THE DAY I SPENT IN HAITI
THE DAY I SPENT IN HAITI ~by Angela V. Woodhull, Ph.D.
Back in 1985, at the age of 35, I moved to the Dominican Republic and taught English in Santo Domingo, the capital, for one year. My friend, Sheila from Gainesville, came to visit me. We decided to go on an adventure. We drove in a Dominican rental car to the west to a border city called Jamani. We thought we would be able to cross the border and experience a day in Haiti, but Haitian border patrol said we could not bring a rental car from the D.R. into another country. We were allowed to cross in by foot once we parked the rental car at the border, using our American passports. Waiting there at the metal fence that divides the two countries were two young Haitian guys on motor scooters. They offered to take us across the country, via their scooters, for twenty pesos each. They said they would then drive us back. We were very trusting, and all was well. They were perfect gentlemen. No problem. But at one point, the guy whose scooter I was on stopped suddenly in the middle of the road. We were in a forested area. I wondered why he had suddenly stopped. And there, before us, was a bobcat. He started making sounds to attract the cat, “Psst. Psst. Pssst.” But the cat just stayed in place and did not come forward. We were using Spanish to communicate. The Haitian man then said to me, “El gato es bueno carne.” Which means, “The cat is good meat.” I will never forget that moment. https://www.yahoo.com/news/jd-vance-spreads-racist-rumor-193821951.html
When we reached Port-Au-Prince, it was raining. It rained all day. We walked around in the drizzling rain. There were children so poor, they were naked. They were playing in the crowded streets while their parents, in tents, sold soft drinks and snacks to the passersby. The naked children were using twigs to play a game. They would pick up trash from the street and stick it on the end of the twig, then put the trash item in the running rain water and race to see whose piece of trash would go down the stream the fastest. I will never forget this day in Haiti. The two motor scooter young guys were perfect gentlemen. They returned us to the border and we drove back to Santo Domingo in the rental car to my Dominican apartment.
