Laughing at Monsters

Boys sing at the beach.

I spent the weekend in Jacmel for the Kanaval (Carnival) festivities. It felt good to openly gawk with wonder and to participate in a cultural celebration with both Haitians and ex-pats. What a simple pleasure it is to be able to take photographs of a magnificent and proud Haiti. I pointed my lens and instead of it saying, "You are sad and foreign to me," it sang, "You are beautiful and I admire you."

I do struggle with not being a citizen of the community in which I live, of forever being a tourist even though I have no other home waiting for me. I am 15 weeks into my 37 week stay. I want to belong. When do I earn it?  Perhaps it is when one has neither a vague or distinct plan to leave. This inner conversation probably means I am not ultimately cut out to be a professional aid worker, traveling from place to place, always moving on.


I saw so many new things on this short trip. Beyond the fantastic (fantastical) costumes and the vast crowds of kompa dancing (1,2,1,2), there was a Martelly rally and a night spent in a house with no running water. Coming into town, there were roadblocks of children and men painted black with ashes and oil with rough sacks as masks. The moment when they pull the rope tight across the road to force you to stop could be scary if they were not also dancing or on stilts, leaning precariously down to the window to ask for their toll.

The people mingle with the monsters.

The celebration was at times somber with many depictions of death or menace by earthquake or cholera. Despite acknowledging the tragic, the festival celebrated vibrant life in all forms, in the people, animals, monsters and mystical beings. I may have been a tourist, but I did not passively receive what I saw and heard. Kanaval exaggerates everyday life into more vibrant, larger-than-life versions and it parodies the things we fear and asks us to laugh. That takes practice.

At times the floats are shocking and shows us this is not just a party.

Update March 2, 2011: My friend Jacob Kushner has published his article about Carnival for InfoSurHoy. I learned here that the white devils are called the Zel Maturin. Acquaintance Frank took some great photographs and also explained more of the cultural background of Carnival.