I left PAP today with my colleague Kendrick for Cap Haïtien located on the north coast of the country. He is a Haitian phd student specialized in patrimony and more specifically the town of Milot. We took a small plane at 4pm and after flying 20 minutes through the bumpy clouds, we arrived in Cap Haïtien. As soon as we landed, we took a cab to Milot. Milot is located 20 km south of Cap Haïtien and hides the main historical monuments of the country (the Citadelle, the Palais Sans Souci and the Ramiers). It has a population of roughly 25 000 souls, is located inland and is surrounded by mountains and a tropical forest. It is very humid and it rains quite a lot. It reminded me of South East Asia where it can be sunny and suddenly it starts raining and then stops.

Chapelle de Milot

Vestiges du Palais de Sans Souci

We settled in Lakou Lakay, a cultural center owned by Maurice Étienne. Maurice is an architect and his concept is quite unique. He wants to share the culture and patrimony of Milot with strangers by inviting them to stay with his family. He built his complex, which is far from being finished since he has no financial help, directly in the nature. His wife cooks really well and all the aliments she uses come from the environing nature. Maurice knows the history of Milot to perfection and the importance of the historical monuments surrounding it, its patrimony.

After talking to Maurice and his family, I walked around town to see the Chapel and the Sans Souci Palace. Milot is totally different from PAP, Archaïe, Cabaret and Léogane first because it was not badly hit by the earthquake and secondly it is very colorful and located in the nature.

Typical house of Milot

Typical house of Milot

While walking, I quickly realized a lot of Haitians were hostile to me. They yelled le blanc le blanc in Creole with insults and tried to intimidate me. I kept on walking and pretended everything was fine. NOT everyone acted like this towards me in Milot, I met wonderful people who were really nice to me but a lot did and even if it seems weird, it felt isolated. On the other hand, the kids were amazing ! They loved being photographed and were so happy to see the results on my screen. It was great to see.

Kids from Milot

After taking a couple pictures and listening to the concert that was taking place in town I headed back to Lakou Lakay.