Haitian road trip

Last weekend, we hit the ole dusty trail with the trusty MCC truck to visit Bois-de-Laurence (Bwadlorens, for the Creole spellers among us), where MCC has funded a spring-capping project for the last several years. Our guesthouseguest, Leah, spent three years there as an MCC kid with her family and was eager to check out her old digs.

Bwadlorens is a long, arduous drive away, but Bryan and I agreed to go for two reasons:
1) It's always easier and more pleasant to travel in Haiti with someone who has connections.
2) As I've said, never say no to a change of scenery. Or a little adventure.

Bwadlorens is in the Central Plateau district in the northeast corner of the country, only a 2-hour hike from the Dominican border.

Did I mention it's in the middle of nowhere? It's easy for me to complain about Dezam being in the middle of nowhere, but I was amazed at our comparative population density. We actually managed to go whole minutes at a time without seeing anyone on this road.

We passed Lake Peligre, a construction byproduct of a the Peligre Dam/ hydroelectricity generator. It's gorgeous if you don't think of all the people displaced by its formation. Paul Farmer's hospital, Zanmi Lasante, was created partially to address the health care needs of this population.


Ah, electricity! I felt like a local yokel taking this picture, but power lines are not something you see in Dezam:


...along with tree-covered hillsides, although Dezam is getting there:


Leah made arrangements for us to stay with this lovely family. Niniz was one of Leah's childcare providers as a kid, and had the photo album to prove it.

Despite the fact that we were only in Bwadlorens for about 9 hours of daylight, we packed in conversations, walks, and visits.

(Did you notice that Bryan s wearing long sleeves in this picture? The
temperature was actually below 80 degrees!)

Bryan's knee also had a great time getting to know folks.

We also got to check out various embroidered projects, as this cottage industry can be found in nearly every household there.

After giving us a pretty rockin' garden tour (complete with samples of cocao, coconut, cherry tomatoes, and some kind of wild grain to take home with us), Niniz's sons showed us how to press juice from raw sugar cane.

Did I mention it was in the middle of nowhere?

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves. Be sure to click through to Leah's blog for more photos and details of the trip.

Never say no to a change of scenery.

Bryan and I took advantage of an unexpectedly free weekend to visit the southwest part of Haiti. It's like a whole different country down there! Paved roads...trees...the ocean...

We stayed with a friend in a nearby town on Friday night before heading to a small guesthouse on the coast:
Good: mosquito-free "camping" indoors.
Bad: not having any photos of our hosts to show you. (Not taking photos of people we like? That's how we roll.)

We drank it all in:
Good: cooling off in the gentle waves.
Bad: brushing my foot against a sea urchin and getting a splinter that ended up staying in my toe for a week. Ouch.

Good: sitting in the shade feet from the water's edge.
Bad: well, there's not much bad about that, is there?

Good: staying at the beach until dusk.
Bad: dusk comes before 7pm in these parts this time of year.

I need more weekends like this one. Total spirit-lifter.