Remembering my Summer... Part 1

As soon as school is out, we are all going to Plaisance! But first, mom had to go downtown to buy some "allonge" to get my hair braided for the entire 3 months. This hairdo usually takes all day or two days to be done! It use to be torture, but my short hair needed it so I could enjoy my vacation and so it could grow a little bit during the summer (Or so they used to tell me!).

My dad usually coordinated the trip. A truck full of people and usually a trip to remember! Guerda, Nounouche, Laurana, Ti Garry, Yves-Lyre, auntie Madan Oreste, mom, Magda and the list goes on! Our first stop was in Montrouis. We stopped to get Griyo, bannann Peze, lambi for the adults (I couldn't taste the lambi because my dad said it makes girls "hot"), dad got his usual Pwason Gwo Sèl... Montrouis was it! We then drove for hours. And I mean hours! We passed St. Marc, L'Esther, Gonaives but rarely stopped in any of these towns. We sang, we slept, we stopped for "bathroom" breaks or to stretch our legs. Not to forget a flat tire here and there. By the time we get to Morn Marmelade, our next stop, it was night time. Late night. But Lydia, this lady who lived there and sold food in a little shack, would always wake up just for us, if she was already in bed. By that time we were all tired and hungry again. Lydia would sell us some good food. Her goat meat was usually so good!

After eating, and doing other "business" at morn Marmelade, we headed down to Plaisance. Within an hour, we would reach Bourg Plaisance. That's the "town" but we had to keep driving inside, on some very very rocky roads. We had cross many "pass dlo", rivers before we get to Kafou Roger, where my uncle Tisson, who was a voodoo priest and a businessman and his family lived. We HAPPILY greeted them, got some groceries and drove about twenty more minutes to get to "Dlo de woch". Our driving stopped there because we had to walk to my grandmother's house. By that time, it would be late and peach dark! This is truly country. From 6PM, it's dark; there was absolutely no electricity in that area. The only light we could see were fireflies!

I would be so scared on that small little road that leaded to Grandma's. Not only it was dark, despite having multiple flashlights, we would fall. After it rained the width of the road would reduce to almost nothing. As a matter of fact, one time, Nano, my cousin's boyfriend and Ti Garry fell and roll down in the bushes. A tree stopped them from going inside the "Basin Figue", the only "basin" that no one swam in, except a Mambo (voodoo priestess) named Ti St. Anne when she has "Loa". Because the "loas" she served live in that basin. (RIP to nano, Nounouche, mycousin/his girlfriend and Ti garry, my cousin who I miss so much!)

When we finally reach Grandma's we would be exhausted but so happy! We would start talking with the "Plaisance" accent right away and asking for all kind of things in the middle of the night! At that time, there were no Digicel phone service, like they have now. So, unless we found someone days before we go to let them know we are coming, it would be a total surprise to them. Grandpa would get up to greet us with his huge smile. He was a smooth old guy, always with his cane and his hat. Auntie Yonne would go dig for some fresh yam off the ground, cut some bananas, and some good "Pwason chech" (Dried fishes) up in the "Galata" (attic) to cook for us. All of that done with a small lamp "Tèt gridap". While the food was being cooked, we went to clean up a little bit. To clean up we had to go down a rocky road closed to the house at a water stream. There was no fancy bathroom or anything. But that's what vacation was about! Showering in "basins", like "Basin Fafaron" (the basins were those fresh water pools, all natural, with water coming from a water fall, through the rocks or from nowhere), eating freash yams, bananas, catching crabs, fishes from the basins, playing at night with each other or simply sitting while grandpa told us stories in the dark. These were the best time of my childhood!

To be continued.....