The Three Owls!
Haiti Port -Au-Prince the Hotel Oloffson ( where the customer is always wrong!)
Hotel Oloffson
I am staying in Mick Jagger's former suite-room at the famous Hotel Oloffson located in the center or Port-Au-Prince , where behind the hotel front desk the eccentric American owner Al has a posted sign behind the reception front desk that reads “The Customer is always wrong” no surprise he was from NYC-
The hotel is frequented by adventurous International tourists as well as by Port -Au- Prince elite, local politicians and business owners , rascals and thieves, the hotel is a funky diamond in the rough. Nearby an elegant French Restaurant is packed nightly , while voodoo drums beat in the distance. Location location location.
I am with a small group of friends from St. Thomas, Patty and Gordon Brown, Louise Noble, and my girlfriend Pauline Russell from Toronto, my actual restaurant financial backer hence business partner Elly Heckert wisely stayed in St. Thomas, we or rather I am in Haiti to pick up a shipment of elegantly designed high backed wrought iron chairs, that have been hand made by a Christian missionary group located high up in the barren mountains overlooking Port-Au-Prince, the tree bark of the once lush mountain forest stripped bare for the purpose of making charcoal for the locals to cook whatever moves, the chairs are for my as yet to be named, soon to open restaurant in St. Thomas USVI. One hundred of these high backed chairs, painted white, ten bucks apiece. A deal.
This delivery came with situations. The main situation being that the chairs are not ready when we arrive. Hence we have a few days to do some sightseeing in the town, which turns out to be an adventure. After a couple of hours at the main market square in Port -Au-Prince, where I have purchased several large wicker baskets that I assume turned upside down and equipped with wiring and a bulb would make great lamps for the new restaurant, and where I had or rather chose to do a couple of dance moves with the seller to some Haitian folk music to get the price down , fifty cents apiece, not bad. Though sometime later the termite residents of the wicker came out for air.
On a walk alone that day directly in front of the presidential palace of Baby Doc I witness something I will not forget, three members of the Tonton Macoute waving their machetes high in the air then dragging a defenseless man (who had been begging at the main entrance to Baby Doc Duvalier s Presidential Palace) behind a wood shed across the street where I heard sounds that still make me shudder. I left the scene as fast as possible. Still this day hard to believe what happened.
Apparently this was an everyday thing in those days, a way of Voodoo Baby Doc, the now deceased Voodoo Papa Docs son to wield power over his countries so called children. Tonton Macoute means basically bogeyman in Haitian folklore, someone who kidnaps children and eats them. Not sure if that is not true.
So the next time you are stopped by a State Trooper anywhere in the USA , remember they are comparatively gentle souls.
My haste to leave the scene and my bet was that Haiti had no witness protection system to offer me.
Anyway later that day our group decides to drive up the mountain in our rental car to visit Haiti's famous Barbancourt rum distillery. A group walk to town to see the Presidential Palace now seems like a bad idea. I told them why it would be , just once, it was enough to dissuade them from exploring downtown.
Having done the rum deal tour we are about to return to the Oloffson when I who am riding shotgun in our rental car am approached at my open window by two young Haitian dudes, who happen to have three baby owls in a cage, they are for sale it seems, thinking that to decline the sale offer would lead to the demise of the owls I decide to buy them, a buck apiece,seemed reasonable all things considered,and the Hotel Oloffson I had noticed had a large aviary on its garden property that was empty for some reason, I envisioned this as a new temporary home for the three birdies, my birdstormwas to see if I could return to St. Thomas with my three little new friends, I thought they would look good next to the shark-lobster tank I was building in the restaurant. Also sad to say I was contemplating naming the restaurant the “Three Owls In” (that is one in).
Let me add that currently I am no longer an advocate of caged birds, but this was during the 1970s, when I apparently was an advocate. On a side note just so you know, owls are among the bird worlds greatest predators, be thankful they only hunt at night. So its a wash.
So the bird purchase is a done deal, we return to the hotel, I put the birdies in their new temporary home, and plan on calling customs, or rather trying to call customs the next day, as in those days phone contact was iffy, and ask what paperwork was necessary to export baby owls. Really?
I am staying in the Mick Jagger suite, just thought I would throw that in here once again.
. Dinner that night is enjoyed voodoo drums and all at Victors French restaurant, all is good that night.
However I have a really bad morning, because when I go to check on my birdie babies, seems that low and behold they have flown the coup, apparently they had broken the lock that was on the aviary gate, amazing. So I thought that was that, I am going to need a new name for my restaurant. I assume someone from the staff had taking my birdies to/for dinner. Haiti a bit like Asia in those days, anything that moved was fair game as I mentioned before, its true, because saying it twice makes it so, works for politicians, why not me?.
The next day we decide to return to the Barbancourt Rum distillery to purchase some rum as gifts for friends in St. Thomas, we happen to be in a new vehicle belonging to a Haitian local we have made friends with. We pull up in front of the Barbancourt building, I am riding shotgun again, another knock on my tinted window, when I roll it down, boom I see my birdies and the bird scam salesman, he asks me if I want to buy his owls, I started to answer, but he had already left after realizing it be me,his former client. Apparently the bird-men people knew that the road we came up and down the mountain on led almost directly to the Hotel Oloffson and its aviary, hence the sale and repossession during the night,but truth be who knows, maybe they were homing owls, though the broken lock puzzled me.
Good news comes the next day! The chairs are finally ready! So begins the next challenge, that would be delivering those chairs to the airport for transport to St. Thomas. The only way is down mountain which is usually better than up a mountain , but this trip made more difficult because the only way down was by donkey cart, as this is my deal my friends leave this task and travel itinerary to me all by my lonesome, so myself commanding one cart and about six other carts and donkeys along with their Haitian jockeys, make the trip down the mountain to the American Airlines freight transport office at the International airport.
Arrangements are made and I personally direct the placement of the chairs into a deposit room for air cargo, I am told the chairs would be shipped in a few days.
Having accomplished our Haitian mission with the Haitian Christian Mission off we go into the wild blue yonder and St. Thomas. We are safely arrived in St. Thomas, the restaurant scheduled to be open in about a month, the chairs one of the last items very necessary to finalize the opening.
Slight problem, the chairs do not arrive as scheduled, and calling Haiti back then? Impossible, so after two weeks of no chairs I am on my way to Haiti again, this time solo, I arrive at the airport midday and go directly to the AA freight office, I voice my displeasure at the delay in shipment , and am answered by a few shrugs of Haitian shoulders, which is better than a few shrugs of machetes and shoulders by Haitian Tonton Macoute.
I walk over to the deposit room and there are my chairs exactly as I left them! So this time I decide to personally be freight shipped along with the chairs, this happens the next day. I am riding shotgun this time in a DC 3, well not exactly shotgun, that was the co-pilots deal, I was in the cargo hold at the rear of the plane along with my chairs,not comfortable seated, I traveled less than economy class, no real leg room, and the chairs had no cushions, but no crying babies either, other than those details the only other bed moment was when the planes pilots as a joke make a few quick lefts and rights, as the side hatch was wide open I failed to see the same humor.
However the trip was not terminal, pardon the airline pun, yet quite unforgettable.
PS Jeff and Ellys restaurant name?=Jellys Seafood Restaurant -turns out the Bird-men did me a name favor---
“World famous since 1976”, the same year it opened
End of this the Haitian Deal.
