La Citadelle and Sans-Souci – Milot, Haiti - 10/28/12 – 3Miles
How did I jump from the Great Smoky Mountains to Haiti? Kind of a short story. My church put together a mission trip toHaiti and I joined in. One of the bestleaps of faith I’ve ever taken.
Our group of two women and seven men flew from Charlotte toCap-Haitien in northern Haiti to spend a week doing light construction work andhelping with a food distribution program for the elderly in a remote part of thecountry. Life is so different there,each day felt like ten days, as every experience was unlike what happens in theU.S. Taking a (cold) outside showermeant hoping that the neighbors next door (the U.N.) haven’t accidentally shutoff the electricity that pumps the water supply. Riding into town to buy food meant hopping onthe back of an open flat bed truck and hanging on for dear life, exchangingmoney, negotiating to buy bags of rice or beans in a marketplace filled withsights, sounds, smells you don’t encounter at your local grocery store. Going for a walk along the road brought usinto contact with the family cows being walked home for the night, motorcycleswith five people hanging on (including little kids), passing cemeteries withabove-ground crypts with burnt chicken parts on top. There is an order amidst the chaos, muchpoverty, and abundant grace.
Our group put together a video of our experiences in Haitithat you can see here. It is worth the12 minutes. You should be able torecognize me – the one with the white skin and white hair. I’m sure some of the Haitians thought I wasalbino.
After a rousing worship service on our Sunday there, wespent the afternoon exploring La Citadelle, a mighty fortress high on amountain outside the remote town of Milot. After driving several miles up the mountain on a restoredstone-and-concrete road, we parked our truck, navigated through the Haitiansselling souvenirs and offering to be tour guides, and walked the last couple ofmiles.
Our trusted transpor- tation for the week
Lush Haitian countryside
Walking up the mountain with lots of enthus- iastic “guides”who would not take no for an answer. Eventually I gave in and chatted with the two who had singled me out,flanking me like bodyguards. They werevery nice teenage boys, this is the only way they have of earning money, andthey’ve picked up several languages. Interestingly, they are not allowed inside the fortress. It’s not exactly open to the public.
Banana trees everywhere
La Citadelle is the largest fortressin the Americas and is designated as a World Heritage Site. It has become anicon of Haiti and some call it the 8th wonder of the world. It was built byHenri Christophe, a key leader during the Haitian slave rebellion, after Haitigained independence from France in the early 1800's (somewhere during the timeof the construction Christophe helped assassinate the emperor and declarehimself king of the northern half of Haiti.) The site could be a tremendoustourism draw if Haiti can ever attract tourists. It sits on the top of Bonnet a L'EvequeMountain. 
A guard station on the road up to thefortress (I think). See the sharpmountains in the center back- ground? Onthe other side of them is the town of Milot, where we spent most of our time.
Our translator/ guide/ friend Jacqueline (onthe left) gave us a personal tour of the interior of La Citadelle. Don’t know how he got the keys. 
La Citadelle was fortified with 350 cannons,never actually used. 
Like I said, it’s technically not open to thepublic. A few safety issues need to beaddressed. 
Looking 300 feet straight down.
Piles of cannonballs – too heavy to besouvenirs – not like picking up rocks on the trail.
Framed view of the mountains
A bird’s eye view
About as high as we could get
Piles of cannonballs in the lower right
After La Citadelle we walked back down toour truck (passing through the vendors again) and drove back down and aroundthe mountains to Milot. At the edge oftown sits the ruins of Sans-Souci Palace, one ofnine palaces owned by the same Henri Christophe and built while La Citadellewas being constructed. This sits at the bottom of the mountain right at the endof the street in Milot. It is another tourist gem and in its day was referredto as the equivalent of the Palace of Versailles in France. Henri committed suicide here in 1820. Thepalace was largely destroyed by a big earthquake in 1842. This photo is the back side of the palace.
Walking up the back steps ofSans-Souci Palace
The remains of the front gardens andbuildings
Sans-Souci Palace
Looking through a doorway at the town ofMilot
A Catholic church and the town of Milot atthe bottom of the curved roadway behind the palace
A sculpture of Henry’s wife, QueenMarie-Louise, on the palace grounds. She and her daughters were"escorted" from the palace along with the king's corpse. They returned to France.This was one short afternoon in ourweek-long visit in Haiti. We met wonderful,friendly, genuine, gentle, gracious people who tolerated our lack of theirlanguage and treated us warmly. I wasvery glad to return to my physical comforts at the end of our week, and I thinkabout our friends with little shelter and even less food, realizing what I takefor granted, and am humbled. My life iseasier mostly because of an accident of birth. I hope to visit again in the next couple of years. I fear that little will have changed, becausethe problems of corrupt governments and generations of poverty are not overcomein so short a time. But someday wouldn’tit be wonderful if tourism could be ignited in Haiti and you couldall go to see La Citadelle?
Neverknow when you’re making a memory; they will wish they was here together againsomeday ~ Rickie Lee Jones
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