I remember the exact date I had my encounter with chikungunya fever; it was on May 1, when I had just returned from the May Day agricultural fair organized every year in Haiti by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Agriculture. The first symptom was diarrhea, I took it in stride because I figured out a good cleansing of my belly was excellent; its size often interferes with the natural pleasure and enjoyment of life.
When I could not get up, I felt there was something new and unusual that I could not apprehend. I decided it was maybe food poisoning, since I indulged in a new recipe at the fair. It was clear later that I was one more victim of chikungunya.
This epidemic, brought into the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere via the idyllic island of St. Martin, has created havoc in Haiti. The numbers cited by the Ministry of Health (59,000) do not come close to the reality on the ground. My empirical observation is that close to hundreds of thousands of the population might have been stricken by chikungunya one way or the other. Very few people visited the hospitals or a clinics, since the symptoms lasted three to five days and resulted in minor inconvenience.
It strikes the bones and the joints, disabling the body from standing and doing the most routine tasks of the day. I nursed my chikungunya fever with a potion of sorosi (cerassee) mixed with whisky and rum; I took frequent baths in leaves of calabash. After some good sweating, I was good to go and good-bye chikungunya.
The hiccup came after. Chikungunya, through the remaining symptoms, will highlight the weak parts of your physical system. The aftermath of chikunguya fever is like a colonoscopy that indicates the weak parts of your body that you should pay attention to. As such, my controversial motto is: have your chikungunya fever and live better after!
This advice is dedicated to the diaspora and to all those tourists who were contemplating of visiting Haiti during the religious festival season and having second thoughts of coming down to the magic island because of the fear of being stricken by the insect that discriminates against neither the rich nor the poor.
Anyway, happy chikungunya and welcome to Haiti's fiesta season!
July 15 is the ringing bell of the festival season that starts with the fiesta of the Virgin of Mount Carmel in the picturesque village of Saut d'Eau. The tradition holds that a peasant was visited by the Virgin Mary on top of a tree. She instructed the gardener to tell the priest to erect a church near the tree. The priest took the messenger for a fool and ordered the tree to be cut, so the story would have been stillborn.
Our Lady of Carmel was not amused by the Doubting Thomas priest. The pastor was struck by lightning very soon after and the devotion to Mary of Mount Carmel in the village of Saut d'Eau sprung up. In fact, there is plan by the Catholic Diocese of Hinche to erect a Basilica in our Lady's honor. (Donations can be sent to the Bishop Simon Pierre St. Hillien, Hinche, Haiti or via the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia).
I took the road to visit the village and I was very surprised to find the government of Martelly/Lamothe has constructed a brand new paved road leading not only to the mountain village but all the way to the waterfall where voodoo practice and Catholic celebration enjoy a concubine life worth seeing. The waterfall has been redesigned into an enclave set in a park that has no reason to envy any of the state parks that you would visit in the United States, with artists selling and engaging in the live practice of painting your preferred saint. Except you will come back home having been engaged in the frenzy of dancing in the waterfall with a mass of people all excited by the sound of drums and the percussion of the Rara Band.
The pilgrimage continues in the northern part of Haiti in the village of Le Borgne that collaborated with its sister city of Port Margot to organize every year a diaspora ball with the super orchestra Tropicana on July 17. Between Le Borgne and Port Margot you will find the beach of Chouchou Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches on Earth, still unexploited. You can camp there before moving toward Port Margot for the Fiesta of St Marguerite on July 19 and 20.
With no rest in between, be ready to move on July 23 to the town of La Plaine du Nord, where St. Jacques, aka Ogou in the voodoo ritual, will preside over a bacchanal that the Romans in their debauchery could not imagine. Next, on July 24 and 25, Granny St. Ann waits for you in the village of Limonade, where Christopher Columbus built his first settlement in the western hemisphere.
During that time, the city of Cap Haitian can be used as your home base; it is filled with excitement, concert, and dances by the two most popular bands of the country and the region, Septentrional and Tropicana. I visited Cap Haitian recently and I was pleasantly surprised to find a multitude of boutique hotels that rival each other with amenities that will make your vacation a moment to remember.
Cap Haitian is now linked to the capital city of Port au Prince with air-conditioned buses that leave the touristic hub of the north of Haiti at all hours of the day, with a one-way trip costing $20 for the four-hour drive. Port au Prince will celebrate its Flowers Carnival on July 27, 28 and 29. The event has been designed by President Michel Martelly to compensate the capital dwellers for the nomadic state of the National Carnival that takes place in different cities of the country instead of the capital. Imagine Rio and Port of Spain all combined during the summer in Haiti.
Stay for a few days in Haiti to attend the fiesta of St. Marie Madeleine in the picturesque and beautiful mountain village of Marmelade on July 29. There, visit with Patrick Joseph, the legislator for the village of Ennery/St. Michel (all close by); he has built a magnificent hotel named the Village, which is a sensation by itself.
You could take a break, but do come back, because, after a pause of 15 days, the religious celebration starts de novo with the feast of our Lady of Assumption on August 15. Though in honor of the patron saint of the major towns of Haiti, it is celebrated with furor in Les Cayes, where Gelee Beach is the main attraction. You can also choose Petit Goave, the home town of the second black immortal of the French Academy, Dany Laferriere or visit the bustling frontier city of Ouanaminthe. The chain of fiesta will last until September 7, with St. Louis king of France on August 25 in Jeremie and Mirebalais and St. Rose on August 30 in Grand River.
Lingering in Haiti until the beginning of classes or the new work season, do visit Bord de Mer Limonade, where St. Philomena, feted on September 7, has been dethroned by the Vatican but presides anyway with grace and favor under the leadership of my good friend Father Abraham, who converts one hougan/voodoo priest at a time. Bord de mer Limonade has all the characteristics of Negril, except it has not yet been discovered.
Haiti's festival season is a work in progress that only those who have visited the rest of the world could fully appreciate. It is not a tourist attraction. It is alive, it is passionate, it is fulfilling. If stricken by chikungunya, you come back strengthened; participating in Haiti's fiesta season will bring you closer to the human drama that Barbara Enreincheich has called the collective joy in her famous book: "Dancing in the Streets". It is the world as it was practiced in ancient times where communal living and communal pleasure was the norm; you will find it only in Haiti.
o Jean H. Charles, LLB MSW, JD, is a syndicated columnist with Caribbean News Now. He can be reached at: jeancharles@aol.com and followed at Caribbeannewsnow/Haiti. This is published with the permission of Caribbean News Now.

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