Systemless Systems and Laughing For Longevity

In the back of my mind I'm resolved to be better at giving you little glimpses into life here.

For me, living here is a strange sort of normal.  When I moved here over a year ago there weren't many things in my day to day life that felt like major adjustments. There were a few small things that took some getting used to, like using three different energy sources for electricity, not having the ability to jump in a car and go somewhere when I needed to, and not speaking the same language.  They were all small adjustments, but typical ones you make when moving to most third world countries. They were all adjustments I made and feel fairly comfortable with these days.  I haven't written much, partly because much of what I do feels normal to me and the day-to-day life feels like it could be boring to readers.  I've been encourage to write regardless of how I feel my life looks to the outside world.  Here it goes...let's see if I can do better this year.

Over the past year I've been working to be a legal resident of Haiti. I finally got all my papers this summer before I spent a few weeks in America. The next step was getting a Haitian driver's license. I submitted my paperwork a few months ago to start the process. I tend to be a procrastinator when it comes to these things...all the rigamarole and the unknown procedures and systems here confuse me greatly.  On Monday, all my paperwork was done and all I had left to do was go downtown and get my picture taken for the license.  Beth M, Jimmy- a teacher here, and I left our little neighborhood at 9am for a 10am meeting time with guy who helps us process all our paperwork.  

From our place in Clercine to Downtown Port-au-Prince is about 5miles.  Traffic in Haiti is a crapshoot.  You may encounter very little traffic or you may sit in a “blokis” (traffic jam) for hours on end.  We finally arrived at the old US Consulate and what is now Haiti’s version of a DMV, near what (pre earthquake) used to be the National Palace. A lot of has-beens…and that’s indeed what this building was.  

There was a line of people standing outside…we were pushed through a door and squeezed through small hallways of people into a large room at the back of the building.  The room had rows of metal chairs and was filled to almost double what the “max capacity of 60” sign noted was safe for this room. There wasn’t much sitting room, but it is very cultural to think there’s always room for one more. Beth and I squeezed our bums into a row of chairs. We both looked around the room and noted there were only three other women besides us in the whole room. Haitian women driving is definitely a newer thing. Hats off to the brave women who do it! 

Beth and I spent almost an hour chatting…her reminiscing about processing adoption paperwork and applying for US visas in the very room we were sitting in while I tried to imagine US citizens accepting this building as a place of government. The walls were painted, long ago it would seem, sky blue.  Dirt smudges abounded and the drop ceiling in the room was a piece of work. We finally realized this ‘line’ of people ahead of us was going nowhere.  Beth laughed like you do when you’ve been here for 25 years and accepted that any number of things could be keeping this line from moving. She noted that it was probably a computer down and shortly after we were told that was indeed the case. We decided to wait another hour and see if the line was moving before deciding to make our 5 mile, 1.5 hour trip downtown unsuccessful and come back another day.  

Thankfully within a few minutes the line started to move and we began the game of musical chairs. I think, though I’m not entirely sure, it is very cultural to sit.your.booty.down. if there is a chair to be had. As the line moved the 100+ people closer to getting their license picture taken, we literally changed bum locations 15 times. It felt something like this:

 Move one row back, one row to the left, and two chairs to the right. Stand up, touch your toes, submit your paper to the lady at the desk, do a confused dance while you decided how this chair changing system works and sit down. Now move three chairs to the right, two rows forward and one row the right. Sit for 3.5 seconds. Now stand in a line of 40 people and wait for your picture to be taken. 

At one point I thought, “Aha! I understand this pattern of moving people.” There was one, unofficial, guy in the room telling everyone where to sit. I studied him while trying to figure out the system and finally gave up because there was just no pattern.  Sometimes getting logistical things done here feels like a systemless system. Oh how there are systems, but I do not understand them. 

Listening to Beth call her husband, John, and tell him the process was taking us so long because of the blokis and a computer system being down was a good reminder. Her joy in telling him and the laughter that reverberated over the phone reminded me that longevity in a place you don’t really understand takes a lot of laughing sometimes.  

In the end, we got our license pictures taken. It’s amazing to me that what I see as the systemless system will actually produce a little card that looks like a license in the, supposedly, near future.  Now…we wait. 

Haiti traffic blokis