Wednesday, April 11, 2007
This morning I went to the cyber cafe for the third time. The first time, I went with Jude to see if I can use my laptop to go online, and although it worked, the electricity went out after five minutes, so I couldn't do much. The second time was on Monday, the next day, when I went there by myself. Jerry, the guy in charge who helped me the first time, was there, so he just set everything up for me when I saw him. I got to enjoy an hour of internet, sending out my first Haitian Courier, posting a few blog entries, and downloading my e-mail, all for just 50 Gourdes (about $1.35).
I wasn't planning on going to the cyber cafe again so soon, but Pastor Baek wanted me to check her flight schedule online (she's flying to Korea in May), so I went. By myself, of course. Jerry wasn't there today. There was some other guy, James, who obviously didn't speak English. Somehow, with my little knowledge of Creole, we were able to communicate. He told me that Jerry was coming at 9AM, which was in 15 minutes. So I told him I'll come back later. I came back around 9:20AM, having figured that Jerry would be on "Haitian time." Jerry wasn't there again. James told me that Jerry came but he left already and that he doesn't work on Wednesdays. He said Jerry is the only one who knows how to set up the internet for me. I told him I knew how to do it, and that I could do it myself. But James said something about authorization. He suggested that I come back tomorrow... I was like, "Dude, I'm here to use your service and pay you money. Are you doing business or what?" Of course I didn't say that, and I wouldn't even if I knew how. Instead I told him I could help him set it up and that it's "trè, trè fasil" (no, I didn't misspell that. It's Creole, not French). So he let me look for an extra ethernet cable, which was just under his desk. He plugged one end into the router, and I plugged the other end to my laptop. Now I was connected. Seriously, it was that easy, and he still told me he didn't know how to set it up. This is Haiti.
For some reason, the reservation code that Pastor Baek gave me wasn't working, so I just did my own stuff for an hour. I was pleasantly surprised by how many responses I got from my newsletter. Well, it wasn't that many, but each one meant so much to me. Even though I'm on this small, seemingly remote island, I could connect with my friends in Uganda, Brazil, Japan, England, and all over the US (I just need one from Australasia and Antarctica, and that will cover all seven continents). It really makes a world of difference when someone contacts me across the globe, from a different world, so to speak. I gave James 50 Gourdes without asking "Konben?" since I figured he wouldn't know how much. I came home and typed up replies to each e-mail that I got, and I'm going to send them as soon as I get online again.
Since I couldn't get Pastor Baek's schedule, she and I went to American Airlines' travel agency. Thank God, all the reps can speak English there. After all, it is American Airlines. Apparently the reservation code that I got was wrong by one letter (I had an "I" instead of an "L"). They charged us US$5 just to print out the ticket. Although we could have printed it out ourselves with the correct code, we figured the convenience was worth it. They wouldn't print out the e-ticket for you at the airport. In the US you could just go up to a kiosk at the airport and print it right there. This is Haiti.
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