The Citadel in Northern Haiti

I recently returned from Haiti where I participated in a mission to provide eye care  near the city of Cap Haitien. Our group took an R&R day and made an excursion to the Citadel, a fortress in the mountains of northern Haiti, a symbol of Haiti becoming the first black republic when African slaves gained their independance from the French in 1804.

The leader of Haiti at the time of the revolution, Jean-Jacques Dessallines, entrusted one of his generals, Henri Christophe, to build a network of fortresses to defend Haiti from the French. The Citadel was the most impressive fortress, taking 14 years to complete, and was constructed from local stone. Our guide informed us that a mixture of molasses, goat and cow blood, and cow hooves were used as mortar.

The citadel contains a series of cisterns and storehouses designed to provide a year's supply of food and water for up to 5,000 soldiers within its colossal walls. It boasts over 365 cannons imported from England and Spain. The fortress took 20,000 workers nearly 14 years to complete. Countless workers lost their lives during the construction. Interestingly, the French never returned to reclaim Haiti and the Citadel was never put to use to protect Haiti. The Citadel has survived numerous earthquakes and remains a symbol of liberty for all Haitians.

The Citadel as seen from our hotel atop the 3000 ft Bonnet a L'Eveque Mountain (the rectangular structure on right central peak).

Driving to Clinic in Northern Haiti

I thought these videos might make an interesting follow up to my previous Winter Walk-Off posts. I was in Northern Haiti in Cap Haitien and a small village called Bod Me Limbe last week delivering eye care with a group called  VOSH PA  (the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity). This is a series of videos documenting the drive from our base at Haiti Village Health in Bod Me Limbe to a small village about 40 minutes away called Chateaux Neuf where we had a clinic in a local church. VOSH PA saw approximately 1000 patients last week in Haiti. This region of Haiti is absolutely breathtaking. Legend has it that Columbus thought Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, was the most beautiful of all the islands in the Caribbean. Enjoy the ride!

Mexican Prickly Poppy in Haiti

Mexican Prickly Poppy Argemone mexicana

I returned last night from a week-long eye mission to Haiti where our group, VOSH PA (Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity) saw about 900 patients. One of the villages wher we stayed was called Jacquesyl and is near the Dominican border in northern Haiti. While in Jacquesyl, I came across an area, near our compound, that had drifts of a yellow poppies with glaucous foliage with sharp edges.

The prickly seed pods and foliage reminded me of a plant called Argemone grandiflora which I grow as an annual in my own garden. Argemone grandiflora has elegant white, papery poppy-type flowers. I was fortunate to collect seeds from a plant while I was visiting the garden of Robert Jakob and David White on Long Island several years ago. It adds a nice texture and provides a note of spontaneity as well as being a reminder of an inspiring garden.

Argemone mexicana is also an annual and is found in Mexico and has naturalized in the United States, India and Ethiopia. It is used medicinally by Seri of Sonora, Mexico to relieve kidney pain. The Spanish settlers used it to treat migraine headaches and the seeds are used as a laxative while healers in Mali use it to treat Malaria. I won't be using for anything other than a punctuation plant in my upper border and a reminder of a country that I have come to love.

Creole Cottage Garden in Haiti

The Proud Gardener at Rest

The Chartreuse-edged coleus looks like a Choice Cultivar from Landcraft Environments

Wonderful Textures and Contrasts

I have just returned from a week-long eye mission to Cap Haitien, Haiti. On Wednesday, we visited a small village on the outskirts of town. We did our work in a church, but I couldn't help noticing this garden next door.

The modest house without plumbing had a tidy, well-kept mixed hedge that intrigued me so I asked the woman at the gate if I might enter. She was a bit shy at first but was pleased to invite me into her garden. Inside the hedge, there was a small seating area where her family gathered to sit and talk. I immediately saw the usefulness of a hedge to create privacy in the center of this bustling village. The hedge included a plant that looked very much like boxwood. I wondered if it was a relative of Lonicera nitida because earlier in the year it had white fragrant flowers.

I was surprised to find the diversity of plants and the skillfulness in which they were combined in her humble garden. It reminded me of a Gertrude Jekyll quote which I paraphrase: it is not the size of the gardener's pocketbook but the size of her heart that makes a beautiful garden.

Back from Cap Haitien

Two schoolgirls waiting at the clinic

Saint Anthony's Clinic

Getting a lift to the clinic

Children at St Anthony's

Me and my new friend

I have just returned from a week-long eye care mission in Cap Haitien, Haiti. I was a member of the VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity) DelVal team. We were part of a multidisciplinary medical group delivering health care in northern Haiti. Most of our work was in and around the second largest city, Cap Haitien.

This is the fourth time I have been to Haiti but I had the most trepidation about this trip because it was only a month after the earthquake. Although Cap Haitien was not directly affected, I was unsure if it was a good idea to be giving non-emergency care this soon after the disaster. Our contacts in Cap Haitien assured us that our presence would be a positive thing and we went on with our plans and I am very glad we did.

We saw nearly a thousand patients and provided eyeglasses to patients who needed them. We also treated patients with glaucoma and eye infections. Patients with cataracts were referred to ophthalmologists for surgery.

I think the most profound thing we did was to not cancel our trip. Nearly every patient we met had a relative or loved one killed or injured in the earthquake. People have been displaced to Cap Haitien and rural areas in the North. Many of these people are having nightmares and can not sleep. The main fear by the coast, is the threat of tsunami if there was an earthquake along the fault line in the sea north of Cap Haitien. I would like to think that we provided a small glimmer of hope for the future and some amount of reassurance that they would not be forgotten in their hour of need. And that need is enormous.

You can read more about our clinic at: http://www.saintanthonysclinic.wordpress.com/ .

Haiti: Once a Garden Island

On February 17th, I am scheduled to return to Haiti for the fourth time for an eye care mission with the PA VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity). It is impossible to concentrate on seed catalogues and planning for next year's garden today. Haiti is on my mind and in my heart. Haiti is a place of great beauty and extreme cruelty. Long before our Civil War and just 28 years after the birth of this nation, Haiti became the world's first black republic but remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The Haitian people are handsome and proud. They are also impoverished, primitive, hungry and now devastated by a horrific earthquake.

I have experienced Haiti's brutal history first hand. I was in Haiti in 1986 when a coup d'etat ended the nearly 30 year reign of terror of the Duvalier dictatorship. Unfortunately, the last 25 years has not seen any prosperity for the Haitian people. Robert and Nancy Heinl's book Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People could not have been a more appropriate title.




Maggie Steber, a photographer I met in 1986 while in Haiti, recently wrote a moving essay about Haiti . Maggie Steber's NY Times Lens blog essay . Her book, Dancing on Fire; Photographs From Haiti, has some amazing photographs taken after Jean Claude Duvalier fled from Haiti. Two Haitian art books Island on Fire by filmmaker and art collector, Jonathon Demme and Where Art is Joy by Selden Rodman are beautiful compilations of extraordinary Haitian art that give insight into the culture of the Haitian people.

Please consider making a donation NOW to one of the many organizations (I chose the Red Cross) that are bringing aid to Haiti. Thank you.