Stats 101: extremely methodological

Haiti statistics for the curious

- Number of get-out-of-the-way-or-be-a-pancake honks per ten minutes of walking on a Haitian road: 10

- Average # of tablespoons of peanut butter I eat a day: 4 -5 big ones. It’s REALLY good here!

- Number of times I wash my hair per week: ‘bout 2 (I still brush and floss teeth regularly!)

- Average age to start sending kid to school: probably about 3, or the Haitians are just stunted and TINY! (If you can afford school, send ‘em as soon as possible before $ runs out cause it’s not free in Haiti.) If you can walk, you go to school!

- Average cost for box of imported healthy bran cereal: 6 + US dollars

- Cost for a mug of coffee off the street: 14 cents

- Cost for 1 pint olive oil: $10

- Cost for a gallon of gas: about $6

- Cost for roughly a gallon of milk (imported in BOXES from FRANCE!) : > $6 (I’ve taken to the powdered stuff—not bad!)

- Cost for a bottle of good Argentine red wine: < $4 (yay!!!)

- Number of spray bottles of deet I consume per month: 3/4

- Number of cell phone card vendors per 10 minute walk outside in Port-au-Prince: 5

- Age I probably resemble when I speak Creole: about 6 by now! And this is how I request technical accounting procedures…nice!

- Cost of a can of black beans (available at most American groceries for 59 cents): $2

- Cost for a bag of uncooked black beans that will make a LOT of beans, and make me feel smart and economical: < $1

- Number of times I have successfully cooked the cheap black beans: 0/2

(The first bean bake fiasco almost resulted in burning down my apartment in Paris. Tonight was a close call deja-vu. And this is after I specifically asked my mother how to avoid another Paris incident. What is it about me and black beans abroad?!! Tomorrow night: Garbanzos!!)

Yes, I did used to work at Census Bureau, source of all things statistical. Can you tell?!