Djari Theophilo, one of the few Brazilian civilians living in Haiti, had an alarming experience after Brazil defeated Argentina in this summer's Americas Cup Soccer Championship.
Hundreds of thousands of self-proclaimed "Brazil fanatics" poured into the streets. People sang and cried, car horns honked, dogs barked, guns were fired into the air.
This is normal behavior in Haiti whenever Brazil plays soccer. What upset Theophilo was the lone Haitian who, in a frenzy, tore off his yellow Brazil jersey and began rubbing it on his face, and then seized Theophilo's hand and began kissing it, shouting: "I love Brazil! I love your country!"
Theophilo shook his head as he recalled the incident. "I urged him to calm down, it was too much," he said. "In Brazil, we have a party when our team plays, but in Haiti it is insanity. The Haitians are bigger fans of Brazil than we Brazilians."
Haiti's 40-year love affair with Brazilian soccer has grown to obsessive proportions over the past decade, and the outpouring of emotion Theophilo encountered on July 25 may be tame compared with what could happen on Wednesday, when Brazil's national team, accompanied by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, arrives here to play an exhibition against Haiti.
The match, in which Brazilian players paid millions of dollars will face off against a Haitian team whose players have not been paid since April last year, is expected to buoy spirits here and give a public relations lift to both the interim Haitian government and the UN peacekeeping force anchored by 1,200 Brazilians in the capital.
The match was conceived as part of a disarmament plan in which guns would be exchanged for tickets, but that plan was scrapped for fear of alienating law-abiding Haitians. Now the Brazilians, who are leading the mission here, are billing the match as a gesture of peace and brotherhood, one that reinforces their standing as they wait for the multinational force to reach its full strength of 6,700 troops.
Franklin Desir, an unemployed bus driver, is a member of Bas Tanga, one of dozens of fan clubs around the city dedicated to Brazilian soccer. Most Haitians are too poor to own televisions so the club's 5,000 or so members -- essentially the entire neighborhood of Delmas 55, where Desir lives -- gather around televisions on sidewalks or in neighborhood storefronts to watch their team play.
When asked why they like Brazilian soccer, Haitians often point out that the players are black like themselves, or, simply puzzled at the question, answer, "Because I'm Haitian," or, "It's part of Haitian culture."
Junior Laroque, a 20-year old dockworker and Citoyens Reunis member who sports a green and yellow cap, explained: "I like their style, the way they move the ball. And they're confident and cool, not like the excitable Germans and Italians."
President da Silva has asked the Brazilian national team not to run up the score against the Haitians.
"He doesn't want us to spoil the party," said Ricardo Teixeira, president of the Brazilian Soccer Federation. All of the big name stars on the team have agreed to play, which is not always the case for "friendly" matches.
But such worldly concerns were far from the minds of those gathered at a soccer fan club in Cite Soleil, a desperate slum district here in the capital. Asked about the prospect of a Haitian victory over Brazil, they laughed at first, then fell silent for a moment, as if pondering the unlikely scenario for the first time.
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