It was my morning to teach yoga to the volunteer group before our days activities started. Knowing that the groups energy was starting to fizzle as we were nearing the end of the week, I decided to lead a slow, mellow, nurturing hour. Chakras, mantra's, Ommmmmmm. It felt good to do something familiar and to be guiding inhales and exhales- taking each deep breath along with everyone, really it helped me start the day on a good foot. Thank god for yoga.
The excursion to the Bassin Bleu waterfall was unreal. It was just the volunteers, as a day-off, to see some of the beauty of Haiti. We were all in need of a day like this. Good timing... John, the tap-tap driver and his red truck started stalling out right at the base of the mountain. We were informed that this spot is where the last group from January had to walk from. Not knowing where we were headed I didn't realize how far we were away from where we wanted to be. "Get out!" Naima (one of the head nannies) yelled at us from the front seat. The truck started rolling backwards down the hill and John slammed on the breaks. We all started frantically hopping out the back as fast as we could. The smell of gas fumes and burning transmission/brakes made a cloud around us. Bonking my head getting in and out of our mighty tap-tap, over and over. "Ok- get in!" We loaded back on and started to take off again. Gear shift grinding. Jolt. bump. and WHACK. The back of my head slammed back against one of the metal bars while John was shifting gears. I hit it so hard I thought I would for sure be bleeding. Nope, no blood but an instant bump. When in Haiti... Let it go. Shake it off. You are fine. But ouch really.
The yell of "get out!"... "Ok! get in!"... back and forth happened maybe 6 times? I might be exaggerating but I don't think I am. Our tap-tap just couldn't get up the super steep incline climbing the mountain with out stalling every 100 feet or so. So we walked. This woman that came from out of no where started walking towards us and onto the road we were on. Seriously where did she come from? we were in the middle of a mountain side? This woman approaching us, well, the best way to describe her look I hate to say it- but my first thought was that of a prostitute. Wild hair, baggy loose t-shirt, short skirt, obviously no bra, minimal teeth, sort of a hippy swagger, and carrying something on her head. I overheard someone in our group say "Oh god, let's go." with a level of uncertainty in their voice, and when I hear that I move my ass with determination. Left, right , left, up the mountain we go. Hot sun, sweating beads, hiking up the road until John got the tap tap moving again.
We heard him get the engine going and we were still on such an incline we just waved him on. "Allez! Allez!" we all kept screaming for him to keep going. He eventually stopped again at a flat surface and we hopped back on. I forgot to mention that before we got to the mountain we drove through a river bed/ garbage dump. I took in more fumes then I care to think about as there were piles randomly burning all around. People were all over the river bed washing their moto's, their clothes- (what!) one guy walking his donkey on a rope... pigs were roaming around in the garbage. Whoa. It was like a day at the market- but instead of an actual market they are on a garbage dump bordering a river.
Along the way up I see beauty. It was so refreshing to see this magical view and pure nature allowing my brain to realize that it's not all awful here. That there are still some amazingly goregous places and that this land isn't totally polluted. I'm not sure how it started but we started to sing songs. We started to notice that while we were singing the tap tap wasn't stalling out as often. Just keep singing, just keep singing. Everything from the Sound of Music tunes to 80's classic- whatever we sang it keep us moving upward.
We finally get to the top where we can't drive any further and I start to see a whole gaggle of men approaching the tap-tap. The all were yelling in Creole as we were getting off the back. A familiar face to D2C appeared, Wallace, and he looked very happy to see us. He would be our guide to the waterfall- our final destination. While we were getting situated I could feel the tension of at least four men that weren't backing down around our group. There was one in particular that was totally muscle pumped and looked like he just stepped off of a boxing ring. Ok, I think I will stand over here. Starting to move away from this group of men, a full on yelling match broke out about who would guide us. Finger pointing, hands waving, the level of them yelling at each other made me want to leave quickly. Wallace eventually won- but we did end up having two of the men that were like little shadows during the hike. Megan was off walking around the property and got into a conversation with this one man sitting on a deck. She told me later that he held out his baby towards her that he was holding and exclaimed "I make people!" Her response was "Yes! You do that very well!" Love it.
We headed off through the trail, hiking over rocks, carefully over wet rocks (as I'm in flip flops), over a flowing river, and I noticed that even way up in this mountainous area where the views were breath taking- there was still a noticeable amount of trash along the first path. But the beauty out won the plastic bottles and wrappers. It was gorgeous. Again, I am so blessed. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Climbing up steps, repelling down a rock wall, we made it to the two part waterfall. It was like a dream. Super green, blue, clear water. At the top of one big huge boulder Sam and I decided we should jump off at the same time. "I'll jump, if you jump... 1,2,3!" The water was awesome. The two part waterfall was another leaping option. Everyone was so supportive and encouraging to just go for it. By the time our swimming was coming to an end every single one of us had made the plunge from the rock ledge bordering the waterfall. Truly a magical day. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment