June 3, 2007: RAM and the Leogane Disco

This past Thursday night (May 31st) I went with Cathy (woman who had my job for 6 years) and her friend (former Haiti Peace Corps volunteer), Leah, to see a voodoo inspired band called RAM at the Oloffson hotel in Port-au-Prince. RAM plays at the Oloffson every Thrusday night and has a rather interesting and dedicated following. There was a good mix of foreigners and locals and I’m told this is one of the only places around where same sex couples can hang out. The hotel was pretty nice and we had dinner in the restaurant out on the veranda. It was nice to have a pretty good salad and a very strong fruit punch with rum (or possible clarin, Haitian moonshine). Whatever it was, it was either extremely strong or I have absolutely no tolerance anymore. By the third sip I was ready to dance.

The band didn’t start until around 11:30pm and since we were all pretty tired (partly due to the killer fruit punch) we didn’t stay to hear them play for very long. They were interesting though and had a very different sound from the usual Compa music that you hear here.

(Picture: RAM)

We spent the night in the very unfurnished apartment that Cathy and her fellow law school classmates are renting for the summer. There were no pillows, sheets, fans, dishes…nothing. We didn’t even think to buy clean water to drink!

The CNP driver picked us up on Friday morning and Cathy came back to Leogane with me to visit her old friends. It was fun to have her here. She showed me all around and introduced me to everyone. In the evening we went with a group of guys who work for the filariasis project down to the beach. It was great to be by the ocean, but the beach was covered in garbage. I won’t be swimming there.

Last night we went to the disco with some of Cathy’s really good guy friends. The disco is a large room with tables and chairs surrounding the dance floor which is marked by a large rectangle of colored flashing tile lights. Before 10pm they have salsa dancing and after the lights are dimmed and it turns into a proper disco that plays a mix of American top 40 and Haitian Compa. It was fun. All the girls sit around and wait for guys to ask them to dance. Dancing to Compa is fun and a lot more formal than what I’m used to. During the salsa part there were some amazing dancers! I can’t salsa to save my life. One of Cathy’s friends is a salsa teacher, so I’m going to start salsa lessons next Saturday!