When tourists travel to Haiti, the Citadelle in the Nord Department is a popular destination. Photo credit: Getty Images.

For years, the travel pattern of the Haitian diaspora was one of the few things that could be counted on despite unrest. Some people returned around February for carnival, others traveled with families during summer vacation and more still chose December to go see lakay for the holidays. And, of course, at any point during the year, family functions and emergencies might draw Haiti’s children home.

But that was way before. Before the devastating earthquake in August, before the assassination of the country’s president in July, before Covid-19 variants began spreading, before the gang activity and widespread killings became a fixture of daily life, before kidnapping-for-ransom schemes became the norm and even before peyi lok. Now, with numerous crises weighing heavily on Haitians at home and abroad, the travel pattern no longer seems to be a predictable part of life for some Haitian-Americans.

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Larisa is a reporter for The Haitian Times covering politics, elections and education primarily. A graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, she has interned at CNBC and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. She is also a recipient of a 2021 DBEI Fellowship by Investigative Reporters & Editors. Larisa can be reached by email at larisa@haitiantimes.com or on Twitter @larisakarr.