Scenes from Haiti

When we travel to Haiti we stay at the Guest House in Pignon. I tell people we will be staying at an Oasis. We have running water that we can drink out of the tap. We have separate rooms (sometimes shared with 2 or 3 people) with our own flush toilet bathrooms. The cooks are the best and included in your stay are three delicious meals per day-you can actually gain weight when we come to Haiti! Wi-Fi and electricity is solar powered. 

Front of the Haiti Outreach Guest House

Solar panels on the roof of the Guest House. These power the Guest House and the Haiti Outreach headquarter building. On fully cloudy days we may run out of power and have to revert to a back up generator.

Fun photo of the Guest House with the solar  panels on the roof. The shadow of our plane is in the foreground.

Typical room with the beds not made up.

Separate baths in each room.

Dining room/ Living room for eating and socializing

Looking out of the Guest House to the Haiti Outreach headquarters

Leaving the guest house we deal with different kinds of experiences. For the women, finding a decent bathroom is often challenging!

I forgot to tell Janita to use the bathroom before we left the guest house.  You can see by the expression on her face what we found here!! 

Another latrine. looks very clean compared to some.

Scenes from around Haiti:

Looks very green from a good rainy season. Most of the trees are fruit trees that are not cut down for wood unless they stop producing fruit!

Sugar cane is a major cash crop in the rural countryside. I have learned there is a special way to cut the cane that is better than just chopping it with a machete. 

                        

This is a sugar cane operation. You can see in the foreground all the  discarded cane after the juice has been extracted. They let this old cane dry a bit and then burn it to power the generator and to cook down the juice to  a molasses consistency.

Here is the distillery. They have very specific measurements they need to test the alcohol in order to sell it to the large distilleries that will make it into Rum. This pure alcohol (Ever Clear) is kept under lock and key!

Saw these very old dug out "canoes" that are still being used for fishing.

Part of the reason the countryside is deforested. These are bags of charcoal that have been made from wood and are sold to be used for cooking.

In Pignon on the central plateau where we stay there are very few opportunities to shop. Market day is once a week. I tell people to pack like they are going to the Boundary Waters (wilderness for you non-Minnesotans). You need to take what you need since there are no stores to shop at. Here are some market and store scenes.

This very limited auto parts store is made out of an old freight container.

In Pignon, market day is Saturday. Everyone sets up shop and everyone plans their week around either selling and/or shopping at the market.

This little piggy did not want to go to market! And the racket he made!!

Canned goods

Macaroni, tomato paste, potatoes...

Grains and beans...sold by the cup

Are you hungy? You can buy fried food that's been cooked in the market.

Beets in the foreground.

Drug store products...soap, toothpaste, lotions, batteries, etc.

Need a pair of shoes?

This has to be hot sitting in the sun selling your products.

This small store has more processed foods. No store like this in Pignon. This larger store is in the town of Henche. This is open every day so you don't have to wait for market day!

It doesn't make sense to carry water from the well to wash clothes so everyone goes to the river:

Laundromat and social event. 

Often times the river has very brown water but somehow the clothes get clean and white!

Common afternoon scene are the kids walking home from school in their school uniforms.

I stayed at a farm close to the beach. I couldn't wait to head down to the beach for my morning walk.

This is what the beach looks like. A layer of garbage washed up...no desire to swim here!

We decided to go to the "beach" and go swimming in the ocean. We paid to get in and the "beach was cemented with steps into the ocean. Refreshing.

This seems to be the "life guard" was he rowed around the area where we were swimming.

There are beautiful scenes in Haiti too. This is a very beautiful waterfall near Henche, a larger town south of Pignon

No rainy season is complete without a tarantula sighting. They usually live in holes in the ground. When it rains they tend to come out to find a dry spot so they head for our building!

This is a small tarantula compared to most.

Kids are very creative. This toy car is made from a plastic milk type bottle. The wheels are made from the bottle tops.

From the air you can see the erosion from deforestation.

Sunsets and sunrise are often spectacular! My camera doesn't do it justice.

Thanks for reading my blog! I'm sure I'll be back to Haiti and I have a lot more I can share... about history, Port au Prince, etc.

But stay tuned.. at the end of February I'll be attending Mardi Gras in Trinidad with my good friends Susan and Saurel. Susan was raised in Trinidad and they have been attending Mardi Gras for years. I have never been to any Mardi Gras so I am looking forward to experiencing all the festivities with the pros!

My friends Susan and Saurel when we were in Haiti together. I expect our time in Trinidad will be as fun as our time together in Haiti!