Fete Saut D'eau/Fet Sodo

Last Sunday, after a yummy birthday breakfast for Bryan (strawberry preserves! baked oatmeal!), we headed to the waterfall down the road for the annual week-long Vodou/Catholic festival. Yes, that's right: Vodou and Catholic. The Catholics celebrate the Vierge-Miracle, or the appearance of the Virgin Mary in a palm tree near the waterfall in 1847, while the Vodouisants come to pray to Erzulie, the goddess of love (often considered the Vodou equivalent of the Virgin Mary). Handily enough, both festivals run from July 7-16.

The waterfall itself is gorgeous enough to be a draw any time of year. We wore bathing suits and hiked up to stand under the rushing water, laughing with the dozens of people around us. It was the first time in a long time I've been around more than two ethnic groups (i.e., Haitians and me), since Sunday seemed to be some sort of UN/MINUSTAH visiting time.

Yesterday afternoon a few members of our team decided they wanted to check out the festival (for the first time ever, a fact I find somewhat astonishing considering that Dezam is pretty close to Sodo). Since the main part of the festival was supposed to be happening last night through this morning, we tagged along to see what we could see. What a difference a few days make! The waterfall was so loaded with people we didn't even attempt to bathe.

Along the road headed up to the entrance point, spur-of-the-moment rara bands sang and danced.

People stopped to light candles and leave offerings - rum, herbs, and plastic rosaries - at various places along the road.

We couldn't figure out what this carcass in the tree was - goat, perhaps?

Things were pretty similar last year, apparently, although it seems like the road has really improved since 2001 - now you can actually drive nearly all the way to the entrance point if there's space for a vehicle to pass.

I was glad we went yesterday for the sake of the experience, but overall it was one of the worst days we've had in Haiti. People were wildly aggressive: making fun of the blan, throwing things, telling us we weren't allowed there. I was cursed at more times yesterday than I ever have been in my life. I think our Haitian teammates were pretty surprised at the things people were yelling - and fortunately they went out of their way to look out for us.

Since this sort of unofficially kicks off the summer festival season in Haiti, many participants will head from Sodo to Limonad to Veret and onward. For me, though, this is the end of the party line.