Approximately 70% of the work force in Port au Prince is technically unemployed. That figure, and those workers shape much of what Haiti looks like today. Those workers form a shadowy and chaotic informal economy that is difficult to assess and impossible for the central government to tax. That economy may in a small way distribute wealth, but it certainly does not create wealth. The streetside vendors sell anything imaginable, from computers to phones to water, to clothing, and in their hundreds of thousands belong to that economy. Because the disposable income of their patrons are so meager, the merchants are lucky to eke out a profit of a few dollars a day, and often it takes many members of a family improvising every day in order to survive.
Wherever I happen to be at the moment, from sunrise to sunset, I hear the melodic singsong calls or the bells of individual entrepeneurs incessantly walking the residential streets and vending their services, everything from knife sharpening to shoeshining, to repair of pots and pans.
Today was a full day. Gene has his car back from the repair shop, so we didn't have to walk. We drove to the IT office, where we took care of some business (including resolving a credit card issue for Gene) then drove to a cell phone provider to figure out why my cell phone didn't work. About an hour and $35 later, I walked out with a working cell phone. I am getting used to the pace of Haiti.
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