VERTIÈRES, I, II, III

Vertières is the name of a district in the city of Cap-Haïtien, the site of a major battle in 1803, which had Napoleon’s army expelled from the island, making Haiti the first country to achieve independence. Louise Botkay comes back today to Vertières, and what does she see? Quiet schoolgirls leaving school as if running in slow motion, a painter making religious paintings, a church in ruins with hymns in the background, a world that survives regardless of all the ordeals.