30322: Morse; A Visit North (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

oloffsonram@aol.com

Just came back from performing in Milo. The former home of Le Roi Christophe 
and the Sans Souci Palace. The town held it's yearly celebration of the 
Citadelle. Now this is Haitian tourism! Thousands of people visiting the town 
and the palace. A midnight walk up to the Citadelle. Marchands selling food, 
boutiques selling drinks, a mass in the local church, people renting out their 
homes. Bands. Dance troupes. Rara Bands. Theatre troupes. This is Haiti. The 
exact opposite of sending a few hundred foreigners to a quarantined beach club. 
People were talking about Christophe and all kinds of local lore. Pride in 
Haitian heritage. They referred to Port-au-Prince as the land of Petion 
(therefore "Mulattoes"). We bathed in the river. Took a walk to a nearby 
waterfall. Chatted with the locals. Marvelous.

Down side. The big Digicel phone truck trying to drive through the crowd while 
we were performing was either trying  desperately to get the truck on 
television or the driver was drunk. People could have gotten hurt. We later 
drove by the Digicel truck parked by the side of the road with the driver 
asleep at the wheel so he probably was drunk.

As we drove back to Port-au-Prince I saw so much land that with a bit of care 
or irrigation could have been put to a lot of use, whether it be food or 
biofuels. You wouldn't have to chop down a rainforest to plant here.

 We left Milo at 4am and got to Port-au-Prince at about 2pm. What used to be a 
four or five hour drive is now about a 10 hour drive. The roads are awful. 
Still. Cap Haitian looks awful and run down. Gonaives looks awful and run down. 
Haiti has a lot of work to do, but, it was a wonderful time in Milo.
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