Welcome to the Hotel Karibe in Petionville Haiti

BY EDWARD RAWSON

The Karibe Hotel sits back off the main roads on a hillside. The hotel its self is airy. No closed in spaces, just large open walls visually closed by beautiful metal sculptures of tropical birds and flowers. Largely all the staff is multi-lingual to be able to accommodate guests who don’t speak French or Creole, but do speak English, Spanish and or Portuguese. It would appear that staff has been provided formal hospitality training by the way they deliver ultra polite yes sirs and no sirs in many languages with a big smiles. Its sprawling campus offers a large pool with a bar that sits inside so you can sit in the water and have a cold Prestige. Below the pool sits two rather well kept tennis courts and an outdoor event space. The bar in the hotel lobby offers several kinds of coffee and fresh squeezed tropical juices. At night rum punches and cold Prestiges are available with a host of other full service bar drinks. Over the years I have sat at this bar and struck up conversations with all types of people in visiting on business there for major development projects, Haitian Ministers, aid-workers, and those on vacation visiting family. I’ve even seen Wyclef there sitting with a friend.

The Karibe also provides a large conference space, which is frequently booked for all kinds of conferences, fashion shows, graduations and many other large events. Near their conference space is a hotel restaurant, which offers international and local cuisine. The restaurant itself is an outdoor space that resembles porch surrounded by tropical plants and flowers. It sits above the pool so you can see views of the well-manicured campus while you dine. Above the newer building on campus is a rooftop bar that provides breath-taking views down to the city and up to the hills above Petion-ville. Lots of casual seating spaces around the bar area make for intimate sets to enjoy a few drinks with friends. When crowded on weekend nights you will find people from all around the world hanging out in a very international seen. The rooms themselves are very well put together. They each have nice marble bathrooms and soft beds and porches where you can enjoy a quite moment sitting among the palm trees.  

The Karibe like many of the nice hotels in Petion-Ville is pretty expensive to enjoy. Rooms run around $170-200 a night. Fresh squeezed juices are six dollars a piece and even a cold Prestige will run you about three dollars. Perspective is everything, because a hotel of a lesser quality in Miami will run you about the same, and you shouldn’t be surprised to spend $14 a drink. Granted Haiti is not Miami, but whatever brings you to Haiti you will find that off the busseling streets of Port au Prince where ebb and flow of organized chaos dances day in and day out, you can find a little quite oasis at the Karibe. You can rest your tired eyes on a comfortable bed in a quiet room. You can enjoy a little friendly service while you take a quick dip in the pool and soak up some sun before launch into whatever really brought you to Haiti. 

The Road Winds

BY BEE SCHINDLER

The road winds as the truck lurched forward - Eddie dancing with the steering wheel like a tango partner, swaying around cars and people and stray dogs. When we left the car rental facility we knew we had a good 30 minutes to traverse the roads and find the hotel before dark. It felt like we floated to our destination - the motos zooming and the side of the street markets flowing. The driving area only about the size of a car width or so, which means dodging and waving and braking and honking. We ended once at a dead end road - a construction site with people lingering, watching us do a many-point turn and stalling out before getting back on track. I tried to capture the hand painted signage scrawled out on concrete buildings - the pictures ending up as a beautiful blur across my phone screen - one a pale pink and mint green; reminding me of old-time Miami. Still beautiful, even in its imperfection. Petion-Ville is amazing and much fuller than any neighborhood in Pittsburgh - people hang out and laugh and play on the corners where the warm breeze keeps them in a communal space of constant hellos. We see lots of men hustling to help us park, mostly teenagers in gym shorts who like my nephew who shovels snow in the winter, just want a couple of bucks to take their girl out for the night. I am not opposed to engaging in that entrepreneurial spirit. At the Hotel Karibe, my traveling headache catching up with me, I down half of my glass of a tangy grenadia punch - made with fruit I never had, and pop two Tylenol to ease the fog. The hotel is posh and grand and clean. The staff are cool, smiling and saying bon swa to the guests from all walks of life who arrived on a Saturday night to have fun. We chose to celebrate our first night by eating at Papaye, a five-star delectable restaurant with decor that was thrilling and food that nourished us for hours. The shabby chic whites mixed with modern touches would put my favorite restaurants to shame. As we talked and poured ice cold Prestige beer into frosted glasses, a group of friends took to the side lobby - fifteen couples whose laughter brought my eyes to their side of the divide. I was enthralled by their connection to each other - the language one that I didn't know, but it didn't matter. They were celebrating and dressed to the nines. Hair done and shirts pressed, the men and women were stunning - like a page from the Hamptons Magazine. In the bathroom, a white and gray striped bench welcomed visitors to stay and relax in privacy, while a separate dining room adorned its walls with a pale blue and white Chevron design. And I'm so wonderfully pleasantly surprised by the ambiance of Haiti thus far - it's magical.  I am hooked.  

With food and beer in my system, I sat in the passenger seat as Eddie whips around corners, stopping first at Jet Set where the music blared and the beer was cold. A couple of UN or Red Cross men played pool while single women in strappy dresses sat by themselves on stools. They tapped their feet until someone would ask one to dance - making eyes with new patrons who made their way to a table. Hello they said without speaking. I noticed a Miley Cyrus song and a Katy Perry song playing, their voices dubbed into a Creole voice - it worked well, and I enjoyed the space, but I took my beer with me and we next hit The View - a posh bar high above the city streets - the view of twinkling lights thrilled me. Again, I felt surprised at that height - I could clearly see solid infrastructure - a road, cars driving, streetlamps, a dog barked. Was I at home? The illusion of what I thought I knew about Haiti was dissipating as fast as my beer. 

HAITI TOURISM - Reality Check

BY EDWARD RAWSON

We arrived Saturday late in the day. One of my first impressions was how well put together the new airport was. It looked like a much newer nicer space. It felt like an airport should feel like. The customs lines were very short and painless. Upon descending down to the baggage area, it was clean and very new looking. The bags came out on the carousel and we picked them up ourselves and headed to the exit. Now I say this point because anyone who has been to Haiti over the years as I have will remember a very different Airport. One where bags came out then were piled in a mound and dozens of porters clamoring at you and them to help you get your bag so they could get a small tip from you. Frankly it was chaotic and frustrating every time you arrived. Then as you exit the building there would be a dozen more people getting you to your taxi or your ride. Within the five minute walk to the exit the average person would be approached by no less than 30 different people each stating "yes my friend, Taxi?" as they would go to grab you bag. When you know where you are going and are an able bodied person it was an unbelievably unpleasant experience to be grabbed at in such a manor. On this trip the lack of clamoring was relieving. I did need help finding my way to the Hertz rental car which someone did and I was all too happy to provide him a tip for that service. The thing is by the time we arrived at the Hertz transport vehicle that one person turned into three people to help us two people walk literally 30 feet from the exit to a vehicle. Each not asking but demanding a tip for this service. So it isn't all the way perfect yet, but there has been a major culture shift in the right direction at the airport. 

We took the short ride to the Hertz station where a frantic man helped us. He had piles of paper on the counter that looked like organized confusion. The process took more than 30 minutes to sign dozens of documents. I was asked for my drivers license four different times. When we went outside to the do the inspection of the car, that was when the fun began. Like many car rentals globally we walked around the car with an image of a vehicle to mark the dings and scratches so that it is clear that those scratches were there before me. The nice gentle man who was doing the inspection with me shows me the image of a mid-90's four door Toyota Carola and points to bumper of our four door full-size 4-wheel drive Volkswagen pickup truck and says we will start at the bumper and walk around. That alone was funny to me but when he pointed to the bumper which was hanging low and full of scratches and visible signs of having already been repainted, he started making marks on his drawing reflecting the corresponding scratches on the pickup. By the time he finished circling the vehicle with me, his image looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. The vehicle was not in terrible shape. It was relatively new vehicle and it was clean and looks strong. Anyone who drives in Haiti will tell you your car is going to get dings.There are not real traffic laws. Traffic has a natural ebb and flow. people typically just go on their turn. At intersections you slow up to make sure you and not going to run into anyone, and if its looking close you honk. There are not street lights or even stop signs. Just open intersections that you have to respect, but not fear. This truck looks as though it has seen its share of close calls, but it isn't quite on the rent-a-wreck inventory list yet. After all said and done I took the keys to my steed for the week and we headed on our journey. 

Flight to Haiti Forces Reflection of Intention

BY EDWARD RAWSON

I met Bee at the Fort Lauderdale Airport about noon, and we went for a drink to celebrate our journey. Over a few drinks we caught up about the night before when Haiti Friends held the Metal March opening. I personally was in south Florida so I could not be there, but Bee was and told me all about the music, drinks, conversations, and the art sales. 

After a few cocktails we headed to the gate where we saw a sea of people mostly white faces in matching t-shirts that declared their various mission projects. In all I counted at least nine groups. It seems to me that Haiti's new tourism is still "disaster tourism". I feel conflicted about these various missions because on the one hand they are obviously well intended people who are going to Haiti to do something positive like build a school, or a church, or host a medical clinic week. The issue I have is that they perpetuate the negative impression the world has about Haiti. Haiti is full of problems, believe me, and people do need to roll up their sleeves and help make those problems go away. I get it, but I just can't help but feel like there is a preconceived notion that Haiti "needs" help. That if not for Suzy Homemaker taking a week with her church to go help those poor Haitians they would never rise up on their own. That attitude and perception of Haiti is so demoralizing and helps stick Haiti in the category of a place of need, and not the Pearl of the Caribbean. I sat for a few moments on the plane between two women who each were on their way to Haiti for their respective mission trips. Each were very nice frankly, I don't mean to demonize either of them in my saying this, but they both literally scoffed at the idea that I was personally on my way to Haiti for a vacation. All be it there will be some business, but my goal was to take some time and enjoy Haiti. Soak it in. Eat at some of my favorite restaurants. See my friends. Go to a few clubs. Buy some art. These two women were on their way to "help Haiti" and the idea that I was on my way to "enjoy Haiti" seemed unfathomable to them. So in their goal of helping Haiti and not believing in how we can enjoy Haiti, we keep Haiti from flourishing. So there in is my internal conflict. I get that Haiti needs help. Look at my family's life work, we have been helping Haiti since 1954. I represent the 3rd generation of my family helping Haiti in some form or another. I'm not trying to illustrate that Haiti doesn't need help, but that its how we help that can make a big difference. People in New York need help, but it is still a major global tourist destination. People in the Dominican Republic are impoverished and there are charities there to help those in need, but it is still the number one tourist destination in the Caribbean. Haiti on the other hand, just across the boarder, is not. 

Frankly Haiti isn't fully ready to be a tourist destination where you can rent a car and explore. At least not yet. I don't honestly believe that either of these two women could go to Haiti on their own rent a car and go explore Haiti safely. Without their team on the ground to usher them from the Airport to their destination I don't see them being able to do it on their own. They could however arrive and be picked up by one of the resorts and brought to their destination safely. So many places in Caribbean deliver resorts on the beach where Americans, Canadians, and Europeans sit by the pool and drink bottomless rum infused beverages while they soak up the sun. Haiti is no exception. You can do that in Haiti. It is absolutely possible, but as long as there are this comical volume of Missions to Haiti, those beautiful Haitian resorts will be filled with wealthy Haitians and UN workers on their days off not Suzy Homemaker and her family from Minnesota. She will be doing the other kind of Tourism that Haiti has. The kind where you go to give to the poor and return feeling better about yourself. I'm not against them doing this. I'm not against helping the needy believe me, I'm kind of doing the same thing. I just wish that it wasn't such a stretch in their mind that I could be going to Haiti just to enjoy Haiti. 

HAITI FRIENDS TRAVELS TO HAITI MARCH 7-14 - Experience Haiti through us all week long!

BY BEE SCHINDLER

I wouldn't remember my age the last time I visited Haiti, except that I recall drinking my first airport beer on the way to a country that felt so far from my Los Angeles home. In fact, the California coast seemed to push the small country "a stone's throw away" from the United States even further from recognition, as my neighbors tried to place it on a map - is it near Mexico or South America, they'd ask. 

Drawing by Edward Rawson

When we arrived in 2001 the airport was a flurry of activity, but it felt warm and bright. Standing outside we scanned a pulsating crowd of what felt like thousands who wanted nothing more than to grab my bag and ease my load. We went with someone from the Hospital - a rural healthcare complex that my good friend and traveling partner's grandparents had founded in the 1950s. Our driver's little sign alerting us of his connection, and my friend's face lighting up as we stepped into the SUV. We pushed forward through the capital - viewing the far away place through dirty windows. There were kids and adults and animals and shops, and brightly colored stands. It was before the earthquake, where flash forward nine years, the ground's rumbles brought people and buildings to their knees. 

The road was long and dirt and took just about the better half of a day. We had limited connection with the good people of Haiti - sans a stop we took about halfway there - the person behind a deli counter gave a smile as we bought a bottle of coca-cola. It wasn't until we arrived in Deschapelles that I had a conversation with a local who asked me if I knew Michael Jordan, and said he wanted to move to Jamaica. It was a bubble of a trip - we hung out on the campus, took a ride to see the markets and the ocean, and to visit with a trio of young people whose dad was as famous as Warhol. We hiked to see a waterfall, and ate fresh bread stored in black plastic bags. I ate a griot stew, watched metal works be created, and went to a bangin' party in the dark - the moon and tapered candles lighting faces that smiled while those in attendance danced and drank rum. At night, I tucked in the from-the-ceiling canopy into the bottom of my mattress so that it would create a barrier between me and the mosquitos, but more important at the time, from the hairy tarantula I so unluckily spotted within the first hour or so of our arrival. It was easy to love Haiti. With its rainstorms and sunny mornings. The trees that had branches that rooted into the ground. 

On the way back to the airport, we were stuck in traffic and not moving until the clearing began, and we snaked past a large metal truck - its side gashed open and a body lay in the middle of the road. The man's head shattered and yet the time moved so slowly. No ambulances rushing through the crowd. Just a moment of chatter and deciding how to proceed. Much of the country felt so rural. So connected.

It is not surprising that I am the Deputy Director of Haiti Friends. And I am preparing to travel to Haiti again - same friend, different role. Edward Rawson is the Executive Director of Haiti Friends, and sees the world through Haiti-colored glasses. His attention back in 2001 was on the better parts of understanding - pushing us beyond our boundaries by staying one minute longer than we should - the conversation only then deepening to a space of genuine truths. What did the country want to teach us? What were we willing to be a part of?

A NOTE FROM THE ARTIST - EDWARD RAWSON

To most of my friends who know me well, it is no mystery how much I love Haiti. I talk about it way to much, I know. Haiti is just such an amazing place full of life. I look forward to this trip with Bee where I will be able to show off the Haiti that I love.

Stay tuned all week long we will be posting writings, drawings, videos, pictures, reviews and more. Experience Haiti through us all week long!

 

Patisserie Style Haitian Patés (Meat Pies)

Honestly I personally can't imagine making these myself. There is a spot a block from my house in North Miami that makes them just like in Haiti. I eat these way too often. They are so quick and easy to eat. The problem is they are kind of rich. Honestly I'm addicted though. 

Patisserie Style Haitian Patés  (Meat Pies)

These are the kind of Patés you will find in one of the patisseries in the cities.  These are based on French recipes.  These patés are airy and flaky and melt in your mouth.  

Ingredients:

Filling:

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 3 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 medium shallot, diced
  • 1 tsp. lime juice
  • 1 tsp. Adobo seasoning salt
  • 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper, chopped or 1 Habenero pepper
  • 1/4 tsp. thyme
  • 1/4 tsp. rosemary
  • 1 tbsp. tomato paste
  • 2 tsp. olive oil

Dough:

  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup shortening or substitute with 1/2 cup of shortening and 1/2 butter mixed together 

Directions:

Combine salt water and flour in a large bowl. Mix well using your hands. Generously dust surface area. Knead until dough is firm and slightly sticky. Roll the pastry into a ball. Pack it up in a plastic wrap. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Over medium heat, heat oil in a skillet or saucepan. Add onions, garlic, shallot, peppers and seasoning mixture. Stir-fry for 1 minute until softened. Add the meat and simmer with water until meat is tender and water is absorbed. Add tomato paste and stir well until medium brown.

On a clean surface area, dust with flour generously to prevent dough from sticking. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough and stretch in a rectangular circle. Roll dough until 1/8 inch thick. Spread the shortening mix generously.

Fold in the flaps to cover over coated areas. Sprinkle the dough with flour and roll out evenly. Form into a ball and set aside for 15 minutes.

Repeat the steps to flatten and fold the dough. Wrap the dough ball in plastic and let refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven at 375° and prepare to bring out the dough. Unwrap dough and roll out evenly. Divide into disc like shapes. Roll disc dough, as thin as possible. Place disc dough in the palm of your hands and extend pieces with fingers. Add filling. Fold dough and seal edges. Bake at 300° until golden brown. Serve warm. 

(source) http://www.glahaiti.org/haitian-recipes

Pittsburgh Post Gazette Notes This Friday's Art Opening at the Friends Art Gallery

Art notes: 'ABC@PGC' invites attendee participation

Special thanks to Mary Thomas at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for including Haiti Friends in their Art Notes section. 

Haitian sculpture

A free, public opening will be held from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday at Haiti Friends Gallery, 6739 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, for “Metal March,” sculpture made by Haitian artists from recycled metal drums. The band Two Tall Twins, Ayesja Scott and Alex Jeffe, will play, and rum punch will be served. The gallery also exhibits paintings, sequinned flags and crafts. Prices range from $10 to $500 and benefit reforestation efforts in Haiti. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Information: 412-361-4884 or www.haitifriends.org.

Post-Gazette art critic Mary Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1925.


Ayiti Mon Amour

This is a short trailer of my feature narrative Ayiti Mon Amour(AQ) that will be featured in our promo video for our upcoming Indiegogo campaign. Ayiti Mon Amour is part coming of age, part love story and part fairy tale. It is a "magic neorealist tale" about life after disaster featuring almost all non professional actors. Ayiti Mon Amour is made up of three stories. We shot the first story this past summer and we're hoping to return in January to shoot the other two stories. We hope you will make a contribution and spread the word far and wide. 
Thank you for watching. The video was edited by Yeelen Cohen. Images are by Hervé Cohen and Jazmin Jones and music by Toto Bissainthe.

The Pierced Heart & The Machete

This is a trailer for The Pierced Heart and The Machete (70 min) released on Sublime Frequencies in 2013. Olivia Wyatt’s latest film, The Pierced Heart & The Machete, is a vivid, unflinching exploration of two annual Vodou pilgrimages in Haiti. The first is for Èzili Danto, goddess of love, art and passion; worshippers from all over the world descend on the southwestern town of Ville-Bonheur to bathe in the sacred waterfall where Dantò resides. The second pilgrimage is for Dantòs' husband Ogoun, god of war, iron and healing. It takes place at the end of July in the northern town of Plaine du Nord, where hundreds of enraptured practitioners bathe in a mud pool and make flamboyant sacrifices.