Living near a highway in Haiti you typically hear a loud bang once or twice a week. These are tire blowouts, something very rare in the states. Haiti roads are rough, often with potholes, and vehicles of all kinds come and go – large and small – trucks, cars, tractors with long wagons, and pickups called tap-taps loaded with people. Also, most roads are loaded with pedestrians who walk with the stream of traffic, not against it.
Blowouts are common not only because the road is rough and unrepaired, but also because the road vehicles use tires that are retreaded, may not be properly balanced, and often the vehicles are overloaded for the tire capacity,
So loud bangs are common, and each time you worry in fear that a vehicle will careen out of control, striking another vehicle, people walking along the road, or go off the road and crash.
This is a difference so striking from our day-to-day experiences in the US. But, it is common for Haitians to accept it as just another of the kinds of things that are a normal part of life.
Tire-repair shops are ubiquitous all over Haiti. They are outside, along the road, and have several old tires (mostly with new retreads) all around. There will be a compressed air cylinder lying flat, a sledgehammer or two, and several large prying wrenches to wedge off the flat tire from the rim. It doesn’t cost very much to have a tire changed.
So BANG, screech, stop, get out the jack, have the people get down and stand along the roadside, walk a short distance to get the tire fixed. In as little as a half-hour, you can see the people climbing back on and the bus or truck slowly gets back on the road; heading to deliver its people onward in Haiti.
Another facet of the rich, complex, and fascinating culture that is Haiti.