01/12/2024
Christmas miracles are already happening here!! We are back in business!
And this was/is no small feat.
First, we had to figure out how to get cacao beans from a farmer in the south of Haiti to us in the capital without losing lives or cargo to gangs along the way.
Then, we had to find space in our tiny apartment to store, roast, and shell these little seeds of heaven.
But it took us a couple more months to pull off the next miracle - retrieving all of our chocolate-making equipment from our old house. Every time this year the gangs made reappearances in our old neighborhood, we wondered if our investments we have made into this business/passion would literally go up in smoke. This month, things got rough there again, and we knew we were pushing our luck if we didn't try to make our move to save our livelihood soon.
Our first attempt failed as gang activity heated up significantly the day we had arranged a driver to fill up a truckload of chocolate machines and supplies. But early the next morning while the streets were quieter, the driver was able to get safely to our old house and get out with the goodie-making goods. There was much rejoicing. 😊
We got right to work rearranging our apartment again to create a new chocolate factory in the only remaining space in our house (the hallway and part of the living room 😆). But we quickly realized our little solar power system we have at our new place isn't strong enough to run everything we need, so Moroni made a risky trip to our old house again last week to get the batteries and whatever else was left of our solar system after thieves broke in and stole critical equipment a few months ago. Sadly, he discovered all the rest is missing now, too. (Good thing our superpower we never wanted to have to be so good at is finding work-arounds for everything.)
But gangs, thieves, blocked roads, closed airports, lack of electricity, unpredictable running water, and all the other daily events of living in a war zone is no match for us! Every cacao bean we crack and every bar we pour feels like an act of resistance. And every bite is sweet, sweet victory.
Chocolate always wins. ❤️🍫💙