Anse du Clerk and the approach to Abricot

March 17, 1012 - Abricot, Grand Anse, Haiti

I've been in Jeremie, Grand Anse, Haiti for about a year and a half now. But I really haven't seen much of my temporary home. The reality is that for the first 14 months I was here, I spent most of my time working to achieve my next goal in life: environmental grad school.

In that time I've taken four classes: Statistics 101, Chemistry 101, Earth Science 101 and Environmental Science 201. I got As in all four classes. And I got a not unrespectable 680 on the GMAT. In order for me to achieve that, I needed a great deal of study time. How much study time? I describe it as somewhere between giving-up-all-aspects-of-my-non-work-life and my-colleagues-thought-I-was-hibernating.

Regardless, around Christmas 2011 this butterfly moth finally emerged from its cocoon and began experiencing the sights and sounds -- the waves and whooshes -- of the Caribbean, Grand Anse style! I'm glad I did. There are some really beautiful beaches in southwest Haiti. Beaches of which much of the Caribbean would be jealous -- if they only knew....

Yesterday I continued my adventures by passing through Anse du Clerk (Clerk Beach), before getting to Abricots beach. It was a group adventure organized by Martha Reynolds. Joining Martha and me were Martha's husband, Ed, and my successor as Chief Beancounter, Amy.

We made a pitstop and caught our first glimpse of Anse du Clerc. I love these one-lane, dirt roads. At times I wondered how even a four-wheel-drive could pass them:Slightly up ahead, you can see a man who was vigorously working to expand the "road" so that it was passable. At several points on the road, including here, I wondered how two-axle vehicles could ever pass? I'm guessing that this section of road may have experienced a collapse at some point because even with this widening, it was barely wide enough for our narrow pickup truck to cross this stretch:Despite the fact that the sailboats were filled with Earth-denuding charcoal bound for Port-au-Prince:The mountaintop vistas of Anse du Clerc bay were beautiful:Moving at about 5mph much of the way, we eventually got past Anse du Clerc and began the final ascent over more mountains and descent toward Abricots through more rugged terrain:Before getting to the vehicle-friendly, cement-paved roads of Abricots:

Tim White

Hi-tech Western Unions are everywhere!

During my life, Western Union has never been too big in America. My guess is that the rise of credit cards diminished the value of Western Union. Nonetheless, Western Union has been visible in many of my travels. But today I stumbled across the all-time low-tech Western Union office:Here's a slightly closer look:And here's a real peek inside:Obviously, global improvements in technology and infrastructure still haven't gotten everywhere.

Tim White

A day in the life: preparing gwiot

A month ago I told you about Haiti's national food: gwiot. I showed you some pictures of the "fast food" restaurant across the street from where I live. That was at night when they sell the fried pork.

It's the morning when they prepare the fried pork.

Here you can see the butcher:And here you get slightly better view of the oinker from snout to hoof:Here are the raw morsels:And the last pre-fry step is to boil the meat, lard, skin and entrails:It may not look to appealing in these pictures. But I assure you... it's good stuff!

Tim White

A day in the life: the cashema fruit

Last year I showed pix of some local Haitian fruits. I never offered a good picture of the Haitian "cashema" though. And since I really love the fruit -- and have never seen it anywhere else -- I wanted to include this picture for posterity:

Tim White

A day in the life: the albino cockroach

I normally squash el cucarocha as soon as I see them. But not this time!

I let this guy go and threw him out the back door:

Tim White

Rick Santorum is a Big Government guy

A day in the life: plus fotos de Port-au-Prince

Some more random shots of street life in Port-au-Prince:

In these photos you can clearly see some of the earthquake damage that remains years after the fact:

Tim White

A day in the life: The wonders of the iron market

Strolling around Port-au-Prince, probably the most significant landmark is the Iron Market. It largely collapsed during the earthquake two years ago, but was quickly rebuilt by an international financier. I think it's beautiful and distinctive. Supposedly the minarets were intended for Cairo 100 years ago. But that deal fell through after the major iron work had already been completed. So when Haiti offered to buy the structure, it was shipped to the former French colony:There's car parking underneath this arch with large buildings on each side of the parking lot.

Here's a view near to the parking lot:Here's a couple of somewhat upsetting pix of the dinner plate:Some of the various herbs and spices being offered:There were a slew of wood carvings, such as this goat:And then there was the voodoo corner. Notice the black plastic bag covering something:I find the use of baby dolls in voodoo art to be a bit creepy:Here's what was hidden under the black plastic bag:If you're wondering where one "finds" a human skull, I understand that grave-robbing is relatively normal in Haiti. Bones are used in all sorts of voodoo rituals. I always try to be open-minded about other cultures. But I'm no fan of grave-robbing. There's a reason why a family buries someone. And it's not to have their skeletons exhumed for use in religious ceremonies.

And notice the design behind the skull and kreepy kid. It's a rendition of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. I feel it helps to explain how some Haitians attempt to reconcile their multi-god voodoo practices with their Sunday attendance at their local Catholic parish:As for all the colorful powders, I'm not sure of their use. But they were in the voodoo corner. And I know that voodoo uses colored powders. So I'm guessing it's voodoo-related in some way:


Tim White

A day in the life: Job training

One of the many efforts in which we're involved is "development." It's a broad term that includes helping people create jobs for themselves.

One of the ways that we're helping people make a living is in breadmaking. Specifically, using technology (heavy duty equipment) we're helping become more efficient in making cassava bread.

Cassava bread is made from the poisonous root of manioc. Manioc contains cyanide. It's used around the world to make cassava bread, but the roots must be treated carefully to ensure the cyanide is removed properly.

Since cassava bread is eaten by virtually everyone in Haiti, we're helping to construct cassaveries in several villages in our zone. And to date, almost none of the cassavery-produced cassava bread has left any of those villages. So we know there's still a market beyond the villages.

But before any of the cassaveries opened, we provided training to co-op participants. Sure, most people knew how to make cassava bread. But if there were new people getting involved, we wanted to provide them with instructive guidance... particularly in relation to the potentially deadly depoisoning process.

Here are a couple photos we took of the training:The trainer was great. She imparted knowledge, such as harvesting techniques, that was new to many of the participants.

Tim White

A day in the life: Road trip to Dame Marie, part 5

As we were approaching the town of Chambellan on our return trip from Dame Marie, we got a flat. Considering how rugged the roads are here, I was surprised we made it 2/3 of the round trip before getting a flat. But not to worry! Ze-ze, the chauffeur, had the pickup on jacks within three minutes, had the spare on within seven minutes and we were on our way within ten minutes! It was not a fun task on these dusty roads. And he had us driving again.

Couldn't help wondering though... hope we don't get another flat...

But Ze-ze -- and all Haitians -- have that sort of thing under control. Sure it was 4pm on a Saturday. And Mardi Gras was entering full swing. But that doesn't mean you'd put out the "Sorry, we're closed" sign on your Haitian Jiffy Lube:Not a lot of brick'n'mortar, but they have the necessary tools:Within ten minutes the popped tire was getting pulled off the rim and the inner tube was getting filed and heated for the repair job:After working the tube, Mr. Jiffy was putting the final touches on the patch job:Lo and behold, a fixed flat:And of course, we had fun playing games with the ti moun (literally little people, but more appropriately children)......because it's always fun to put a smile on a kid's face.The repair job cost 50 gouds... about $1.20. And our adventure was soon over as we returned to Jeremie at dusk.

Tim White

A day in the life: Road trip to Dame Marie, part 4

Our trip to Dame Marie was only a week before Mardi Gras. And in Haiti the Carnival partying begins weeks in advance of Fat Tuesday. So I wasn't surprised in the least bit to come across so many neighborhood festivals. As I mentioned before, we encountered our first of the day at 7am:And they continued throughout the day. But our first festival where the people were really decked out in their colorful garb was in Chambellan:I'm sure there was some sort of special significance to all the strips of red plastic flowing from their headdresses and the pastel ropes hanging from their chests, but I don't know what it is:Other than red is very powerful in voodoo:Here's Martha chatting with the leader of the ceremony:And here's the feistiest member of the group, Conni:Never one to back away from getting involved in events as they arise, Conni tried to battle the group. But she eventually fell to the sword of their fearless leader:

Tim White