Some photos of the marketplace in St Marc
I did a vwayaj to St Marc, Haiti in March 1998 on my second visit to the Kreyol Belle. I knew no one there, but had read about it. St Marc was an important town during the Colonial times and during the revolution. It is considered the gateway to the Artibonite valley today. I spent one night at the resort Moulen sur Mer (a few kilometers south of St Mark)as I had heard about their museum of Haitian history, and the rebuilt plantation which housed it. This was very worthwhile, altho the price of a nights lodging was extreme, $90 US.
I caught a tap-tap out on the highway the next morning, at the Texaco station, and went in to St Marc. The gentleman at the Post Office directed me to the Hotel Belfort, where a clean room with plumbing was 200 gdes, about $13 US. This is the kind of place which I was not able to locate in Port au Prince, a decent hotel for a regular haitian traveller, a merchant perhaps. An appropriate backpackers hotel.
Some photos of the marketplace in St Marc
In St Marc I was adopted by Daniella Maurisette and her fami. Les mama Charite Guillaumme has two adult daughters, Daniella and Telisean, and two sons, 16 year old ti-dwense and 6 year old Elifet. I'm afraid that I had to start correcting Elifet by saying mwen pa rele blan, mwen rele David. I am looking for childrens books in kreyol for Elifet now, as a present on my next visit.
The Guiliamme house is much the worse for wear these days. It is built right upon the seashore and formerly had a seawall protecting the land upon which the house was built. All of the lots on the ocean side have lost the seawall, some have been repaired to some extent. Charite spent all of her money on hospital and funeral bills for her oldest son, who expired last year. Telisean has lost two of her four children. She says that Loupgarou (haitian vampires) took them in the night. I suspect that it was malaria.
The back half of the house has collapsed onto the beach. Part of the remaining interior wall fell while I was standing in the doorway actually.
name: stmarc.html
created: 14 November 1998
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