My first walk alone, by Mayte Vizcaino<\/p>\n
December 9, 2012<\/p>\n
Today I have my first walk alone in Haiti. I left home to go to the city center, and in that half-hour ride I liked to greet people, give each other the way, to see them closer than from the glass of the window of a car …. Dodge the trash, sewage smell, pay attention to avoid falling into the ditches that line the street sometimes …. But this is Haiti, and this is what I want to know. I go into few small shops and ask several things with the excuse to talk to women and girls who often attend the little shops. They are curious due to its variety and at the same time poorly-stocked they are: two types of cookies, spaghetti, some soap, local dust if not condiments, cleaning or Santeria, and other little things that I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Getting to the center I seek a place to eat and I go for a 3x1m terracilla of where a couple of tables, a room with two tables and a bar. A lady comes to me and I ask what I can eat. She offer letter. After several denials to my requests, I accept some fried eggs with toast that she offers me. There is football on TV. Around my legs many mosquitoes. They face Barcelona and Betis in a league match. After a while, comes a man who changes the channel … to get the same game retransmitted in Spanish. I appreciate the detail. He sits to see the match. Many mosquitoes bite me.<\/p>\n
It takes half an hour before the lady bring me a plate with at least two eggs scrambled with onions, and some lettuce and tomato, a basket of toasted bread and a little butter. Accompany the meal with a pitcher of water … I doubt its origin but I don\u2019t want to despise so just drink two or three drinks. I imagine that is filtered or treated but cases of cholera are common here and I don\u2019t want to gamble …. I finish eggs and almost all the bread buttered. I ask for the bill, I pay, greet and leave.<\/p>\n
The mototaxi overtake me and I don\u2019t get their service …. I doubt if all those do …. I walk through the supermarket and entered … I bought a carton of chocolate milk. I go out, I open one, my first \u00abglass of milk\u00bb this week, and while I enjoy it, I stop a motorcycle. Before agreed the price we move towards rue Labidou. We chatted, on the price first, on the country shortly after. \u00abThe president said he would do many things, but at \u00a0the end nothing new: he does nothing\u00bb.<\/p>\n
He offers me his phone number in case I need it, he is called Joseph Volcef, we say goodbye \u00abto the next\u00bb. A young woman called the taxi and I call Volcef by name. He smiles and says he has been lucky. I enter my house, before nightfall.Mi primer paseo sola en Haiti, por Mayte Vizcaino<\/p>\n
09 Diciembre 2012<\/p>\n
Hoy he dado mi primer paseo sola. Sal\u00ed de casa rumbo al centro, y en ese trayecto de media hora me gusto saludar a la gente, cedernos el paso, que me vieran a pie, verlos m\u00e1s cerca que desde el cristal de la ventana de un coche\u2026. Esquivar la basura, oler las aguas sucias, poner atenci\u00f3n para no caer en las zanjas que a veces bordean la calle\u2026. Pero esto es Hait\u00ed, y esto quiero conocer. Entro en tiendas peque\u00f1as y pregunto varias cosas con la excusa de hablar con las mujeres o ni\u00f1as que casi siempre atienden las tiendecillas. Son curiosas por lo variadas y a la vez poco surtidas que est\u00e1n\u2026 dos tipos de galletas, una o dos marcas de espaguetis, alg\u00fan jab\u00f3n, polvos locales que no se si son condimentos, productos de limpieza o de santer\u00eda, y otras peque\u00f1as cosas que yo he llegado a saber que son.<\/p>\n
Llegando al centro busco un lugar donde comer y entro por una terracilla de 3x1m donde hay un par de mesas, a\u00a0 una habitaci\u00f3n con otras dos mesas y una barra. Se me acerca una se\u00f1ora y le pregunto qu\u00e9 se puede comer. Me ofrece la carta. Tras varias negaciones a mis peticiones, acepto unos huevos al plato con pan tostado que me ofrece. En la tele hay futbol. Alrededor de mis piernas muchos mosquitos. Se enfrentan Barcelona y Betis en un partido de liga. Despu\u00e9s de un rato, entra un se\u00f1or que cambia de canal…para ponerme el mismo partido retrasmitido en espa\u00f1ol. Le agradezco el detalle. Y se sienta a verlo. Me pican muchos mosquitos.<\/p>\n
Pasa m\u00e1s de media hora antes de que la se\u00f1ora ponga delante de m\u00ed un plato con al menos dos huevos revueltos, con cebollita, y un poco de lechuga y tomate, una cesta con pan de molde tostado y un poco de mantequilla. Acompa\u00f1a la comida con una jarra de agua\u2026 Dudo de su procedencia pero me sabe mal despreciarla as\u00ed que solo bebo dos o tres tragos. Imagino que es filtrada o tratada pero los casos del c\u00f3lera aqu\u00ed son frecuentes y no quiero jug\u00e1rmela\u2026. Termino los huevos y casi todo el pan que unto con mantequilla. Pido la cuenta, pago, saludo y me voy.<\/p>\n
Las mototaxi me adelantan si ofrecerme su servicio\u2026. Dudo de si todas los son\u2026. Paso por el supermercado al que ya hab\u00eda venido con las dos Martas y entro\u2026 Me compro un par de tetrabriks medianos de batido de chocolate. Salgo, abro uno, mi primer \u201cvaso de leche\u201d esta semana, y mientras lo disfruto, paro una moto. Sin terminar de acordar el precio avanzamos en direcci\u00f3n rue Labidou. Charlamos, sobre el precio primero, sobre el pa\u00eds un poco despu\u00e9s. \u201dEste presidente dijo que har\u00eda muchas cosas pero al final es como todos, no hace nada\u201d.<\/p>\n
Me ofrece su tel\u00e9fono por si lo necesito, se llama Joseph Volcef; nos despedimos \u201chasta la pr\u00f3xima\u201d. Una mujer joven llama al taxi y yo llamo a Volcef por su nombre. Sonr\u00ede y me dice que ha tenido suerte. Entro en mi casa, antes de anochecer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My first walk alone, by Mayte Vizcaino December 9, 2012 Today I have my first walk alone in Haiti. I left home to go to the city center, and in that half-hour ride I liked to greet people, give each other the way, to see them closer than from the glass of the window of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[18,17,19],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haiti","tag-city-center","tag-city-life","tag-jacmel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n