An Evening Adventure: Motos With Rocky

From Ben & Eli:
The night was perfect. We got out of the gate from the house and immediately loved the feel of 70 degrees and the sunset was beautiful. As we descended the hill, we met goats, motorcycles, and many people. Finding precarious stairs that ran down the side of the hill, the gang set up a raggedy line to the bottom, my Dad following as "Cougar Bait" (in Washington, on hikes, we joke that the last

person in line will become cougar food, so before they are food, they are cougar bait). We came close to the vendors on the street but then slipped through a small door in the wall into the 7th Day Adventist compound. In the compound, the streets were free of vendors and the compound was like a gated suburb. We stopped by the bakery located within and bought "AK-100" energy drinks - essentially a thick horchata (rice milk with cinnamon and sugar) made out of corn oil and milk. We departed from the compound, walked down a street that was relatively quiet for the norm, and then turned a corner that immersed us in the market. The market was bustling and generally confusing. Shouting, sights, smells, dodging cars and trucks, generally just a mess of culture shoved in our faces. We stopped by the gas station, dropped off our gas can, and then went to the "DeliMart" for rum and soda. After, we stopped by the big bakery and Eli picked up some cheese cake. Off to the gas station we went to get the gas can and then the real fun began: a ride on a Haitian motorcycle ("moto") at night.

This is Ben's recollection of the bike trip. Rocky waved down some motorcyclists and we hopped on. Eli and Rocky on one, Steve on another, and my Dad and I on the last one. It started off a bit nerve wracking where the motorists dodged trucks on the main road, beeped to warn pedestrians (who I couldn't see because it had become night time), and we thundered down the stretch at 30 or more miles an hour. Finally, we turned up the mountain and proceeded along bumpy roads, all 500 pounds of man zipping up the mountain, around corners and trucks, speed bumps, and all sorts of obstacles. The mastery of the motorcycle and the precision of our driver boosted my confidence whilst boosting our speed. Going from 15 to 30 degree inclines. While you may think that I am exaggerating, I can tell you with confidence I am not. Dad helped the motorist with where to go, affirming the directions over the roar of the motor, and, after 10 minutes, we reached the guest house. 3 minutes later, Eli showed up with his cheesecake in a box, in a bag, in his mouth, holding on for dear life up the road. Truly we had a large chunk of Haitian culture and an experience I won't forget.

Here is Eli's recollection: Ben mostly covered what happened before the motorcycles. When we walked up to the gas station and Rocky collected his gasoline jug, a man walked up to my father and Ben, asking for just ten dollars, and that he was hungry and was forced to wash windows for money. We both said that we had no money on us, which was true. Then we flagged down the motorcycles and negotiated with the drivers that they would allow us to go as a group. Rocky and I got on our motorcycle and we sped out of the gas station and I am not exaggerating when I say that we were dodging and skirting around speeding cars and pedestrians. Our driver had the habit of laying on the horn if anyone got too close to our motorcycle. I could tell that he was extremely protective of his bike. We saw the full extent of this when we were slowly going over a speed bump and a tap tap (a pick up truck with a cage filled with people) clipped our motorcycle. The best I can do to describe it is that our driver slowly turned his head with a freaked out face and then lurched forward spewing profanity at the other driver. Afterwards we went up the first of two steep hills and our driver stopped in a flat landing. We wondered what it was and our driver spoke to Rocky and said that the gas can was too heavy for the motorcycle to carry. We departed the cycle and waited on the side of the road for another motorcycle to come carry Rocky away. While waiting in the low light alleyway, two dark figures walked towards us, one with a very deceiving cell phone in his hand, which I thought was a knife or a gun. Shortly after, a motorcycle came and picked us up and we were on our way again. Ben's depiction of how I looked was completely accurate. I had a death grip on the bars and my slice of cake bag was in my mouth. Overall the night was well spent and we had a ton of fun. We definitely felt out of place with most eyes turning towards us and most people giving us bizarre looks. But, it was a great experience and I'm glad I went along.

Christopher: Earlier in the day I had stepped out of the school compound to get a few pictures of the building. I realized then that we had spent almost our entire time in Haiti in the guest house compound, in the school compound, or in the van. This seemed at odds with Rocky's assertion that these parts of the city were quite safe. We had heard about the Haitian rum, so when we ended up with an extra open Coca-Cola, I joked with Melania about getting some rum for rum and Coke. She said there was a place just down the hill around the corner so after dinner I asked Rocky if I could go with him to the store. Steve decided to join us as did Ben and Eli and it became a bit of an adventure. Up on the hill where the guesthouse is there are fewer people so our walk started out quietly. As we descended the hill we encountered more and more people and eventually made our way back to the tail end of the daily market. At that point we encountered some traffic, mostly motos, which was a challenge because the motorcycle drivers turn their engines off for the descent down the hill so you cannot hear them coming. Nevertheless we made it safely across the street and after a few more yards Rocky took us through a door in the wall and into another world. We went from the rock and dirt strewn road lined with vendors into the Seventh Day Adventist compound with grass lawns and a nice flat road with little traffic. After the AK-100 Benjamin mentioned, we exited the compound on the far side and started down the hill again; this time on a wide street with sidewalks. After a block or two we encountered the mass of humanity around the main highway from Port-au-Prince. There were people, more vendors, vehicles parked on the sidewalks, and the taxi stand with 10 or 20 motos waiting for passengers. Rocky dropped off his gas can and we made the trips to the DeliMart and the bakery as described above. Crossing the main highway twice was an exercise in taking your life into your hands as we wove our way through moving traffic as there was no traffic light to stop the oncoming vehicles and no crosswalk. When we returned to the gas station, Rocky retrieved his gas can, and he negotiated with several moto drivers to take us back to the guesthouse. I was unsure for a moment when one of the drivers motioned for me to get on his motorcycle as I had not seen Rocky conclude the negotiations. I wondered if I was headed off to some far part of Port-au-Prince only to be returned safely for a "fee." However, my concern was unfounded and Benjamin joined me and the driver on the motorcycle and we took off into the night behind the other two motos. It was hard to keep my eyes open while we were on the highway because of the dust and dirt and exhaust from the other vehicles but I could not bear to keep my eyes closed and just trust the driver. I needed to see the upcoming peril even if we did avoid each collision at the last moment and make it safely to turn off the highway and up the hill. There was a little challenge at the start when we were cut off by an incoming moto and had to stop in the midst of turning up the road. This left our driver keeping all the weight of the machine, two passengers, and himself from dropping in the street and it took a moment of faith and a handful of throttle to get us going up the road, "rubber side down." The first half of the ride up the hill had us contending with a few trucks and quite a number of speed bumps which had to be negotiated at low speed due to our combined weight. The low speed also meant precarious balance but there were no mishaps. The second half of the ride had us dealing with darkness as we left the other vehicles and the last of the street vendors behind, little pavement as we returned to dirt and rocks, and plenty of incline as we almost negotiated the steep hill and turn which had almost stymied us on Sunday when we arrived. The moto and driver gave up the battle with uneven ground and steep pitch about 3/4 of the way up so Ben and I hopped off, walked a few yards to where the road leveled off a bit, and hopped back on the moto for the rest of the ride. We had left Rocky and Eli behind as their driver dealt with the elevation and his load but successfully negotiated the final climb thanks to a run up of concrete to gather speed and joined Steve with his driver outside the gate to the guesthouse. Eventually Rocky and Eli arrived, now on separate motos, and we were all safe and sound.