Help... Anyone?

I have been in Bayonnais almost two complete months and I continue to be baffled by the nuances of quotidian Haitian life. Yesterday evening, I asked my roommate where I could purchase a soda because I wanted to indulge in something other than bottled water. Jacques Elie told me that he was busy and that he would show me tomorrow, a response that I accepted, until he arrived at the office a few minutes later presenting me with a Nalgene bottle full of Coke. While this may appear to be a considerate gesture on the part of Jacques Elie, it does not solve the greater question: Where can I buy a Coke? I watch the school bus unload cases of Fanta, Sprite, and Coca-Cola everyday and I know that the dealer cannot be far. Yet the Haitians would rather keep me on my toes by not divulging the location of the mysterious soda vendor.

The confusion does not stop with procurement either. Despite the modest amount of Creole I have learned (“Morgan hungry”, “Morgan sleepy”, etc.) and the extensive amount of English taught in the afternoons and evenings, there is still a formidable language barrier. The Creole expression for “What are you doing?” is “Kisa wap fe?” and the answer, unlike the English “nothing” is “anye” (anything). Too often, the students will reply to me that at 5:00, they will be “anywhere… doing anything”. Thank you for your clarity. There also seems to be some misunderstanding with affirmation and negation. One of the student’s sponsorship forms reads, under the title of “favorite activities”: “I like to jump rope neither at home nor at the school.” Either this child has difficulty with “either” and “neither” or he wants to make it absolutely clear that he does not want jumping rope to be a stipulation for his sponsorship.

Real men jump rope.