Haiti Report Days 7 and 8
So I've now eaten out in Haiti twice. Believe it or not they have hotels here, right along side the shacks, just a half a minute for the main road where they walk the cows and the pigs every morning. I can't speak for the quality of the hotel rooms, but we've been to two of their restaurants.
The mysterious part of it is that they try very hard to be... I don't know if american is the word, but civilized? To be... what I would expect to see at a restaurant. There are menus and water glasses and bread served with dinner. There are long tables on the terrace (the views, actually, are beautiful. Someone said Haiti is all about five dollar homes sitting on million dollar property, and that pretty much sums it up) and napkins and and music played over a speaker.
But the bread served with dinner is toast. Basic store bought, toasted, served in a basket. The drinks are refilled, the wine glasses sit on the table weather or not you use them. All little things which, of course, aren't a big deal at all, but that you notice. The big joke of it is really the wait time. It takes roughly two and a half hours to eat out in Haiti. Fifteen minutes to get your drinks ordered, another fifteen before they arrive, five more before you get water (this order can change around), it takes a half hour to maybe fourty-five minutes from when you order to when your food arrives. The portions are smallish but not anything that's gonna starve you. Assuming you eat at an average speed you're done in maybe another half hour to fourty-five minutes, then you wait around for your check, which takes a half hour minimum. It's fortunate Drex likes to talk, as you don't notice the time quite as much when there is conversation. But it's really crazy, and we make jokes about how it's taking so long because they have to go out and catch, kill, and skin the food first.
There are also some miss communication issues. Or something. I'm not sure. The first restaurant got our checks all switched around, and not even in logical ways. One guy got all the drinks and another got the food. This is despite spending the better part of the hour figuring the checks. And mum and Christine both got their meat rare when their ordered well (where as I ordered well and got it well). Mum poked at hers a bit and Christine (whose meat was pretty much still mooing, I seriously doubt it even touched an oven) sent hers back.
Tonight I got lobster, which I've decided I don't like. However, the beef, if properly cooked, was very good. All in all I have no complaints over Haitian food. And the time stuff doesn't bother me much cause I like being around people when they talk. Plus, we got to watch a lizard on the ceiling above us eat moths, which was pretty cool.
Still though, I've declined the offer to go out again on my birthday. The home cooking here is actually better eating than what I would scrounge up at home.
Work wise, we're pretty much done. The doors (twelve in total) are all stained and all that is left is to get a second coat of paint on the frames and surrounding areas of the door, which we'll do tomorrow. Then we go to the beach again with the kids, which I'm looking forward to (MUD =D) and Sunday should be little but being lazy and playing games. I might get dragged into working despite it being the day of rest. Not sure.
At dinner tonight Drex asked us to go around the table and give our thoughts on the past week. I took advantage of the fact that Drex is physically incapable of passing up even in the faintest opportunity to tell a story, or give his opinion (usually repeating himself about five times) and by bringing up the living situation of the kids (the fact that they are making multiple houses for them all to live in) was able to stall off having to talk about much in specific. Because I'm not one of those people who felt touched by god in this, and while I do think it's interesting, and a good experience, and while I've had fun and I know I've done something good and I'm glad of it, I can't say that I've had a wonderful time or that I want to come back. I sure as hell can't say that this has convinced me that I'm not really suited for missions trips, or that living so closely and so constantly with other people is slowly driving me crazy.
The other day we took a drive all the way out to the end of the paved road. It involved going through a river (which was pretty much dry) and over a dirt road (which hurt like a bitch since I was riding in the back of the truck). It's really funny how friendly everyone here is. Except for a kid who felt inclined to yell "FUCK YOU" every time we passed, the vast majority of the populace waved and smiled and said good evening (a few made joking, perverted gestures).
It's... weird, the contrast. Everyone seems so happy and nice, even in Port au Prince, but then Drex tells us stories. About how when they had an orphanage in Port au Prince someone was killed in the area on most nights, sometimes bodies were infront of their gates. How you can't go walking alone at night (or even in the day time, if you're careful) because you'll be kidnapped in a heartbeat. How there was a missionary group that was around during Rah Rah (or whatever?) which is a kinda Marti Gras type of party time, where everyone floods into the streets, drinking and dancing, and will tap on passing vehicles with their machetes. But it's not really dangerous. Only this mission group didn't know about it, hadn't been warned, and freaked out and drove too fast, they ran over a child on accident and the populace dragged them out of their car and killed every one of them.
Or a almost similar story where Drex and Jo went driving through Port au Prince at the wrong time, when for some reason there were riots, and got lost, got surrounded by an angry mob beating on their car with machetes. They got out, obviously, by following a blue car that disappeared into nowhere once they were safe and sound, but on the same day the mob killed a red cross driver and the van's occupants.
Or how just last night one guy killed another guy with his machete, and someone else burned down the dead guys home. The murderer was put in jail.
Incidentally, they know how to do jail here in Haiti, and American's taxes would drop considerably if our governments would take a few leaves from their book. The way it works is if you go to jail, you don't get shit. There is a dirt floor with a hole in the middle for doing your business, it's a large room that everyone shares. You don't get air conditioning or fans, you don't get beds, you don't get food or water, you don't get a TV and a library and a work out room and a certain amount of hours outdoors each day. And unless you have someone who cares about your sorry ass on the outside? You starve to death. Your family can bring you food, a cot, clothes, whatever you need, but someone has to bring it to you. If you are in jail for three months than someone brings you food and water every day for three months if they want you to live. Apparently the general opinion among Haitians is that if they have to go to jail, they'd rather just be shot dead.
Also, everyone out here has a machete. Carlos uses them to weed the yard, I see guys hacking up sugar cane to sell every day. It's kinda neat.
The next two days will probably be a little boring, but we sleep a lot and keep fairly busy with work or seeing the kids or just driving to go see something. But just the same I've finished my book, a few manga, and have started writing. Was going to write some ToA I have planned but I lost Tear's voice and need to go beat the game again, so I've restarted THM instead.
We watched Barnyard, a CGI movie, in french with the kids today. It's basically the Lion King with cows. It's actually pretty hilarious. You could have a drinking game of "one sip every time Barnyard steals a scene from the Lion King" and end up nicely smashed by the end of it.
The mysterious part of it is that they try very hard to be... I don't know if american is the word, but civilized? To be... what I would expect to see at a restaurant. There are menus and water glasses and bread served with dinner. There are long tables on the terrace (the views, actually, are beautiful. Someone said Haiti is all about five dollar homes sitting on million dollar property, and that pretty much sums it up) and napkins and and music played over a speaker.
But the bread served with dinner is toast. Basic store bought, toasted, served in a basket. The drinks are refilled, the wine glasses sit on the table weather or not you use them. All little things which, of course, aren't a big deal at all, but that you notice. The big joke of it is really the wait time. It takes roughly two and a half hours to eat out in Haiti. Fifteen minutes to get your drinks ordered, another fifteen before they arrive, five more before you get water (this order can change around), it takes a half hour to maybe fourty-five minutes from when you order to when your food arrives. The portions are smallish but not anything that's gonna starve you. Assuming you eat at an average speed you're done in maybe another half hour to fourty-five minutes, then you wait around for your check, which takes a half hour minimum. It's fortunate Drex likes to talk, as you don't notice the time quite as much when there is conversation. But it's really crazy, and we make jokes about how it's taking so long because they have to go out and catch, kill, and skin the food first.
There are also some miss communication issues. Or something. I'm not sure. The first restaurant got our checks all switched around, and not even in logical ways. One guy got all the drinks and another got the food. This is despite spending the better part of the hour figuring the checks. And mum and Christine both got their meat rare when their ordered well (where as I ordered well and got it well). Mum poked at hers a bit and Christine (whose meat was pretty much still mooing, I seriously doubt it even touched an oven) sent hers back.
Tonight I got lobster, which I've decided I don't like. However, the beef, if properly cooked, was very good. All in all I have no complaints over Haitian food. And the time stuff doesn't bother me much cause I like being around people when they talk. Plus, we got to watch a lizard on the ceiling above us eat moths, which was pretty cool.
Still though, I've declined the offer to go out again on my birthday. The home cooking here is actually better eating than what I would scrounge up at home.
Work wise, we're pretty much done. The doors (twelve in total) are all stained and all that is left is to get a second coat of paint on the frames and surrounding areas of the door, which we'll do tomorrow. Then we go to the beach again with the kids, which I'm looking forward to (MUD =D) and Sunday should be little but being lazy and playing games. I might get dragged into working despite it being the day of rest. Not sure.
At dinner tonight Drex asked us to go around the table and give our thoughts on the past week. I took advantage of the fact that Drex is physically incapable of passing up even in the faintest opportunity to tell a story, or give his opinion (usually repeating himself about five times) and by bringing up the living situation of the kids (the fact that they are making multiple houses for them all to live in) was able to stall off having to talk about much in specific. Because I'm not one of those people who felt touched by god in this, and while I do think it's interesting, and a good experience, and while I've had fun and I know I've done something good and I'm glad of it, I can't say that I've had a wonderful time or that I want to come back. I sure as hell can't say that this has convinced me that I'm not really suited for missions trips, or that living so closely and so constantly with other people is slowly driving me crazy.
The other day we took a drive all the way out to the end of the paved road. It involved going through a river (which was pretty much dry) and over a dirt road (which hurt like a bitch since I was riding in the back of the truck). It's really funny how friendly everyone here is. Except for a kid who felt inclined to yell "FUCK YOU" every time we passed, the vast majority of the populace waved and smiled and said good evening (a few made joking, perverted gestures).
It's... weird, the contrast. Everyone seems so happy and nice, even in Port au Prince, but then Drex tells us stories. About how when they had an orphanage in Port au Prince someone was killed in the area on most nights, sometimes bodies were infront of their gates. How you can't go walking alone at night (or even in the day time, if you're careful) because you'll be kidnapped in a heartbeat. How there was a missionary group that was around during Rah Rah (or whatever?) which is a kinda Marti Gras type of party time, where everyone floods into the streets, drinking and dancing, and will tap on passing vehicles with their machetes. But it's not really dangerous. Only this mission group didn't know about it, hadn't been warned, and freaked out and drove too fast, they ran over a child on accident and the populace dragged them out of their car and killed every one of them.
Or a almost similar story where Drex and Jo went driving through Port au Prince at the wrong time, when for some reason there were riots, and got lost, got surrounded by an angry mob beating on their car with machetes. They got out, obviously, by following a blue car that disappeared into nowhere once they were safe and sound, but on the same day the mob killed a red cross driver and the van's occupants.
Or how just last night one guy killed another guy with his machete, and someone else burned down the dead guys home. The murderer was put in jail.
Incidentally, they know how to do jail here in Haiti, and American's taxes would drop considerably if our governments would take a few leaves from their book. The way it works is if you go to jail, you don't get shit. There is a dirt floor with a hole in the middle for doing your business, it's a large room that everyone shares. You don't get air conditioning or fans, you don't get beds, you don't get food or water, you don't get a TV and a library and a work out room and a certain amount of hours outdoors each day. And unless you have someone who cares about your sorry ass on the outside? You starve to death. Your family can bring you food, a cot, clothes, whatever you need, but someone has to bring it to you. If you are in jail for three months than someone brings you food and water every day for three months if they want you to live. Apparently the general opinion among Haitians is that if they have to go to jail, they'd rather just be shot dead.
Also, everyone out here has a machete. Carlos uses them to weed the yard, I see guys hacking up sugar cane to sell every day. It's kinda neat.
The next two days will probably be a little boring, but we sleep a lot and keep fairly busy with work or seeing the kids or just driving to go see something. But just the same I've finished my book, a few manga, and have started writing. Was going to write some ToA I have planned but I lost Tear's voice and need to go beat the game again, so I've restarted THM instead.
We watched Barnyard, a CGI movie, in french with the kids today. It's basically the Lion King with cows. It's actually pretty hilarious. You could have a drinking game of "one sip every time Barnyard steals a scene from the Lion King" and end up nicely smashed by the end of it.