Two Kids and a Ken

     Yesterday was Ken’s birthday.

Ken with baby Maria

Our facilities manager is somewhere north of 70 years old. Since May 1 is also Labor Day in Haiti (and around the world, except for the U.S. which, I believe associated the concept with the socialist movement, i.e. communism, and thus decided to choose a completely different day to show that the U.S. was not supporting communism), the kitchen staff had the day off and no meals were being served in the dining hall. Marsha made coffee and prepared some powdered milk and brought out cold cereal for breakfast for the few C’ville residents and guests still here. We had a leisurely breakfast, talked about our projects, the different problems and solutions and also how Marsha (guesthouse and kitchen) and Ken and Kirk (facilities and power grid) manage to keep the whole C’ville operation running. Sometimes the money and management is just a mess, but that is a topic for another post.

     We decided to go out for lunch so we headed to Boulangerie Eva (see November 2, 2013 post). Bill and Dana (aquaculture project consultants), Meer (UF-EPI lab), Khan (UF-EPI TB lab), Jessica (goat volunteer from NC State) and I took the Everest out on Route Nationale #2 and drove west toward Léogâne. At Eva’s we ordered two burgers, one cheeseburger, two jambon-fromage (ham and cheese) sandwiches, one wings and fries, and two sides of fries. All that plus drinks and a packet of Eva’s cookies cost just $40.00 US. The air-conditioning in Eva’s was on full blast, as usual. Jessica had to step outside for a few minutes to warm up before our food arrived because she was getting so chilly just sitting there.

     As we left, Meer asked if we should get something for Ken for his birthday. A cake? No, the only place close by that sold cakes (Maco’s) was not too good. Can we make a cake? Eva has a small grocery store next to the sandwich/bakery shop so we all went in to see what we could find. Dana looked for a box of cake mix. Nothing. What could we buy? There were some toys on the shelf for sale including some Barbie dolls. I jokingly suggested that we get a Barbie for Ken. But seriously, we needed something. Dana stared at the shelf with cookies and wondered about cookies. I said, why not a cookie cake? We could make an ice cream cake with cookies. “They sell ice cream here?” Dana asked. Yep. We walked to the next aisle and there was the Pat n To’s ice cream freezer (no website but you can like them on Facebook). So we bought a couple of quarts of ice cream and four packets of cookies. Hey, It's Haiti. We work with what we can get.

     Back at our house, we got to work. Dana cleaned off a baking dish. In the short 10 minutes it took to drive back from Eva’s, the ice cream had softened nicely. I laid out a few rows of cookies on the bottom of the tray and Dana scooped and spread out the ice cream. First, one layer of vanilla cookies and a quart of vanilla ice cream. We followed this with a layer of chocolate cookies and a quart of chocolate ice cream. Then I topped it off with a checkerboard arrangement of cookies over the chocolate ice cream. It looked pretty decent. We covered the cake with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer.

     Later that afternoon, Jessica told us that one of the does had just given birth to two kids. We all walked down to the goat pen to see. Mama goat was standing over her two kids.

Mama goat and her two new kids

Jessica estimated that the kids, a male and a female, were about 10-15 minutes old. The placenta was still hanging from Mama goat, and the kids were already standing on their own legs.  Jessica took each new kid, cleaned off their umbilical stump, and weighed them. The male weighed 5.5 lbs.; the female weighed 4.25 lbs. Another birthday. We should name the kids Ken and Marsha. For those of you who may remember my earlier post about artificial insemination of the goats (see November 16, 2013 post – Goats, Anyone?), this doe was not one of them. She was inseminated the old-fashioned, natural way – by one of the bucks.

Jessica with one of the new kids

Our fish dinner

     For the first time since I have been in C’ville, we had fish for dinner in the dining hall. There was just a handful of us still here for dinner so Bill and Dana decided to harvest some fish from the aquaculture ponds (that they are helping C'ville get going again) and cook them up on the grill behind the guesthouse. Everyone helped out for dinner. Bill and Dana cooked the fish. Meer and Khan made rice and eggplant. Jessica and Marsha made salad with tomatoes, mirleton, moringa leaves, and a tasty salad dressing. And there was piklis, of course. So we all sat down, Bill and Dana, Jessica, Meer and Khan and Ken and Marsha and Kirk and me, for a fish dinner. What a delicious break from the routine menu!

Ice cream cookie cake

     I brought out the ice cream cookie cake after we had finished our fish and cleared off the table. Maybe I should have brought it out sooner to let it thaw a bit.  But it looked pretty good and Ken cut the cake and we each had a piece. I brought out the ice cream cookie cake after we had finished our fish and cleared off the table. Maybe I should have brought it out sooner to let it thaw a bit.  But it looked pretty good. Good enough for the cover of Southern Living magazine. Ken cut the cake and we each had a piece.

     Ice cream cookie cake! In Haiti!

Ice cream cookie cake

     Happy Birthday, Ken! And welcome to the new kids in the pen!