Mr. Blan gets the white price!

While there are no Taco Bells or anything even close to that here (obviously), there is the totally random Domino’s Pizza down the hill from us (3/4 mile). So of course, my favorite American thing to do here is to walk down to it, grab a cold beer, and eat a pepperoni pizza. As you know, when you order a pizza they type your name into the computer and it pops out on a little tab that goes on the pizza box. Well here when I get my pizza the tab on my box says “Mr. Blan” (translation: “Mr. White”). This always cracks me up. I can order, go walk around for 30 minutes, come back, and they never ask for my name…Can you imagine how awkward this would be in the states….Japanese man orders pizza and it says “Mr. Jap” on the box…I need to take a picture of this.

A few days ago we stopped to buy avocados and watermelon. From one lady I successfully got Avocados for 10 goudes each (not small avocados; this is a quarter each!). Then I went to buy a watermelon. Normally they are no less than 250 goudes, and thus we never buy one (this is 6.25!). Well, a friend at the clinic said she was able to bargain one down to 100 goudes the other day. She said it’s really hard to get them down on watermelons. She is also Haitian.
So we ran up to the corner with watermelons. I asked the lady how much. She replied 250 goudes. I told her no way and that a friend of mine just got one here for 100 goudes. She said no way and put the watermelon away.

Well, everyone knows I don’t mind being a bit of a jerk sometimes (I like to call it cordial dissent). So I started yelling, “hey, you’re giving me the white price here! My friend bought one here for 100 goudes…and she’s not white!” A few people nearby were really starting to laugh. So I just kept on her, “That’s the white price; my friend isn’t white…You give me a white price! My friend isn’t white, and it’s 100 goude for her!” People were laughing and I was just going to walk off, happy to have made my point. She came back over and was like, “fine fine, you can have it for 125 goudes.” I prob could have gotten it for 100 but I was happy to have gotten the Haitian price (perhaps cause I knew enough Creole to give her a hard time in creole?). Ha – again, imagine this in the states…too funny.