Saturday we woke up at 5:30 AM to get an early start to the day and head out to the historic Citadel. Unfortunately, when we met up with our driver our translator was nowhere to be found, so I found myself using the best of my French speaking abilities to communicate between our driver and his co-pilot and the rest of the team. Up until that point, I had only really used my French to translate passing signs or speak to small children, so, to say the least, I felt a little pressure to be on my “A game.” We ended up spending a good deal of the morning discussing and fixing the situation. Overall, I’m really happy that I was put in a situation that gave me the opportunity to really think about and develop language skills which I had only really ever practiced in a classroom.
After getting everything settled, we drove out to the Citadel and mounted our [quite small] horses that would take us along the five mile trek up the mountain. I’m convinced my horse, accurately named TapTap (*see Catherine’s post), was a thoroughbred Kentucky Derby champion in his past life because my handlers basically had him running me up the steep inclines of the mountain. My fellow team members, I’m sure, had a great time seeing me scream as I bobbled on top of a small speeding horse. Because of TapTap’s speediness, I didn’t get to experience all of the hilarious escapades of some of my fellow Haiti Compact-ers, but the story of Timmy having a panicked breakdown and speaking desperately to Jesus for help as his horse navigated that steep edge of the path cannot be erased from my mind. Also, it must be mentioned that I was the only lucky member of the team to witness Kylee almost fall off of her horse. It was epic.
The trip took a couple of hours, affording us the time to see the wide variety of vegetation the mountain had to offer: bananas, cocoa beans, coffee beans, grapefruit, mangos, coconuts and more. The high stone walls of the Citadel jutted out into the sky as we went up the mountain, providing an interesting historic backdrop to the contemporary evidence of poverty that surrounded the pathway. Small stone, wood and mud houses sat on the hill, the clothes of their inhabitants drying in the heat of the sun while they were splayed across the makeshift cacti fences that surrounded the family’s property. All the while, the Citadel, the signature trademark of Haitian independence and power, hovered on the mountain overhead like a sad reminder of what once was.
We reached the top in a few hours and took a tour through the massive structure when we reached the top. Initiating historical information … NOW: The Citadel was constructed by King Christophe around 1805, which was around the time when he declared himself king of Haiti (even though there was technically a president at the time). His palace, Saint Souci, was constructed on the lower part of the mountain and was, unlike the Citadel, finished in his lifetime. Funny story about King Christophe’s lifetime: He wasn’t the nicest of guys, so naturally he took some issue with people not praying to him as God and decided to take a stop by the church to talk to the priest. After refusing to pray to him before the actual God, the priest backed away from Christophe (probably expecting some sort of retribution), and when the King (not Elvis- King Christophe) moved towards the priest he fell into a hole in the ground and became paralyzed. After some attempts at recovery from his paralysis, including medicines and horse riding, he decided that his life was no longer worth living and shot himself in the chest with his pistol. His brother also famously died from intelligently choosing to smoke his pipe near the gun powder storage. The only found an arm and a leg. Though King Christophe may not have been the best of guys, I do want to make it known that he did do a lot for Haiti as far as protecting and promoting their independence and was an integral part to their early growth as a country.
After making it back down the mountain (me first, of course on the speedy TapTap), we ate “linner” at a local restaurant in the Citadel’s town of Milo named Lakou Lakay. There, were treated to traditional Haitian music and dance greetings and, of course, delicious Haitian food that included plantains, mangos, spiced rice, pineapple, eggplant and creole chicken. It was a great way to relax and end the day, sitting beneath the pineapple trees and reminiscing on our day full of history and tiny horse riding.
Signing off from our home base of Port au Prince, this is Katie with your daily report from the Haiti Compact team J
No comments:
Post a Comment