After a lot of questioning (since weeks ago) about security, transportation, lodging, time off from work, etc.. we were finally able to step into pure Haitian life and freedom from the village on Saturday. Our adventure began at eight in the morning. Feeling a bit guilty because others from the team were working hard to put up tent, we walked away alone and excited for a weekend with Haitians. We were going with Natasha, Maribel’s friend who works as a psychologist here- I felt like going with her was a safe way to go.
So we walked out of the village, ready to get on a tap-tap (local “buses” here, at that point I had never been in one) but all of a sudden, Marta drove past us with an SOS car. We asked her for a ride and three miles down the road, Maribel and I got dropped off. We were unsure where Natasha lived, we just knew she lived down a certain street.
With our backpacks and sleeping bags, looking like complete tourists (and possibly idiots.. sleeping bags with this heat?) Maribel used the creole she has been practicing everyday to find out exactly where Natasha lived. Thanks to a lot of really nice Haitians we were able to meet Natasha about five minutes down the street. I got formally introduced to her and her three sisters who were going on the trip. We walked back to the main road and I got on my first tap-tap ride of my life. A month ago, looking at tap-taps from the cars I wondered how so many people were able to fit into such a small vehicle. I had never imagined I would get in one myself.
The first tap-tap ride we took was for about twenty minutes. I felt very safe being with Haitians and it was clear that Nastasha and her sisters wanted to take good care of us, they were holding our hands since the beginning. I was impressed because as some people hopped in even if there wasn’t space to sit, one of Natasha’s sisters just held a girl on her lap. A complete stranger on someone’s lap was a whole new concept for me. I actually didn’t feel as uncomfortable as I expected- physically and mentally. I wasn’t as crammed and I didn’t feel unsafe or out of place…. ok, maybe a little bit. But the the fact that we were getting to know a culture by actually becoming a part of and not seeing it from the car kept me too excited.
About an hour later we were at a bus station in Port au Prince (this would have taken about half of the time in a car). I was a little unsure about being able to find a bus ride to Jacmel because there was a big music festival this weekend and it would make sense to think that a lot of people were leaving town.
There were no buses left when we arrived- for a second I thought maybe we were not going, and in this case I wouldn’t have cared so much because at this point I was so easy going with whatever. But Natasha assured us we would go to Jacmel and we just crossed the road and hopped on a car. I heard “jacmel? Jacmel?” all around me so many cars were probably waiting for as many people as they could cram into a car and leave. We first got in a car but then hopped out because it cost five dollars per person and Natasha and her sisters considered this expensive. I was a bit disappointed because I had thought this car with spacious.
By this point we had all been sweating since we left and it seemed like it was getting hotter each passing minute, with all of the commotion and having to take quick decisions. We ended up getting in a sort of minivan, about 15 people or possibly more were crammed in this car. I was sweating a lot and thinking ‘two hours of this will be difficult’. But I also told myself that it was all in the mind that I could deal with squishing and being so close to everyone. As we drove away I closed my eyes and began to think, all of sudden my daydreaming passed to dreaming, or so I felt like that. I felt tired so I wanted to rest but at the same time I wanted to open my eyes, curious about what I would find when I would open them.. I knew time had passed so I knew the scenery would be different.
I did stay away awake for the last hour and a half of the trip… it was greener, at some points I was reminded on Costa Rica (but very little).. but it seemed as if the mountains were steeper, the soil was drier… a lot greener than what I had seen in Haiti, that’s for sure. A few houses here and there, a few people walking around and every once in a while…. a little bit of destruction from the earthquake.
We arrived in Jacmel at around 11am. We took a motorcycle ride to Natasha’s friend’s house (some guy named Lulu who was letting us sleep there). By this point I began to be more conscious and curious about where I would sleep and what I would eat. I guess I got used to the luxuries (I can definitely call it that) that we have here and imagined that where we would stay there would be things that I would take for granted.. .such as water, electricity, bla. I don’t know what I was thinking forgetting that the majority of Haitians don’t live with these luxuries and that if I decided to come along with a friend of a friend of Maribel (who is Haitian), then I would find myself in what I consider poverty.
And no surprise- I found myself in a so-called house. Some unpainted square divided into two “rooms” by some kind of curtains, I peeked in one and there was an old bed and a lot of clothes on top of it.. of course there was no sign of electricity anywhere and no sign of a bathroom.
Natasha was the only one who “showered”- they brought a little bucket of water and I felt too uncomfortable to just take off my clothes and clean myself in the back of this house and … too guilty to take water from people who don’t have a lot of it. Feeling a bit sticky, I just changed shirts and felt ready to go into the city and find out what this festival was all about.
One more motorcycle ride and another tap-tap and we were at the beach in Jacmel. The place was so crowded that I didn’t get to truly breathe and recognize the beauty of its nature until I turned my head to the side many minutes after we arrived and I saw a bare part of the beach- it was beautiful. But I had no time to truly appreciate the natural beauty because we were there for the festival and our priority was to be immersed in this Haitian culture.
A lot.. a lot of people.. no whites except for Maribel and I (and about four others I noticed at some point, and like us, I’m sure they stood out), most people were sitting down, a lot drinking, a few eating, some dancing. There was actually not a lot of music, certainly no live music, just a DJ a little further away. A few children, some people more dressed up than others, many in bathing suits… and a little further away a crowded part of the ocean.
It took us a while to finally sit down and relax; getting in was complicated, getting food was complicated (I didn’t eat anything because I don’t think my stomach can handle street food, I ignored any sign of hunger and lived my Saturday with the littlest my stomach has ever had.. another issue which I didn’t think about too much), changing into bathing suits was complicated (and being drying and putting back clothes and bla bla), finding a place to sit was complicated. At first I felt as if we were spending more time figuring out how to enjoy ourselves than actually enjoying ourselves.
A shocking image came from observing the little tubes that had water in which people were supposed to shower after the ocean. It was completely packed, some people had soap on, many were fighting for the water, holding up their water bottle and stealing the little bit of water from the person next to them. Struggling to get a bit of water seemed completely normal to them and I stared at this in shock – thinking about how they were not wasting a single drop of this water. It’s hard to compare it with the showers I take daily in Costa Rica.
One of the most relaxing moments came from just sitting alone in the sand and photographing. Of course not all sights were pretty, men here pee anywhere.
Hola AnaL.!! Gracias por compartir... hace dias que no teniamos nuevos relatos y este definitivamente fue el mas "aventurero de todosss"....cuidate mucho,que Dios te acompañe..
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