6 Mwa nan Ayiti :)

Piti, piti, wazo fè nich li ... Little by little, the bird makes its nest.

It has been 6 months (plus a couple of weeks) since I first arrived in Haiti, and I am constantly reminded of how beautiful/complicated/wonderful this country is. I would love to try and encapsulate my perspective on Haiti in one comprehensive update to share with you; but, every time I have tried to write something down about my first 6 months, it has felt inadequate. It seems that the more I learn about Haiti and about the International Development/NGO (non-governmental organization) world, the less I seem to know and the more difficult it becomes to explain.


So, rather than trying to produce something insightful, I am just going to leave you with some descriptions of what I've been up to along with some pictures of some of the things that I have seen and done in the past few months.


And it goes.. and it goes... and it goes a little something like this (hit it!):
...(did anyone else just start singing the Aaron Carter classic "That's how I beat Shaq"?... just me? ok. great.)

1) Karnaval happened... I was able to go to some of the pre-Carnival events in Port-au-Prince (as I mentioned in my last post) as well as the annual Carnival celebration in Jacmel.

PaP Pre-Carnival on Delmas (Jess' photo)

At our place in Jacmel before Carnival (Kate's photo)

 Jacmel is a cute little beach town that EXPLODES with Carnival fervor as Ash Wednesday approaches. The Carnival parade in Jacmel traditionally happens the week before the national Carnival is celebrated. I have been to Jacmel outside of Carnival season and loved it, but Carnival is this city's shining moment. Jacmel is touted by many as the artistic capital of Haiti. Throughout the city, you can find beautiful tile mosaic murals as well as troves of papier-mâché, which is this city's artistic speciality and a particularly important part of the Carnival celebrations, with thousand of papier-mâché costumes, masks, and other accessories created each year for the celebration.

Jacmel Mosaic  (Kate's photo)

Papier-mache masks lined up and ready for the parade (Kate's photo)

On the days leading up to the main parade, all of the buildings on the main route build a new Carnival-themed facade (these facades were actually still being constructed and painted just hours before the parade began). The result is that the main street of the city is completely transformed into Carnival-mode. It was as if the entire city put on a Carnival mask just for the occasion!

In the stands (Kate's photo)

The main parade route (Kate's photo)

Now, getting to the parade itself--- You can either buy tickets to watch the parade from up in these freshly-constructed stands or you can process along with the parade as it comes down the main street (we opted to do a little of both, as you will see in the pictures). The parade begins around noon and it lasts almost until daybreak. It consists of various dance troupes, floats, and party trucks (also known as chars), but the papier-mache costumes and the Carnival music are what really provide the energy for the celebration. Click here for my favorite Carnival song (it doesn't heat up til 2:40 in, so do yourself a favor and just skip past the intro).

Barbancourt dancer (Kate's photo)

Papier-mache masks (Kate's photo)

Watching the action from above (Kate's photo)

Traditional costumes (Kate's photo)

Joining the parade (Kate's photo)

2) Work has been crazy. We are currently restructuring our department as well as re-conceptualizing the project on which I am working. During this sometimes tumultous process, three of my colleagues have resigned (in a span of 3 months). The silver lining in this is that I have gotten some street cred for stepping up and taking on new roles in the interim. We are already working on hiring new staff and we hosted some consultants who helped us think through how we would like to tackle my project going forward. This has kept me busy at work, which I am happy about. I still am not crazy about my project, but I have built a lot of confidence at work and have learned a lot about how my organization works (for better or worse).


3) I visited some new beaches and attended a Haitian wedding. One of my favorite recent adventures was a trip to Kokoye beach, which is just outside of Ti Goave. The beach is inaccessible by car, so we had to take a 1 hour boat ride to get there. It was very secluded and the water was a crystal clear Caribbean blue. It was hands-down the most beautiful place I have been to so far in Haiti.

Camping at Kokoye Beach (Maz's photo)

A few weeks later, I went to a wedding in O Kay (a coastal town just about 2-3 hours past Jacmel). It was pretty similar to weddings I have been to in the US except that the procession out involved the bridesmaids dancing to a synchronized, slow, ballet-like dance. Oh, and they also hired singers who sang love songs to the new couple after the wedding vows were exchanged. Curiously, all of the songs were in English. (For example, Foreigner's "I want to know what love is"). I didn't take any pictures at the wedding (although plenty of pictures were taken of me, owing to the fact that I was the only blan that decided to crash the wedding that day). During this impromptu trip to the South, we also made a stop at Port Salut, which is a popular beach nearby O Kay.

Port Salut

4) My mom, grandma, and 2 aunts visited Haiti to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday! According to the reports that I received, they had a great time here. It meant a lot to me to be able to show them the country and to give them a different picture of Haiti than most people receive via the US Media. Among other things, we went to a nice restaurant in Port-au-Prince, stayed at Moulin Sur Mer on Haiti's Arcadins coast, went to a Haitian history museum downtown, had an obligatory Rhum Sour at the Hotel Oloffson, ate a big Haitian meal at my apartment, and went to Sunday mass at one of the Catholic churches nearby.

Reynolds sisters at Hotel Oloffson 

Moulin Sur Mer's beach

Frou Frou drinks at Moulin Sur Mer

 DISCLAIMER: This is a personal blog. Any views or opinions (or grammatical errors!) represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the blog owner and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the owner may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated.  All pictures are mine unless otherwise stated.