More Haiti "Facts" - Our Observations of the Quirkiness

Before we provided some factual information about Haiti to all of you and I am sure that we could add to that list, as many of you are wondering what it would be like to just see for a day what we see.  Here's some peculiar and maybe bizarre occurrences that we tend to observe on a daily basis.  Some are funny and some just cause us to shake our heads...

1) It is ALWAYS noisy here.  The kids start arriving at 6:30 and they are very active and loud.  At least the Pre-Kindergarten kids have stopped crying when they get dropped off.  Classrooms are noisy and there are no window panes so the sounds of 15 classrooms hums together in a great symphony of chatter and song.

Church services and choir practices commence as early as 6am and end as late as 12pm.  The sound systems here would have a better chance of deafening the listener than enhancing their listening experience but they like it to be LOUD!  During dinner time once in a while, you have to raise your voice substantially to have a conversation across the table.

I kid you not, someone at the church next door was performing a microphone check at 3:15 in the morning.  Ugh.

2) Roosters crow from 12am to 6am, usually about the same time as dogs start barking and terrorizing each other.  Often, we'll hear one dog yelping like it was being attacked, which sets off the other animals for hours on end.  Thank goodness for earplugs, fans and familiarity.

3) Creole does not include a lot of 'r' or 'l' words.  When most people try to pronounce these consonants it sounds like an 'r' is an 'l' or 'w'.  This makes word pronunciation very challenging!  The one that bugs me the most is "four" - "fwa".  But we're working on it :)

4) Adjectives are scarce.  Synonyms are even more so non-existent.  There is usually 1 word for an object or action and that's it!  Wash means mop, clean, sweep, scrub...

5) Everyone has a cell phone but all the service is pay-as-you-go.  They are constantly talking and it doesn't seem they ever have enough minutes, always running out and having to buy more.

6) Girls like guys who speak French.  This is a very desirable quality for a man to possess, because it means you are educated.

7) If there is an open road, a Haitian will drive as fast as mechanically possible.  We travelled the one nice highway here in the back of a tap-tap and you would've thought our driver had been given a Ferrari for the day.  We haven't driven with him since, and we're ok with that.

8) Roads are all 2 way.  There are 2, 3 or 4 lanes, based on driver's discretion, with no formal yellow markings.  Motorcycles slip through tiny cracks between opposing vehicles, so that actually makes 5 lanes.

9) If little kids don't speak a lick of English, they all can shout "Hey you!"  You = white person

There is no 10th fact, that would be too conventional :)