Street conversations

[bcholmes]

I get in a lot of conversations on the street. The other day, some woman took a disliking to me, and ranted at me for several blocks in very fast kreyòl. I don't know what she was saying, but I think she was a little irrational because some guys in a gas station nearby were watching us, snickering.

And I get hit on. A lot. In Canada, I'm too old and too fat to be randomly hit on these days, but here, it seems like every other day some guy professes his love to me.

But I like some of the other conversations I have. A few days ago, one fellow was headed in the same direction as me, and we started chatting. His English vocabulary was good, but he had a heavy accent. He was studying law, and wanted to be a lawyer. He told me that his greatest hero was Malcolm X. And then we were talking about Obama and about how Obama's DNC speech was on the anniversary of King's "I have a dream" speech (even in Haiti, I'm having conversations about Obama). And that while he thought that MLK and Obama are powerful speakers, he still likes Malcolm X better.

I talked about some of the Malcolm X stuff that I really like, and agreed that he'd done some very important things. Then he asks, almost as if the possibility just occurred to him, "You're not a racist, are you?"

Me, I say, "What? No."

And he says, "But really, everybody's a bit racist." I nodded and said that I agreed with that.

And just about then, our paths diverged and we said our goodbyes.