Mesay, Sharky, and Abu, and Hurricane Sandy

4 weeks old.

Rather than being thrown into the fiery furnace like Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, our month-old orphan kittens Mesay, Sharky, and Abu survived their first hurricane safe in the third floor guest house.  Hurricane Sandy hit Jamaica earlier this week, and here in Cayes Haiti we have had heavy rain and winds for three straight days.  I haven’t left the building since Monday (today is Friday), but I heard that roads were flooded and power was out in town.  I was to take my two classes to the botanical garden this week.  Tuesday morning as it became apparent that the rain would not stop, that got changed to staying in and watching a movie (Medicine Man) during class.  It wasn’t until later in the day on Tuesday that we realized this was a major tropical storm and everyone needed to stay home.  But four ecology students showed up yesterday!  So we huddled around my netbook and watched the 1992 movie starring Sean Connery as a researcher on the brink of discovering the cure for cancer in a rain forest about to get bulldozed for a logging road.

A couple Haitians that I don’t really know texted me to see if I was ok during the storm.  One even asked if I was scared!  Which put into perspective how they must be viewing the storm verses how we are, all safe in our concrete building.  Watching movies, making pizza, snuggling the luckiest kittens in Haiti.

For more details about how Sandy has affected Haiti, visit this post by a friend who lives in Port au Prince.  http://vetmissions.blogspot.com/2012/10/sandy.html?m=1.

My favorite, Mesay, named after her mom Day-o.

At the pizza restaurant with Uncle Earl - 3 weeks.

2.5 weeks old.

Restaurants in Les Cayes and Haiti's southern peninsula

Here I'll keep track of the restaurants I've eaten in on the southern peninsula.  I'll focus on the vegetarian options since that's what I eat.  Feel free to post your own reviews in the comments.

In general, restaurants don't have about 1/2 of what is on the menu, and it may take 2 hours before the meals are served since they don't make it until you order.  Many allow you to order ahead.  And they serve HUGE portions!  I haven't learned yet how to convey small portions.  Juices are freshly made and GREAT!  Passionfruit, grapefruit, key lime, orange, cherry...

Les Cayes

Meridien - On Route 2 about a block west of the main gate.  Also a hotel

They don't have the pizza on their menu.  Service was relatively fast, we had our dinner within an hour.  I had the bannan pese (fried plaintains) with rice and something else that I forget, maybe pikliz (spice coleslaw).  With the bannan as my starch I didn't need the rice.  I think everyone else at the table enjoyed their fish.  Not too expensive, $8 I think.

Nami - Chinese restaurant, downtown Cayes.  Great vegetarian eggrolls, and cashew vegetables.  Order ahead!

Ashley and her cheese burger.

Fast and Tasty - Downtown.  I had the Accra (fried taro root, 50gd) and pikliz.  The beet salad is good too.  Also has burgers and pizza.

Scott enjoying his food.

The gas station near the Les Cayes gate is said to have excellent pizza.  Later someone else said it was frozen DeGiorno pizza.  Still sounds good to me.  

William with lambi (conch) and beat salad.

Pikliz and Accra - fried taro root

Torbeck

Lobby of  Chateau Champvert

Chateau Champvert  - On Route 2, look for the sign on the north side of the road and follow the dirt road to it (it's only a block or two back).  This is a very fancy hotel with a swimming pool, gift shop, massage parlor, exercise room, disco lounge, bar, and restaurant.  The food took over 2 hours to arrive.  They gave us some bread as an appetizer, and I finally broke down and asked for our juice before our meal.  See the picture of the vegetarian meal they concocted for me.  Canned peas ringed by
an excellent potato salad ringed by canned corn.  With rice, french fries, pikliz, and bannan pese.  WAY too much food.

The vegetarian option at Hotel La Foi

Chateau Champvert

Again, didn't need the rice, or the canned veggies!  We took the leftovers home.  Rhoda made a soup from her leftover chicken.  About $10.

  

Port Salut

Hotel Reposoir du Village - On the south side of Route 2, right on the beach.  This place had the best ambiance.  The food took no more than an hour, playing cards and exploring the beach kept us busy.  Had a giant plate of pikliz with rice, and juice.  This was the most expensive place so far - $15.  See pictures here.

Les Anglais 

Hotel La Foi - This was the best and least expensive!  They made a meatless curry-like legume dish - cabbage, carrots, and potatoes.  Also served us bannan pese, beans and rice, and goat.  I had a Malta to drink.  Cost 250gd, or $6, each.  (A member of the group is also the owner's son-in-law, so maybe that was the reason for the price.  It was well worth more than the price).  Also, this would be a great place to stay overnight to go see the mangroves and beaches at the western tip of the peninsula.  Les Anglais also has a rich history of settlement by England.

Obama at Hotel La Foi

Hotel La Foi

Hotel La Foi

 

Fish of Trou Caiman

We went to lake Trou Caiman (Camain hole) this morning to see if flamingos were there.  They had already flown away, but we saw these men catching these fish by slapping the water to chase the fish into nets.  Women were preparing them for the market.  Anyone know what they are?

With our guide.

Men slapping the water to chase fish into a net.  They are standing, the lake is shallow.

Earthquake Memorials

I had the opportunity to visit two memorials to the Jan. 2010 earthquake.  The mass grave is along National Route 1, east of Titanyen (NW of Port).  Click here for the story behind it.  It is a somber place, knowing we are parked and standing on the mass graves.  There's a stone monument.  And two young women ran up the hill when they saw us, wanting to give us a tour. Knowing they probably needed money it was difficult to say no, but we wanted to just stand in quite, enjoying the view of the bay and reflecting on the moment.  We gave them a bunch of mangoes and a ride back down the hill to the highway.

 

The second memorial was at Quisqueya University (Kiskeya), where buildings fell, killing students and teachers.  We were there for a meeting with the Haitian Audubon Society located on campus.  It is a peaceful place up in the hills above Port.

 

Entrance to Quisqueya University

Memorial to students and teachers killed at Quisqueya University

Mural in the Quisqueya University memorial

Close up of mural

Monument at the mass grave near Titanyen

Crosses on the hillside

View of the Port au Prince bay from the monument

The Zoranje Housing Community

Voila Community Center

During my April trip, Rhoda and I were given a tour of the community of Zoranje by the woman who runs their shiny new community center.  I was to teach ecology there on National Agriculture Day the following week, but sadly one of their guards passed away so they canceled all events.  I did get to speak about birds and hand out bird guides to some families who showed us their homes.

Refreshing drinks.

Funky model house (complete with goats).

One area in Zoranje consists of model houses that various organizations (including Venezuelan President Caesar Chavez) built for a competion in which Haiti’s president would select one for the remainder of the community.  With the clean paved streets, brightly painted houses, and flat, treeless surrounding landscape, it felt like walking through an abandoned retirement village in Florida.  One in which the goats roam free and eat all the landscaping plants.  Most of the houses are still unoccupied – I think water and some other things need to be finished.  We did find a bar where we had some refreshing drinks (Coke bottled in Haiti is waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy better than what we get here in the US – they use real sugar).

Model houses.

 

The chosen house design, with goats eating the landscaping.

Zoranje is about 3.75 miles from the Port-au-Prince airport, as the crow flies.  In reality, it would take about an hour to drive there the relatively safe way on National Route 1.  The more direct route going by Cite Soleil would be shorter, but there have also been road blockades and muggings on those roads. 


The community center is sponsored by the cell phone company Viola and is the newest, spiffiest thing I’ve seen in Haiti (other than the stores in ritzy Petionville).  They have several classrooms, a computer learning center, a library, and internet café (complete with armed guard).  They also have a Viola cell phone store which seemed out of place.  The center would be the perfect place to hold art classes, ecology workshops, etc.  They are even in the process of equipping a small medical clinic.  This blog is about the center.  You can also read about Zoranje here and here.

Zoranje in the top left, airport runway at bottom right.

Taptaps of Port au Prince

Here's a sampling of the brightly colored public transportation in Haiti.  These buses are called taptaps.

Castro and Mandela, together again!

Haitian bird art

I had the opportunity to meet Haitian bird artist Larimer Saincilus who lives in Port au Prince.  The Haitian Audubon Society at Quisqueya (Kiskeya) University sells his art.  Let me know if you would like to purchase any and I’ll put you in touch with Larimer or Audubon.  If you'd like to purchase greeting cards with his artwork to support environmental education in Haiti let me know!  I posted these pictures of the art at low resolution.  Please don't use this artwork without permission from the artist (saincilusLarimer at yahoo dot fr). 

Hispanolian Woodpecker

Palm tanager

 

Kestrel

Bay-breasted Cuckoo

Green heron (at a bad angle on my part)

Antillean Euphonia

Great Egret

Larimer

Snowy Egret

Hispaniolan Trogon - National bird

Vervain Hummingbird - 2nd smallest in world