We drove to a place called the Citadel, a massive fortress built by Henri Christophe, one of Haiti's first rulers. He fought in the American Revolution on principle of opposing tyranny before coming back to Haiti and helping expel Napoleon's navy. Hard to get a sense of the scope here, but trust me, it's big.
Inside, it was a giant labrynth of mossy stones and long stairwells. Cavernous rooms and endless nooks and crannies. Plus loads of giant cannons, some of which were taken from Napoleon's defeated navy warships.
Here's Franklyn, one of MCC's workers on the reforestation project in the Artibonite Valley, with his daughter:
And here's Esther, another reforestation worker, with her adopted daughter, Gabriela:
There were a bunch of off-duty Pakistani UN soldiers visiting the Citadel at the same time as us. When were up on the roof, Esther started breastfeeding Gabriela and the Pakistanis just about lost it. Suddenly these guys all had cameras out and wanted to take turns posing with Esther and the baby, and then all the other women on the team, on and on and on for about 20 minutes. The whole thing was kind of embarassing.
