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September 10, 2005 - A Saturday Trip to Town
Going into O’ Kay is always an adventure. Today (September 10) the girls and I, along with Derek and Christoph left Citi Lumiere around 10:30. We ran out of propane just this morning, so along with getting more propane we needed groceries, textbooks for Christoph, a birthday gift, and any other treasures we can find. It takes us about 8-10 minutes to get out to the main road. Once on the main road, the traffic becomes heavy with trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. Today a big semi with a trailer decided it needed to turn around right in front of me. He is big, so he is boss. Amazingly he was able to completely turn around. Of course everyone had to get out of his way, even the merchants on the side of the road selling diverse things. They were not too happy about his “bully attitude”. Once through the road- block we began to move at a good clip. At home I can look around as I drive, but in Haiti I must keep my eyes peeled to the road. There is so much going on and no room for error, especially on a big market day like today. Right now we are on the lookout for a riding toy for Derek without pedals. We scan the sides of the road as we get into the area where this type of item might be found. In a few minutes we are in the main part of town. Christoph needs to jump out and look for his textbooks. I decide to just wait for him and take some pictures. Children are always ready for a photo, while the older people are a little more hesitant. Christoph soon returns with books in hand. We continue down the street into the main market area. Here we creep along and I trust the pedestrians to stay clear of the truck. It is important to keep moving because there is always someone coming from behind. If you don’t move fast enough, they just find a way to pass. I spot a familiar vehicle up ahead, and I see Doris Clotaire walking on the side of the road. We stop and ask her about a particular type of store, and she recommends one a block ahead. We meet at the store looking for a gift and riding toy for Derek. No luck…they have lots of nice things, but nothing we need. The store across the street, which may be of help, is packed…people coming out the doorways. Doris says during September this is how it is because students are buying books for school. We venture on down the street, looking at the things for sale and stop to take a few pictures. Derek puts on his smile and calls “bon jou” to the merchants. They get a real kick out of this little blonde boy calling “good day” in their native tongue. Finally reached the first grocery store. Today we find a treasure… Golden Delicious apples. Our mouths water and I praise the Lord for such a find. In three months, this is the second time I’ve seen this kind. More often they have Red Delicious, but the Goldens are better. As we check out we chat in English with the owner, who is a lovely gal. She uses an adding machine as her helper reads off the prices for her. Soon she has the total and we venture on down the street, still scanning the sidewalk merchants for a gift and a scooter. Thankfully we found some taffy candies back at Star Market…that should do for the gift. At the other grocery market, G & B, we find most of the things that are still on our list. Today they have a few loaves of French bread left which make good hot sandwiches. Also I am glad to see that the ground beef is ready although no such luck for spaghetti sauce. As we move toward the check out area, Alisha notices they have powdered sugar. This is a first since our arrival! Next stop is the propane store. Christoph and Tess pull the tank out of the back of the truck and soon a man appears with a new tank. With everyone back in the truck we head around the block and towards the new market area. We need to get some kerosene and to do so I must drive down one of the busiest sections of town. As we inch along in the main market area, we see a lady selling kneps. This is a round fruit that fits easily into your mouth. There is a large seed in the middle, but a sweet fruit around the seed. We flag down the lady and give her $5.00. She gives us our amount of kneps and we begin to hear horn honking coming from behind. Off again at a snails pace, and I trust I will make it past the large trucks and all the pedestrians and motorcycles. We finally make it to the corner and we get turned toward the gas station. We park and Christoph jumps out to get the kerosene. He returns with a ½ gallon and says gasoline is now around $50/Gal which is around $US 6.00. The stores are not selling their supply today because they are waiting for the price to stop jumping around so much. Continuing up the road we pass a Top-Top (Haitian style taxi) that looks like it has about 20 too many people in it. Even Alisha says that it looks dangerous. Once past all the taxis and the bottlenecked area, we are on our way again. I pick up speed to keep from getting passed by all the others I share the road with. Soon we are back to the turn off road and off the nice pavement. We bump down the 8-inch drop off and the apples decide to go rolling. I stop to prevent any more bruising and then we continue down the bumpy road to home. This takes about 10 minutes at 5mph. Mark and Jan are outside with the mini-bike. Looks like they are ready to try out the new homemade foot brake that he has been trying to get on for several weeks. We are all thankful for a safe trip. Derek is about asleep, so Tess puts him to bed although he is still awake enough to ask for his “friend”, his pacifier. Lunch is next and simple, ham sandwiches!
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