Getting ready to go

In all likelihood, this will be my last post from French Guiana. I'm scheduled to be booked solid from tomorrow morning until my departure. It is bittersweet. I really like it here, despite all the headaches and all the exorbitant prices. I enjoy the people, I enjoy the food, I like living in a place where I get to learn new languages and explore things. I would love to take people here, get people interested in this region, let them see both the beauty and the potential of the area. At the same time, I'm excited to go home, enjoy domestic life, start teaching again, earning money, and starting my dissertation writing and analysis in earnest. I'll have a good post when I return to the U.S. about several awkward moments that I've refrained from writing about. Stay tuned.

Grrrr

This morning was a relatively nice morning. I went to the market with relatively little food to buy, instead focusing on picking up some souvenirs for home and for a couple of friends who I'll be seeing for the first time in a while right after I get home. I sat around for a while with Violette and her family (who have all adopted me and brag about my Creole skills and even refer to me as their Haitian friend), essentially for the last time as I'm not sure I'll make it back to the market in time to see them on Tuesday. I bought a couple of paintings from them, including an original piece that the artist signed and dedicated to me on the back. What I didn't realize about the piece is that it was just slightly too big for a shopping bag to carry home (and also for my suitcase, as I would later discover).

With a beautiful, clear sky above, you might imagine my consternation when it started raining as I was coming home with it. The painting is acrylic, so I wasn't too concerned about the painting itslef getting ruined, but rather the chances of the dedication smudging (or mildew growing). I put the bike on a conveniently placed bike rack and started to walk home.
As I was rearranging the bags to protect the painting, I slammed my knee into a less conveniently placed stone bench. I no longer wanted to walk home, so I decided to hitchhike. After 5 frustrating minutes, some soldiers pulled over and picked me up. They had no idea where I lived when I told them, which suggests that they are either new or they have very little exposure to the area, spending all their time in and around the military bases here (which is a common complaint I've heard about them).
But they got me home fast and relatively dry, so I was happy.

I ate lunch, picked up a couple things for dinner/recording tonight and went back to town. I decided to hitchhike again to speed things up, and the very first car I tried picked me up. It was a Haitian family. As they drove me back to my bike, they talked to me in Creole for a bit, testing whether I actually spoke it. We had a nice little conversation, and when I get out to unlock my bike, I discovered that some jackass had tried to steal it. Luckily they failed, but the chain has some severe damage. I'll have to replace it, but since it still works, I'm tempted to take it home with me to replace the broken one I have at home. In any event, I'm glad that things have by and large worked out for the best.

Murals

Murals are very common here. Actually, all sorts of wall painting is common, whether it's pictures painted on houses, or graffiti on walls (my favorite: "bare walls, silenced people"), or poems painted on school exteriors. Above you see a mural welcoming you to what used to be Chinatown, and is now just a regular old bad neighborhood. I wanted to include more pictures, but the internet café is too slow. So we'll be low on pictures for the rest of my time here (just a few more days!).

Internet troubles

Last night, I went to my normal internet spot and was troubled to find that my internet was suddenly not connecting. I could connect to the network, but the network wouldn't load the world wide web. Hence no blog post. I will try again tonight, and if I succeed, there will be pictures of murals. If not it will have to wait for tomorrow.

My new glasses

Here are my new glasses that I talked about last week.

Hair Fashion

There is something I've been meaning to write about: men's hairstyles. But it's been difficult to do with a lack of an illustration, and I feel weird about just taking random pictures of people on the street, as though they are there for my curiosity's benefit. However, as I was coming home the other night, there was a fashion show going on. Nothing too impressive, at least not to my untrained eye, but there was a male model with exactly the kind of hairstyle that had jumped out at me. And since he was really putting himself on display, I decided to take advantage and get the picture. And here it is:

You'll notice the designs drawn in the hair. I've seen writing, elaborate designs, all sorts of things. I wouldn't say that all young men have them, but only young men have them, and they are not at all uncommon.

Back-ups

Every once in a while, things go very wrong. For that, it's important to have back-up plans. Take last night. I was supposed to have a recording session with one of my participants. He told me to call him the day before to confirm. I called him the day before, and the day of, and yet I got no response. No time to panic! I called the other participant, who was available to come downtown for a conversation session with his girlfriend. I grabbed my equipment and headed downtown. We found a quiet park bench and started to talk. Then I noticed something: the voice recorder wasn't working because it was too full, and it wasn't erasing easily. No need to panic! The other one was working fine. After a little while, I managed to erase the files taking up all the room, and started recording. We talked talked talked then I heard a strange beep: The battery was dying. No worries! I had spares in my bag. Always have a backup!