I'm white. Pale white. Pasty pale white. So, as you can imagine, I stand out here in Haiti -- even in Port-au-Prince which is overrun with (often white) development workers, the UN, and missionaries. I do what I can to try to not draw attention to myself, but it makes little difference. Though I generally find the attention annoying at best, it does lead to a few humorous instances. For instance...
Brush #1 with fame:
Up at the top of my street is a gas station. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights hundreds of men (and a few brave women) gather 'round the ol' gas station, the crowd spilling out into the streets. Why? My best guess is it's the one place in the neighborhood that has reliable electricity. And because there is a live DJ. That's right, the gas station becomes a club.
A couple of weeks ago, a few of my fellow MCCers came over to my house to watch a movie. Kurt & I walked up to the convenient store inside the gas station to buy some snacks. As we pushed our way to the front of the crowd, the DJ stopped mid sentence and cried out (over the loud speaker, mind you) "BLAAAN!" (translation: white people) And he kept going: "Hey, there are white people here!" "Everyone, look at the white people!" "Hey, my white friends!" And so on. I smiled and waved at the DJ and pushed my way inside the store as fast as possible. Of course, he was kind enough to point us out to the entire crowd on our way out as well. I decided that chips during a movie are not worth the celebrity.
Brush #2 with fame:
Though I am a spectacle in the countryside, it's not quite so bad in Port. Like I mentioned, there are a good number of foreigners, so the attention is spread amongst us all. And foreigners don't stare at other foreigners. Or so I thought.
The other day, I was riding on the back of a tap-tap up to the MCC office. Traffic was particularly bad, to the point that most of the drivers put their cars in park and turned off the engines. As I was looking around at the other cars, I noticed an SUV for a well-known international organization not far behind us that had 4 or so "blan" inside. They were all staring at me. I figured maybe they had just noticed me and were commenting on the fact that not many foreigners take tap-taps. But each time I glanced at the passengers (throughout the next half-hour of traffic), same story: they were all staring at me.
So, it's not enough that rural Haitians stare at me, but now other "blan" do as well. Great.
Brush #3 with fame:
Not really a brush with fame (that is, even less so than the above stories), but I know you're all wondering how I spent Canadian Thanksgiving last month. Here you go: http://100milediet.org/2007-canadian-thanksgiving-in-haiti
-L
Up at the top of my street is a gas station. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights hundreds of men (and a few brave women) gather 'round the ol' gas station, the crowd spilling out into the streets. Why? My best guess is it's the one place in the neighborhood that has reliable electricity. And because there is a live DJ. That's right, the gas station becomes a club.
A couple of weeks ago, a few of my fellow MCCers came over to my house to watch a movie. Kurt & I walked up to the convenient store inside the gas station to buy some snacks. As we pushed our way to the front of the crowd, the DJ stopped mid sentence and cried out (over the loud speaker, mind you) "BLAAAN!" (translation: white people) And he kept going: "Hey, there are white people here!" "Everyone, look at the white people!" "Hey, my white friends!" And so on. I smiled and waved at the DJ and pushed my way inside the store as fast as possible. Of course, he was kind enough to point us out to the entire crowd on our way out as well. I decided that chips during a movie are not worth the celebrity.
Brush #2 with fame:
Though I am a spectacle in the countryside, it's not quite so bad in Port. Like I mentioned, there are a good number of foreigners, so the attention is spread amongst us all. And foreigners don't stare at other foreigners. Or so I thought.
The other day, I was riding on the back of a tap-tap up to the MCC office. Traffic was particularly bad, to the point that most of the drivers put their cars in park and turned off the engines. As I was looking around at the other cars, I noticed an SUV for a well-known international organization not far behind us that had 4 or so "blan" inside. They were all staring at me. I figured maybe they had just noticed me and were commenting on the fact that not many foreigners take tap-taps. But each time I glanced at the passengers (throughout the next half-hour of traffic), same story: they were all staring at me.
So, it's not enough that rural Haitians stare at me, but now other "blan" do as well. Great.
Brush #3 with fame:
Not really a brush with fame (that is, even less so than the above stories), but I know you're all wondering how I spent Canadian Thanksgiving last month. Here you go: http://100milediet.org/2007-canadian-thanksgiving-in-haiti
-L
2 comments:
Be thankful, it's good to be noticed.
Dad
I feel privileged just to be acquainted with such a famous individual.
Can you please mail me your autograph?
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