{"id":2907,"date":"2013-10-19T04:36:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2907"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:31","slug":"tap-taps-and-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2907","title":{"rendered":"TAP-TAPS AND BOOKS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over a week into school and Ruysdael and Johnny told me this past Tuesday that they have no books.\u00a0 What?? Ruysdael shyly\u00a0added that a couple of his teachers order him out of the room each day for not having the proper book for class!\u00a0 And the thing is, I had asked them a long time ago whether they needed books.\u00a0 “Oh no, we have books.” But then again,\u00a0I would have known what books\u00a0were required\u00a0by reading\u00a0their school papers … in French.\u00a0 The language and cultural barriers get a bit frustrating at times.Since time was wasting and Cowman was off today (Friday), I asked Mikenn if he would accompany me into town to buy the books\u00a0his two friends\u00a0needed.\u00a0 (Mikenn is finished with high school and is planning to attend a medical technician school starting in November, so he’s got lots of free time\u00a0currently while his buddies are now in class each day.)So today I got my first tap-tap ride.\u00a0 For the uninitiated, tap-taps are group\u00a0taxis, usually pickups or vans, jammed full of human bodies and then driven at lightning speeds up and down the major thoroughfares of Haiti. And everything about driving in\u00a0this country\u00a0suddenly became a LOT clearer.\u00a0 Because I learned something very fundamental:The roads BELONG to the tap-taps.\u00a0 Everyone else – private vehicle, motorcycle, pedestrian, cow –\u00a0is a guest.\u00a0 So get out of the tap-taps’ way.I met Mikenn at 8:00 am.\u00a0 He had\u00a0said the booksellers wouldn’t open until 9:00, but I think he just didn’t want to get up early. It took him about 16 seconds to flag down a tap-tap.\u00a0 This one was a van.\u00a0 I will have to depend on words since I was unable to take any pictures because 1) I feared losing my grip on the camera and having it disappear out the open door and 2) as the only “blanc” on the tap-tap I was already attracting enough attention to myself without whipping out a camera and going all touristy and 3) no pictures can really do the experience justice anyway.\u00a0 (There are other pictures down below, though!)So Mikenn slides into a rear bench seat and I scoot beside him and the driver hits the gas and jerks the van back into traffic.\u00a0 Caribbean-style music\u00a0blares through the sound system.\u00a0 The man in front of me bobs his head to the drumbeat.\u00a0 Someone behind me is singing along\u00a0… and must be\u00a0belting it out\u00a0at alone-in-the-shower volume for me to be able to hear him beneath the music.\u00a0 A young boy (maybe ten or eleven) wearing a maroon polo hangs out the open side door of the van.\u00a0 His job is to keep an eye out for potential passengers and tap the roof of the van when he sees one.\u00a0 That’s the signal to the\u00a0man behind the wheel …\u00a0and it’s the ONLY thing that\u00a0will make a tap-tap driver slow down.\u00a0 The boy will jump out and even help a customer cross from the other side of the street if necessary.\u00a0 He’s also the one to collect the fare: 10 goudes to travel from Vaudreuil to downtown Cap Haitien.\u00a0 That’s a deal for the 5 or 6 mile trip.\u00a0\u00a0The equivalent of\u00a0a quarter.I keep thinking, ‘This kid’s a hard worker.\u00a0 I wonder how much he earns each day. Shouldn’t he be\u00a0in school?”Somebody jumps on that Mikenn knows.\u00a0 It’s amazing how often I have\u00a0recognized people out and about in this city of 200,000 myself, even after just two months.\u00a0 Before long, we’re all elbow to elbow and I’m wondering how many more might join us.\u00a0 But then passengers one by one alert the boy to their stops.\u00a0 And I learn that if you’re trapped in the seat farthest from the door, you don’t wait for people to move aside to let you out, you just climb on over them.\u00a0 After about twenty minutes of loud music and near misses and stops and starts, Mikenn and I make it to our destination.\u00a0 Downtown Cap…<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

… which is gorgeous in the morning sun.And then the book market.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

1)\u00a0 To those who gave special gifts to help the boys with their schooling and for all of you who support us generally month by month with finances and prayer, you have our never-ending gratitude. I truly cannot express our thanks strongly enough.\u00a0 God bless you!\u00a0 Through you, the light of Christ is shining in dark places.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

\u00a0And 2) I think I am falling in love with this place and its beautiful people more deeply every day.\u00a0 You need to come visit us!\u00a0\u00a0Seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over a week into school and Ruysdael and Johnny told me this past Tuesday that they have no books.\u00a0 What?? Ruysdael shyly\u00a0added that a couple of his teachers order him out of the room each day for not having the proper book for class!\u00a0 And the thing is, I had asked them a long time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2907"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2917,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2907\/revisions\/2917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}