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