On a plane back to the states from Haiti a few months ago, my very own Megan was in a particularly bad mood – cranky, dirty, hungry, etc. After she sits down in her seat, some guy comes and takes his seat next to her. He begins to talk to her and she thinks to herself, “Gee, I really wish he would quit talking to me, I’m certainly NOT in the mood for this today.” She’s very short with him, but he keeps talking. Her interest is peeked when he says that he’s in Haiti for vacation. Who goes to Haiti for vacation? ...He used to live there. She then finds out he’s the old head of a very BIG branch of the UN in Haiti. At the end of the flight, they exchange contact info and he says he’ll look her up when he comes back to Haiti.
Well he actually does. And flashforward to Thursday night, Megan and I are heading into PAP to have dinner with him. Let’s call him Carlos Santana.
I didn’t know if I would be able to make it with my leg issues, but I feel pretty good and won’t be doing much walking anyway. Someone from a team left behind a pretty floor-length dress which I now claim as my own and it does a great job of covering up the suspect spots on my legs. We hire a car that afternoon to our hotel in Petionville. Petionville is one of the nicest parts of Haiti and while our actual room is pretty basic, the pool area/restaurant/bar area is GORGEOUS. Its decorated marvelously and the view from the terraces looks like it could be in California. We go have a little afternoon snack of chicken sandwiches with cheese on them, complete with a side of French fries.
We notice a group of people nearby, rather gangster looking people, start to gather and grow in number. Then some cameras show up and other equipment – all of which leads us to believe there is to be a music video shot at our hotel very soon. I get up to go to the bathroom and on the way run into two gangster looking folks who say hello and I take this opportunity to find out what is going on. They introduce themselves as like Sniper and Swift Kick (I find out later his name is actually Straight Shot) or something like that. We have in fact stumbled onto the set of their music video, and they would like very much for us to be in it. Hahahaha. I think this is just too good/funny to be true. But sure enough when Megan and I are laying out at the pool a bit later there is a camera rolling with Straight Shot rapping into it about having money on his mind. Some other rapper who’s name is O-gun comes and sits by us at the pool and strikes up quite the conversation. I’m very entertained watching the video girls setting up in their strategic booty-shaking locations around the pool. However, it is soon time for us to be going to get ready for dinner so we excuse ourselves but promise to come back after we’ve gotten dressed. This feels more appropriate; who comes straight out of the bush looking like a wild woman with no makeup on and then is in a music video anyway?
We go back to the room and get dressed. It is SO good to have makeup on my face again and my hair down and a dress on!! We go back to the pool/restaurant area and find our rapper friends hanging out. They’re in between shooting the pool scenes and the club scenes. We go down to this “club” area where the next shots are supposed to happen and feel like we’re back in America. There are a bunch of couches, a nice bar, and flat screen tv’s all around showing ESPN. Woah. We sit with Straight Shot for awhile and chat; we decide he’s cool enough to be our friend and exchange numbers. (He’s doing a show here in Gressier/Leogane on July 17th and he called this morning and said he’s getting us backstage passes, after inviting us to go to Jacmel this week, haha.) Mr. Santana then gives us a ring and is here to pick us up, so we go back to the lobby area to meet him.
Carlos Santana is a very good looking man, right in between Megan and me height-wise. He uses our room to change out of his suit, having been in meetings all day (including one w/the president the day before) and into something a bit more casual. He then takes us out to his car which happens to be one of those armored UN vehicles and two men with gigantic guns open the doors for us. This is all feeling a bit surreal. Megan keeps pinching my thigh and stifling giggles while we make some small talk.
For dinner we go to a restaurant called the Latin Quarter or Quatier Latin or something like that in Creole. There are tons of cars outside on the street, this is one hoppin' place. We go in and its beautiful, I feel like I’m in some hip restaurant in Miami. It feels very Cuban to me, which is strange because I’ve never been to Cuba, but you know. Also very strange is how many white people are there. We’re so not used to seeing white people, but there they all are! Its like the big white people reunion at the Latin restaurant.
For dinner I order beef medallions. My mom’s hamburgers are of better quality beef, but I don’t care because I haven’t had red meat in a month. Megan and Carl Santana get fish. Talking to Mr. Santana is a hoot. I love when he lets the juicy details of his run in the UN slip out. We have a very interesting and wonderful dinner. When we finish up we go to the back bar for a drink and there is a great Latin band playing; they are SO good. And Carlos Santana knows everyone of them, ha. As we get glasses of wine, Mr. Santana runs into some other important person that he knows who’s wife happens to be the head of a very large international humanitarian organization (WFP). Then he starts talking to me. He’s French and adorable. Megan and Carlos Santana go hit the crowded dance floor so me and the French guy do the same. It is too fun! Then Megan dances with a Haitian who’s got quite the moves which leaves me to dance with CS, who is a bit awkward. And at this point I really just want to sit down because I feel like my foot has swollen up a bit, so that’s exactly what I do right when the song ends.
As we sit and sip, Megan and I wonder where we are exactly because this just couldn’t be Haiti. This train of thought is cut short however by the next boys that want to dance. A boy from Argentina comes up and starts chatting. His English isn’t awesome and neither is my Spanish so we kind of struggle to communicate, but he’s precious and I really appreciate him trying! So I dance with him and then am done for the night. I run into my French friend on the way to the car as he is backing out in his Land Rover thing. I go to shake his hand through the window and he grabs it and instead plants a giant kiss on my hand. Haha, how French.
Back at the hotel, Megan and I crash hard, exhausted from being rap stars and international diplomats.
The next morning we get up and go sit out on the terrace for breakfast. Breakfast is MARVELOUS. We get real coffee, fresh squeezed juice, fruit, and eggs. I have a Creole omelette that is just divine. I think that we have stumbled into a little slice of heaven. We also giggle about the night before. When we get in the car on the way home, we tell our driver (Moliaire, our favorite driver) about our adventures. He gets excited and tells us he's seen our rapper friends on tv before, so they're legit. Haha, what a life. Perfect.
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