Milot Managerie

We city dwellers don’t always appreciate the variety of animals that are seen in an agrigarian society. Our meat, eggs, and vegetables come neatly from the store and we seldom see our dinner in the flesh. Not so in Haiti. Animals are ubiquitous, both free ranging and domestic, controlled by a loose understanding of personal property and natural selection.




The chicken population has grown dramatically around the compound and the roosters still don’t understand that they shouldn’t start crowing until dawn. (I quickly adapted, and actually woke up my first night home to car traffic that normally would have been ignored.) My morning run crossed one of the many drainage ditches that also served as dumping grounds; boars rummaged for breakfast. The cows were skinny and grazed freely;
there were multiple donkeys and mules used for portage on the steep slippery slopes. Our local dogs follow us throughout the area, but know enough to stop at the door of the hospital or dining hall. The cats are clueless to boundaries, but seem to keep the mouse population down.


Although Haiti is surrounded by ocean, we had no seafood, and the meat served with dinner was chicken or goat.

Goat! Then I realized that I hadn’t seen our pet, Beeg, who I mentioned in the Passover blog…

Not to worry. As the population in the Mission House drew down, Beeg found a new home over by the machine shop. He has a new lady friend, Mme Bovier, and rumor has it, there’s a little Beeg on the way.




Although sometimes we all have trouble living together as humans, in Milot, the menageries is alive, well, and thriving.