Without a doubt, the hardest part about being in Haiti (sorry Aathi, I mean the second hardest part) is my lack of independence. Because of a combination of the lack/unreliability/difficulty of public transportation or taxis and my security rules (warranted or not), I can't really go anywhere by myself in Port-au-Prince unless I can walk there from my guest house.
So last weekend I was very excited when I found out that there was a movie playing (this is very exciting in a country with not one single movie theater) at a bar that, according to google maps, was only a few blocks from my guest house! So off I went, with a little map drawn on a piece of paper just like I used to do in the pre-iphone days, excited to be going out into the world without a private driver, and very excited about seeing a pirated DVD on a screen bigger than my laptop.
I supposed I will never know if I found the intersections where google maps told me the bar was, but considering how long I wandered around I'm sure I passed it at least once. But it doesn't really matter, because google was off by about a mile. And of course nobody I asked had ever heard of the bar I was looking for.
So I thought I had learned my lesson, and today I asked the woman who runs my guest house how to find the hotel/restaurant/pool where she suggested I spend the afternoon. You won't fool me again, google maps!
An hour and a half later, after asking at least half a dozen people for directions, I bought a sandwich from the grocery store and brought it back to my guest house to eat in front of my survey code.
So last weekend I was very excited when I found out that there was a movie playing (this is very exciting in a country with not one single movie theater) at a bar that, according to google maps, was only a few blocks from my guest house! So off I went, with a little map drawn on a piece of paper just like I used to do in the pre-iphone days, excited to be going out into the world without a private driver, and very excited about seeing a pirated DVD on a screen bigger than my laptop.
I supposed I will never know if I found the intersections where google maps told me the bar was, but considering how long I wandered around I'm sure I passed it at least once. But it doesn't really matter, because google was off by about a mile. And of course nobody I asked had ever heard of the bar I was looking for.
So I thought I had learned my lesson, and today I asked the woman who runs my guest house how to find the hotel/restaurant/pool where she suggested I spend the afternoon. You won't fool me again, google maps!
An hour and a half later, after asking at least half a dozen people for directions, I bought a sandwich from the grocery store and brought it back to my guest house to eat in front of my survey code.
