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Most requested translations added here for your convenience: I love you → Mwen renmen w. I miss you → Mwen sonje w. My love!Lanmou mwen!

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Mandaly, mesi anpil pou blog ou! ke Bondye beni ou! M' gen yon kesyon sou kafe nan ayiti. Eske pifo moun yo bwe kafe nan maten an oubyen se selman yon liks pou yo. Nan etazini preske tout moun bwe kafe. Se la memn nan ayiti? Eske kafe bon mache pou moun yo ki rete nan andeyo ki pa gen anpil kob?......

You asked.....
Mandaly, mesi anpil pou blog ou! ke Bondye beni ou! M' gen yon kesyon sou kafe nan ayiti. Eske pifo moun yo bwe kafe nan maten an oubyen se selman yon liks pou yo. Nan etazini preske tout moun bwe kafe. Se la memn nan ayiti? Eske kafe bon mache pou moun yo ki rete nan andeyo ki pa gen anpil kob?

Le moun yo rekolte pwa kafe yo vet, dwe kite yo sech. Apre sa, kijan yo prepare kafe pwa nan lakay ou? Mwen te li ki yo kwit pwa yo nan yon chodye anle twa roch yo, pou osige vennsenk minit yo. Le you vide pwa kafe soti chodye e mete sik andann chodye e kwit jouk sik te vin koule lo. Pwochen yo melanje pwa kafe e sik ansanm and vide sou yon moso tol. Apre li fret you kraze l' nan moulen kafe.

I hope I said this correct in Kreyol. ?? I will say it in Engish now just in case you don't understand my elementary grammar in Kreyol. Feel free to correct it if you want and send it back to em. Here are my questions in English because I want to do a Christian womens conference and have a coffee theme, but first I need to understand somethings about coffee in Haiti. Does almost everyone drink it in Hait in the morning like in the US. Is it a common household item or is it too expensive for most and considered a luxary? I know they grow it on Hait but is it acessible to most and is it affordable? I know are the very poor and then the wealthier in Haiti. But what is a general answer? Also how are coffee beans processed in Haiti. If a haitian in the country side would buy freas green coffee beans, how would the ground them up at their homes. I read on the internet that they cook them in a heavy iron kettle over the 3 stone fire for about 25 minutes to roast them. Next they pour them out to let them cool and in the mean time they cook sugar until it is an amber color. Then the mix the roasted coffee beans together with the sugar and then pour ot onto a piece of tin to let it cool. Next the crush and ground it up into coffee grounds. Also when I am in Haiti the coffee that the cooks serve us is ground so fine it is almost like powdered sugar. They do not put it into a sock but put it directly into the water and boil it. It is delicious! and also very mild even though it is very black in color. Is that because there is sugar added? I am continually learning more about the cultture of Haiti, and will never stop learning as I am a foreingner. But I was wondering about how relavant the daily routines of coffee are in Haiti! You know us Americans! we don't think we can live without it! and Jesus, of course!. Like they said, "In the morning all I need is a lttle bit of coffee and a whole lot of Jesus" If I said this is creole: is this correct? 

" Nan maten an selman mwen bezwen se yon ti kase coffee and anpil Jezi!"


Mandaly says.....
Mèsi anpil pou kesyon ou. Mwen konprann tout sa ou ekri :)

"In the morning all I need is a little bit of coffee and a whole lot of Jesus"
"Le maten tout sa m bezwen se yon ti tas kafe ak yon gwo gode plen ak Jezi!"

Making coffee part of the daily morning routine is something we have in common. After that everything else is a little different. 
I could explain it like this. For Americans, coffee in the morning is the 'energizer that keeps the energizer bunny going'. It is something that mostly only adults do. To Haitians coffee is more like breakfast... nourishment.  It is for kids and adults. We usually have coffee with bread, sometimes buttered bread in the morning. We like to dunk our bread in our coffee. Where I was raised, we roasted our own green coffee beans in a big iron skillet until the beans becomes dark. We used a big mortar (pilon) and pestle (manch pilon) to pound on the coffee. Now, this is a 3 to 4 feet mortar and a pestle that weighs about 2 to 5 pounds. One person may do the pounding. Sometimes two people may pound on the coffee. 1 mortar, two pestles, two people. The people, usually women, stand facing each other with the mortar in between them and they start pounding alternatively. It's done in a rhythmic fashion. They pound, crush and grind without missing a beat. We called this pile kafe. The coffee is then passed through a strainerWe boil water in a coffee pot called kafetyè. We put the coffee powder (poud kafe) in a cloth filter or sock filter (grèp) and pour the hot water through the filter over a cup.

Coffee with sugar is for breakfast. We do not usually drink it throughout the day.
Coffee is not a luxury. A lot of people in the provinces grow their own. We share with our neighbors. You may have a big yard that have 5 to 10 little houses. So we share with our neighbors. In the US, some people might look at you funny if you go knock on their door to bring a plate of food. But in every Haitian know that we have a hunger problem in Haiti. We know that our neighbors may not be able to eat one day. So we share, just in case. It is not rare for a national to wake up in Haiti and put a grain of salt under their tongue so that they can survive the day. But they won't tell you their business, so we share our morning coffee and bread, in case that is all the nourishment they'll have for the day.

In the provinces (outskirts of Haiti), we usually roast own own. In the capital, we'd either buy the powder, or rely on families that live in the outskirt to bring some coffe for us, on their regular visits to the capital.

Coffee without sugar (called kafe anmè) is a remedy for people who are suffering from acute emotional distress as a result of a traumatic event.

We used the coffee grounds to clean our dirt floor (which is inside the home). We sprinkle it on the floor, in the bedroom, living room, etc..., we may sprinkle some water too, and then we sweep it out. A lot of the homes on the outskirts have dirt floors.

Coffee powder (poud kafe) also means money.

Sometimes Haitians tell their age by the number of coffee harvests they've seen: 40 year - 40 rekòt kafe.

Port-Au-Prince is somewhat westernized, but if you're ever in the outskirts of Haiti and hear the thumps of the big pestle and smell the coffee, stop by for a ti tas kafe. .



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