Notes From Leogane No. 6: Saturday Market, a Tie and Rara

Dear Family and Friends:

As this weekend comes to a close, I would like to share with you some snippets about Leogane from the past two days.

Rara:
By now, I would have thought that I would have experienced enough rara processions that I could do justice to giving you an outsider's description of this music/event.  During the past week, two of the translators I know - Mario and Peterson - had suggested that once we got to Thursday the number and frequency of rara bands would greatly increase.  Peterson thought that Sunday afternoon would present a great sampling of rara bands.  I have discovered, however, that the main street for the procession of rara bands is about 1/3 of a mile north of here.

On Palm Sunday morning, four different rara bands came by my window from early morning until mid-morning, but that number has not passed by here on any given day since then.  Last Tuesday I followed a rara procession for a few blocks (and ran into Peterson) and I did the same with another rara band the next evening (and again ran into Peterson).  Both of these bands really kicked it in.  Others were okay, but these two were by far the best I heard.  They not only had musicians with the traditional instruments, but also brass trumpets, trombones, clarinets and a snare drum.  In reading about rara, I learned that there is not general agreement about the origin and meanings of rara.  So, when I mentioned to you a few weeks ago that Bob Sloane had been told that rara bands were tied to a story about the need to keep an angel awake to remove the stone from Jesus' tomb when needed, that's just one view.  And, from my reading, not a particularly common one.  Rather than trying to suggest –

which isn't credible to say the least - that I can provide you with any further guidance about rara, I recommend to you two rara-related websites; both of which have excellent video footage of rara bands:  "RARA Vodou, Power and Performance Elizabeth McAlister's work in Haiti 1991 - 1995;” and “The Other Side of the water: the journey of a Haitian rara band in Brooklyn." (Check out the YouTube on this at http://youtu.be/JlyoHpEv76Q.) 

Saturday Markets and a Tie
Don't ask me why I came to Haiti without a tie or a sport coat.  I knew I would be here for Easter, and I knew from my travels in Haiti twenty years ago that Haitians throughout the country wear the best to church.  As is the same in the United States and elsewhere, what is someone's "Sunday best" varies from family to family.  But, from the funeral processions I had watched during my first two weeks here, and from my first Episcopal service next door on April 3rd, I knew at a minimum I should be wearing a tie to Easter service today.  Boy was I right.

So off I went yesterday morning in search of a tie. I had asked someone at the hospital where I could buy one, and he said "The large market up by the nursing college. Go straight up north
on the road like you would be going to the college, but instead of turning left and going west on the way to the college, keep going straight and you'll run straight into the big market."

Rara II
Sorry to interrupt, but I had to rush to the roof to see what was the largest rara crowd to pass by here since I arrived in Leogane.  Maybe this is the rara finale band and procession. The procession was headed toward the Leogane Cemetery. The band was pretty good. One song sounded a bit like "Hold That Tiger", but not exactly.  It also was quite a bit sassier than you would have heard at a 1950's football game.  Do they still play that song at games; maybe at a LSU or Auburn home game?  Oh well.  As I was saying.

I knew the nursing college is about one-half mile away, so I decided to first walk through markets closer to the hospital.  I headed around the corner from the hospital entrance, heading east. The gentleman with the rock pile was there.  But now what before was a two feet stack of
rocks was spread all over the ground.  He still was making smaller rock bits.

There was a continuous line of street vendors around that first corner, stretching all the way down to the "Bus Depot" at the end of the block.  No ties.  There were several vendors selling shoes, both new and used.  One vendor's specialty was straw hats of all styles and sizes.  Mostly women's styles though.  New and used clothes were for sale at several places.  Cell phones covers - just like the kiosks at the malls in Phoenix.  Several stands selling pre-packaged food.  Sundries on sale.

Rara III
Two other rara bands have passed by my window in the last ten minutes. This must be the grand finale night.  I'm heading down to the street!  Twenty minutes later.  I'm back. "Holy Riddler Batman," it's a massive block party.  By my eye, people are stretched two to three blocks in three directions - west, east and north. Two blocks north of the hospital is a stage with mostly techno music being played. So that is what kept me up last night!  The teens and twenty-somethings are there. Many others are off following the rara bands going east.  A fourth band just went by my window. Great drums. Many couples and families are just strolling around.  The end of Easter weekend is near.

At the end of the block I turned north at what we all call the "Bus Depot." There are white school size buses, with blue stripes, that will take you to Port-au-Prince. There are "tap-taps, which go to less populous areas, but still travel quite a distance, for example to Jacmel going south from Leogane over the mountains and then down to the ocean on the southern most side of Haiti.  Tap-taps are large pick-up sized vehicles, with a seating "cage" type addition to the back bed.  The sides have wooden slats, but with plenty of spaces to allow for the flow of air.  There are "permanent benches" fastened to the two long sides of the bed of the truck.  To expand seating, a portable bench may be added in the middle of the bed.  Stretching your legs out during the ride is not an option. Tap-taps are almost always painted bright colors - lots of blue, red, green and yellow is used. Religious references are painted on the top of the front cab, such as "Jesus," "Deliverance," "Isaiah," "Salvation," "Deux," sometimes in English other times in Creole or French.

"Motos" serve as the local taxis. Girls and women passengers ride side-saddle facing to the left.  Boys and men ride cowboy style; no side saddle for us please. Passengers get on and off on the left side, to avoid getting an ugly scar from being burned by the exhaust pipe on the right side of the motorcycles. Most of the motos in Haiti are manufactured in China.

People getting ready for a bus or tap-tap ride can be seen making a last minute purchase of a snack for the trip, or a bottle of water or other drink. Food vendors run along the side of these vehicles as they are pulling away, hoping for one last sale through a passenger's open window.

The Bus Depot borders on the main highway that leads north back to Carrefou and then into Port-au-Prince.  In the other direction on this highway, you are heading out of Leogane along the north ocean side of the south western part of Haiti, going to Petit-Goave.  Before Petit Goave, you can take a junction toward Jacmel over the mountains.

I decided to head all the way up to the BP fuel station, another quarter of a mile, to what is the northern edge of Leogane city centre. No luck finding a tie. I learned very quickly to walk
against traffic, to see all of the motos coming at me down the highway at quite a clip. Twenty or so were staged in line to fuel up at the BP. Many others just buzzed through the gas station to avoid the two speed bumps in the highway in front of the station.

I turned around right after the BP, retraced my steps and then turned west on a road that would eventually get me back to where I could go north toward the big market.  There were many of the same type of vendors on this road.  A "Police" pick-up sped by me, and came back the other way five minutes later, still speeding and weaving through a bunch of motos, or should I say - the motos got the heck out of the way.

As I got to Rue St Croix (my common name for what is formally Rue Tevenot), I began looking for the big store. But, I didn't recall ever seeing a big store in the area the two times I had walked to the nursing college.  As I kept going north about 200 yards past where I would have turned left to go west to the nursing college, I went into a new area of the Leogane city centre.  There was a very specific change in the surroundings. I came upon a major tent city.  Many of the "homes" had USAID coated paper or USAID light canvas as the principal building material.

There were very few concrete structures in this area of Leogane, and these were all stores.  There were no permanent homes. The air was much  more pungent than near the hospital. A saw several children without any shoes. Others with only a shirt on. The few dogs I saw looked sick. There really weren't any roads so to speak here. They were dirt paths, and you really needed to watch out for the motos.

Man, there is a really great rara band jamming just outside my window right now. Great stuff!

Then it dawned on me.  The "big market" was made of the rows of street vendor shops, mostly blankets on the ground that were in a semi-circle on the outer edge of the tent city.  I passed at least five clothing vendors but didn't see any ties hanging up.  So at the next clothing vendor, I said: "Mwen bezwen achte yon kol."  (Accent marks omitted for the "e" in achte and the "o" in kol; I haven't learned how to do that yet.) Thursday, I had asked my Creole teacher, nineteen year old Watson, how to say "I need to buy a tie." A woman about 50 years of age pointed to a pile of ties wrapped around each other like a bunch of snakes. No worry here about creases in these "pre-owned" ties. I picked one out. When I  reached in my pocket for some gourdes, the "sales-person" pointed toward another older woman. I guess she was either the owner of the street stand or the cashier.  I asked this woman "how much" in Creole, expecting something around 300 to 400 gourdes.  ($1 U.S. = 40 gourdes)  When she just opened her hand, I knew that I got to make the initial offer. She readily agreed to 350 gourdes, so this novice Creole negotiator probably paid too much.

By the time of my purchase, I was almost at the end of the semi-circle market, so I stood on the right side of the road going south. Just standing still on the side of the road usually gets a taxi to stop. No need to raise your hand in the air like in New York City. Other people just say "taxi" as an empty moto approaches, keeping in mind that not all motos are being operated as taxis.  Watson has a moto, but he doesn't do taxi.

Driving the first quarter of a mile back, I realized that for the first three weeks in Leogane I had not really seen areas where the very poor live. Now I have.

I paid the moto driver 20 gourdes and said "Mesi" as I got off on the left side.  I went up to my office and through the wonders of the internet checked on when I would be able to stream in the radio broadcast of the Arizona State v. Cal Bear baseball game.

I hope this Note finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.

David
April 24, 2011