Easter in Cange!

The long Easter Weekend found me taking a little detour north to visit fellow YASCer Alan Yarborough at his placement in Cange, in the Central Plateau of Haiti. This is the same place I went with the Tabasamu group back in October, but it was great to have some more time to explore and get to know everyone in this area.

Easter Sunrise Hike with Alan and Friends!

Cange is like a whole other world with an entirely different set of opportunities and challenges. I didn't realize what a "City Slicker" I am until I headed up there! It is, for starters, an absolutely gorgeous area. Every view is breathtaking and, being incredibly rural, the stars are out of this world. Compared to Leogane, where houses are shoulder to shoulder and there are 40 people sitting outside their houses on any given blocks, Cange's sparsely populated land seemed calm. But it is also an area with no jobs and extreme malnutrition.  It just amazes me how rural people are here: we hiked down 530 steps from the highway, hiked for another hour, and came to someone's house. Not to even talk about how these people get food they don't grow themselves, it makes sense why 70% of Haiti's babies are born at home! 

The swimming at the end of 530 steps is pretty fun, though. 

It is also funny for me to leave Leogane and visit non-earthquake areas. It was so strange to be in a "real" church for Easter and to see so many concrete ceilings: these killed so many people in the earthquake that most people are terrified to rebuild with them. My understanding of Haiti is so firmly shaped by the earthquake, I frequently find myself wishing I could see this area before the quake. 

This lady? She had already been walking for half an hour when we met her, half an hour into our sunrise hike. She was moving her goods to the market for Easter Day and beating my butt at scrambling down those rocks, even with sacs on her head.