Day of the Dead

The 2nd of November was the day of the dead here in Haiti. Mostly that means a big voodoo festival, but seeing as I am new here, I haven't yet witnessed any explicit voodoo.. I know, however, despite my scepticism, that it is not something to mess around with. I'm sure in time I will see some of the otherwordly things they do.. and I'll keep you informed.

Every thursday, the hospital where I am currently staying take their unclaimed dead to a mass burial site just outside Port au Prince. On the Day of the Dead, a mass is held there, which i went along to, curious to see this site and to connect a little more with the reality here.. the reality of death all around.

Cars were leaving from the hospital and I was climbing into the back of a pick-up truck when I was ordered inside the car.. "This isnt tourism," Sister Judy said, "we're driving through areas where there's been kidnappings of blancs[whites]".. This woman is American, and a little bossy to say the least.

We drove out of Port au Prince, to the north, until the houses were fewer and fewer and all that was left was a barren hill with spread out shack and tents.. Thousands of people had been relocated there from the inner city tent-cities, but they had not been provided with any facilities like water, sanitation, electricity, so most ended up going back.. Just another example of misdirected goodwill.

We then got to a road really close to the sea that was glistening and blue. It looked so inviting and also spooky.. as we drove, Sister Judy explained that before this burial site was adopted by the organisation, the state dumped the thousands of dead bodies in the sea. Human bones drifted back onto shore and clothing could be found along the coast. We then drove up a tiny dirt track into thick thick smoke. Piles of garbage were burning on the hills around us. 

We arrived in this eery landscape, on the day of the dead and were met by a dozen, even eerier, nuns, who had traveled from their convent to the mass.

There were a few crosses stuck in the ground, but they were not marking individual graves.. each grave had hundreds of people in.

This is a site where hundreds of thousands of people were laid to rest (dumped) after the earthquake, nameless, forgotten, their families still not knowing their whereabouts.

The nuns sang in the mass, songs in creole, english, french.. and the rituals were performed in their usual fashion.. weird and surreal to me. The day was in honour of the dead, and the point of the mass was to pray for the sould of the people buried here and to ask them to pray for us down here. A faint rainbow appeared in the sky (it was kinda raining, not really that weird) and the small crowd all jeered and echoed 'oh my goodness', 'a gift from god'... Yeh.. a little annoying. Anyway.. the site itself was not annoying.. It was an area of three rolling hills and the third in the distance was where the burying began.. thousands of people dead from the Duvalier regime, then hundreds of thousands from the earthquake, then cholera, and all the other ailments inflicting these poor people, up to the spot where we stood. And to our left, another hill, which will soon be full as well.

Burials here in Haiti are BIIIIG business.. Praying for the souls of the dead, and a big send-off into the afterlife is one of the few things that even the poorest of Haitians will spend THOUSANDS of dollars on!! It's so sad. They cannot afford to feed their kids or send them to school, yet they will do anything they can to provide an expensive funeral for a loved one.

The people buried at this site by the hospital priest, are those who were so poor, they were abandoned in death.

Then the band started playing some happy music (there's always a band, and a party at the end) and the ceremony was over."When the Saints"

I left feeling very moved. Happy to have seen the site.. reflecting, and reminded of all that has happened here.. and continues to happen. And amazed at the beauty of the landscape as we drove away from the hills back towards the sea over which the sun was setting, the city sprawling out below us..

Will my heart ever learn to cope with the tragedy here..