Haiti Traditions

Despite my slow recovery (and spending half the night/morning in the bathroom) I decided I couldn't miss my second annual carnival weekend in Jakmel. This was not so easy, as it happened to fall on one of the gas shortage weekends (that happen about twice a year in Haiti). 2 or the 3 cars going down couldn't get gas but I ultimately packed into Ana's car with a plastic bag and jar of water-miraculously I made it down in one piece.

The tradition by the way entails driving down 2-3 hours to Jakmel (beautiful beach town) with my friend Anacaona, her boyfriend and whoever else happens to join (last year Derrick and Taz, this year Gerry, and some of Ana's friends). Being obsessed with traditions, I tried my best to recreate many of the previous year's activities but ended up sleeping most of the time instead.

I had a great time nonetheless. As always, we enjoyed great seafood meals brought over by the neighboring Hotel L'amitie , hung out on the beach, played games, listened to kid's rara bands, chatted with the same beach hat vendor and watched some Haitian Foklorik dancing.

We also had a blast singing along with Junior's guitar (serious harmonizing- watch out)-I'm definitely keeping this part of the tradition alive next year.