Trip to Cap

We spend the majority of our time at the birth center, especially since we are without a car right now so yesterday all of the girls living here decided to make a getaway.  Originally Sean was invited but he decided to stay home and fix his computer.  The mission was to acquire junk food and fabric to make skirts and maybe have lunch in Cap-Haitien.  It would have been a day JUST for the girls except we decided to bring Santo to help us translate and for some protection from the guaranteed cat calls you will get if a group of ladies are out on their own in Haiti.  We walked across the street to the tap-tap station and miraculously were able to fit all seven of us (Edie, Ashlin, Zeenia, Charles Marie, Rida, Santo & me) in the same tap-tap.  For those of you who don't know, a tap-tap is the main form of transportation in Haiti.  This picture gives you an idea of what it's like to drive around Cap and a tap-tap is pictured to the right.

A tap-tap is made from a small pickup truck with a cover on the back, some benches are installed for people to sit down and usually very loud and chaotic music is blaring.  Standing on the back of the tap-tap (as in this picture) is the manager who is responsible for tapping on the side of the vehicle to tell the driver when to stop and start. He also collects 10 goudes (about 25 cents) each way from each person who wants a ride.  Since this is usually the only source of income for both the driver and the manager, they try to cram as many people into the tap-tap as possible.  For example yesterday our tap-tap had 24 people at one time riding along (4 in the front seat, 4 standing on the back bumper and 16 in the bed of the truck).  Once the benches are crammed to the max with 7-8 people on each one, people stand in the middle sort of bent in half resting their hands on people's knees or they will just sit on the laps of those seated on the bench.  It's quite an experience especially with the loud music and the lack of deodorant that's a noticeable scent in the air.  After about 45 minutes we finally arrived at our destination in Cap and decided to head for the market.  After about a 20 minute walk and a couple of close calls with a motorcycle and a car (the rule in Haiti is the bigger your vehicle the more right-of-way you have with pedestrians being at the absolute bottom of the barrel) we arrived at the Americanized market where I bought a few munchies for Sean, myself and our Haitian staff to enjoy with some birthday money I had been given.  I felt like a 12 year old spending my birthday money on treats but this is the first time we've really indulged since being in Haiti and it felt good to know I didn't have to feel guilty since I eat a pretty clean diet here.  Edie one of our midwives was thrilled to get her two-liter of diet coke even though we keep trying to convince her that she will do much better on water.

After filling our backpacks and arms with as many treats as we could hold, we headed for the restaurant (one of 3 or 4 in Cap that's safe for American tummies) for lunch.  I was SO excited to find that this restaurant sells "Bon" ice cream which is a treat we enjoyed when we were in the Dominican Republic!  This is the first time we've seen ice cream in Haiti so we'll have to remember it for future reference.  The sign outside said one of their specials was a lobster salad and being right across from the ocean, Zeenia and I knew we had to give it a try.  We were also craving hamburgers and french fries so we decided to split both with pineapple juice to top it off.  At one point our waitress even brought out french baguettes with REAL butter, not the margarine we have to use at the birth center due to no available refrigeration.  This restaurant is a nice little diamond-in-the-rough from the absolutely insanity that is Cap-Haitien.  It's an outdoor restaurant owned by a French woman, the food is delicious, the service is great and at night they have live music and dancing.  We often see other aid workers from MSF and the UN there.  If all is quiet you can hear parrots and other creatures in the trees and like yesterday, there are often white caps out on the ocean to watch.  I think this will be one of our getaway spots when we need to have some time away.

After lunch it looked like it might rain so we decided to put the fabric shopping off for another day and to find a taxi home.  We found two for a decent price and piled in.  Ours was a relatively calm ride, but Edie reported that she had to close her eyes and pray because apparently their driver took great pleasure in freaking her out with near-collisions.  We had such a great time and now feel recharged to continue our work.