The UN, Sri Lankans, and why Esther wants to marry a foreigner

As you may or may not be aware, the UN has a very visible presence in Haiti. UN soldiers are everywhere around here.

Now, one "fun fact" (sarcasm alert!) about some of these soldiers is that they are apparently from Speedo-wearing countries. Which makes the beach ULTRA obnoxious. For some reason, I find random naked Haitians on the beach less objectionable than the Speedo-donning Sri Lankan soldiers.

I have a tendency to tease Esther (mercilessly) when we're at the beach and just say stupid things like, "Oh look Esther, it's your boyfriend." She gets all flustered and embarrassed and vociferously denies it. Which makes it even more fun. So then it morphed to basically teasing Esther about any non-Haitian man being her boyfriend.

Tonight my mom took all 10 of us HCH Mangine's (including Nahomie and Esther) out to Cyvadier Plague for french fries and sodas. While we were there this little old white man with white hair came into the restaurant and sat down a few tables over. I just looked over at Esther and raised my eyebrows, as if to say, "You know he's your boyfriend." Worked like a charm. She started laughing.

But then Nahomie pipes in with, "You know Gwenn, you tease Esther a lot about all these guys, but she actually told me that she wants to marry a blan (a foreigner.) "

So then we all piped in with the laughing.

But Nahomie went on. She said, "But she's thought a lot about it and she has a good reason for wanting to marry a blan."

This of course interested me so I asked her why. I imagined it had to do with money. But I was wrong.

She said, "Most people think it's okay for Haitian men beat their wives a lot. And I don't want to be beat, so I'd rather marry a blan."

Hmmm. Not really where to file that comment. I thought I shouldn't just leave that comment hanging so I said, "Good reason."

Ahh.... everyday these cultural events. What a weirdo life.