Blanc

Yesterday, as we walked through the streets of Petit Riviere, we evoked quite a…reaction I guess. Many of the people have seen Americans, or French people. Generally one or two grown ups at most. As you can imagine we were quite a scene. All eight of us parading through town, taking pictures, trying to recognize Kreyol words. The oddest thing about us was that four of us were very young. We were perhaps the only white kids any of the Haitians had ever seen. There were the constant comments: “Gade Blanc! Blanc!” (“Look Foreigner! White!”). Some kids dared each other to touch us then ran away laughing. As if we weren’t already a sight, Mrs. Scherlis decided to buy a Ra Ra horn (It is a large horn made out of metal that they play during holidays and such). After some negotiating, we thought we did pretty well with getting the price to be reasonable (of course, this price was twice what any reasonable Haitian would pay). The huge crowd that had accumulated to watch us now prompted Mrs. Scherlis to play the horn. Her attempt was not exactly successful and the people thought that was hilarious. They roared with laughter to see the white girl trying to play the horn. Only then did a boy ask to play it. He of course was not only able to make a sound but a good rhythm, and a kind of tune. He was nine. At first this sort of attention was weird for us. Sometimes I knew I was being laughed at, but it was never in a mean way. The Haitians were just curious, they thought we were very interesting. I guess I am a little used to it now, but that’s not exactly true. Many people have told me that you can’t be self-conscious, you have to keep your head up and pretend you don’t care. The occasional comments such as “Hey baby, hi white girl,” everyone just ignores. The Haitians are overall, very good humored and polite. I never feel scared by them. Today we will get to see even more of Haitian life as we walk through Verettes. Now that I understand what they see when they look at me, I guess it will be easier for me not to be shaken by it. But really, it just takes getting used to.