Unlikely Conversation

Route 1 is a treacherous, desolate stretch of road that runs north and south the length of the country. It is Haiti's main road. It is also in a terrible state of disrepair with huge holes, the sides of the road crumbling away, and completely washed out places. And that's being nice.

There is a lot of traffic on Route 1, tap-taps full of people rushing from PAP to anywhere and back again, dump trucks hand filled with giant rocks, and huge trucks loaded with bananas or charcoal and topped off with a load of travellers, and there are buses. Buses are the tyrants of the roads. They don't slow down or stop for anything. Their side of the road is anywhere they want it to be. When a bus is coming you get over as far as you can, hope it's enough, and hope that the shoulder of the road hasn't washed away.

When you pair all of that with the glare of never adjusted headlights and pitch darkness- it's beyond adventure all the way to insanity. That was our ride home from the airport tonight. A bus was coming toward us... Rusty couldn't see a thing so he slowed as much as he could, got over as far as he dared, and held on. Then we saw it just before we felt the clump, clump. This is the conversation that followed-

Rusty- that was too gross!
Sarah (from the back of the pick-up)- uhhh, did you know you just ran over a donkey?
R- it was already dead.
S- that was dissssgusting!
R- yep, it was nasty.
S- I hope you know it splashed all over the side of the truck!
R- the bus ran over it, too
S- Jonas is fur-reak-ing out. He thought it was a person! (Tara, thanks for teaching me the right way to spell fur-reak-ing! It comes in handy in Haiti a lot, doesn't it?)
R- Sorry. (giggling under his breath, now)
S- I think some might have gotten on my arm! and you're gonna have to wash your box!
R- I didn't do it on purpose.

OK, sorry. I know it's probably not what you wanted to hear, but seriously, when have you discussed donkey guts with your teen aged daughter!