Six girls wandering around the outskirts of Gonaives with tents is apparently a confusing thing for the local population to see. We decided it would be a fun (and ridiculous) idea to go camping for a night near a lake on the outskirts of town.
As we walked, we amassed a small following of people who were trying very hard to grasp the concept that we wanted to go sleep in the middle of nowhere. Eventually one guy, Charles, caught on and led us to a field caked in cow poo. People came out of the woodwork to see what the crazy blan were doing and we eventually had amassed a crowd of about 50 people, all staring at us as if we were from another planet. I think I can safely say that their community has never been descended on by white women wielding tents before and we were their entertainment for a good few hours.
Since we accidentally set up our tents in the middle of the village’s football field, we figured we should entertain the children for awhile. We played with the kids and chatted a bit with the crowd before retreating to our tent to eat tuna sandwiches and drink wine. As it got dark the crowds dispersed and we made a fire out of twigs and coals and sat around it chatting and probably getting gassed.
Charles stopped by to check on us in the morning which was really nice of him except that he did it at 5am just as we’d all finally managed to fall asleep. The whole experience was pretty ridiculous and it’s not a trip I’m going to forget anytime soon.
Leave a Reply