First Haitian Party

Transportation has been very difficult this past week because of a national gas shortage. Since last Wednesday, gas has been very difficult to come by. Traffic, although now a bit lighter as more cars are off the road, comes to a standstill near gas stations as cars pile sit waiting in hope that gas will be distributed shortly (see below - sorry the picture is sideways but I couldn't figure out how to fix that). From what I have heard, gas is still the same price at the stations (about $3 USD/gallon), but people are selling gas on the street for as much as $9 USD/gallon.


I didn't see any fights break out but I heard if any gas was distributed, it was rationed in small amounts and you needed to push your way to get any (from my experience Haitians don't seem to like waiting in lines). A few times in the last few days my boss and I have walked to several Port-au-Prince gas stations carrying empty gasoline cans in hope of finding gas. This has meant that instead of being driven to work, my boss and I have taken either taxis or tap-taps to get to work. Several of the tap-taps we have taken are now charging double because of the gas shortage. Below is a picture of where I catch taxis - an intersection a 1/2 mile from my apartment called Kafou Ayewopo (in English, airport crossing). There is constantly a swarm of people sifting in and out of rusted out tap-taps and taxis to and from several different locations around Port-au-Prince. Some of the vehicles I've ridden in are so old I'm impressed they're still on the road. I've even seen a number of 1992 Toyota Previas (the first car I drove).

Supposedly the next tanker will not arrive in Port-au-Prince for another week, but I understand gas is a little easier to come by since yesterday. When asked by Haitians when the last time something like this happened in the United States, I can only think of the gas crises in the 1970s. Until now, gas has always been something I have taken for granted.

Yesterday I had a surprise visitor. My roomates knocked on my door to tell me Obama wanted to see me. Curious who my roomates wanted to introduce me to, I crawled out of bed to find my friend Martin and his girlfriend. Martin has translated for two groups I have been on and lives nearby Port-au-Prince. He had just returned from a week-long dental trip he translated for in the town I visited my first time in Haiti. After chatting for a bit I agreed to take a glance at his girlfriend's home. A Haitian engineer had already inspected the building but she was still living in a tent because she did not trust his word (this has been a common trend from my experience). After I walked through the building and did not find any critical problems, I told her I agreed with the other engineer. I could tell she was relieved. Engineers have made good progress on marking buildings (my building was marked as safe last week, don't worry), but it seems like the inspections are just carried out from the street, which limits their quality.

Last week there was a disconcerting radio report that predicted a 6-8 magnitude earthquake in the next couple weeks and informed all Haitians to sleep in tents until then. This caused my roomates, who were previously confident about the safety of our apartment, to start to worry that they should heed the advice. The report did not make sense to me becuase I don't think someone can be that confident there is going to be an earthquake and tell people to live outside when it is raining almost every night. I also cannot comprehend why this report was issued now of all times, over 3 months after the earthquake, and why in two weeks time it is suddenly safe to move inside again. I hope that the report does not give Haitians too much additional stress.

Yesterday was also my first Haitian party. My roomates, about 25 guests, and I celebrated my roomate Gertrude's birthday on the roof adjacent to our apartment. My roomates spenthours preparing for the party - ironing dresses, doing their hair, getting manicures, cooking, etc (see the above picture of me, Gertrude, and my boss, Getro who forgot to dress up, haha). There was plenty of food and beverages. The party, scheduled from 4-6 (I was curious why it was scheduled for only two hours), began two hours late and ended at 10PM. Even though we did not have electricity and gas was hard to come by, somehow we got hold of a generator and the dj's were able to play music for the duration of the party. Most of the music played is a Haitian style of music called Konpa. Several girls at the party put up with me and tried to teach me how to dance to it. I found out that Konpa originated as a modified version of salsa introduced by Cuban visitors years ago. It is much slower than salsa, and therefore a little easier to learn. As soon as I took my camera out, everyone and their mother was grabbing at my arm to have their picture taken, litterally. Luckily I had a spare camera battery as I quickly used up the first. Overall it was a fun experience.

I hope to be going out into the field in the next week. I have an inspection trip planned for the sister parish of a church in Lafayette, Indiana and will also be visiting Fonkoze clients in the north part of the country. Work has been challenging lately because we are trying to figure out how to reduce our high rates of delinquency since the earthquake. Our goal in visiting clients is to find out what is going on and how we can get more clients to resume loan payments. Hope things are good with everyone back home and that you all had nice weekends!