The Streets of Cap Haitien

I was talking recently with a local Cap Haitien resident and she started reminiscing, speaking of how in the past, and by that she meant in the 1980s, the City of Cap Haitien was a wonderful place to live in... and she likened it to the city of New Orleans in the States. And walking around today it is possible – just – to see what she was remembering.

The main city is set out on a grid system – quite clearly seen on google earth or google map for

those interested – and in one direction the roads

are numbered – 1 to 25+; and at 90 degrees they have a letter – A to Q (or thereabouts), and so it is very easy to navigate, and getting lost has not been a problem – yet!

But a lot of the buildings are now suffering from what might be called “faded opulence”... Most are three or four stories high, and the front gate or door opens directly onto the street. Many of them are small businesses offering services as varied as pharmacies (no prescription required for many items), groceries, internet cafes, (of varying conditions and speeds), tailors, barbers, and quite probably tinkers, and Candlestick makers as well. And in addition to these more established, if at times tiny, shops there are masses of street traders: each with varying wares and amounts for sale. The goods range from a handful of bars of soap or toothpaste (sometimes carried on the head) to a wheel-barrow full of soft drinks. (Robyn has in fact set a number of Haitians up in this business manner.)

And as we walk the streets we can see these traders and then, next door, there will be a bedroom for 1, 2 3 or more, with a gas stove or charcoal burner in the doorway providing a savoury variety to the general smell of heat and life that goes with the city...

There seems to be no regular or systematic approach to dealing with refuse. Rubbish is strewn everywhere, and although I have seen one or two garbage trucks – what they are doing and where they are going is a well concealed mystery. None of the native Cap Haitiens I have asked seems to really know where the rubbish goes, or who deals with it. There are periodic street fires – organised not spontaneous – which is a local attempt to keep the quantity under control, and later in the week a truck can be seen removing the smoking ashes. The beach – is littered with plastic bottles, and when the rain comes – real rain in torrents – the sea is awash with them.

The biggest thing that strikes us about the city is the state of the roads. A decision has obviously been made to upgrade the drainage system and re-surface the roads, and the result is that great blocks of the road are dug up, the drainage pipes cleared or replaced, and then the surface replaced in concrete – but there is little co-ordination. The result is chaos. Some streets finished – apart from covering the sizable manholes, others little more than a pile of rubble, others with men down the drains and with little more than saucepans are manually emptying them, and others in varying degrees of construction. And all around people still walk, and cars and trucks try and get by, or find the nearest way past.

Transport in the city is by foot, or by cycle, or by motor-cycle – up to 5 on a moped (mopeds also are a cheaper form of taxi), tap-tap – a mini-bus or truck which takes as many as can squeeze in. (A world away from the New York Airport shuttle bus which refused passengers entrance unless there was a specific pole or bar to hold onto!) or the taxi itself: and they are sometimes barely running with no door handles, windscreens in various states of disintegration and suspension that has seen better days – but usually with cheerful drivers and what seems to be a flat rate wherever you need to go. And there was even a donkey/pony train!

Despite the geographical proximity to the USA and the Caribbean Haiti feels very much to me like the parts of Africa I have been to, and someone else feels a similarity with the Philippines, but this is Cap Haitien in Haiti – and this is where I am at!