhuman, that I haven't the heart to tell. They died like flies and had to be constantly replaced by new shipments from Africa.
So what happened in 1789 when the French people rose up and proclaimed Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!? After all, the French National Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man clearly stated, "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights."
Oh, well. Ahem. National Assemblymen in Paris said, oh yes, we guess that means Haiti too...or at least the freed mulattoes there, those fine sons of Frenchmen and their African slaves. No way, said the racist colonialists in Haiti--and they conducted such a tough lobby that the National Assembly reversed itself in 1791.
Haiti's mulattoes could not believe their ears. It was the last straw. They immediately joined their education, knowledge, and considerable military experience to those 500,000 enslaved Africans--and Haiti exploded in revolt. In August 1791, Vodou priest Boukman Duffy convened slave rebel leaders in the forest overlooking Le Cap. Illuminated by flashes of lightening, they made incantations...they slit the throat of a pig and drank its blood...and they formally swore death to all blancs, which they carried out to the letter with pruning hooks, machetes, and fire. In November, Louis-Jacques Bauvais' mulatto troops attacked and burned Port-au-Prince, slaughtering whites wherever they found them. They sported white ears as cockades in their caps and committed atrocities against women and children I just don't have the heart to tell.
And that was just the start.
Great leaders arose to lead the revolution. Ill-fated Toussaint L'Ouverture, who died in a French prison lamented by poet Wordsworth: "Thy friends are exultations, agonies/And love, and man's unconquerable mind." Henri Christophe. Jean-Jacques Dessalines. And these former slaves led their people first against their colonial masters, in the name of the French Republic. Then against Spain and England, who pounced, chops slavering, when they saw the Pearl of the Antilles slipping from French hands. Then, finally, against France herself, when First Consul Napoleon sent brother-in-law Leclerc and 55,000 crack officers and men instructed to, as he confided to foreign minister Talleyrand, annihilate the government of blacks in Haiti and restore slavery at the first opportunity. "Rid us of these gilded Africans," Napoleon later said, "and we shall have nothing more to wish."
Thirteen long years, all told, of tit-for-tat torched cities, slit throats, scorched earth, attacks, betrayals, mass executions, sieges, torture, encirclements, and despair, not to mention 10,000 deaths from malaria and yellow fever. Dessalines' ultimate winning strategy: koupe tèt, boule kay, cut off the heads, burn down. In the end, some 300,000 Haitians died and 50,000 French--and in the end, the French were defeated. General Rochambeau was given 10 days to pack up his army and ship home.
Which brings us back, harrowed, to the dawn of 1804 and that kettle of soup joumou.
When the last French ship had cleared Le Cap, Dessalines sent word to Gérin at Les Cayes: "There is no more doubt, mon cher général, the country is ours, and the famous who-shall-have-it is settled." In Gonaïves, he divided up the war chest--8 gourdes per man; he dispersed his army to the principal towns; and he sat down with his generals "to ratify in ink what they had written in blood."
On January 1, 1804, people started gathering at dawn at Gonaïves' Place d'Armes. Dessalines mounted the Autel de la Patrie to speak. He recited the cruelties of their enslavement in Kreyol, so everyone could understand him, and he declared that Haitians would forever after live free and die free. "Long live independence!" he shouted at the end of the ceremony, having no idea what a difficult life it would be. Cannons were fired; church bells, rung; people cheered; and, they say, kettles of fragrant soup joumou perfumed the air, ready to be ladled up in a mass communion.
It's a great image. No wonder this soup has become the touchstone of Haiti's fervent wish for peace and freedom--its symbol of communion and brotherhood--a beacon that shines through today's dark days of poverty and continuing political strife. One thing is sure, on January 1, Haitians around the world make it and eat it and share it precisely to remember the past and to hope for the future.
Oh, and there are lots of other stories about soup joumou too. Some say, pure and simple, it's a good luck charm for the new year--and you better eat it cause it's bad luck if you don't. Others say, no, it's really to cleanse and purify the body for the new year...and don't eat anything else til midnight, when you can eat an orange and count your luck in the coming year by its number of seeds. Others yet say it honors the Vodou god Papa Loko, keeper of African spiritual traditions, and that it reliably "lifts up a man's soul and makes him prophesy."
There's something to that last comment. This is a fabulous stuffed soup--bright yellow-orange and sensuously African with an opulence of meat, vegetables, and the Caribbean bite of lime and chilis. In Kreyol, you'd say it was stuffed with vyann, joumou, kawot, seleri, zanyon, nave, pomdete, malanga, and shou...and spiced with piman bouk, ten, lay, and sitwon.
Pat Solley
Resources: Alix's Corner at Discover Haiti website, Madison Smartt Bell's All Soul's Rising, Roseline Ng Cheong-Lom's Haiti, Devra Dedeaux' Sugar Reef Caribbean Cookbook, James Ferguson's Traveler's Literary Companion to the Caribbean, Robert and Nancy Heinl's Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492-1971, National Assembly of France's "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," 8/26/1789, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, Mirta Yurnet-Thomas' A Taste of Haiti, William Wordsworth's Collected Poetry, and an assortment of encyclopedias, articles, and websites.
this article is available in its entirety at: http://www.soupsong.com/zdec02.html
Haitian independence and squah soup recipe!
In the US on independence day (4th of July) people do barbecue, they have private and public firework display and parades. In Haiti, we celebrate independence in our unique style. Of course we have parade and celebrations but the most important part of it is what we eat on this day!
Haitians are very proud of their country! Evendo the political and economical situation is at a very low point (at least I know I am proud myself and will always be!) Anyway, on January first it is imperative that we eat squash soup. Why squash soup: just to put it in a nutshell: during French colonization, the French masters would always have soup for celebrations but the slaves were forced to have corn mill but forbidden to ever have squash soup. On January 1st 1804 in order for us to really feel we are free of slavery Jean Jacques Dessalines to his wife to cook squash soup for the former slaves so everyone was happy to be able to have what the masters would have for their celebrations. Ever since, it has become a tradition. So squash soup is the symbol of our liberty, our independence.
Man, I am telling you this thing is so good!!!
Here is the recipe that I got from recipelink.com
Haitian-style Squash Soup
3 pounds beef short ribs, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 lime, sliced
4 (or less) garlic cloves, peeled
2 green onions, including green parts (chop off ends if scraggly), cut into 1-inch pieces
3 to 6 sprigs fresh parsley
1 cube of Knorr Caldo con Sabor de Pollo (chicken bouillon)
1 or 2 tablespoons Maggi seasoning sauce
2 envelopes of Goya Cubitos en Polvo Caldo de Pollo (powdered chicken bouillon)
1 packet of Goya Sazon con culantro y achiote (coriander and annatto)
1 or 2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 or 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
Soup Vegetables
1 large buttercup squash, peeled, seeded and cut into large chunks
4 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 leek, including green parts (chop off ends if scraggly), cut into 1-inch pieces
2 rutabaga, peeled and cut into 3/4 or 1-inch pieces
1 head of cabbage, tough outer leaves removed, roughly chopped
Bouquet of 3 fresh parsley sprigs and 3 fresh thyme sprigs
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/3 to 1/2 pound rigatoni
In a large mixing bowl or well-scrubbed kitchen sink, place beef and rub generously with lime slices. Cover with nearly boiling hot water and let soak. Meanwhile, in a blender, combine garlic, green onions, parsley, chicken bouillon cube and 1 cup water, process until mixture is smooth and evenly colored.
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, place (drained) beef and season with Maggi seasoning sauce, Cubitos en Polvo Caldo de Pollo (powdered chicken bouillon) and Sazon con culantro y achiote. Next, add pureed garlic-green onion mixture from the blender, 4 cups water, 1 tablespoon each of tomato paste and butter. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 45 to 60 minutes or until meat is tender, possibly 1 and a half hours.
Meanwhile, in a large stockpot, place buttercup squash and cover with plenty of water (about 2 or 3 inches above squash). Heat pot over medium-high heat and cook until squash is soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Working in batches, puree squash and pot liquid in a blender or food processor until texture is smooth and creamy. Return pureed squash mixture to a clean pot.
Add beef with pot liquid, celery, leek, rutabaga, cabbage and parsley-thyme bouquet. Bring mixture to an active simmer and cook, covered, for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add butter and rigatoni and cook, uncovered, until pasta is al dente and soup has thickened. Remove bouquet and discard. Serve immediately.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Man! I am hungry! Aren't you?
Haitians are very proud of their country! Evendo the political and economical situation is at a very low point (at least I know I am proud myself and will always be!) Anyway, on January first it is imperative that we eat squash soup. Why squash soup: just to put it in a nutshell: during French colonization, the French masters would always have soup for celebrations but the slaves were forced to have corn mill but forbidden to ever have squash soup. On January 1st 1804 in order for us to really feel we are free of slavery Jean Jacques Dessalines to his wife to cook squash soup for the former slaves so everyone was happy to be able to have what the masters would have for their celebrations. Ever since, it has become a tradition. So squash soup is the symbol of our liberty, our independence.
Man, I am telling you this thing is so good!!!
Here is the recipe that I got from recipelink.com
Haitian-style Squash Soup
3 pounds beef short ribs, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 lime, sliced
4 (or less) garlic cloves, peeled
2 green onions, including green parts (chop off ends if scraggly), cut into 1-inch pieces
3 to 6 sprigs fresh parsley
1 cube of Knorr Caldo con Sabor de Pollo (chicken bouillon)
1 or 2 tablespoons Maggi seasoning sauce
2 envelopes of Goya Cubitos en Polvo Caldo de Pollo (powdered chicken bouillon)
1 packet of Goya Sazon con culantro y achiote (coriander and annatto)
1 or 2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 or 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
Soup Vegetables
1 large buttercup squash, peeled, seeded and cut into large chunks
4 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 leek, including green parts (chop off ends if scraggly), cut into 1-inch pieces
2 rutabaga, peeled and cut into 3/4 or 1-inch pieces
1 head of cabbage, tough outer leaves removed, roughly chopped
Bouquet of 3 fresh parsley sprigs and 3 fresh thyme sprigs
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/3 to 1/2 pound rigatoni
In a large mixing bowl or well-scrubbed kitchen sink, place beef and rub generously with lime slices. Cover with nearly boiling hot water and let soak. Meanwhile, in a blender, combine garlic, green onions, parsley, chicken bouillon cube and 1 cup water, process until mixture is smooth and evenly colored.
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, place (drained) beef and season with Maggi seasoning sauce, Cubitos en Polvo Caldo de Pollo (powdered chicken bouillon) and Sazon con culantro y achiote. Next, add pureed garlic-green onion mixture from the blender, 4 cups water, 1 tablespoon each of tomato paste and butter. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 45 to 60 minutes or until meat is tender, possibly 1 and a half hours.
Meanwhile, in a large stockpot, place buttercup squash and cover with plenty of water (about 2 or 3 inches above squash). Heat pot over medium-high heat and cook until squash is soft, about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Working in batches, puree squash and pot liquid in a blender or food processor until texture is smooth and creamy. Return pureed squash mixture to a clean pot.
Add beef with pot liquid, celery, leek, rutabaga, cabbage and parsley-thyme bouquet. Bring mixture to an active simmer and cook, covered, for 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add butter and rigatoni and cook, uncovered, until pasta is al dente and soup has thickened. Remove bouquet and discard. Serve immediately.
Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Man! I am hungry! Aren't you?
January 1st and and my cry!
I am writing this piece for my Haitians fellow so if sometimes I write in French or creole please understand it's a way to get the message through better and if you would like to know what I am saying just ask and I will be glad to translate.
January 1, 1804
January first is a new era for everybody in the Christianity faith (which started at the birth of Jesus) it is no difference for Haiti and the Haitians.
January 1, 1804 our forefathers celebrated our independence. It was a bloody battle, lost of lost life but at the end we prevailed. Now fast forward to 2008, 204 years later my people! Where are you! Sa nou fe ak peyi ya! Sa n'ap tann!! Li le pou nou leve kanpe! Pa pou nou kraze brize ou tiye men pou nou rekonsilye e rekonstwi!
C'est l'heure pour nous de savoir qu'il ne peut pas avoir du changement si on ne commence pas chez soi, avec soi-même.
It is time that we put God first and rebuke the power of darkness! We need to claim the country back!
My non-Haitian friends if you just took the time to browse through my profile and my blogs you will see how patriotic I am. As a matter of fact I just represented Haiti in a Christmas parade. I am proud of my country and always speak high of it whenever opportunities arise!
but, my heart aches for the condition of the country. Haitians are proud people and we are known all over the world to be very hospitable even though we are very poor.
For all of you living abroad please think about this day which is very important in our history and see what can you do for your country!
Our motto is Unity brings power, L'union fait la force, men anpil chay pa lou! Alors reunissons toutes nos lumières en faisceau et faisons d'Haiti ce qu'elle était toujours la perle des antilles!
Just for the emancipation of the Haitian culture: Every 1st of January Haitian all over eat squash soup as a symbol of our independence! If you want to know why squash soup I will be glad to explain and even give you the recipe!
May God bless you!
I wrote this piece in december 27 2007 and it is available on myspace.com/samhaiti
January 1, 1804
January first is a new era for everybody in the Christianity faith (which started at the birth of Jesus) it is no difference for Haiti and the Haitians.
January 1, 1804 our forefathers celebrated our independence. It was a bloody battle, lost of lost life but at the end we prevailed. Now fast forward to 2008, 204 years later my people! Where are you! Sa nou fe ak peyi ya! Sa n'ap tann!! Li le pou nou leve kanpe! Pa pou nou kraze brize ou tiye men pou nou rekonsilye e rekonstwi!
C'est l'heure pour nous de savoir qu'il ne peut pas avoir du changement si on ne commence pas chez soi, avec soi-même.
It is time that we put God first and rebuke the power of darkness! We need to claim the country back!
My non-Haitian friends if you just took the time to browse through my profile and my blogs you will see how patriotic I am. As a matter of fact I just represented Haiti in a Christmas parade. I am proud of my country and always speak high of it whenever opportunities arise!
but, my heart aches for the condition of the country. Haitians are proud people and we are known all over the world to be very hospitable even though we are very poor.
For all of you living abroad please think about this day which is very important in our history and see what can you do for your country!
Our motto is Unity brings power, L'union fait la force, men anpil chay pa lou! Alors reunissons toutes nos lumières en faisceau et faisons d'Haiti ce qu'elle était toujours la perle des antilles!
Just for the emancipation of the Haitian culture: Every 1st of January Haitian all over eat squash soup as a symbol of our independence! If you want to know why squash soup I will be glad to explain and even give you the recipe!
May God bless you!
I wrote this piece in december 27 2007 and it is available on myspace.com/samhaiti
Saturday, June 14, 2008
History of the flag
For a country’s citizens, the national flag is indisputably a symbol of general pride. They would consider any offense to their flag to be an offense to their country. Beyond being an icon though, a flag’s origin can often say a lot about a nation’s social make-up or history. Haitians feel no different and even reserve a special day to honor it. That day is May 18th.Jean Jacques DessalinesIn Haiti, Flag Day is a major national holiday celebrated with great fanfare on the grounds of the national palace. Flag Day is also observed by Haitians in the Diaspora. In The United States for example, teenagers whether in High School give homage to the red and blue by carrying it around with them or on their persona for at least a week. Haiti’s flag’s origin is tightly linked to a history of struggle for freedom.Toussaint Louverture
In the early days of revolt in St. Domingue, the slaves did not have a flag. However, they did notice that their former masters were using the French Flag. From 1791 to about 1793, the revolt became more widespread and gave rise to a number of large groups still fighting independently. In those times, each main leader would use any piece of cloth as a flag. Slowly the slave movement found some synergy and came to follow the leadership one main person: Toussaint Louverture. Realizing that you cannot fight three enemies at the same time, Toussaint and the army of revolted slaves fought successively for the Spanish against the French (1793-1794), for the French against Spain and England (1794-1802) and ultimately against France. As such, he carried the color of whichever European power he was fighting for. He later realized that it was silly to use the same flag as the enemies. He then invented his own flag, which was a white piece of cloth with a Negro head to represent the blacks.
After Toussaint’s deportation, The Indigene Army went back to the French flag for a while. A little explanation is needed here: The French flag as we know it now is a product of the French Revolution. It was made up of Red and Blue, the colors of the City of Paris, and a band of white representing the monarchy (La Nation, la Loi et le Roi –). On the white portion of the flag was the emblem of the French Republic. The Revolution of St. Domingue was in some ways motivated by the French Revolution and for years, the masses main objectives were for freedom and better treatment. To them, the French Flag represented the ideals of Liberty and Fraternity. They hoped that those same principles would be applied to them, non-whites According to Thomas Madiou (1814-1884), a renowned historian of the 19th Century, they also saw in that flag a symbol of blacks, whites and mulattoes living in harmony. Therefore, carrying the French was not stupidity, but rather an expression of their ideals.
As time went on though, a break with France seemed inevitable and to symbolize their resolve of never fighting for the metropolis again, they had removed the French arms from the blue white and red flag they were using. As early as February 1803 however, Petion, leader of the mulattoes and Dessalines had decided to create a unique flag to represent their troops. Thus, starting with the French Flag made up of three blue, white and red bands placed vertically respectively; Dessalines removed the white and created the first unofficial flag with blue and red bands placed vertically. By so doing, he also wanted to impart on the French the message that they had lost that colony forever. To them the blue symbolized the mulattos and the blacks while the red symbolized their blood. While this flag was observed in most part of the country; Cangé, a general in the south used a black and red flag instead.By 1803 as we saw, the leaders of the free slaves and the men of color had decided to fight for the creation of an independent nation. Before marching on Port-Republicain (Port-au-Prince’s name at that time) Dessalines and Petion needed to make a strong statement. On May 18, 1803, in the city of Arcahaie, not far from Port-au-Prince, they agreed on an official flag , with blue and red bands placed vertically. blue and red placed vertically respectively. Haiti’s first flag was sewn by a lady named Catherine Flon.
On Independence Day however, January 1st 1804, the flag was modified again. The Blue and Red bands were placed horizontally this time, with the blue band on top of the red band. This was the first flag of the independent republic.
In 1805, shortly after Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed himself emperor, the Haitian flag color was changed to black and red bands placed vertically respectively. After the emperor's death, in 1806, the country will be divided into two republics for 14 years. Henri Christophe, in the northern part kept the flag that Dessalines used.
In the south and the western part of the country, Alexandre Petion went back to 1804's flag that was blue and red only this time he added the white squared portion that included the country arms and the famous phrase "L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE", meaning that through unity we find strength.
That flag was in use until 1964 when Papa Doc Duvalier brought back the black and red flag of Dessalines and added a modified version of the arms of the Republic.On February 25 1986, after the fall of Baby Doc and the Duvalier regime, the people requested that the red and blue flag be brought back. The constitution of 1987 describes the new flag in these terms:
The emblem of the Haitian Nation shall be a flag with the following description:
a) Two (2) equal-sized horizontal bands: a blue one on top and a red one underneath.
b) The coat of arms of the Republic shall be placed in the center on a white square.
c) The coat of arms of the Republic will be a Palm tree surmounted by the liberty cap and under the palms a trophy with the legend: In Union there is Strength.
That is the flag used until today.
Source: http://www.discoverhaiti.com/history00_5_1.htm
The Haitian flag in a nuttshell
The flag of the Republic of Haiti was adopted on May 18, 1803. Haiti had been a colony of France since 1697, but the people rebelled in 1803 and Haiti achieved independence on January 1, 1804.
The Haitian flag is a red and blue bi color; for state occasions, the Arms of Haiti are added to the center of the flag on a white background. The colors red and blue were chosen from the French flag. The Haitian arms depict a royal palm in the center topped with a red and blue cap of liberty. There are also six blue and red flags, two smaller red banners on the sides, many weapons (rifles with bayonettes, two yellow cannons and many cannonballs), a drum, an anchor, green grass, and a white banner reading "L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE," meaning "Union is Strength."
The Haitian arms depict a royal palm in the center topped with a red and blue cap of liberty. There are also six blue and red flags, two smaller red banners on the sides, many weapons (rifles with bayonettes, two yellow cannons and many cannonballs), a drum, an anchor, green grass, and a white banner reading "L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE," meaning "Union is Strength."
[Haiti is the first black country to be independent]
A close-up of the arms of the republic
Unity brings power
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Text of the Haitian national Anthem
La Dessalinienne (The Song of Dessalines)
Original French Words:
Marchons unis, marchons unis
Dans nos rangs point de traîtres
Du sol soyons seuls maîtres
Marchons unis, marchons unis
Pour le Pays, pour les Ancêtres
Marchons, marchons, marchons unis
Pour le Pays, pour les Ancêtres
Pour les Aïeux, pour la Patrie
Béchons joyeux, béchons joyeux
Quand le champ fructifie
L'âme se fortifie
Béchons joyeux, béchons joyeux
Pour les Aïeux, pour la Patrie
Béchons, béchons, béchons joyeux
Pour les Aïeux, pour la Patrie
Pour le Pays et pour nos Pères
Formons des Fils, formons des Fils
Libres, forts et prospères
Toujours nous serons frères
Formons des Fils, formons des Fils
Pour le Pays et pour nos Pères
Formons, formons, formons des Fils
Pour le Pays et pour nos Pères
Pour les Aïeux, pour la Patrie
O Dieu des Preux, O Dieu des Preux
Sous ta garde infinie
Prends nos droits, notre vie
O Dieu des Preux, O Dieu des Preux
Pour les Aïeux, pour la Patrie
O Dieu, O Dieu, O Dieu des Preux
Pour les Aïeux, pour la Patrie
Pour le Drapeau, pour la Patrie
Mourir est beau, mourir est beau
Notre passé nous crie:
Ayez l'âme aguerrie
Mourir est beau, mourir est beau
Pour le Drapeau, pour la Patrie
Mourir, mourir, mourir est beau
Pour le Drapeau, pour la Patrie
English Translation:
For our country,For our forefathers,
United let us march.
Let there be no traitors in our ranks!
Let us be masters of our soil.
United let us march
For our country,
For our forefathers.
For our forebears,
For our country
Let us toil joyfully.
May the fields be fertile
And our souls take courage.
Let us toil joyfully
For our forebears,
For our country.
For our country
And for our forefathers,
Let us train our sons.
Free, strong, and prosperous,
We shall always be as brothers.
Let us train our sons
For our country
And for our forefathers.
For our forebears,
For our country,
Oh God of the valiant!
Take our rights and our life
Under your infinite protection,
Oh God of the valiant!
For our forebears,
For our country.
For the flag,
For our country
To die is a fine thing!
Our past cries out to us:
Have a disciplined soul!
To die is a fine thing,
For the flag,
For our country.
Pour le pays,
Pour les ancêtres,
Marchons unis, (bis)
Dans nos rangs, point de traîtres!
Du sol, soyons seuls maîtres.
Marchons unis, (bis)
Pour le pays,
Pour les ancêtres.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Thanks for adopting from Haiti
Hello to all!
My name is Sammuel. I am 30 years old. I am a translator/interpreter. I mostly do written translations. I have helped a lot of people adopting from Haiti. I know they were glad with my service. If you are looking for a translator reliable and fast you can contact me.
I am married, I have been married for four years ( considering in Hollywood it lasts 4 days). I have a 3 year old daughter and a baby on the way. I am 100% Haitian but I live in the States now!
This blog I came up with is not about me but rather about the thousands of people who adopted and specially the ones who adopted from Haiti. So, if you are one who adopted from Haiti please share with us your adoption experience so that many others can find help and can use it as a support system not legal advise.
I plan to post a lot about Haiti and its culture and if you have an idea about an article you are welcome to join and share your ideas with us!
Haiti is a very poor country we all know that! The country is not stable (who does not know by now) But how many people know that through it all you will go to Haiti and still see people smiling and saying bonjour to you!
Despite our sufferings and poverty we know how to be polite and be loving and when you come to our house we offer you the best we have.
I own a business called treasures of Haiti LLC it is available online at www.treasuresofhaiti.com so if you know of anyone who is interested in some Haitian arts just give me a ring or just give them the web page.
May God bless you as we will be having fun reading about adopting parents experiences! May God bless you for all of you who have adopted, all you who are thinking about adopting Thank you and may God bless you! You have to be a special person and God has his hands on you! Let's support each other and above all keep Haiti in your prayers!
Nothing is impossible to God
N.B You are welcome to post in English, French and creole!
Can't wait to read your comments!
My name is Sammuel. I am 30 years old. I am a translator/interpreter. I mostly do written translations. I have helped a lot of people adopting from Haiti. I know they were glad with my service. If you are looking for a translator reliable and fast you can contact me.
I am married, I have been married for four years ( considering in Hollywood it lasts 4 days). I have a 3 year old daughter and a baby on the way. I am 100% Haitian but I live in the States now!
This blog I came up with is not about me but rather about the thousands of people who adopted and specially the ones who adopted from Haiti. So, if you are one who adopted from Haiti please share with us your adoption experience so that many others can find help and can use it as a support system not legal advise.
I plan to post a lot about Haiti and its culture and if you have an idea about an article you are welcome to join and share your ideas with us!
Haiti is a very poor country we all know that! The country is not stable (who does not know by now) But how many people know that through it all you will go to Haiti and still see people smiling and saying bonjour to you!
Despite our sufferings and poverty we know how to be polite and be loving and when you come to our house we offer you the best we have.
I own a business called treasures of Haiti LLC it is available online at www.treasuresofhaiti.com so if you know of anyone who is interested in some Haitian arts just give me a ring or just give them the web page.
May God bless you as we will be having fun reading about adopting parents experiences! May God bless you for all of you who have adopted, all you who are thinking about adopting Thank you and may God bless you! You have to be a special person and God has his hands on you! Let's support each other and above all keep Haiti in your prayers!
Nothing is impossible to God
N.B You are welcome to post in English, French and creole!
Can't wait to read your comments!
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