Happy Halloween

Ugh.

I hope it was just the chicken from last night that's making me feel like crap.  I don't need another parasite.  I'd even be happy with a 24 hour dose of Montezuma's Revenge more than a parasite.

ok? no parasite again please?!?!

Now that I'm over freaking out about the zealots, I can tell you about our visit to a village.

We had brought about $150 of school supplies to give to a few schools here, and after we delivered them to a couple of schools, we were drawn to the Haitian Village that we passed by on two of our tours.

Our guides had told us that they really like candy.  It's what they want the most.

the teacher in me wants to give practical gifts, but i'll go along with it

We didn't bring any candy for them, so we went to a local store and bought enough for a massive bowl at Halloween.  You know the bowl?  The one where every kid on the block knows you for the handfuls of goodies that you'll get.

That house never gets the tricks played on them.

With candies filling the bag 3/4 of the way full we made our way back to the village we had seen a few times, remembering the way to get there was to turn right at the well off the main route.

street signs?  forget it.  turn right at the cow, left at the donkey and stop a house past the goat

Our little rental car was not too pleased to be driving down such a nasty road, but we were determined to get to the kids.

We made it without incident and found our first recipients who were so happy.  4 little girls with the greatest corn rows in their hair and pretty hair accessories to go along with their massive, stunning, brown eyes.

They accepted the candies with gratitude and the parents in the background gave us a wave of thank you.

Oh, this was going to be great!  We will have enough for all the kids and they are so wonderful that we'll have a memory forever to remember with joy!

We get to the next crew and they came running to the car like piranhas attacking a cow.

Hands were reaching in past me and Papi to get to the bag.  At this point there were about 10 kids reaching and tearing.  Candies were being ripped out by the handful, along with the weak plastic.  Treats were flying in all directions.

As a matter of fact, some fell into my crotch area and that was definitely not out of bounds for the kids.  They just reached right in and didn't care WHERE those candies were, they were going to get them!

All I wanted to do was save our camera from the attack, and to be sure they didn't steal my chocolate bar that I was nursing!

best chocolate in the world! don't you take my chocolate!!!

Papi was being accosted and yelling, "Hey!  Wait a minute!  Oh my god!  Hey!  Stop it!"  But the kids kept reaching in and Papi's breasts were fair game too.

When all the candy was given and there were now at least 20 children crawling into our car, we realized we better get going, or we'll have Haitian kids coming home with us to our hotel.

But how to get them out of the car?!?

They wouldn't stop attacking, searching for the possibility of more candies, so we had to start the car driving and at the same time roll the windows up.

It felt like we were the worst people to drive away with kids hanging out of our windows, then to roll the windows up to ease them out, but really, there was nothing else to do.

We were completely frazzled and a little later on as we drove down the rest of the road toward the main route, we noticed there were muddy hand prints all over the inside of the car.

It was as if that was our trophy for making it out with the camera and rings still in tact.

We got the trick.

Papi said, "You know, that might not have been the brightest idea."

oh reaaaaalllly?

One of the funniest things that we realized, was Papi kept yelling, "Hey!" and in Spanish, Hay means today.

So, in all reality, Papi was really telling them to hurry it on up!  "Today!  Today!"

It wasn't their fault.  Papi egged them on.