Vodou Damballa, East Flatbush Brooklyn

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Vodou ceremony in East Flatbush apartment. People were wearing green in honor of Damballa that can also be represented by St. Patrick or Moses. The space was too small for live drummers. Many young kids that were born in the USA. The only time I could use available lights was when candles were lit

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Lay over in Port au Prince, Haiti. Sept 2008

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I just stopped a few hours and one night as a layover on my way to Jacmel to Santo Domingo. The Caribe Tour bus was comfortable, clean and food and drinks were available.

I took a tap tap "bus" to Delmas 33 - where I spent a night in a private home . The electricity was off for a few hours. I had been told in Port au Prince they have power for about 16 hours daily. seemed inconvenient but nothing compared to the situation I would face in Jacmel the following days.

People like to hang out on the rooftops at sunset and watch the sky at dusk. below the hill there is what they call the "bidonville" that can be translated into "trashtown".

The next day I walked down the street. I took photos of an upper class mom with her 2 daughters walking home from the baptist church.

There was a barber shop with a photo studio in the back. The photographer hand painted different backgrounds and used an old manual camera - I think could have been a Pentax K1000 or a Ricoh.

The camera had some problems and it was hard to have parts to get it fixed -
I thought a such an old manual SLR camera would be worth nothing in the USA but provided a mean of support to this guy.

There are a lot of kids with buckets that go to public fountains to get water. Very few households have plumbing. some have their own well and you can get water whenever you want, but for many a private well is a luxury.

2 locals showed me the view from a rooftop. They were really concerned about the illiteracy of the kids that lived in the bidonville. Elementary schools in Haiti are not free and some people have to choose between giving their kids food or education.
There are some volunteer programs to teach learn and write but it is never enough.

I went to the bus station to get the Tap Tap to Jacmel about 3 hours away.
An old school bus was not to full and i sat in the back.
It was about 1 PM and had to wait 45 minutes in it until it was filled to capacity.

I could buy some soda from vendors from the window -
it was hot under the midday sun.

When I came back from Jacmel, less than 2 weeks later it was almost 6 am.
after a 2 hour trip in a shared minivan.

I had 2 hours to kill waiting for the daily bus to Santo Domingo that I could not miss.
I asked 2 local kids to take me to the market -
wanted to buy a traditional straw hat.
we walked 20 minutes the busy streets. Got some street coffee and found a market that was already open.

They seemed to have a lot more stuff than in Jacmel.

Got what I wanted. Just wished I had more time to look around - explore more.

But I had to run back get on the comfortable bus.

Passed by what looked like an army fort or some outpost. It was the US embassy.