Porch Productions has been traveling to Haiti since May to produce short promotional documentaries for Hospital Albert Schweitzer, which is a hospital in central Haiti that serves about 300,000 people....
Our last trip to Haiti was at the beginning of this month and it was on this trip that I returned my Rosenstein stone to the land. Early one morning I took the stone up the mountain behind the hospital. I planned to leave it where many Haitians go to pray and commune with others and their surroundings. When I arrived I found that the place was marked by a large old tree that was surrounded by a pile of stones. This was clearly the place. After I left my stone among the others, I was told that each of the stones represented somebody’s burden and were brought to this place as part of a common ritual to find acknowledgement and relief from whatever is weighing on someone. There were hundreds of stones at the base of this tree that represented the countless hardships of life in Haiti. This experience helped clarify for me the purpose and power of grief and empathy and ritual and community and faith. Thank you. Matt Anderson
November 27, 2009
Haiti
