The Crazy That is Haiti

So, tonight we (me and Laura Beth), well, mostly me, hired a taxi recommended by my friends, to take us to a jazz concert up in Petionville. First off, understand that nothing in Haiti works the way it is described. So, I am assured this "taxi driver" speaks "beautiful English", 1st lie...secondly, he drives a brand new Mercedes. I've seen less bondo on a Roseville Saturday night Gratiot cruisers special! And thirdly, I was told he charges $500 HTG ($40 gourde to a US dollar so about $12.50) each way. I call the guy, he doesn't speak 2 words of English. He shows up, he wants $100 dollars to drive us 4.5 miles and back. We finally try to negotiate a ride there, figuring, well, we are a couple of cute American girls, we have to be able to find a ride home, and he comes down to $25 to drop us off...


So we politely decline his services and apologize, "desole, we misunderstood your fees." And decide to stay home and drink rum and Coke and play rummy. Then one of the guys tells us he can get us a moto, the guy across the street will take us. We negotiate a price, $80 HTD ($8 HTD to $1 USD, so 10 bucks) to get us there and back and off we go, in sandals and capris and no helmets, 3 on a bike...I would so never approve of this for anyone I loved in the states, but I haven't been out since New Years Eve!


Off we go, teying not to breathe in the funk that is our driver's eau du naturale, and keeping our eyes mostly closed to avoid the Pink Eye that is nearly inevitable from traveling around the streets of Delmas. He takes us up some of the worst roads. I nearly fall off several times. I think my kidneys are just about to revolt. We get about 3/4 of the way to the club when his moto breaks down. It just stops. I don't know what happened because he only speaks money in English. He flags down a couple of other moto drivers to arrange to get us to the club. Now, realize that he barely understood where to take us. He checks on the registration of the two bikes that showed up and approves us to go on the one. I check the price, which was silly, because we really had very few options at this point, and off we go. 


Well, I'm really so glad we went! I got to see my friends for the briefest moment before they left. But meanwhile, I met this awesome jazz club owner from Seattle. He is coming to visit the mission on Monday. Also, the older guy that has been pursuing me was there. I tried to set him straight again that I am only in him on a platonic level. He insisted on introducing me to his family, :( - who turned out to be great people. Laura Beth got to meet this awesomely delicious French guy. We were about to call our moto driver to come fetch us when Richard insisted on having his friend drive us home. Turns out the friend is a missionary Dentist. I'm going to have him visit the mission and possibly donate some much needed dental care to the kids!