The masks for Carnival in Jacmel
Man in Jacmel
At the Hotel Floride
Colonial architecture
In the waterfall Basin Bleu
The beach at the hotel
The kids and their starfish
Kenscoff boys at the beach
Our trip to Jacmel was awesome and relaxing and I mostly avoided sunburn. We stayed at an amazing hotel right on the Caribbean with a private cove, complete with a little artisan market where I bought quite a few things. There ended up being 8 of us total- Me, Norma, Jean, Maive, Anna, Liz and our driver Maxime.
We left early Friday morning for the long drive South in the NPFS jeep which bumped along and threw us all around the back. The hotel was inclusive and cheap- $40 a night including breakfast and dinner at the restaurant overlooking the ocean. I think my total bill, including splitting the cost of Maxime’s room was $89! We went into downtown Jacmel to see the artisan shops on Saturday which was very cool. Jacmel is different than the rest of Haiti in regards to poverty. It's of course a very poor city, especially without the tourism that used to center there, but its a lot cleaner and more put together than anywhere else I’ve seen in Haiti. The buildings are all colonial and the artisans have set up little shops near the water front. We went and saw a beautiful hotel called the Hotel Floride that we all plan to go back to someday. It’s just 2 blocks from the ocean and filled with voodoo art and French architecture. The manager there, Michele, took us all over the city to the artisan markets, where we saw the huge 10 ft tall Carnival masks and how they’re made.
While we were all floating in the middle of the cove on the water toys I borrowed from the swimming pool at work, an American man swam up to us and introduced himself. He works for a non-profit and lives in Haiti, and told us where we needed to go in Jacmel. He was also in a (not very good) band that performed at the hotel on Saturday night. So on his advice on Sunday, we traveled through a river and up a mountain to see Basin Bleu, a waterfall with a voodoo history of swallowing people alive. It was a beautiful long walk where we had to jump from rock to rock to cross various creeks, climb rock stairs that were carved into the side of the mountain and scale down a rope to get to the base of the fall. The whole way, several Haitian men in their 20’s walked with us trying to be our guides in order to get tipped at the end. We were told not to tip them (we had already paid for 2 guides) but they came with us all the same. They helped us balance as we crossed the rivers, held our things as we scaled down the rocks, and took our cameras to take pictures of us in the waterfall. The boy that was helping me was super nice and at the end, I broke the rules and tried to tip him in Haitian gouds- he was so mad that I wasn’t giving him American money! He kept saying “dollar, dollar” and I just said “Je n’en ai pas” (I don’t have any) and refused the gouds! I felt a little bad, but not really because any person that is bold enough to tell me I’m not tipping them enough when they aren’t even suppose to be tipped can wait for the next American to come along.
Sunday we returned to Petionville where I switched out clothes and went up to the orphanage for the week to teach an English class. The class was all boys from 9 to 20 who came into class everyday, shook my hand and told me I looked pretty that day, and sat down in their assigned seats. We mostly just played bingo and prepared for their class performance of Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World” that they would be singing at the end of the summer session. On my last day, one of the boys wrote me a thank you note that I thought was very sweet so I’ll copy it here:
Molly,
I don’t know how to say you thanks for accept to take Jean’s place for this week
I know some times is’t not so easy because work with some children who you don’t it’s very hard But you were adapted to us and you took part in the atmosphere. And tried to understand each one of us that prove your love for us. I can’t find words for express my gratitude toward you. I think only God can say you thanks. May God continue to bless you. And may you continue to help those who want help. With my affection and my respect . I think my words can touch the bottom of your heart despite they are too littlest.
Edelin DOSSOUS
For the summer session, each house of kids gets to go to the beach once, and I accompanied a house of 50 boys on Friday. We drove for several hours north of Port-au-Prince to a clean, private beach where we spent the day swimming with a view of Isle de Gonaives in the distance. The boys can’t really swim, but they had fun splashing around and catching crabs and starfish. There was a huge group of white men next to us who stared and stared at us until they finally came over and started talking to us and taking pictures of the kids. They turned out to be UN Brazilians who only spoke Spanish, but tried their best to speak English with me. They gave us a lot of the extra food they had and several containers of bottled water, which was very nice. Then, they each took an individual picture with me, gave me a coca cola, a bracelet and their emails. I will not be contacting them, but I enjoyed the coca cola.
I headed back down the mountain to Petionville on Saturday and am going to start back up with the kids in the pool tomorrow. It was nice and cool in Kenscoff, and now its back to 100 degrees with scattered thunder storms.
We left early Friday morning for the long drive South in the NPFS jeep which bumped along and threw us all around the back. The hotel was inclusive and cheap- $40 a night including breakfast and dinner at the restaurant overlooking the ocean. I think my total bill, including splitting the cost of Maxime’s room was $89! We went into downtown Jacmel to see the artisan shops on Saturday which was very cool. Jacmel is different than the rest of Haiti in regards to poverty. It's of course a very poor city, especially without the tourism that used to center there, but its a lot cleaner and more put together than anywhere else I’ve seen in Haiti. The buildings are all colonial and the artisans have set up little shops near the water front. We went and saw a beautiful hotel called the Hotel Floride that we all plan to go back to someday. It’s just 2 blocks from the ocean and filled with voodoo art and French architecture. The manager there, Michele, took us all over the city to the artisan markets, where we saw the huge 10 ft tall Carnival masks and how they’re made.
While we were all floating in the middle of the cove on the water toys I borrowed from the swimming pool at work, an American man swam up to us and introduced himself. He works for a non-profit and lives in Haiti, and told us where we needed to go in Jacmel. He was also in a (not very good) band that performed at the hotel on Saturday night. So on his advice on Sunday, we traveled through a river and up a mountain to see Basin Bleu, a waterfall with a voodoo history of swallowing people alive. It was a beautiful long walk where we had to jump from rock to rock to cross various creeks, climb rock stairs that were carved into the side of the mountain and scale down a rope to get to the base of the fall. The whole way, several Haitian men in their 20’s walked with us trying to be our guides in order to get tipped at the end. We were told not to tip them (we had already paid for 2 guides) but they came with us all the same. They helped us balance as we crossed the rivers, held our things as we scaled down the rocks, and took our cameras to take pictures of us in the waterfall. The boy that was helping me was super nice and at the end, I broke the rules and tried to tip him in Haitian gouds- he was so mad that I wasn’t giving him American money! He kept saying “dollar, dollar” and I just said “Je n’en ai pas” (I don’t have any) and refused the gouds! I felt a little bad, but not really because any person that is bold enough to tell me I’m not tipping them enough when they aren’t even suppose to be tipped can wait for the next American to come along.
Sunday we returned to Petionville where I switched out clothes and went up to the orphanage for the week to teach an English class. The class was all boys from 9 to 20 who came into class everyday, shook my hand and told me I looked pretty that day, and sat down in their assigned seats. We mostly just played bingo and prepared for their class performance of Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World” that they would be singing at the end of the summer session. On my last day, one of the boys wrote me a thank you note that I thought was very sweet so I’ll copy it here:
Molly,
I don’t know how to say you thanks for accept to take Jean’s place for this week
I know some times is’t not so easy because work with some children who you don’t it’s very hard But you were adapted to us and you took part in the atmosphere. And tried to understand each one of us that prove your love for us. I can’t find words for express my gratitude toward you. I think only God can say you thanks. May God continue to bless you. And may you continue to help those who want help. With my affection and my respect . I think my words can touch the bottom of your heart despite they are too littlest.
Edelin DOSSOUS
For the summer session, each house of kids gets to go to the beach once, and I accompanied a house of 50 boys on Friday. We drove for several hours north of Port-au-Prince to a clean, private beach where we spent the day swimming with a view of Isle de Gonaives in the distance. The boys can’t really swim, but they had fun splashing around and catching crabs and starfish. There was a huge group of white men next to us who stared and stared at us until they finally came over and started talking to us and taking pictures of the kids. They turned out to be UN Brazilians who only spoke Spanish, but tried their best to speak English with me. They gave us a lot of the extra food they had and several containers of bottled water, which was very nice. Then, they each took an individual picture with me, gave me a coca cola, a bracelet and their emails. I will not be contacting them, but I enjoyed the coca cola.
I headed back down the mountain to Petionville on Saturday and am going to start back up with the kids in the pool tomorrow. It was nice and cool in Kenscoff, and now its back to 100 degrees with scattered thunder storms.
That thank you note is SOOOOOOOOOOO precious!
ReplyDeleteAnd no UN Brazilians for you?? Send them my way... :)