So today I found out that my Brookline friend is actually the nephew of the President of Haiti. Go figure. He’s also got a MIT grad school education. Not too bad. He also “smoothly” tried to sleep in my bed last night. He had originally got a room but ended up checking out and staying with his co-worker instead, on a really small bed, and tried to convince me (well – half-assed tried to convince me) that my bed was much more homey and looks very comfortable. After I left their room after hanging out for a few he knocked on my door and tried the “I got kicked out” excuse to try one other time. I don’t get what it is here, I usually don’t have these sorts of situations. Really persistent French guy. Nice Brookline guy who tried to get into bed with me. And then today while in the market, I exited the phone place just to be completely surrounded by about 10 young men who were very aggressive, really surrounded me and were all saying some pretty crude things. I was a little nervous but also in a bit of a weird position because I was looking for my driver at the time. There was a guard standing at the door of the phone place of course, and when I couldn’t immediately find my driver I turned to go back in but then he called my name and I made my way through the crowd. Ugh so sketchy. The people here in Haiti are nice, for the most part, but I think it’s mainly surface nice. Maybe like we are in the US. This is no Africa. Though, I really like many of the workers here. I think it’s a combination of the men liking the single blond girl, and the women admiring me for being here on my own.
The realtor I went out with yesterday seemed to be a really nice, genuine, smart guy. Grew up in Haiti until he was 15, moved to France, then back to Haiti and now lives in NYC. We went to an excellent restaurant (Quartier Latin) and just talked and talked, and I had escargot for the first time. Actually, I had it for lunch, and I tried it for dinner as well. It wasn’t bad! Especially in the right sauce. I asked Mr. Klang about safety here in PAP and he told me that it use to be an issue because there was gang violence, but it has improved very much so. He said he was even approached once as people tried to hijack his car, he had a guy on his left pointing a gun to his head and another one with a gun on the side where his daughter was sitting. The guy near his daughter actually shot the gun and it missed his daughter and hit Mr. Klang’s leg; instead of surrendering the car he slammed on the gas and got out of there and then drove to the hospital. I’m really not sure how long ago this was. Mr. Klang shared with me (which I never knew!) that when you eat oysters, they are very much alive. Ewwwww, I really never knew this! I don’t know if I can ever eat another, even though I really don’t like them in the first place! Also, interesting home fact: In the restaurant, there were balls of water (plastic bags with water in them) hanging from the ceiling. Apparently, this keeps the flies away because they see their reflection and get scared!
I went out last night with the older French guy that I had met. We went to a local, much less expensive restaurant, we got escargot fritters for an appetizer, so ya – twice in one day! Ian appears to be a sinister, opinionated French older man, (which I have found is not unusual for the French) but we had some good conversations, from history, to travel, Obama, to the pros and cons of European and American society. In the middle of our meal, the electricity cut out leaving us all in the pitch black (at which time I quickly grabbed my purse!) Electricity cutting out really isn’t unusual here; actually it happened many times at the hotel. I ate way too much at dinner, and afterwards we took a ride around the town. It was creepy – it was pitch dark aside from the small candles and fires in the street. Twice we drove through people partying and dancing in the streets, and I do have to say I was slightly nervous. It was a good night, though, I had a good time with Ian. Then we went back to the hotel and I ran into both my French/Haitian lover who had been trying desperately all evening to get in touch with me (he was leaving tomorrow and tonight would be our last and only chance together) and my Brookline friend who looked exhausted. His colleague asked me if I had any interest in helping them write up a business proposal for sustainable wind energy in Haiti, and I said that I would be interested. Why not, and – they are trying to do good for the country. I think it’s a great idea.
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