Peanut Butter!!!

The next time you walk into Walmart and buy a jar of peanut butter think of this.......

I went to the market last week and bought peanuts, oil, and hot sauce. (Haitians like spicy peanut butter) When I first came to Haiti and seen all the poverty my first reaction was to just hand people all the money in my pocket. After staying here for awhile and spending a lot of time in prayer I've come to realize that handing people free money only creates a welfare system. Plus, no one wants to be on the receiving end of charity. So I spend a lot of time brainstorming how I can give these people jobs. That's why I bought the peanuts. I made a deal with a woman that lives close to the land. I would buy the supplies and she would make it. Then we could split what we made. I'll use my peanut butter for my programs and she can sell hers at the market and make some money. I knew I was only going to break even on the deal but that wasn't the point. The point is giving this woman money without actually "giving" this woman money.
When I arrived at her house yesterday I asked if I could stick around and help out. I was curious about how she made it. Little did I know the effort that goes into making peanut butter. It took nine hours to finish it!!!! We worked so hard!
The first step was roasting the peanuts. We didn't have a stove so we set a pot on top of three large stones and started a fire underneath. We could only cook a little at a time. After the peanuts were roasted we laid them on a large mat to cool. Then the children and I set hunched over peeling the outer skin off every single peanut. We also had to pick out the burnt ones and the little pieces of dirt or rock that had fell in. You can imagine how long this took by hand!
The women were trying to teach me the correct way of doing things. They kept say,"Konsa Blan." (Like this white lady) After awhile I got a little aggravated and told them my name was Carrie. They said,"Oh Ok. Konsa Carrie Blan." (Like this Carrie white lady...hahaha) They meant no disrespect.
After about four hours of work just to make the peanuts look like the ones you buy at the store it was time to grind them. Two of my kids and I walked a mile down the road with our peanuts to a lady that owned a grinder. And it wasn't an electric grinder either. We hand cranked that sucker for over and hour!!!!! We attracted quite a crowd too. Everyone was curious to see the white lady that made her own peanut butter. They kept whispering, "Doesn't she have enough money to buy her own?" They missed the point.
When we were finished we took our mashed peanuts back to the house. One lady then heated up the oil and added a few wild onions for flavor. Finally she mixed it altogether along with the hot sauce.
Nine hours after I arrived I'm holding my can of peanut butter. Its about $30 worth. I was exhausted  and hungry.
When I was about to leave a little old man came walking up the path and set down beside me. It was the same old man I had given rice to many times before. He's never been to friendly with me but I haven't let that stop me from trying to help him. Yesterday, however, was different. He set in his little hut all day watching me work with his daughter and grandchildren. After we had finished and he sat beside me he looked at me with a big grin on his face. Then he rubbed my back and said thank you.
That made it all worth it in the end. If I didn't accomplish anything that day at least I made a new friend.

I'm hoping that yesterday I earned that family's respect. And some day soon when I walk into their house with a book and tell a story about a man that died a long time ago they will take the time to listen.
You see, its not about the peanut butter......it never was.