Driving in Haiti

I am so glad that I've had the experience of driving in PaP/Haiti (okay, okay, its not me doing the driving, I should say being driven, but that sounds too, I don't know... too... see, words fail me, ah well). Okay, so, here is what I've learned so far:

• A car horn (un klaxon en français) is absolutely necessary. If you do not have one, your vehicle is not fit to be on the road. A toot of the horn can have many, many significances. It can just mean "Hey!", or "I'm about to pass you", or "I just passed you", or "I let you pass me, you idiot", or, "Careful!", or "I'm about to turn in your direction", or "Go ahead.", or "Lookout, I'm here about to take this sharp turn uphill, if you are coming downhill fast, lookout for me!", last but not least, it can mean "Hey, I'm here, open the gate!".
• Sidewalks are really meant for parking your vehicle, not for walking.
• Lanes are totally optional.
• Priority? Everyone has priority at the same time!
• Cutting off someone really takes a new meaning here. Its almost like a game of chicken.
• Motor-bikes are used to slalom between moving cars. I think its a national sport.
• Its okay to leave your car to rot on the side of the street, hey, it adds decor!
• If you are a transport truck, and your truck breaks down, its okay to leave your load smack in the middle of the highway without any warning signs.
• If you are a shop owner, build a speed-bump in front of your commerce, you force people to slow down and they will be more likely to buy something from you!
• Seat belts are for sissys!
• Same goes for helmets!
• You can easily fit 15 to 17 people in the trunk of a little Nissan or Datsun pickup (hey, over here its called a Tap-Tap, and its part of the public transportation system.
• You are not a real driver unless you have more than one fender bender on your car. By the looks of it, Haitians are pro drivers!
• Any Haitian would beat you in a game of Frogger. Here, its completely natural for a pedestrian to cross the street during heavy traffic.
• Sidewalks are a great place not only to park your car, but you can leave your garbage and set up shop as well. Who knew?
• The black smoke being emitted by the vehicles is totally irrelevant.
• And, last but not least, if you are to be doing slalom with your motorcycle, why not do it with the whole family riding along with you on the bike!

These experiences are preparing me to be a better driver once I come back home.

P.S. These comments are made in jest. They are only meant to bring a smile to someone's lips. If you find this post offensive, let me know and I'll take it down promptly.

;-) LIL

What a small world...

You know, if you've ever lost touch with someone from your high-school years, all you have to do is to send your spouse to Haiti and he/she will magically meet up with that person! ;-) Tada! Honnestly, this is so unexpected, that it was just surprising. Yesterday, I had uploaded some photos to Picasa so that Stéphanie and the girls could see what I have seen here in Haiti. On one picture, there's all my fellow residents from the Batiment Bleu. As I'm naming all of them, Stéphanie picks up on the name of one of my collegues. She then gives me her last name! Ha! She has not seen this person since high-school and now I meet her in Haiti. The world really IS a small space! Ah well...

Tonight, its BBQ at Mike's place again. We'll probably do a beer run at the "Libanais". Its a corner store not far from here. I keep wondering why someone would move from Libanon to establish themselves in PaP/Haiti? The world is a mysterious place!

;-) LIL

Laundry day...

Today was laundry day. Laundry that I do myself that is. Did I tell you that I'm living in a magical apartment? Yep, its magic. See, the thing is, with magic, things happen by themselves. I come "home" and the dishes not only washed themselves, but they put themselves away! Neat huh? Same for the laundry. Since my arrival, I was putting my laundry in a pile to wash it on the weekend. One day, a box appeared next to my clothes. The next day, my clothes where in the box. The day after, my clothes left the box, and appeared in the drawers of the closet, washed and pressed. Neat-O! Although I would have preferred that magic would not have cleaned my underwear... that is why I resorted to doing it myself today. ;-)

Once I started the laundry, I went to have breakfast at Luc's. I then sent some pictures to the girls, went swimming in the pool and then did some light reading. Earlier, Luc invited me for supper and a movie so that will be my evening. Cool.

Man, it is just pouring outside now! Another night, another thunderstorm! I have not seen so many thunderstorms in a row ever!

Hey, you know the saying, "It's a small world?", we'll, I'll blog about that tomorrow. I'll see if I can edit some of my older posts to add pictures. That is, if the internet doesn't die on moi.

Ciao for now!

;-) LIL

Le Bassin Bleu (qui était plutôt vert)

Salut!

I am back in the appartment in one piece after a very memorable trip! Me and five of my collegues went to visit Le Bassin Bleu (I linked to the website in my previous post). It took us about 3.5 hours each way (actually, coming back was longer, but I'll explain that later). The road to get there took us through the Red Zone of PaP. The Red Zone are areas where we cannot travel to for security reasons. If we are to drive through a red zone, then we need an armored vehicle as our escort. Once we leave the red zone, the escort turns around. There was not allot of traffic this morning, so this went smoothly.

Once we were out of Pap, we soon took the mountain road. The views were breathtaking! Only problem, I have vertigo. I was fine for a long time, but then I started having motion sickness (because of the rocking back and forth of the vehicule) and then the vertigo set it. Ah well. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths and that helped.

The Bassin Bleu is about 12 KM out of the city of Jacmel (that is where our current Governor General, Michaelle Jean was born). The road to get to Bassin Bleu was somewhat rough... okay, extremely rough! But, we made it in one piece. The Bassin was beautiful, but my vertigo got the best of me once again and I did not proceed to the third bassin and stayed back with two of my colleagues who did not proceed as well. We basically had to hug a tree on the side of a cliff to continue on and that is where I put on the brakes! Ah well. I still have amazing pictures of the 1st and 2nd bassin and will post these later (maybe when I'm back in Canada, the bandwidth here is terrible).

When we got back to base camp, our driver, the guys that got there before us, and the locals were busy changing a tire on our Land Rover. It took a while cuz some screws were seized that were holding the spare under the vehicle, I think, but they got the job done. Once this was done, we proceeded to return to PaP! I managed to buy a few gifts for the girls at the souvenir shop there.

The drive back was more interesting that the drive out. First, I did not have vertigo and almost no motion sickness. Second, when we got to the outskirts of PaP, there was a huge traffic jam! Think of the worse traffic jam you've been in and multiply it by a factor of your choice. ;-) We were very lucky that our escort vehicle has police horns. You know that blaring sound police cars make when they want you to move out of the way? Well, with the help of this and some amazing driving skills from our driver, we were able to get out of the Red Zone fast! Ussman (our driver), you did a fantastic job!

Before you knew it, we were back at the Batiment Bleu. I've got more stuff to blog about, but I'll leave that for tomorrow. J'vous aiment les cocottes!

;-) LIL

Aaaahh, La Souvenance

Power came back this morning at around 07h15, just as I was about to walk out the door to go to work. Ah, wouldn't you know it. Ah well. At least, I got to take the food that I had transferred to the freezer last night and put it back in the fridge. The night was not so terribly hot (knock on wood). Today, was another half-day friday (I could really get used to those)! The day goes by so quick!

Now, I have to talk about the restaurant we went to last night. It is called La Souvenance and oh my god, was it ever amazing! It is a French upper-class restaurant. Not only is the atmosphere incredible, the food was just amazing! I could not believe that I was in Haiti! I had a Cappacio (I think that is what its called) au boeuf (Mmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm) for starters and then had a Steak au poivre dans une sauce au cognac. How was it, you might ask? I can honnestly say that, in the restaurants that I have visited, this is way up there, if its not on top of my best ever restaurants!!! The meal cost me the equivalent of 52$ US (with 2 beers and tip included). Anywhere else, this would easily be a +100$ meal. It was just awesome!

So, this is my 2nd weekend in Haiti. Yesterday, it was one week that I was in Haiti. Tonight, I"m supposed to go watch a movie over at Mike's apartment and then tomorrow, 6 of us are going to the town of Jacmel (3.5 hours drive) and hopefully if it doesn't rain, we'll stop by the Bassin bleu: http://www.bassin-bleu.com/.

;-) LIL

In the dark

Well, it had to happen. We are out of electricity and the diesel generator died. The electrician said that it won't be fixed until morning. Its going to be a long night! Currently, we are operating on emergency-emergency power (running on the charge that is left in the batteries. Good thing that the router has its own UPS, this won't last long.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the meal we had for supper tonight.

Sleep tight everyone.

;-) LIL

Pot-Luck

Well, tonight we had the pot-luck in Marou and Madeleine's Penthouse. Okay, I take it back, it is not only an appartment with 2 bedrooms that just happens to sit on the top floor, it is a nice place. We had a blast! The food was great AND the company was great. I spoke quickly to the girls. God, I miss them! Stephanie, Melodie, Cadence, I love you so much!

Okay, I got to end it there.

;-) LIL