Shopping!

Ahhhh, today was my last half-day of work (we work half-days on fridays). Ah well, that was nice while it lasted. ;-) Today, we finished at 12:30PM. A group of us had reserved a driver and we made our way to our first pit-stop: Épidor. I was told by my collegues that I should try the steak sandwhich there, so I did. It was pretty good! It is done on a fresh baguette and is filled with steak, oinions, green peppers and ouey-gouey cheese. Mi-uuuuuummm!

Tte "newbies" that had arrived this week wondered why they were so hungry and that since around 11:30AM... Turns out that Haiti is in the same time-zone as Ottawa/Gatineau but they do not observe the daylight-savings time. Once our bellies were full we proceeded to our next pit-stop: Pecco's (hmmm, I might be getting the name wrong, but that's how I understood it). Pecco's is a government run shop where you can buy souvenirs. I found some nice items to bring back (and they put everything in a nice bamboo bag, neat-o!).

We then proceeded to le Carré St-Pierre where alot of artists sell their artwork. I was fine until I bought my first paining, then I got swarmed! "Monsieur, monsieur, regarder ceci...s.v.p monsieur, je suis fauché." Once I had bought the paining I wanted, I asked if any were selling wooden items. One said no, but his friend does. Not 5 minutes later, I was surrounded by merchants trying to shove their carvings into my hands. I then found the items I wanted, putchased them, and then the swarm grew bigger! Man! I walked back to the vehicle and put the items I purchased in the trunk while still more merchants were trying to sell me items from keychains to paintings (again, even I had told them I was done). Ah well. What really got to me is when an old woman came to beg me for 1 dollar. She pointed to her gray hair and said she was hungry. Man, that tore at my heart. I wanted to give her some money, but I could see other beggers just waiting to see what I would do.

Back in the vehicle and we had one more pit-stop: Big Star supermarket. I didn't have to buy any groceries, so I just hung about for a while then went back to sit with the driver in the vehicle. I passed the time watching a street fed chicken as it kept dodging people and cars as it pecked at morsels.

And then, me was back in me's apartment. ;-) Tomorrow morning, we are leaving for Club Indigo! Woohoo! It is a former club med and supposedly the beach is beautiful! Can't wait to see that!

Ciao!

;-) LIL