Flag Day

May 18^th was Flag Day in Haiti. I’ve always seen Flag Day on the calendar at home, but never knew what it was other than (I think) a bank holiday.  Here in Haiti it is the celebration of the Haitian flag’s creation. There is a convergence on the small town of Arcahaie where Catherine Flor sewed the first flag. It is said that revolutionary leader Dessalines tore out the middle white stripe of the French flag (the colonists that had been overthrown) and had the red and blue sewn together.

So we had a small group head to Arcahaie to see what was happening there. Matt, Jemps, Max, Wahite Frick and myself. All we really knew was that we pass through Arcahaie on our way to the beach…When we got to the market area that is usually a traffic jam with all the people it was deserted. So we took a turn along what turned out to be a very nice road. It went on for quite a while (I was starting to think this couldn’t be right) when all of a sudden we came upon the multitudes. We found a place to park and started walking. We came upon the statue/art that shows Catherine sewing the flag and had someone take a group picture. We didn’t look at it until after and he had cut Jemps out of the picture…Today was to be the opening of an enormous market building. We continued to wander and follow the people and we ended up behind some high hedges with people crowded around. Come to find out that on the other side of the hedge was a parade and a grand stand where President Martelly was sitting. We pushed up far enough that we could see Martelly through a hole in the hedge still about 100 feet away but that’s closer than I’ve been to any other president! Since we couldn’t see much we continued to wander and then head home. it was a fun outing.

While wandering I took a picture of the statue of Dessalines and was then approached by a drunk man who wanted money for the picture. I assured him that he was not in the picture and would not get any money from me (which he still felt that he deserved) and I continued on. He then attached himself to Matt (the other blanc in the group) and proved to be somewhat difficult to get rid of, but in the end we were successful.

Martelly is between the bushes on stage in white.