1st surprise- Just down the road from Gabby's house, we all had our first break into showbiz, especially Melody. A Haitian comedian was filming a commercial for our bus-line while we were on it! It only took about 20-30 minutes, basically he climbed on and tried to cram next to Melody and another woman (because most Haitian transit is really cramped, like the tap taps). The woman points out that he can comfortably sit in his own seat across the aisle, and BOOM! add for comfortable rides in Haiti. So if any of you are watching commercials in Haiti soon...prepare to see some familiar faces.
2nd surprise- After a few hours on the road, around 10:30 or maybe 11, we stopped at a gas station for a quick break and to fix our bus (something was overheating). Well, since that took longer than we expected, we stopped at the convenience store, where some of us bought some waters and genuine real AMERICAN food (doritos!) Aside from the shocking prices on certain items, we were shocked by how incredibly clean these bathrooms were...not going into more detail but i'm pretty sure everybody was happy about that one. We hit the road once more until...
3rd surprise-So as it turns out, we weren't really "fixed". We stopped again, and continued to stop every 2 miles or so, 'cause we were leaking coolant and had to keep putting in water. Needless to say, that slowed us down a bit. But instead of focusing on a negative, think about this: every time we stopped they made sure we were comfortable before they even worried about looking under the hood. Steve, who as far as I know wasn't associated with the bus company, hopped out every time to do all he could to speed up our trip. Every Haitian we've met so far has been unbelievably helpful and hospitable. More to come on that in a few. Finally, after a while, we stopped to "really fix" the bus again, and while a bunch of people were working on that, we stopped off at a pretty nice restaurant for some lunch and to cool off.
As long as I could possibly make this story, the point is when we finally took off again, the bus STILL wasn't exactly perfect. We drove for a while, and as it got darker we realized there was no way we would possibly make it to Port-au-Prince in time. So Gabby and her friend (who I met at lunch through my "wonderful" skills with French) made some calls, and as it turns out, found us a place to stay at the Partners in Health (PIH) compound. They were wonderful, they took us in last minute, gave us a safe place to stay, and several doctors and nurses gave us their beds. We really stressed to them how much we didn't want to take beds from doctors and nurses, they are doing wonderful things down here, but they were insistent (Seriously...Haitians are some of the nicest and most welcoming people I've ever met). Anyway, we woke up early, hit the road I think around 5:50, and made our way to Port-Au-Prince on Sunday morning. Needless to say, I'm posting this a little after the fact. But I'll leave the next part of the story up to Nick, he's got a lot to tell.
'Till next time,
Brian P.
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