Day 67

Amy and Lane rented a car to go to Santiago and pick up her sister Linda. Benjamin and I hung out, played at the pier beach, and had dinner. Katie came by in the morning to ask me, since she had relatives coming in later that day and she needed something to do because this was requiring her to stay awake much later than she was used to, if I wanted to watch “The Comedians,” - the film version of the Graham Greene book starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – while we waited for guests. During this Paul would be sitting watch at Gri-gri’s, since they would be driving into town and Gri-gri’s is the best vantage point for seeing and being seen. This constitutes a late night for both Katie and Paul, who like to be in by 8. Benjamin and I had been playing together all day, going to the pier beach and reading and having dinner. Katie came by with the movie, which we started watching, Benjamin falling asleep on my lap. Oh, and I had our Maine cell phone for emergencies, in case Amy needed to reach me.

That day a storm had hit the east coast of the U.S., with flooding in the south and mid-Atlantic states and a nor’easter in the New England states. Airports in Boston and New York, from which our guests were flying, were closed. While we were watching the movie, Mel came by, from his post accompanying Paul in the Gri-gri guest watch. He told me Amy had called Paul (something wasn’t working with our cellphone here) to tell him Linda’s flight that night had been cancelled, and she didn’t know when they’d be coming in – on the Jet Blue flight the same time the next night, or on another flight in the morning. If she came on the Jet Blue flight, that would mean Amy and Lane would stay another day in Santiago.

We continued with the movie, and were joined by Julie, a woman from San Francisco who Katie had met in town, who had actually been in the Peace Corps in Africa, in the same country they filmed “The Comedians” in (The Duvaliers – Papa Doc at the time, had been insulted by the book, and filming in Haiti was not a possibility – it was later rumored that anyone traveling to the country with the book on them was detained).

Another hour later Mel returned – Linda had found another flight in the morning, and they would arrive tomorrow afternoon. There was still no sign of Katie’s sister and husband, who were supposed to arrive around 9. We watched the rest of the movie and Katie and Julie left, Julie first telling me about San Francisco’s recent ban of plastic bags, a project she works on for the department of recycling.

The next morning I learned that Paul had stayed at Gri-gri’s until midnight, with no guests arriving. He went home and called them, to leave a message on their machine about how to contact him, only to wake them at home. They weren’t scheduled to arrive until Thursday, 4 days later.

I was in Fernes internet café – actually an internet bunker. They advertise “Flash” service – I have no idea what this means other than possibly being local terminology for hi-speed. Anyways, Adji was at the computer next to me. (I’m not really at a computer, but taking up a chair while working on my laptop.) Adji runs a tour service in town. My friends Bobbie and Kurt took a tour of the peninsula with him, and we took a boat tour of Los Parques Nationales Haitises with him. He seems decent enough although, like most entrepreneurs here, you have to keep track of what he tells you, as his prices raise from one sentence to the next. On tours, he’s bright and personable- he speaks almost every European language that we’ve encountered here.

Adji turned to me and said “Sir, can you help me?” This is a bone of contention with me, as I’ve told Adji my name numerous times and asked him not to call me ‘sir.’ He said he was having trouble with a web page – he couldn’t open some PDF files that he was trying to read. The secondhand computers at Fernes’ store don’t have a PDF reader on them, so he asked me what to do. They were forms from the Pakistani embassy page. Adji told me he had been ripped off the night before – I believe he lives in the same whorehouse / hotel as Thomas – and they took everything, including his paperwork. So Adji was looking for the replacement forms. Since he couldn’t get them on Fernes’ system, I told him I could download the forms onto my computer and put them on a disk for him, which would take me all of 5 minutes. I did this, and gave him the disk, which made him very happy.

Now here’s my question I don’t really know Adji that well. What happens if I get to customs in the U.S. on our return, and they ask me why I was downloading identification forms from the Pakistani Embassy web site? Do I just tell them Adji asked me?


There is a hand-painted sign on the road into town. It says “Real State,” with a listing of what services they offer.