The Semi-weekly leader., 1922-09-06
Second Letter from pr. L. Bennett
Santin from Foreign Capital.


tlon Of being isolated so far out in
the interior. Suppose you have look
Cd up the location Of Thomonde on
I yous map. J,
This Is rugged. mountainous
country, but Is very beautiful. Trop-I
ieal fruits grow in abundance -ba-
nanas, arocadas, mangoes. lines,
pineaprles. cocoanuts, etc.
We live well here and have every
thing to cat that one gets in the
States except ice and milk OF course
they have ice factories at Port aua
Price and Cape Haitian.
We kill beef. goat or sheep FREE
quently so have plenty Of fresh meat
Chickens and eggs are plentiful and
cheap. We also frequently have wild
pigeon or guineas when anyone goes
hunting.
That reminds me of a joke on my
self. decided to go out one after
noon and see If could shoot few
,guineas. crossed small ravine and
came to very dense thicket. I
flushed two guineas and they flew
off through the woods. 1t was too
thick for me to get shot at them
so pushed on and after a. few mini
utes came TO an opening and about
p hundred yards away / saw three
guineas feeding on the ground. I
.opened fire and killed two of them.
About that time a native man and
woman came running frantically out
and made me understand that they.
were their guineas, / offered to pay.
and they said zone dollar apiece2-
so I paid them. When came back
to camp was told that they had
meant one gourd which the natives
sometimes call dollar. A gourd
is 20 cents So l paid i've times
the value Of the guineas- -and learn
ed the difference between tame and
wild guineas.
The house ] live in Is Of native
construction. The walls are made of
uprights (poles) and then the
Notwithstanding is basket work. The
rafters are also poles and 1t has
thatched roof. The natives call this
roof material "tache." 1t is layers
that they peel off palm trees. Each
piece is about Is inches wide and
four feet long and perhaps one
eighth of an inch thick. This is laid
on in the same manner as shingles
and several layers thick and then
is weighted down with poles. The
floor is dirt; but have several grass
ugs-about like mating to cover
the ground. No nails are used. Tim
bers are pegged together and tied
with vines. These houses are very
comfortable for this climate. Each
officer has his own house or "caille"
as the natives call them and a boy,
to take care of it, bring water, pol
ish his shoes, leggings, wait on him
at the table, etc.
The weather is very comfortable.
The days are very hot from about
a. m, to 4 p. M, and then 1t cools
off very rapidly and one has to sleep
under cover ever night.
While we seem Isolated in one way,
we are not in another. We have, a
telephone and radio set here to COM
municate with other points on the
island A pack train makes three
trips to Hinche week to bring in
provisions, mail, etc. There are no
roads out here. Everything is trans
ported on the backs Of mules or ma
tives. Air planes fly over or
times week and drop our mail. In
case want o.transfer a man to the
hospital l can get a plane here in
about an hour. Day before yester-
day decided to send man to the
hospital about o'clock. At ten the
plane was here and the man was in
the hospital at Camp Haitian in less
than an hour.
Cecile has rented nice large
house in Port au Prince for $50 a.
month. 1t has kitchen, dining room,
and i've bed rooms and a large "ba-
sim or swimming pool.
understand that will probably
be transferred to Pert au Prince as
soon as the U. S. S. Kittery comes
in. The plan is to give each officer
his first months in Port au Prince
and then months in the hills.
This is the rainy season now and
it rains nearly every AFTERNOON or
evening for one or two hours.
Plants certainly do grow here.
They make posts and telephone poles
out of certain kinds of trees and
many of them take root and keep on
growing.
1 ~ o
The natives are very ignorant and
live in the greatest squalor. They
have small patches of beans, corn
and things. but no farms as we know
them. So many things grow wild
that 1T takes very little work for
them to live. Some rice is raised.
This is podnded out of the husks in
"a hollow log, and then is famed and
sifted by hand Some sugar cane is
raised and they make dark brown
gummy sugar which they roll in big
sticks and is then wrapped In palm
leaves. They call this ''rapidow"
and use 1t for sweetening. They also
distilI liquor called elaine" which
is a coarse grade OF rum and / imag-
Inc is about 10 per cent alcohol.
They have dances frequently,
which they call "tom-tomsD. The
only music is the tom-tom. This Is
a hollow piece Of log with skin
stretched over 1t. 1t makes a rathex
wierd sound and one can almost
imagine he is in the interior Of Afri-