Toup pou yo!

2009 Carnival slogan roughly translates to We scored for Ayiti!

Friday started early - amazingly enough everyone was on the bus and we were on the road before 7 am...now I'm only saying everyone was still breathing but not exactly lively or even awake...Tim and I may be the only 2 that enjoyed the trip through the countryside with our eyes open. Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed some sleep, don't get me wrong...the roads aren't exactly conducive to a relaxed, non-drug induced sleep. We did have excellent transportation in a large air conditioned van with an excellent driver- Pouchon and our indispensable guide- Bob who met our every need and more with the best smiles! It is only an 10 minute airplane ride to Jacmel but by bus we arrived about 9:45. I had made arrangements through an organization called Tetkole and more specifically with Verbo - another amazing Haitian that is doing fabulous work for Haitians in his community and he has a fabulous smile as well!! He made arrangements for a pediatric outreach clinic for half of my team just on the outskirts of the town and then the rest of us climbed into 2 4x4's to travel into the mountain above town...we crossed 3 rivers and started our up hill drive that he said would take about an hour...maybe without breakdowns but despite a couple of unexpected stops we managed to keep going and arrived at 12:30 to a church/ school/ medical clinic building with lots of people waiting for us. We quickly went to business setting up and steadily saw patients until 4:45- 102 people. We were disappointed that we couldn't see everyone but with the reliability of the trucks I didn't want us driving in the dark. We made it down without incident, arriving to meet up with the other group (they saw 100 children*) and headed to our hotel to check in, eat dinner and be welcomed by Christophe and his rum punch. The Cyvadier is actually quite nice and most everyone had comfortable rooms-
*Some of the children were brought to the 'clinic' by older brothers or sisters...a couple of 5 yr. olds brought their little brother or sisters and told the doc what the symptoms were. Tim and Anne were quite amazed at their ability to describe and understand what was going on- they were very reluctant to prescribe anything without an adult present however.

Saturday morning we took the team on a city tour - through the Iron market which is a huge farmers market...every kind of food imaginable-fruit and vegies fish, dried and salted or semi fresh, goat, beef and ????also semi fresh, every product and about 10000 people to walk through. Again, it engages all of your senses. Bob led with little Bob (his nephew) following to keep everyone in sort of the same area...no one got lost or separated this year, luckily as the church was closed.
After a few hours of walking around town, visiting a few art shops, we headed back to the hotel to get our swim suits before heading to the beach and our beach bbq. We spent a relaxing 3 hours enjoying the sea, the sand and fish, lambi, coconut rum, being entertained by the children's rara band, the troubadour band and the constant attention by people trying to sell us paintings, t-shirts and all sorts of wares...including seashells.
After dinner, some of us went downtown to the la Florita and had a drink and a beer. WE went looking for some pre carnival parade of masks/ costumes but we were to late or they didn't have it this weekend...but we spent an hour dancing before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday morning some of us went on a "little hike" up the mountain...my friends Diane, Teresa and Janet would very much appreciate this little hike.
We walked about a mile up a river bed that was pretty much dry, then started climbing up the trail...it took about 2 hours to get to the top- in American time. In Haitian time, it should have taken an hour or less. At least thats what Bob told us. We saw some beautiful country and some evidence of the hurricanes but much less than I expected..however, maybe we just didn't recognize some of the damage as from the hurricanes. I'm not sure. At the top was Bossier Pond...it looked more like a lake but despite that no one actually got into the water. We sat and enjoyed the view while recovering a bit of energy.
It only took an hour or less to get back down, it was hot and we were ready to have something cold, a swim and some food and some rest before going back to the city for Carnival.
Taking the team of people through a crowd of carnival revilers and arriving with everyone is pretty good...we did it and enjoyed watching the people and the bands as they went by us on our stand. We still didn't see the parade so that was disappointing but still it was fun. We left as the crowd was thinning down so it was quite as 'scary' when we left. It is just as fun walking through the crowds and people watching. In the city square, there were many 'games' of chance being played - Jacmels version of Reno I think.
Monday morning we boarded the bus and headed back to Port au Prince....