La Pulga

Yesterday Darnell decided that we needed a girls day out so Darnell, myself and Jackie from s/v Blackthorn Lady decided to take a trip to the nearby town of Imbert to visit the Haitian Flea Market, or La Pulga. The 30 minute gua gua ride was an easy one because we paid for an extra seat so that we could have only the three of us in back seat of a compact car, instead of the usual four.  Believe me, its worth the RD$60!

The flea market takes place every Thursday.  There are Haitian markets in towns all across the Dominican Republic, with some really big ones along the border of Haiti and in some of the larger towns.  Imbert is not a large town, so the flea market is probably small compared to some of the other ones.  The Haitians are selling items that are donated to their government as foreign aid. You can find toiletries, clothing, shoes, bags and all sorts of stuff. We saw lots of clothing from Old Navy, Gap and even Abercrombie. Some of the vendors are more organized and have nicer things, some of the clothes even have the tags still attached.  Some of them just put the clothes out in a big pile that you dig through.  For some you must ask the price and be ready to haggle, others just shout out that everything in their pile is one price (treinta, treinta, todo a treinta).  We even saw people sleeping on top of their piles.

Haiti is the poorest county in the western hemisphere.  Most of the people there make less than $2.00 US per day.  Many are illiterate and the widespread deforestation has led to soil erosion making farming impossible and leading to many many other problems.  There are some great organization out there with wonderful people helping the people of Haiti.  Oddly enough, we met one of those people at Leverick Bay in the British Virgin Islands. Michael Beans of The Legendary Micheal Beans Show raises funds for The Good Samaritan Foundation of Haiti, Inc.  Please take a minute to check out both web sites.  Michael Beans Show for fun and The Good Samaritan because you might feel the need to help them help Haiti.

Piles and piles of clothes to dig through

Darnell found something!

Too bad I didn't need any men's dress shoes

Toiletries

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