This past Thursday night JanJan, Guerda, and Jhony (Limye Lavi people) picked Courtney and I up in Dabon and we all headed to Jakmel. Arriving around 9:30 pm Courtney and I headed straight to bed. Friday we both went into the Limye Lavi office to sit in on and participate in a SASA! (program on violence against women and girls, prevention of HIV/AIDS) seminar being held with and for the Manbo and Ougan (Vodou priestess and priests) who are in the surrounding communities. Interesting as always, but..thats not what this entry is about this time.
Knowing that somewhere in Jakmel there is icecream, Courtney and I were determined to find some. Guerda told us that down the street from the office we'll find some. After the seminar, off we went. We walked in the restaurant, ordered two 8 oz. icecreams, paid, and went to pick out our flavors. Excited doesn't even begin to describe what we were feeling. Finding real icecream in Haiti is no easy task, my friends. We arrived at the golden, glowing case of icecream...only to find out that there was only pistachio and chocolate. Of course, me wanting to try something new and not be boring says, "Oh, Courtney, chocolate is so boring...lets go for the pistachio." Courtney, being the calm, go with the flow woman that she is says, "Oh, alright, it can't be that bad..." Little did we know...
After a friendly conversation with the women at the counter, we took our radioactive green pistachio icecream to the table and sat down. We opened it up, dug our spoons in, put them in our mouths and almost immediately spit the icecream back out. Our faces contorted, and watching each other we both broke out laughing. It was the strangest, most chemically tasking thing i have ever ingested. Quickly, we both decided we could not eat it. So we devised a plan to walk out, acting as if we were going to finish it outside, but really throw it out in the trash can I just knew would be outside. As we were walking out one of the women says, "Sa nou genyen, nou pa renmen creme nan? Whats wrong, you don't like the icecream?" "O, non non, n ap bwe lie deyo, mesi! Oh, no no, we're going to eat it outside, thanks!" was my reply.
We got outside, realized there actually were no trashcans (surprise surprise), and we didn't want to just toss it on the street. Looking around desperately I suddenly see a boy of about 10 running toward me yelling, "BAN MWEN SA, BAN MWEN SA! GIVE ME THAT, GIVE ME THAT!" As if he knew we were trying to get rid of it. I responded saying, "Ti gason, w met pran tout! Little boy, you can take it all!" and dumped it into his eager hands. The next thing we know another boy is running toward Courtney yelling the same thing. She responded saying, "Men, pran non, nou pa renmen! Here, take it, we don't like it!" We hopped on a motorcycle, looked back at the gleeful boys and laughed hysterically. It couldn't have been more perfect...except that our void for icecream was not filled.
The next day we went into the market, haggled prices for scallions, carrots, peppers, etc. to make dinner...and still wanted icecream. However, both of us were feeling lazy and didn't feel like going out to look for any...the day went on, no icecream.
Now we come to Sunday. Breakfast made, showers taken, we're ready for the day...and to eat icecream. As the day goes on, the clouds get heavier. Plans to go to the beach with 2 SASA! people, Petit Frere and Daphney were cancelled due to clouds and a cold. Our spirits were still hopeful: we'll just go out later and get icecream! Well, later came, and so did the rain. I decided to text Vikings, another Limye Lavi person, to ask if he knew of anywhere close to us that was open on Sundays and had iceream. To our surprise he texted back saying, "Its raining now, but when it stops I'll come back and pick you both up to go buy some" (but in kreyol, of course...). Well, that just about sent us jumping for joy. Except that 20 minutes turned into about an hour and a half of non-stop rain. I noticed Courtney had been gone for about 20 minutes, and when she came out I asked what she was doing. "Making icecream." "...with that?" "Well...we've got a chocolate bar, sugar, and milk." Laughing at our desperation, I decided to go ahead and make some too, and even add our left over coffee. Before Courtney had taken the reigns to become the next Ben and/or Jerry, I had texted Vikings saying "the rains never going to stop!" (secretly hoping he would have some sort of solution) In the midst of our icecream making, Vikings texted me back saying, "I see that. When it stops raining I'll just have to buy some and bring it to you." I think I actually fell and rolled around the floor in pure joy.
Well, our "icecream" freezing in the freezer, and the rain pouring down...we figured there wasn't much chance of us actually getting our so desired icecream. Until, my phone rings, I pick it up--its Vikings. He says, "Sarah, I'm out front...come downstairs and grab the icecream." Dressed in my frumpy, I-don't-feel-like-doing-anything clothes, Courtney ran down to grab the goods. She ran upstairs, we sat down on the floor right where we had been standing, dug into the bag and found two 16 oz. containers-chocolate and rum raisin. The rum raisin mysteriously tasted just like the pistachio so we put that aside. Sitting on the floor, laughing hysterically at our ridiculous escapades, we quickly devoured the long awaited icecream.
Its the little things that give us joy here, so thanks Vikings, and thanks Haiti for always keeping us laughing despite it all. Go over to Courtney's blog to get her perspective on our search for icecream.
http://1yearinhaiti.blog.com/2011/10/10/ice-cream-expotition
Until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment