"While I was painting one of the pictures in Cap-Haitien a priest stopped to talk to me saying he also painted and invited me to visit him at his village about 10 miles away. So, on my last day in Cap-Haitien I caught one of the brightly painted vans with seats in the back, that provided most of the transport on Haiti, for a very bumpy ride along a dirt track to the village.
 
The village of small tin-roofed huts was a centre for coffee growing, and coffee beans were to be seen everywhere laid out on mats in the sun to dry. The priest who spoke good English had a small house full of paintings, many of them quite large canvases, of scenes in and around the village, all painted in bold, bright colours. After a drink of coffee he took me on a tour of his village and to meet some of the people, and visit the church and school where I was introduced to the pupils and generally be made to feel very welcome. In the afternoon I was able to sit on the porch of his house to paint the picture above looking down the main street." - MH