Ayitian Market

Before I launch into an update, let me link you to the apartment video that was missing from last week's post.
Apartment Link

I apologize for it's length, but it took me three tries and 50 minutes each try to get it up so I will leave it as is for now.

And now, the update:
Wow. This place is amazing. I'm sporting a full arm bruise from the volleyball game last night. The staff put on a volleyball game, and it was very fun. I only was on the winning team once, but hey! I took a few dives and I got a good workout so that's a win! The last week was spent in decorating my room, staff updates, information overload and a lot of learning. One of the things I am learning is that I do have many Eyore traits in me and I tend to write or speak about situations in a way that conveys more of the struggle than the triumphs. This week was somewhat hilarious because, since I've never been more excited or content or, well, competent feeling, my over compensation engines kicked into overdrive. I was pummeled with all sorts of strange inferiority complexes. Some so weird, I had to laugh out loud at them, but other were revived, unhealed wounds that I recognize as no longer being a truth I believe but still... I learned that it's not enough to grow out of some things, but you have to make sure the doors are closed to them at all times. Cryptic, yes? But some of those struggles are not helped by sharing, so I'm only (hah) asking for prayer.
Today I went to the outdoor market up the street. I rode a taptap, haggled a little and depended on my two guides very much.  I forgot to ask them if I could put their names up here, so I'll only describe them for you. They're both second generation haitian american citizens, who've chosen to make haiti their home. He runs a bee keeping business (and I've already got the first jar on my shelf. raw organic honey for roughly the same price as in Walmart. not bad) and she teaches 4th grade at QCS. They were incredibly generous in taking me with them on their bi-weekly shopping trip. Not only did it cut my eating costs substantially, it also meant I could buy fresh, organic produce so I could stabilize my diet!
I want to do the market justice, so I won't post about anything else.
Taptap's cost 10 gourdes (depending) and at 43 gourdes to a dollar, that's not bad.  They're essentially pick-up trucks with two benches in the back. there's a driver and a loader. the loader stands at the back and shouts to let people know they're loading. Taptap's have fixed routes, so on Delmas, if they're pointed up, they're going up and vice versa. They pack as many people in as they can and when you want to get off, you tap the drivers screen or call out 'Merci' if you're at the end, the message is conveyed for you.  it's about a 5 minute drive with no traffic and we walked another 5 minutes until we ducked into a wooden doorway. That lead to a steep hill, although I never saw much of the hill because it was crowded with people, wheelbarrows, merchandise, chickens and who knows what else. My guides were trying to find the entrance to the market as it had changed since their last visit. She had at first grabbed my hand an apologized for it, but after taking one look at the crowd, I grabbed hers and told here to 'lead on!'. The entrance to the market turned out to be three steps leading into what looked like a shanty town. There were rickety wooden stalls built up about two stories over our head and they were covered by tarps held up by ropes. There were all sorts of stalls but mainly produce. Flies were buzzing everywhere and people were packed in. It was not for the claustrophobic. The market sprawls out beyond the wooden structures into at least three concrete, steel covered bays and down into the streets beyond. You could hear the butcher section throughout the market. the rhythmic chopping sound was made as they chop through chicken or goat, bone and all, by pounding on it with a machete. My guides had a regular stall, but we couldn't find it, so we began to shop where we could. As soon as I had made my first purchase (get this, they work in haitian dollars, which is 5 gourdes, but the money is all in gourdes. So I'm converting U.S. dollars to gourdes to haitian dollars to even get an idea if what I'm paying is worth it or if I can afford it. All this in Kreyol which is close enough to French, but still a bit of a learning experience) the regular market lady shows up out of nowhere and gives my guides a bit of a hard time. They laughingly explain that they've been looking for her and that they haven't made any significant purchase anywhere else. We bought most of the produce at her stall and I got some fruit.
It took us about an hour, and I spent about 500 gourdes for everything. That's roughly 12 dollars for a week or more's worth of produce.  A success, by all means!
The ride back was made special by the lady's live chicken peering at me from her shopping basket. I feel adventurous enough to plan on a live chicken purchase one of these days.

I'm late for dinner so I will post this as is with all the run on sentences and grammar mistakes. I hope you'll forgive me!