some Haiti photos and comments

noborders

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Dec 4, 2006
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(this is a mail that I am sending to various friends, - also in India and in Africa, but to view the photos, you'll need to copy the links and paste them) - sorry for the length of it, but I thought that explanations were necessary !

(>> to have a <quick> look at the picture, clic 1st on : "lancez le diaporama", then on >> each time you want to change)

NB these are not "art photos", just instant snapshots often taken from vehicles in movement through the glass window of a ? tap tap ? in the area of Petionville, or of the 4WD which transported us to the Nippes and to Jacmel. Except for the vegetation, I could not take the time necessary to take good photos + unfortunately erased part of them, in the middle of my travel.

I hope that those photos will prove that people can be poor but live in dignity, even happy : most of the Haitians live a simple life and cannot afford much luxury but I was struck (like in Africa) by those big, loud outburst of laugh, everywhere and all the time ? despite all their problems, they seem happy ? the local music proves this as well, and they have kept the sense of the community and of the family more than in the western world. They have also a great sense of hopitality and are simply charming.

If it is true that this country is not stable and that there are places to be avoided because they are violent, such as the Martissant or the Cit? Soleil shantytowns in Port au Prince, I would certainly not call this country miserable, as I found it rich with laughter, music and people singing in the streets, bursting of coulours, with a rich culture and a handicraft full of imagination, plus this ingenuity for survival, rich in spirituality and magic, and of course, spirits everywhere...

1 - the road to the border with the Dominican Republic
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H1 - fronti?re
Not many photos unfortunately, but one can see there the large lake shared by both countries, with interesting sail boats near a small village on the opposite side, an improvised open air shop on the shores of the lake near the border, and the traffic jams with essential imported goods waiting to cross the border.

2 - street scenes
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H2 - streets scene
Mostly photos were taken in Petionville : apart from 3 UN vehicles with blue helmets, you can see markets that my guide judged ? potentially dangerous ? and where I could not venture unfortunately,plus all kinds of sellers along the streets (women more often than men carrying goods on top of their heads).
The clothes sold on the pavement are bizzarely called "les Kennedy" : these are 2nd hand clothes given by western charities, sold for very low price but they are killing the tiny local textile industry. Another of these photos in N? 3.

3 - shops and signs
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H3 - shops and signs
Again, I saw much more than I could take in photos, and laughed aloud many times reading some signs. But most of them are in French or in Creole ? Creole being written very phonetically :
- ? Fok Haiti change ? is not an insult, but it means ? Haiti needs to change ? = il faut que => faut que = pronounced ? fok ? qu?Haiti change ; Other slogans written by the same organisation in various areas.
- The laughing cow is both sweet, cute and also hilarious for French speakers : ? l?t agogo, vaniy, frez zorange zabricot, 100% l?t bef peyi ? = ? milk as much as you like - unlimited, also with vanilla, strawberry, orange or apricot flavour, 100% beef milk (not cow ?) from our country ?
- Many fundamentalist protestant churches of all denomination, but less aggressive it seemed than what I saw last year in the Philippines. The most common were the ? baptit conservatists ?.

4 - Vehicles and traffic
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H4 - Vehicles and traffic
Buses and tap taps are bursting with colours, but despite the traffic jams also present now each day in Petionville, there is still unfortunately not enough public transport ; in the countryside, many people can be seen walking along the road as they cannot afford the cost (although not so expensive), or because the buses run too unfrequently.
Roads are sometimes in bad shape, bridge destroyed by flash floods remain sometimes unrepaired for years, with other portions well asphalted, other ones full of potholes.
Some classic yellow American school buses are recycled here, not only for children...
Other photos of tap tap and buses on N? 5 and 6.

5 - Jacmel and the road from Leog?ne
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H5 - Jacmel and road to it
I found Jacmel city lovely, full of charm with its romantic old buildings, but of course not any more a place where to have a beach holiday? Plus, along the waterfront, streets were being repaired just before the Carnaval, a major event in Haiti and specially famous in Jacmel where the masks made of papier m?ch? are very famous.
The road from Leog?ne in the north is in good condition with much less traffic but serious bends and slopes ? even passes, so the driver needs to be attentive all the time.

6 - ? Nippes ? area
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H6 - "Nippes" area
This is where I went to visit a local NGO, FECON, partially supported by Aide et Action Paris, and I am very grateful to the team to have lead me there, also to all the persons that I met there who seemed very dedicated to their job.
The head town of the area is Miragoane, a peaceful harbour town with dreadful roads in the centre but interesting buildings from various periods. We visited there another NGO, FOMAED, which takes care of street children, abandonned babies and pregnant girls, giving them access to school or to informal education.
Then went in the neighbouring hills to visit the ? commune ? of Paillant, much cooler and quieter, where people seem very isolated and sometimes, handle so little cash that some cannot even afford to pay 200 or 250 gourdes (= 5 to 6.5 US$) per year for the school fees of their children, although they are keen to have their children educated. The things sold in the weekly local market were very simple?
In one of the schools, there were 9 teachers in a large one-room building, busy with 260 children, all in primary school although some of them were obviously more than 12 years old ; I asked how many of them were walking more than one hour one way to reach that school, and about a third of the children raised their hands.
Aide et Action was only providing wooden benches and school books, the parents have to pay for the teachers salary ; neighbouring gardens were cultivated by some parents to generate income.
(aloe cactus : look for the bee, and on the next photo, don't miss the lizard).

7 - handicrafts
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H7 - handicrafts
To be perfectly honnest, I was not only going back to Haiti to see those school programmes, but also to bring back some more of the iron work that I had already bought 20 years ago when I had worked there as a tour guide. The present work is much more refined, but it is still ? bosmetal ?, oil barrel locally called "dwoums", re-used after having been carried on top of the head or pulled in large carts. This sort of ? art ? is less sold in the DR than the paintings and I feel more interested to it. (I did not buy 7779 in the end, although I liked it very much)

8 - a green shower, for a change and for relaxing
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H8 - green shower
Many of those photos taken in Gros Jean (see next number) where I was spending the nights and some full days, but in fact some other ones were taken the other side of the border : this is one of my new passions but unfortunately the best ones were erased by mistake :(((

9 - Gros Jean and above
Yahoo! Photos - Photos de cathdoux - H9 - Gros Jean and above
First, coconut trees and shops in Pernier below; then the bumpy road leading to Gros Jean ;
Maxom and his tap tap, also with Ari and Herode our body guard ;
Ari's yellow and green house, Djaloki in conversation with Sarah, another guest ;
Ari's family members and Herode again ;
Herode once more, because he guided me to the nearby waterfall (not much water, taken for the public shower and for irrigation) ; he also guided me above Ari's compound...

Gros Jean ("Gwo Jan") it is not exactly a village, rather houses and buildings scattered among the hills and in the bushes above Port au Prince ; administratively, the area is depending from Petionville which seems very far away and which has many other problems, so Gros Jean is suffering from lack of funds, and forgotten ;
The community is very much spread out and I went far above my lodging with our ? body guard ?, Herode, to pay a visit to his mother who happens to be my ? tokay ?, an affectionate word for a person who shares the same first name : the other Catherine has to go down quite far to a spring to make her laundry each Wednesday, when I first met her, and her son carries the wet clothes back to home, high in the hills.
At dusk, groups of donkeys walk generally unaccompanied and stop where the stream begins, waiting for their jerricans to be filled with water for showers, coocking and irrigation. Erosion has badly damaged the track, so that no vehicle could reach Herode?s place.

I warmly recommend to stay at least a few days in this village? One should know that doa/bn intends to build in the future a sort of open air museum about the history of the country : how the 1st Indians lived, their culture and how they were exterminated, other buildings dedicated to the slave trade and the infamous galleon triangular route between Europe, Africa and America, transporting African slaves to Haiti and other islands, then the precious cane sugar back to Europe where the profits were partly reinvested in arms and other goods destined to be exchanged with yet other cargos of slaves across the Atlantic. This trade has flourished for centuries and was practiced by most west European countries.

Please, excuse my mistakes in English...
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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great post, great pictures.
i have been thinking about going to haiti for a long time and you have convinced me.
i hope to convince minovio now as it it always difficult for a lonely woman to travel especially that i do not speak french...
i enjoyed your report immensly.
 

jalencastro

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Dec 15, 2004
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Agreed

this is an awesome post with some awesome pictures! i too would like to go to Haiti and see the other side of the island. but i do not know french at all to wander over there, let alone by myself. even so one of these days in my lifetime i will make the trip, just drive over the border...ya tu sabes
:bunny:
 

Squat

Tropical geek in Las Terrenas
Jan 1, 2002
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Nice pics ! I usually hang out around Cap Haitien, but I'll visit Jacmel someday...
 

noborders

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Dec 4, 2006
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Here is a list that could be also useful : list haiti alternative tourism initatives : (Identification of Haitian Alternative Tourism Initiatives), where doa/bn is mentioned : they are also English speakers, so as an organisation that I heard about when I was there, LIMYE LAVI / BEYOND BORDERS : both have an Anglophone and Creole management and both organise also lodging and travelling.

It could be useful to visit the websites of these organisations, as they are in the same time sorts of charities (specially the 2 last ones) with a certain orientation.
 
Sep 20, 2003
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Jacmel

Nice pics ! I usually hang out around Cap Haitien, but I'll visit Jacmel someday...

I've spent a few days in Jacmel, during the build up to Carnival, I had a great time. Jacmel is beautiful. The New Orleans style homes of Haiti's Coffee barons are still there. Visit the small iron market. At the edge is a small home where an exiled Simon Bolivar had the future Venezuelan flag sewn together. Across the square is a Masonic lodge decorated with paintings of human skulls and bones. Jacmel was a safe place to walk around when I was there. I had no problems at all.

A few miles outside of town is the beach community of Jacmel Cayes. Prisitine beaches, no crowds, clear blue water. What a cool swim that was. What a fantastic experience.


You will not be disappointed.

Viva Haiti!
 

Mirador

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Apr 15, 2004
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...where an exiled Simon Bolivar had the future Venezuelan flag sewn together....

Simon Bolivar was not the originator of the Venezuelan flag, it was General Francisco de Miranda, known in Venezuelan history books as "El Precursor", who designed the flag in Jacmel (circa 1806) and raised it in his flagship "Leander". Miranda borrowed the idea for the flag from the Russian flag (white, blue and red) while staying in the court of Catherine The Great, for whom it is said that he had great and intimate 'empathy'.
 
Sep 20, 2003
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The house in Jacmel was said to be the place where the Venenzuelan flag was sewn together and Simon Bolivar lived during part of his exile. I suppose they happened at different times, but in the same house. Jacmel had a number of Venezuelan exiles living in it over the years.

Whatever the case may be, Jacmel is a great place to visit.
 
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BettyB2

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Mar 9, 2006
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Iron/metal art

I finally finished looking at your pictures this morning and just thought they were wonderful and thank you for taking the time to post both your review and the pictures.....

I fell in love with some of the iron art and HOPE I can find something similar in the Sosua, PP or Cabarete area.
 

Mirador

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Apr 15, 2004
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... Across the square is a Masonic lodge decorated with paintings of human skulls and bones. ...

What's the matter, the skull and bones motif spook you? ...;-). Actually, the skull and bones symbol is part of many Masonic degrees, and its use goes back to the Knights Templar, and beyond... however, it seems to have been popularized as the 'Jolly Rogers' of pirate fame, which when hoisted meant "fighting to the death, taking no prisoners".
 

Mirador

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Apr 15, 2004
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The house in Jacmel was said to be the place where the Venenzuelan flag was sewn together and Simon Bolivar lived during part of his exile.


Bolivar was not exiled in Jacmel, it was his base of operations, from which he launched two invasions of Venezuela, and several excursions against the Spanish in the eastern part of the island. It was also the place where Puerto Rican privateer Roberto Cofres? (Von Kupferschein) Ramirez de Arellano delivered to Bolivar several ships captured from the Spanish for the cause of Venezuelan independence.
 
Sep 20, 2003
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Bolivar was not exiled in Jacmel, it was his base of operations, from which he launched two invasions of Venezuela, and several excursions against the Spanish in the eastern part of the island. It was also the place where Puerto Rican privateer Roberto Cofres? (Von Kupferschein) Ramirez de Arellano delivered to Bolivar several ships captured from the Spanish for the cause of Venezuelan independence.

I suppose it depends on how you define "exile". Bolivar fled to Haiti. Haiti sheltered him, along with other Venezuelan exiles.
 

jrf

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Jan 9, 2005
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jamesfriesen's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

If interested check out some of my photos from Haiti.
Have been there three times and loved it. It was reassuring to step back into the RD but had a great time.

Although this is a RD messaged board you can't ignore the influence the other side of the island has on life there.
 

KarrieTamsin

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Nov 26, 2008
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Any value in some soups?

I create a ensemble sort of soups that valid grand, and can be made in big batches and frozen.
Is there any interest?
 

robbie

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Aug 3, 2006
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Cannot see pics

The links take me to the page cannot be displayed.
Copying this takes me back to DR1, can you explain how I can see this.
Thanks