This is a follow up to yesterday's blog entry regarding Jon Lacore's short term medical mission to Haiti's impoverished Cite Soleil.Jon's most memorable moment in Haiti was far from his most enjoyable. On Thursday he and Chris, a volunteer from Vermont, joined Father Rick on his weekly trip to the morgue. “I’d seen dead bodies in Iraq,” said Lacore, “and you learn to distance yourself emotionally.” But the morgue in Cite Soleil was so inhumane that he and Chris were stunned. The bodies were just thrown into piles in a semi-refrigerated room. More stunning still was the selfless service of Father Rick and his staff.
“Every week the nun and priest that we worked with go to the morgue to collect the bodies of babies and adults that have been found on the side of the streets. They bring paper mache coffins to bury them in. They fill these coffins with about 10-15 babies in each one. When there are no more babies they put adults in the remaining coffins. We filled 20 coffins,” he said. “About half were babies, and half were adults.”
Jon shared that he and Chris talked rather casually while driving to the morgue, but after seeing the piles of bodies and carrying them to the coffins, returning to the orphanage was another story. They were silent and reflective afterwards. Jon is still processing what he experienced, as am I though I was not even there.
“We took the coffins out to a designated area where some men went ahead of us to dig graves," he said. "We buried these coffins while Father Rick performed a Catholic burial ceremony. It was the most disturbing moment and yet I was very glad that I did it because it opened my eyes to the unbelievable selfless service of the parish we worked with. They wanted to give a human touch to the poor and destitute who die in the streets of Port Au Prince without families to care for them, or anyone for that matter.” For two decades or more Father Rick has faithfully returned to the morgue each Thursday to show respect for and dignify the deaths of these unknown and unnamed Haitians.
“Every week the nun and priest that we worked with go to the morgue to collect the bodies of babies and adults that have been found on the side of the streets. They bring paper mache coffins to bury them in. They fill these coffins with about 10-15 babies in each one. When there are no more babies they put adults in the remaining coffins. We filled 20 coffins,” he said. “About half were babies, and half were adults.”
Jon shared that he and Chris talked rather casually while driving to the morgue, but after seeing the piles of bodies and carrying them to the coffins, returning to the orphanage was another story. They were silent and reflective afterwards. Jon is still processing what he experienced, as am I though I was not even there.“We took the coffins out to a designated area where some men went ahead of us to dig graves," he said. "We buried these coffins while Father Rick performed a Catholic burial ceremony. It was the most disturbing moment and yet I was very glad that I did it because it opened my eyes to the unbelievable selfless service of the parish we worked with. They wanted to give a human touch to the poor and destitute who die in the streets of Port Au Prince without families to care for them, or anyone for that matter.” For two decades or more Father Rick has faithfully returned to the morgue each Thursday to show respect for and dignify the deaths of these unknown and unnamed Haitians.
There may be as many as one billion people living in abject poverty in this world. May those who are devoted to the task of alleviating a measure of this suffering be encouraged and blessed.
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