Back when I arrived in early November it seemed like everyone was living in fear a bit. The streets were covered in mud, there was no power in the city, no businesses were open and the only place to get a somewhat cold beer was an enterprising guy with a cooler who will forever be known as Cooler Man. With a serious shortage in places to hang out at night and some intimidating warnings about Haiti’s safety hanging over our heads, we all tended to grab a couple of beers each night and retreat to our balcony. This usually ended in everyone getting wasted and being told to be quiet after 10pm then retreating to far off corners of the yard to continue the festivities.
One of the happiest moments of the deployment for me, and this is embarrassing to admit, was when a friend came back to base with the most deicious egg sandwich of all time. I’m not a big fan of the food here so the discovery of this 75 cent sandwich of the Gods was a life saver that everyone was soon addicted to. As an added bonus Egg Sandwich Lady (as she came to be known) is right across the street from us and also sells beer and pop. So Cooler Man was out and Egg Sandwich Lady was in due to food and being closer. We are so fickle.
At this point businesses seemed to be opening up again and many of us had been in Gonaives long enough to realise that it’s not the scary place it first seemed. The locals are friendly and we had all made Haitian friends and hanging out with them after work meant that we needed to find a real live bar. Enter Speakerman. His beer price was two for 50 gourde which was cheaper than everywhere else. Plus he had real tables, a fridge instead of a cooler so the drinks were actually cold, and he even had a sound system, hence the name. Speakerman soon became our local pub which was funny considering it consisted of some patio furniture on the side of a busy, dusty road with trucks barrelling down it at high speeds a few meters away. But traffic calms down after dark and that’s when the dancing in the streets begins to the ‘Beep Bop’ song which will forever remind me of Haiti. It has no words, just ‘beep bop beep beep bop bop’ over and over again and then the actual song is played over and over again – I think seven times straight is the record. How much I’ve had to drink has a direct effect on whether I want to shoot myself or dance along.
One night while at Speakerman for a few people’s leaving drinks, a huge UN vehicle full of Argentinian soldiers drove past us. They came back down the same road at about 1am and this time they stopped. Of course we were on their truck within minutes, wearing their hats, and drunkenly holding their guns. Did I mention I love Haiti?
We spend most of our nights at Speakerman but decided to venture out one night to a place called ‘Hotel Delux’. It involved a trek in the dark down scary alleys and over a trash pile. On arrival, the music was super loud, our local volunteers were practically molesting a willing girl on the dancefloor, the beer was expensive, and the place was mostly empy except for us. We were wondering why we ever ventured away from our beloved Speakerman and decided after a couple of drinks to leave. One of the other volunteers had bought a beer at Egg Sandwich Lady and was trying to bring the empty back but the doorman wouldn’t let her leave with it. Another volunteer reached through the door from the outside, grabbed the bottle and bolted. The door guy slammed shut the iron gate and suddenly three blan (foreigners) were trapped inside and three were outside. Some local volunteers came to our rescue after about 10 minutes of arguing and we decided that venturing off to unknown bars might not be the best idea. It was an entertaining end to an otherwise boring night though.
Gonaives will never be on anyone’s must see list for cities to party in but we’re doing alright here! It’s amazing how fun patio furniture on the side of the road with an overly loud sound system playing the same song over and over can be when you’re surrounded by the right people. I’ve had a blast here so far and, while partying wasn’t on my list of things to do here, I’ve had my fair share of crazy nights and fuzzy memories that I hope I’ll never forget.
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