How many languages do you have to speak to work in Haiti?

There are some days in Haiti when I speak four different languages in the same day. It's kind of exhausting.

I came to Haiti hoping that whatever I could remember from my high school French would be enough. I don't know where I got that idea. First, high school was a long time ago. Second, Caribbean French is doesn't quite sound like the Parisian French they taught us in Hinesburg, Vermont (and nothing like Quebecois!). Third, most people don't even speak French anyway.

So I'm trying to pick up some Creole. Lucky for me, Creole is as easy as French is hard. It's like what you'd get if a seven-year-old English speaker tried to write down French words, and then took out all the grammar. No string of extra letters that you don't pronounce, no verb conjugations, no subjunctive, no gender, no polite and familiar ways of saying "you" - it's kind of amazing.

And when both French and Creole fail me, I sometimes luck out and find myself in the company of a Spanish speaker. And after I clear my head of broken French and beginner Creole, I can actually have real conversations with people.