Scene This Week

On one of my guest tours this week we stopped at the Olafson Hotel. On the grounds there was work being done to create a completely mobile stage for Haiti's first all Creole opera. Nick Whalen, one of our guests, had been able to secure an interview with the director, Hans Fels one evening. Fels had told him, "This country is so beaten, they deserve a good opera for a change". The opera will tour the Haitian countryside as well as the major cities. The numerous paintings were brilliantly done by a Port au Prince tap tap (taxi) painter. The painting below depicts the blowing of the conch shell which is the symbol of the beginning of the Haitian revolution for independence from French slavery. You can view Nick's complete article and photos by going to: berkshireeagle.com "Dispatches from Haiti"




I noticed this hotel as I looked over the trees beyond the Olafson Hotel. I asked a Haitian workman what it was and he said it was the "Hotel de Haiti" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier used to live there when he was in power. It looked abandoned at this point but would have overlooked the ocean and been a prime location in its day. Port au Prince has many buildings which give indication of its former glory and hopefully one day soon the fortunes of the city and the country will improve.

This week we heard a huge "boom" which announced that another truck tire had met its match in one of our potholes in front of the guest house. The inside of the rear dual was finished. What I found especially interesting was the caption on the truck. Obviously it once said: "Trust in God" but was now reduced to "Rust in God". Various applications can be made. When trust wanes, faith gets rusty. Or - over time if trust erodes, we need to re-establish our spiritual priorities to give a creditable witness. Or - just because a person does trust, it doesn't mean that negative circumstances won't still occur - like blown tires. Or - you can add your own. At any rate, the water haulers decided there wasn't much they could do to fix it with a full load of water so they got back in the truck and continued on at a slower pace. An example of blind _rust.