#2631: A walk from Furcy to Jacmel : Klarreich's experience

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:KKLARREICH@aol.com

I also took the walking tour to Seguin, under very different circumstances. 
It was 1993 and we had been in Haiti without electricity for what seemed like 
years, feeling the squeeze of the embargo and the weight of insecurity, so a 
hike in the mountains seemed like the ideal way to escape. 

We ended up spending the night in jail because the local defacto chef section 
said we didn't have any "permit" papers allowing us to be there. I was also 
the only one in the group who didn't have any identification, the only 
female, and for a short while I have to say I was quite scared I would be 
separated from the rest of the group and had all kinds of awful thoughts 
about what that would mean.  

And, unfortunately, it had never occurred to us to bring enough money for 
such a circumstance where we could bribe our way to freedom. The following 
day we were "accompanied" all the way to Jacmel, where we eventually talked 
our way out of another night in jail. 

When we think about how far Haiti still needs to go to achieve real 
democracy, it's also important to remember how far it is has come.