Well, it's our last night in Haiti...  our team is reflecting on the amazing experiences they've had this week and preparing for the return back into the world of America. They've been processing the sharp contrasts between the two all week. 

In the morning, we headed back to the Bercy campus to work on the greenhouse project. After three days of packing dirt in bags and planting topsoil, it can get easy to lose sight of the big vision of the greenhouse project. Yet, today, there were thousands of seeds planted and amazingly, the avocado seeds we planted on Monday had started to sprout already today. It was an excellent reminder that we're not just planting seeds; we're laying the foundation for thousands of trees. We planted mahogany, coconut, citrus trees, acacia, palm, mangos, teak, neem, cedar, avocado and more in the past few days. At the end of our time today, we had planted 6,800 trees!  The teamwork, determination and fierce work ethic of our group is the only way that was accomplished. While we set a crazy goal of 10,000 trees, we would have easily accomplished that goal except for the realities of Haiti. One of our biggest obstacles is the fact that we had 8 team members daily dedicated to digging up and sifting through topsoil. When we arrived, we found out that would also be part of our task. Yet, it's Haiti, and those things happen quite often. Next week, that Haitian agronomy team will take over the rest of the project and work toward completion. 

I've attached a number of pictures to give you a window into our experiences today. 

Todd

These pics should give you a pretty good window into our day today. Our team will have plenty of details to share with you regarding the story behind the pictures. 

As you look at the pictures, each and every team member is genuinely filthy dirty. This is how we've looked each of the past three days.  Being covered in dirt is a natural outcome of the hard work our team has been doing each day. Every day we become more efficient, as we strive to reach our goals. There is no quit in this team, only genuine love for one another, the Haitian people, and a passion for reaching our goals. 

As you look through the pics, you will see our bag packing process, which is done out in the Haitian sun. You will see a team digging up topsoil, which is mixed with compost and manure for our tree packs. We've been blessed to have amazing Haitian translators who have worked alongside our team each day, while providing great insights into Haitian life and culture. In addition to the thousands of small tree bags, we've also planted coconuts in our rustic greenhouse. You can also see how we've been rapidly been filling up the large greenhouse. Lastly, we decided to take a team pic at the end of the day with everybody's favorite work tools. 

Hello everyone, 

Well, it's been another long, exhausting, yet productive day. We spent the morning working on the greenhouse project in Bercy and planted trees in the village of Minoterie this afternoon. Our kids continue to do an amazing job, while they work and learn. The afternoon was an opportunity to directly connect with Haitian families while seeing the potential of the impact of trees in the yards of Haitian families. When you're focused on bagging dirt and planting seeds, it can be easy to lose sight of the future of each of those bags and seeds. This afternoon, our team got to see what happens many months after seeds are planted. I've attached a number of pics of today's activities. 

Good Night, 

Todd

Hello All!
The internet is back on at MOH for the first time since we arrived. #LifeinHaiti. Here's the quick version of the update:  We're all doing great. Our team has been amazing, from their hearts to their minds to the way they serve. Our focus on Saturday and Sunday was experiencing and learning more about Haiti. Today was our first true work day. Our team battled through the hot sun all day as we worked on MOH's Bercy campus. We completed our rustic Bamboo greenhouse, cleared out the existing greenhouse, prepped it for our project, mixed soil, packed hundreds of bags for seeds, despite the heat. If you check out the following pictures, you will get a glimpse into our work today. I'll try to send out a more thorough update tomorrow. My apologies but sleep is calling, we're all exhausted. They're already sleeping, as we look forward to another big work day tomorrow. We are headed back to Bercy to fill more bags and plant countless seeds. In the afternoon, we are headed to a new housing area in the village of Minoterie to plant lots of trees throughout the village.

Bon Nwi (Good Night)

Todd

Students from Avondale and Renaissance High Schools are joining together to serve in Haiti over Thanksgiving 2017

We are a combined team of students from Avondale and Detroit Renaissance High Schools, who will  serve in Haiti from November 17th-24th. Our team is partnering with Mission of Hope Haiti to create the Seeds to Sustainability initiative, where our team will create a Greenhouse program to start a massive tree growing initiative which will grow thousands of seedlings.  Those seedlings will then be planted by teams in surrounding villages to help reforest a badly deforested nation and provide greater food security for families and villages.  Our greenhouse project will lead to the growth of over 10,000 trees initially, but it will also enable MOH to continually plant trees, have a sustainable tree seedling program that is self funding, and tangibly change lives. These trees will be bearing fruit and sustaining lives for years and decades to come.  We will be planting a variety of fruit trees, that will provide greater food security for families, as well as planting trees that will be used for shade and charcoal for families.