Haiti through the eyes of a 15 years-old Haitian-American
By: Bman Joachim, NTK contributor

Haiti is a country in the Caribbean and is located next to the Dominican Republic. It is a rural country in some parts and industrial in some others. My whole family originated from Haiti making me first generation American in the Joachim-Exume-Bosquet family line. It’s complicated! I know. Just relax my peeps; I will have ample time to explain in my next posts. Anyway, on the one hand, before immigrated to the US, my mom lived in the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, which is one of the most industrialized and populated cities of the country. Many people said that everything is centralized in P-au-P. I think that does not make too much economic sense. You would think the Haitian leaders, both current and those of the past, would have decentralized the system, but, who I am to judge. I am just 15 years-old. What was I saying again? Yes, Yes! As I was saying, on the other hand, my dad came from either Grand-Bois or Mirebalais. (I am not too sure). Anyway, I know he lived and went to school in Mirebalais, which is a small town located in the central plateau of Haiti. Enough about my immediate family for now, let’s talk a bit about Haiti’s history. At some point in Haiti’s history, they were colonized by the French until they broke free by the leadership of many brave men, particularly Jean Jacques Dessalines and Toussaint Louverture, two famous Haitian warriors and leaders. While these leaders were involved in helping to shape a brighter future for the country, I guess because most were consumed by fear, they made many mistakes including not trusting one another to lead the country forward. To make a long story short (or simply because I am still learning about Haiti’s history through what I have heard informally), for many decades following Haiti celebration of its independence, the country underwent many brutal political changes, mostly unstable. In other words, leaders come and gone without ever fulfilling a progressive agenda. There may have been some exception to this, but in all, they all failed to unite the country behind a unique agenda of better education, a stronger economy, and a more stable style of governance. All that led to the rise to power of many leaders including the Duvaliers. For thirty years, Haiti was under the tyrannical power of the Duvaliers. The father, Papa Doc, was a leader who talked funny (with a nasal tone) but knew how to run a country and do business. From what I’ve been told, if you asked him for money to do a job, he would ask for a deadline, gave you more money than asked, and if the job was not done by the time you said, you would be either sent to jail or be executed. His son, Baby Doc, was like his father in that regard, but to a lesser extent. He was only 19 years-old when his dad put him as the Head of State for life. Both he and his dad gave more power to their own militia, the “Tonton Macoute” than the military and the local police force. The people of Haiti did not like these people and revolted in 1986. It got to a point where the US and some countries in Europe had to intervene to help remove the Duvaliers and their armed forces, and gave them political asylum in France and the US. For those that the Haitian populace had a change to get their hands on, they actually executed many of them through brutal means like beheading them, burning them or what seemed to have been very barbaric “giving them “Pe Lebren,” which mean putting a burning tire around their neck. That’s awful and it gives me some chills just thinking about it. I guess the Haitians know not about the Bible because it is forbidden to practice an “eye for an eye,” right? Seriously, I also guess that Haitians wanted to revenge all the years of suffering and brutal treatment they received from the Duvaliers. After the Duvaliers left Haiti in 1986, there were huge riots nationwide. The worst is as the Haitians did not seem to be ready and prepared for democracy, those who took charge of the country then put in place a constitution tailored to make quick fixes instead of looking at changing the many long-term problems Haiti faced on many facet, from the economy to the environment, from the education system to the political system, etc. For instance, they put a law that banned anybody who were part of the Duvalier regime from occupying any elected offices for 25 years. That seems to be a little short sighted on their part because 25 years later the same leaders and their compadres who were in exile returned back in Haiti.

What do I remember about my two visits to Haiti!

I first went to Haiti when I was eleven months old. I was too young to remember anything so all I have are the memories from my parents. I was bitten by mosquitoes and I would not stop crying; crying not just because of the mosquito bites, but also because it was always hot, apparently over 1000 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit. I’m not kidding; it must have been that hot. For some strange reason everybody else seemed to have been ok. That made me cry even more because I was jealous of their fake happiness under the really really really hot temperatures. Seriously though, although I could not have remembered much about my first trip, I went back to Haiti in 2009 and I remember the open fields everywhere and bumpy dirt roads. One trip that my family took was to a waterfall in the mountains. It was a peaceful waterfall with many told and untold mysteries. There are stories that The Virgin Mary was spotted there many times and this place became a pilgrimage sanctuary for many believers (all kind) to pray, to dance, to party, to cleanse themselves with what for some is believed to be a miraculous type of waterfall. There may even be a story that the first time the Virgin Mary appeared, some folks with guns were afraid and started shooting at her. I must think that if the Virgin Mary was invincible, she must have scared the Jesus out of these folks badly because I know I would have run away if I were to be one of them. Think about it for a moment, shooting at someone or something that appears to be invincible, that’s power, and I want that. I am not kidding. It’s said that some Haitians have that power. I will empty my piggybank without blanking to receive such power. Any takers? By the way, the way we traveled to that place was kind of funny and new to me since I was born in the US. I sat in the back of a pickup truck, which at first looked very unsafe and scary. I had to pretend I wasn’t scared. But since everybody seemed to have been very calm, I acted like my natural instinct as an actor. I will be the superstar of the Joachim-Exume-Bosquet family in case you don’t know. To get back to my story, while sitting in the back of the truck, my hat flew off in the wind. A very kind woman with a basket of fruit on her head picked it up and gave it to me. I thanked her and right then and there, I noticed that Haitian folks were very kind. The trip to the waterfall went well. We played a little bit in the water and we talked to some of the folks there. They were all nice and friendly people who simply wanted their leaders to provide a stronger and reasonable economic environment for all.


On a different day, my dad and stepmom went up to the mountainous village called Grand-Bois to visit his grandmother who was 96-97 years old. While there, my silly dad took a picture of a huge bunch of bananas on his head - see attached picture on the left. That's a priceless picture of an Haitian merchant selling bananas in a market. I was told that my dad was in finance or accounting, not selling bananas!. He or my stepmom took pictures of the biggest lemon that I have ever seen in my life. They also took pictures of many family members that I never knew and eventually I will meet someday. The only person I will unfortunately never meet is my great grandmother who passed away later that same year in 2009. It is too bad that I never met such a wonderful lady, full of life and love. Anyway, R.I.P great grandma and May God bless your soul. What else do I remember? I remember dancing in the rain with my sister on the roof of one of my aunt’s house. That was my first time playing or dancing or showering in the rain. Probably that same day during the night, there was a group of people sounding like a live band playing a bunch of strange instruments. The funny thing is that they were running while they were playing and a lot of people were running, playing, and shouting with them. My understanding is this type of band is what Haitians call “Rara.” If I am not mistaken, these types of band may have something to do with voodooism as well. I am not too sure. The only thing I can say is that they seemed to have been enjoying themselves, and they had lots of followers. On another note, I remember some cupcakes brought to us by my late uncle who unfortunately passed away about two years ago of a stroke at the age of 42. He bought those cupcakes from the Dominican Republic. They were simply delicious. It is sad for someone to go at such a young age, but that’s life, and as Lafontaine says: “Death is a part of life; we must accept it as inevitable.” R.I.P. uncle, you’ll always be missed in our family.


While we were in Haiti, my younger sister had her eighth birthday and we were all at a hotel pool where we had a good time. We met a bunch of family members that we hadn’t met before. In the midst of everything I saw a huge peacock on the roof of the hotel. That was the first time that I have ever physically seen such a beautiful animal (or bird). Forgive me PETA. There was also another peacock walking around the pool. That was simply precious. (Lord of the Rings, PRECIOUS, LOL). What I am about to say may seem a bit gossip-ish (if that’s a word), while I was there I saw a lady whom I don’t know if she were related to us or not, but had some strange makeup on her eyebrows that I’ve never seen before. They looked like a cartoonish type of drawing larger than almost half of her forehead. Anyway that woman face hunted me for a while, and quite honestly it scared me a little. Ironically, I drew something similar on my face later that day and showed it to my sister, and then I washed it off. I think I did that because of some loose memories of what I’ve heard about Mardi-Gras, an annual festival that Haitians from around the world, and particularly those living in Haiti, are always looking forward to. Both me and my sister laughed and shook our head in amazement about my little artistic adventure. I must tell you that sleeping in Haiti was an adventure of its own because I got bitten by mosquitoes every night. I was even in a race with my sister to see who had the most bites. I won. Yeah! Yeah! That was the most mosquitoes bites I have ever had at one time. These mosquitoes must have liked me. I provided them with fresh American blood. Those little suckers, I can never forget them. I’m going back to Haiti with my bug spray to go to war with them. I invite you all to come too. Seriously though, all Haitians living abroad should make an effort to go visit every time that they have a chance. That will be good for Haiti’s tourism, Haiti’s economy, and much more. I’m only 15 years-old and I’m not working yet. You, if you are working, I know you have the money, don’t make me come after you to use my Duvalier’s Kung Fu Panda power to force you to buy your airline ticket to go visit. Yes, I know about the Duvalier’s trick. You better watch out! LOL! I’ll give you your chance. Take it now or else. See you later.

B-Man

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