Sat 3/26
Took the 8 am taxi boat along with 25 or so locals from the village. Sam pays someone to carry him to the boat so he won’t get his shoes and pants wet. I sit next to the French Canadian couple with two young boys from Quebec. They left the kids on the boat for the day and are off to Les Cayes to see the city.
We are on a mission to PU the water filters.
We arrive, call the filter delivery man and I am told he is still two hours away, so we head for the hardware store to buy materials. You folks at Waterstreet Company in Sausalito would get a kick out of seeing how they run hardware stores here. Everything is behind the counter. Some things are displayed on walls behind the counters, but only a few. You ask for what you want, the clerk fetches it, or what she thought you asked for, then goes back several times until you get something that might serve the purpose, or you figure out how to make do with what they do have or give up.
Then the clerk writes it all up long hand on a slip of blank paper, starting over if there are any changes or deletions. The completed list is handed across to a man in a wire cage in the middle of the room, who totals the bill and hands it back to the clerk. The clerk shows it to you, you hand her the money, she hands it to the money guy, who makes change, but wait, we are not yet done. The money counter man now locks up his cage, comes around to the counter and checks off each item on the list which have all be laid out neatly on the counter before the clerk is allowed to bag or box them up. Not the most efficient system, but it sure must be necessary to reduce shrinkage and pilfering.
Just about the time we are done paying we get a call that the water filter truck has arrived. They made better time than we expected, or maybe I misheard what was said. Anyway we head out of the hardware store. I ask Karma if he will carry the four small sheets of very thin sheet metal we have bought to protect the water cisterns form the sun’s rays, and he says “No.” I am puzzled and not sure what is going on. I ask him why and am told they never carry anything in Les Cayes, there are other people for that. I ask Wagner if he will carry them and he also says he never carries anything in Les Cayes, it is never done. He says he will carry anything on Ile a Vache, but not in Les Cayes. I am not sure why, but don’t care or want to wait for the explanation, so I lift the four sheets up on my head and fold them down over my ears like a sheet metal sunbonnet and start off down the street, They are all incredulous and laughing at me and tell me that the people are all laughing. I don’t mind, but perhaps it would be better if I don’t break the local social taboos and take work away from the men who carry things for others for a living.
When we get back we call a committee meeting for 5 pm, went over filters w/ Karma & Sam reading w/ Federique translating, me demonstrating, and gave one to each of the 6 committee members, met and agreed each would pick two people to come at 4 pm on Sunday to PU filters
