Giant!

I'm sure that in the past I've written about my favorite grocery store in all of Haiti, Giant (not the same as the US store), but I can't remember so I'm going to write again.

Giant grocery store is located in a part of Port-au-Prince called Petionville.  It is "up the hill" from the port and know as the bourgeois part of the city.  Giant is a two story grocery store with a parking garage under the building an an elevator inside the store.  This is basically unheard of in Haiti.

I was able to go to Giant quite frequently while living with Dorothy because we had a vehicle.  However, now that I'm in my apartment, I am about three miles downhill of Giant.  That makes it much more difficult to get there.

This week, I heard that they were having a 15% off sale on groceries!  Groceries here are at least double (or more) the cost of groceries in the states.  So, of course as soon as I heard about the sale I knew I had to make a trip to Giant at some point this week.

Yesterday was that lucky day!  I know to all you readers this will sound crazy, but all day I was just looking forward to going to Giant.  It has been almost a month since I've been in a store comparable to something in the U.S.  When I'm at Giant, I don't feel so far from home, and for about an hour I forget that I'm in Haiti (as long as I disregard the armed guard at the door and the fact that all the prices are in gourdes and not USD). I also get to enjoy their air conditioning!

As much as I enjoy shopping at Giant, it is always an inner struggle while I am there.  Outside the walls are people living in tart tents and children running around barely clothed.  The only place that they can afford to buy food is from the street vendors along side the road.  Inside the store are rich Haitians, NGO's, UN troops, and missionaries...basically the only people in the country that can afford to shop in such a lavish place.  While I am thrilled that something as clean and lovely as Giant exists in Haiti, I feel like a rich snob when I shop there.  Funny, that's what makes me feel like I'm back in the US?  Something isn't right there.  Lord, help us.