Haiti
March 21—March 28,
2012
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| Francois, Lole, and Elizabeth in the Dominican Republic |
San Miguel is a 47-foot Jeanneau Sun Odyssey. She is powered by a
mainsail and genoa (48 and 68 m2 respectively) and has a Volvo 60 hp
diesel. Two solar panels charge the five batteries except when hooked to shore
power or when motoring. She has two heads, two aft cabins and two forward cabins,
although one of the forward cabins is used for food storage. She holds 160
gallons of fresh water and is also equipped with a foot-powered seawater pump
for the galley sink. A natural gas tank powers the stove, and there are two
refrigerated compartments underneath the galley counter. Electronics include a
global positioning system (GPS), an automated identification system (AIS)—this
tracks the positions of other vessels equipped with the same device—, a VHF, a
satellite phone for emergencies and a computer loaded with electronic charts.
Sailing and
doing everything you can yourself rather than paying others to do things for
you is the best way to travel. To make the trip affordable and sustainable one
must be frugal. In order to avoid running the motor to charge the batteries, we
conserve electricity (most lights are LEDs) and don’t use the inverter to plug
in our devices. We can wash dishes in about ½ gallon of seawater and ½ gallon
of fresh water. Our meals are determined by what items will perish first.
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| Partially-homemade fishing lure we used with hand lines. No luck yet. |
We set sail
March 15 and stopped at a three anchorages in the Dominican Republic along our
first passage. We found a pristine coastline near Cabo Ojo and explored the
beach and small caverns formed by rocks on the shoreline. During the offshore sailing
we fished constantly but had no luck. Our fishing gear is rather rudimentary
(one lure has a “lucky” plastic bag tied around it), and we use mainly heavy
hand lines, although we do have one rod and reel. I can’t wait for some fresh
Dorado to make sashimi and ceviche. Elizabeth makes excellent meals for us and
is very resourceful with the limited provisions we carry.
On March
21 we arrived at Ile la Vache, an island off the southern coast of Haiti. Upon
entering the small bay anchorage, men in about five dug-out canoes hastened out
to meet us and clung onto the side of the sailboat until we had made anchor.
They were unpretentious, respectful, and wanted to make friends. They all spoke
French and Creole, some spoke a little English, and none spoke Spanish. It was
well that we could communicate since the Bibals are French. All of these men
were looking for work, and we were able to provide a little for each of them
(some brought us home-made dinner or fresh fruit and others acted as our guides
through the island).
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| Ile la Vache |
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| The lake in the center of the island |
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| A typical canoe dug out of a mango tree and paddled with palm fronds |
Soon after
I got off the boat I started out on a
walkabout
to see the land and people. “Auel” and his friend, both about ten years old,
came with me as I walked from the north side to the south side of the island.
There are no cars on Ile la Vache, and small dirt footpaths wind throughout. There
are a few “villages” with a concentration of homes, but many are interspersed
among forest and farmland. Goats and cows are tied up to trees everywhere,
where they can graze. Farming mainly consists of small plots of tilled land
alongside forest. The majority of the land, however, isn’t used for anything.
There is no electricity grid or plumbing system on the island, although well
water is available to the public. Some buildings are powered by gasoline
generators at times. There are about four hotels on the island, some large,
some very small.
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| Footpath next to some tilled land |
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| Two young men walked with me across the island. |
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| Small fish and eels at the market |
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| The bi-weekly market in the town of Madame Bernard |
The
following day we walked for 1 ½ hours to the town of Madame Bernard, quite
more developed than Caye Coq, where we were anchored. The only market on the island
was held there Mondays and Thursdays. Vendors carried their goods to town on
mules and set up on tables under small shade structures, or just on the ground.
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| One of the elementary schools on the island |
Sister
Flora, originally from France, runs an orphanage and helps the school system on
Ile la Vache. I visited the orphanage, where several foreign volunteers were
working for periods of a few weeks. They take in local children who are
abandoned or whose parents are incapable of caring for them. The volunteers
told me about plans for a medical center on the island, which would be created
that summer by Haitian doctors and dentists who had emigrated to the United
States, and would be funded by an organization called the
Foundation
for a Hope for Human Health in Haiti (FHHH).
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| The waiting room at the local hospital |
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| The laboratory at the local hospital |
After
meeting three Italian architectural students working and studying in the
Capital, Port-Au-Prince, we walked west down the beach to the northwest corner
of the island. There we met Ellie and his wife Hellene, two Haitians who had
both moved to New York as kids. They had bought a large beachfront property in
2004 and had built a large house and an adjacent building with guest rooms.
They planned to build additional apartments to rent out to visitors. It turned
out that they were involved in the project to build the medical center funded
by the FHHH and had recently housed 15 doctors, dentists, and volunteers in
their guesthouse. Earlier they had conducted a kind of preliminary assessment
of the medical needs of the islanders, and found that the most common ailments
were skin or urinary infections, which could both could be prevented by
improved hygiene. Thus education would be a primary goal for the organization.
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| The city of Les Cayes |
The Bibals
and I visited Les Cayes, a city on the mainland a couple days later. The city
of course had electricity, plumbing, cars, motorcycles, and a developed
business district. My favorite part of the trip was visiting a kind of flea
market, enclosed by walls and partially covered by a cement ceiling. This
market was much more crowded (in terms of vendors) than the first one I
visited. Men were grinding and pounding pork for what looked like sausage and
raw meat was laid out upon tables and covered in flies. Small passageways wound
through the dim place.
The next
few days I spent mainly with the local people. Smoy, a 21-year-old led me to a
party at the fenced-in arena where cock fights were held. After the fights, a
“discoteq” was held, using large speakers powered by gasoline generators. Women
sat at small tables at near knee height and lit by candles selling drinks and snacks. It was an interesting experience although I couldn’t well
communicate with anyone. All ages attended and there was a table in the corner
where middle-aged men played dice, presumably gambling away their hard-earned
money.
The next day I met Osney at the
boat, and we paddled out to the fishing grounds outside Caye Coq. We
accompanied a middle-aged man, Jean-Pierre who was spearing fish and baiting
his traps (for lobster, crab and eel). He speared about ten 4-inch fish (those
were the biggest ones we saw), and found an eel in one of his traps. I’m not
sure what the fish and shellfish stocks are like on the rest of the island, but
near the village they must be extremely over-exploited. The diving was however
interesting and I saw many coral heads and extravagant sponges. There were also
huge bushy gorgonian-like animals.
After
hearing much talk about the lack of work on the island, I realized that perhaps
the very reason the place is paradise is because of the lack of development. Few
buildings, no electricity, winding footpaths through the forest and
countryside. But no doubt this lack of development that makes the place so
special is mainly what causes the unemployment. There is little industry on the
island except small-scale fishing and agriculture and the four hotels. Is it
possible for such a great place to exist while keeping its people employed,
healthy, and happy?
We set out for Jamaica on March 26.
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