Sean Penn's Favorite Restaurant

Today was the last day before the kiddos start school! Today is technically a holiday in Haiti, but a work day for us teachers. It was quite a productive day (for me at least). I got lesson plans for the next two weeks done and, a little more than that for one class. Ready to go!

This evening Jill and I were bored (the internet was out…this post is being typed sans internet and will be posted if and when it comes on J) so we decided to give the market down the road another try. Fail #2.  We went too late and everything was packed up. As we were heading back to my apartment we ran into another teacher who said He, Miquette, and a friend of hers were going to walk to a restaurant up the road and asked if we wanted to come…sure! Miquette’s friend works for an NGO here in Haiti, JPHRO, which is Sean Penn’s organization. Instead of walking, we hopped in the bed of the truck and drove by the restaurant…closed. We forgot about it being a holiday here. So we continued driving up into an area, a suburb-ish, of Port au Prince called Petionville (I pronounce it Pay-shawn-ville, which may or may not be correct). Riding in a car anywhere in the city is an experience. Riding in the bed of a truck is double the experience. But, it is a lot cooler in the breeze and you get to see all around so it is worth the risk of a serious injury.

We parked (by parked I mean drove the two passenger side tires up onto the sidewalk and stopped the car) and got out at a little restaurant called “Chicken Fiesta”. It had bright orange walls with former patron’s signatures in Sharpie all over the walls. A large mural of dancing chickens was painted on the back wall (my Watermark friends: the chickens on the mural looked like the ones from Gwo Papa Foul if that helps you paint a picture). The waitress handed us the menu and everything was in English. They served wings, fries, egg rolls, fried rice and various other Chinese dishes. I ordered the Sweet and Sour wings and a basket of fries J

The food was great, the atmosphere great, I loved it! The waitress spoke great English and was determined to get our names right (she wouldn’t take our food order until she had correctly written our names on the order pad). As we were leaving, Miquette’s friend told us “Now, you can tell everyone that you ate at Sean Penn’s favorite restaurant in Haiti.” Huh? Who would’ve thought.

School starts tomorrow! We only have a half day and then it starts full force on Wednesday. I am actually very excited (now that I have a couple weeks of lessons planned). I’m pumped to meet my students, learn their names, mispronounce their names, and start what will hopefully be a great year!

Pray: for my students, for the year at Quisqueya School, and lastly (because it isn’t as important) my computer. It is acting quite persnickety and if it chooses to die right now getting a replacement will be a nightmare!