The weekend: beach, church and Roi Christophe hotel

Saturdays are reserved for local excursions and everybody is looking forward to that day. There are very nice beaches around Cap Haitien but the problem is the access. The roads are bad and often the only way to get there is by boat.

The other problem is the pollution. As soon as there is human presence the sea is being used as a giant waste disposal system. Here in Cap Haitien the beaches are littered with millions of plastic bottles and domestic rubbish. When it rains the streets are transformed into raging rivers and all the rubbish is flushed out to sea. All the city sewers also drain into the sea. There are no water treatment plants as far as I can tell and the pollution here in the city is anenormous problem. as soon as one drives to the rural areas where the population concentration is less it looks relatively clean and there is less rubbish in the streets.

So we went toa small fishing village called Labadie, at an hours drive west of CapHaitien over a rather rutted road.The beach of Labadie is famous the large cruise ships as the water is very deep allowing them to get very close to shore. The beach has now been fencedoffand canonly be used by the tourists who get off the boat for the day to enjoy watersports. Haitiens are not allowed in and as a result we decided that this was true apartheid and that we would get a local boat to go to Labadie village situated in the next bay.

As soon as we arrived we saw most of the villagers gathered around a TV in the village square watching the Argentina Germany game. All the Bresil supporters were yhoping for Argentina to loose and they had a ball!!!. The end of the game was followed by great celebrations and even a mock funeral with a coffin carried through the streets.

We found a nice beach next to an old lodge restored by its owners and run as a bed and breakfast. Inside there were beautiful old pieces of Haitien furniture as well as a number of antiques. A great place to stay for the weekend and relax. The swimin the sea, in fact the Atlantic ocean rather than the Caribbean sea as I first thought, was pleasant but not very refreshing as the water was rather warm: it felt like being in a bath at home.

After our swim we had a small picnic followed by a walk through the picturesque village. We saw people cleaning fish caught the same day and came across a very odd looking specimen which turned out to be a puffer fish. Now this brought back some memories from 30 years ago when I was studying tropical medicine in France.: we learned about poisonous tropical fish and one of them was the puffer fish. We asked the locals but they said it was safe to eat.

A lot of the locals dive to catch fish using a spear gun but seem to get only small fish. They also catch crayfish, octopus, and what they call 'conch' here which is a large shell fish which has a beautiful shell which is sold to the tourists. Unfortunately there are no fisheries regulations here and the locals take everything irrespective of size.We bougth some crayfish and crabs to take home and some of it is in my lunchbox today.

Sunday starts very early with a church service at 6am. The Haitiens dress up in their best clothes for church. Ladies in beautifully colored dresses and hats which in NZ would be worn for weddings or goingtothe races. gentlemen wear suits, collar and tie despite the intenseheat. I wore a white shirt and tie last Sunday but dropped the tie this timefor personal comfort reasons!
The church service is attended by 2-3000 people which are crammed like sardines in a tin. The service is in Creole and French and takes 2-3 hours. I had to address the congregation in French last Sunday but this time I was off the hook. They have many choirs here and Haitiens love singing. The sermonisnormally very long and the minister sometimesgets very passionate about things and starts shouting and gesticulating letting out some strange high pitched sounds.It is all very entertaining although I don't follow Creole very well yet. I understand some words and occasionally I follow parts of the sermon. They have communion once a month which means the service takes an extra hour. You wouldn't believe it but they manage to serve bread and wine to over 2000people! Amazing really.

After church our routineis to go to the local Roi Christophe hotel which is like a green oasis in the centreof town.We have a nice breakfast there with local fruit like pineapple, mango, papaya followedby eggs and a big glass of freshly squeezed juice. The other attraction is that the hotel has wirelessinternet. Sowe allgetourlaptopsout and do our emails, check whats happening in NZ and I often use this time to write my blog. The hotel was built last century and has been restored nicely keeping the old features including a number of antiques. It is a peaceful haven in the middle of the dusty and dirty streets of the city. The largeoldtress in the garden provide the shade and coolness we enjoy and the day is spent there relaxing and using the pool!!!

After having dinner we return home refreshed for another week's work.

Finally I want to give you a brief account of the heat here in Haiti. Most days the temperature is around 33-35 degrees Celsius with a humidity of around 80% andat night it drops to30-31 degrees. This means that you sweat continously and your clothes stick to your skin permanently including whatever you wear at night. It feels like being in a sauna with your clothes on! There is no air conditioning at the hospital except in the 2 operating theatres. At home we use fans which are left on at night to cool things down. During the day I drinkabout 3-4 litresof fluids and as soon as I finish a bottle of water half of it has already come back out through my sweat glands.

Here in Haiti its drink or die!!