When we want chicken for dinner we simply go to the store and pick up a fresh or frozen chicken. Plucked, cleaned and without giblets. Ready to cook and eat. In Haiti you buy a live chicken off the street and prepare it yourself! Hands up who thinks I'd survive in Haiti!?!?! We saw so many people with live chickens or turkeys hanging from their heads or being held upside down from their legs. We saw chickens being carried about on motorcycles and vehicles all over the place. Chicken for dinner?
Transport down there was very different too. Most people use public transport called Tap Taps which are colourfully painted trucks, buses, or pick ups. People just wave them down and jump on board. There doesn't seem to be any road rules down there and everyone honks to let others know that they are about to pass them. On many occasions one would have thought we were going to have a head on collision with the on coming vehicle!!! They zip in and out all over the place, on the road, off the road, on the shoulders, and the other side of the road and if you think that's bad we drove through the dried up river bed which was the bumpiest, off road drive I've ever been on and in my church clothes! So if you thought that the Illinois roads were bad you ought to see the roads in Haiti! You could barely drive a mile without having to slow to almost a stop to go over a bunch of potholes. They are creative down there too. Not only do they fill up the Tap Taps 'til they are overflowing with people they fill up the motorcycles too. The most I saw on one motorcycle was a whopping FIVE!!! Two adults and three kiddos. And all without helmets.
I realize that as I write these posts I'm saying "Haiti" in general. Please know that we only went to one part of Haiti and I have no idea what it's like outside of the area we were in. We were in Croix-des-Bouquet which is very close to the capital city, Port-au-Prince.
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