Diaspora reporter’s trip to Haiti ends

Editor’s word: That is the final of three installments about this journey collection. See the first half right here and the second half right here.

CAP-HAITIEN— As my journey to Haiti reached its remaining stretch, the nation’s contradictions felt sharper than after I first touched down simply seven days earlier. The time had unfolded like a collection of colliding realities. Progress and decay coexist, typically inside the identical single mile—or much less.

From the excessive plateaus of Bombardopolis and Baie-de-Henne within the decrease Northwest to the Gonaïves plains within the Artibonite Valley, from the tip of Cap-Haïtien within the North to the heights of Camp-Perrin within the South, my journey revealed how profoundly the nation had modified within the years I’ve been away.

Coastlines flooded by Hurricane Melissa despatched surges onto newly paved stretches of roads. Half-abandoned police stations stood round vibrant out of doors markets and luxurious houses. Small-time distributors hoisted hundreds onto their backs and trekked previous diaspora-funded mansions rising from the hills. Every place carries its personal reality, however all replicate the identical fragile steadiness between endurance and unraveling. As soon as-isolated communities now see common truck and SUV site visitors. Neighborhoods that had solely footpaths and donkey trails now resemble trendy roads. In the meantime, many older routes have shrunk or eroded, erased by time, storms and neglect.

On this remaining installment of my 13-day touring throughout 4 departments are moments depicting Haiti’s quiet transformations as they collide with deepening nationwide crises. It traces my path from Gonaïves again to Cap-Haïtien, then to Les Cayes and again to Cap-Haïtien once more, chronicling Days 8 by way of 13. The portrait that emerges is of a homeland that continues to be battered and unsure, but nonetheless propelled by resilience, neighborhood effort and the refusal of peculiar Haitians to let collapse outline their future.

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Tensions mount on Morne Puilboreau after crash

Day 8 — Monday, Nov. 3

Leaving Gonaïves to go north to Cap-Haïtien is a really steep, hilly, bodily draining highway. At Morne Puilboreau, an particularly treacherous stretch between Ennery and Plaisance, a truck overloaded with individuals and merchandise flipped onto its aspect. 

For hours, the crash blocked site visitors as individuals scrambled, transported the only real injured particular person to a hospital in Plaisance by way of bike, then tried to get the truck upright. In the meantime, two gasoline tanker drivers dashing to bypass the downed truck narrowly missed crashing into one another on the fringe of the cliffs there. Then, they practically got here to blows over who would transfer first. 

Passengers from the fallen truck—principally ‘Madan Sara’ distributors—moved apart their merchandise to clear the blocked part.

No police got here. Locals directed site visitors. 

As soon as once more, Haiti’s unwritten rule held: Folks clear up issues that the federal government can’t or ignores.

No baggage, however a pleasant shock, again home

Day 9 — Tuesday, Nov. 4

The 40-minute flight south to my hometown on Monday evening was easy. Sadly, I can’t say the identical factor for my baggage. 

My suitcase didn’t arrive with me, so I needed to return the subsequent day to choose it up from exhausted Dawn Airways staff—swamped with shifting and checking delayed baggage for indignant passengers. As I seemed across the newly upgraded Antoine Simon Worldwide Airport, I observed it seemed cleaner and extra orderly than Cap-Haïtien’s port. The roads are in significantly better situation. 

An IBC Airways signal caught my eye, the primary trace of the soon-to-launch Miami-to–Les Cayes route.

Welcome to Les Cayes: A city holding the line 

Day 10 — Wednesday, Nov. 5

In this southern haven, police inspected every vehicle and passenger entering the city via the National Road 2, which connects to Port-au-Prince, as a strategy to prevent gang infiltration from the capital.

Tap-taps teeming with vendors and goods navigated more orderly streets. Compared to Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes felt like a completely normal small city you’d find anywhere in the Caribbean. Even signs of the latest punch by Hurricane Melissa were visible mostly close to the beachside.

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Plage Gelée: Beauty buried in trash

Day 11 — Thursday, Nov. 6

Once a jewel of a beach that drew tourists, honeymooners, festivalgoers and other leisure seekers, Plage Gelée is now overrun by mounds of plastic, overgrown seaweed and farm animals. Hurricane Melissa’s passage only added to the flotsam and jetsam.

“Hotels and entertainment sites stand empty due, primarily, to Haiti’s security crisis, keeping away most visitors,” Clonès Dominique, a fisherman who lives near the Les Cayes beach, lamented.                                                                                                                                             

Yet, even as cows graze along the shore that couples once hoofed leisurely, coconut vendors still push around wheelbarrows of the fruit, offering the refreshment, refusing to let the beach die.

An un-ministerial visit and an unforgettable waterfall

Day 12 — Friday, Nov. 7

Signal Bertrand, head of Haiti’s Health Ministry, toured the South and Southeast. During his visit to a local hotel in Camp-Perrin, his staff behaved unprofessionally, flirting with hotel employees and making inappropriate jokes that made their targets and observers visibly uncomfortable.

Later that day, I visited Saut-Mathurine—an emerald basin fed by a towering waterfall cascade and sizzling springs that I had visited 27 years prior. Native divers carried out feats worthy of journey documentaries. Villagers shared coconuts and their tales of countryside tranquility, worlds away from the risks of Port-au-Prince.

An overdue staff meet-up! And ‘Faucet Faucet Now’

Day 13 — Saturday, Nov. 8

For the primary time, I met a few of The Haitian Instances’ Haiti staff in particular person!

Members of the staff assembled from Cap-Haïtien, Fort-Liberté and Gonaïves for this long-overdue meet-up. Earlier in Les Cayes, I additionally linked up with some freelancers and collaborators in southern Haiti.

It’s surreal to be assembly individuals for the primary time that you just’ve labored with for years and are in communication with every day. The transient gathering with them over lunch made me extra grateful to them for working by way of the circumstances I skilled and to The Haitian Instances for offering that chance to the promising, proficient professionals Haiti nonetheless engenders.

Additional down The Boulevard, the setting is much less inviting, full of trash piles. Nonetheless, we shared jokes, contemporary seafood, do-it-yourself drinks and tales at Lakay Restaurant. 

Whereas there, I observed one thing new in Haiti: a meals supply particular person. Just like an Uber Eats driver, he was making the rounds on a motorbike, carrying a inexperienced vest with Tap Tap Now, the service firm’s identify, written on the again. What a novelty.

All of it occurred whereas I couldn’t cease watching the contrasts and modifications— suddenly. Behind me: a shoreline overflowing with rubbish. In entrance of me: a staff attempting to inform Haiti’s story clearly and fearlessly with the utmost sense of insiders.

Then, what was a terrific day ended with a Cap-Haïtien nightmare: site visitors. A visit that ought to have taken about quarter-hour from Lakay Restaurant to my lodge took roughly two hours. No kidding. Each avenue was clogged. My moto-taxi driver couldn’t discover any opening for one hour and 47 minutes, caught in a never-before-seen site visitors jam.

Leaving Haiti to the sound of music

Bonus time — Sunday, Nov. 9

As I departed from Cap-Haïtien, a small troubadour band, recognized regionally as a twoubadou, performed whereas passengers boarded. It was a delicate reminder of what Haiti nonetheless presents the world: heat, tradition, rhythm, resilience.

In the long run, I left with a pocket book stuffed with contradictions—two Haitis, coexisting uneasily: one breathtaking, one bent—however not damaged. But, each are actual. Each are residence.

Missed the primary two installments? Learn part one and part two.

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