Sen Michel is so beautiful! The drive here took about 2 hours last Wednesday afternoon. It was a lovely ride here from Gonayiv; we drove through 7 or 8 rivers and up into the hills. It actually gets cool at night! This is such a nice change of pace after being in Gonayiv for so long. We are staying at a Guesthouse run by this lovely old Haitian couple. The accommodations are very simple, but exactly what you need. We each have our own room, a very nice surprise after sleeping 3 to a room in Gonayiv!!! We have no running water, we use big buckets of water to flush the toilet, to shower, and brush teeth etc. On Friday it poured, so Sarah and I took the opportunity to shower in the rain, it was the best shower we’d had thus far! On Saturday and Sunday we even watched the last two matches of the World Cup on the very fuzzy TV- it was great! What more could you need? :-)
Our host couple is amazing. They make us breakfast and lunch, its always delicious and typical Haitian dishes: eggs, avocado, bananas, spaghetti, plantains, cabrit (goat), rice, beans, or fowl. Lunch is served at 2pm and is like supper. On Sunday we had the traditional squash soup and patties for breakfast. Before we go to bed they bring us up a snack, usually a fruit smoothie or cinnamon porridge. He took us to the Biwo (branch) in the morning and offered to pick us up too. After the first day or two we decided to walk back and forth because it is a nice walk, and who needs a car! People in the town still stare at us, but here they smile too! As we walked down the street on Saturday a young girl ran after us hollering “Blanc, Blanc, Blanc” (white, white, white in Creole) and when we finally turned around and said hello, she smiled and ran back home. It was so cute!!
As my time in Haiti is waning, I am really glad that I got a chance to come to Sen Michel. It is truly beautiful here. Yes there is still poverty, but here the land is still beautiful. Gonayiv is a city, and like most cities, nature has been pushed out and taken over by humans. In this rural area, the poverty has not yet overcome nature. The air still smells fresh, the litter isn’t everywhere, and people still have banana, mango, avocado, and lime trees in their backyard. While we do have electricity, we don’t have running water, rarely have phone service, and have no access to the Internet. But the people are friendly and full of spirit, which is more important than anything.
In the evening there is a group of boys that plays soccer in a field across from the house. We can hear people signing well into the night. On Monday, our next-door neighbors had a prayer service in their back yard, and they continued to sing despite the massive thunderstorm that came upon this little town. I awake every morning around 5-5:30ish, before the sunrise, to the sounds of the roosters crowing and the peacock sounding off, yes there is a peacock here! I love that time of day here as opposed to that time of day in NYC, where it is likely that a horn or screeching brakes or trucks flying awakened me as they pass through my street! In Sen Michel, The moon is so bright when it rises that it eclipses the light of the stars until it goes down in the morning. I get to see the early morning stars so clear just before the first few rays of the sun start to cut the sky. It is truly beautiful in many ways here.
So hard to believe that there are only a few days left in Haiti. The time in Gonayiv passed so slowly, but in Sen Michel the time is flying by!
