DERNIÈRE JOURNÉE

It became evident that it was going to be difficult to transition myself from Haiti and sever the ties established over my nine months as resident and teacher. Two days before my departure, Cyclone Chantal was gathering momentum in the Caribbean and threatening the southeast coast. Looming large in my morning view of the sea was a swell of dark clouds and lightning attesting to this. It was suggested to me that it would be prudent to make the trip to Port-au-Prince and wait out the storm at a hotel in order to be close to the airport – the real hazard being that heavy rains would cause mudslides on the mountain road (the sole road from Jacmel) making it impassable – possibly for days. So as my bungalow was being boarded up, I said quick goodbyes and embarked with Godly, our faithful chauffeur, on the three and a half hour road trip to the capital. Rain came and went as we crossed the bald mountain ridges and I could see the fault lines where mudslides seemed sure to happen. We arrived in PAP as the rain began – at the famous Hotel Oloffson, a throw back in time to the 40’s and 50’s – where Graham Greene, Jackie O and Barry Goldwater, among many other notables, stayed when Haiti was a different sort of destination. Unique for its Victorian style, towering wooden frame and intricate latticework – surrounded by a jungle of palms and exotic verdure and with fountains and shallow pools, the Oloffson could be a dreamscape where the spirits of its former guests return to the bar for one last cocktail. The hotel’s warped floorboards, slanted corridors and listing roofs seem to flow towards the central lobby like channels along which the spirits travel. Perhaps the hotel is not a dreamscape at all but an eccentric grande dame who gathers her children to her bosom to tell spooky bedtime stories in her creaking-floor voice. Fitting then that my last blog posting would be from this impressive white anomaly as the rains pour down and the winds swirl.