Beyond the mountain is a valley. There will be my abode forever.
December 19, 2017 5:52 AM Subscribe
The 10 men step into their white polypropylene coveralls, zip them up, and then snap on latex gloves. Some knot plastic bags around their running shoes. Others fashion white funeral palls into makeshift surgical caps. One worker fishes out a pack of menthol cigarettes from his pocket and offers them around. Another twists open a mickey of rum, tips back a bracing slug and hands it to the man beside him, who does the same. They are steeling themselves for the grisly task ahead.
It is 11 on a hot September morning in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the men have come to collect the unclaimed dead, abandoned in the morgues of the biggest funeral parlor on downtown’s Rue de l’Enterrement — Burial Road.
The men who have finally come to their rescue aren’t friends or relatives. They don’t know their individual stories. But they recognize poverty. “They didn’t have a chance,” says Raphaël Louigene, the burial team’s stocky, soft-spoken leader. “They spent their lives in misery, they died in misery.”
Mr. Louigene and the other men work for the St. Luke Foundation for Haiti, a charitable organization started in 2000 to help the country’s poorest. It was started by the men’s boss and father figure, Rick Frechette, an American Catholic priest and doctor. For the past decade, the team has come to collect the abandoned dead and bury them in a distant cemetery. There aren’t any headstones. a funeral pall, a coffin, a grave, some uplifting hymns and solemn prayers.
The men who have finally come to their rescue aren’t friends or relatives. They don’t know their individual stories. But they recognize poverty. “They didn’t have a chance,” says Raphaël Louigene, the burial team’s stocky, soft-spoken leader. “They spent their lives in misery, they died in misery.”
Mr. Louigene and the other men work for the St. Luke Foundation for Haiti, a charitable organization started in 2000 to help the country’s poorest. It was started by the men’s boss and father figure, Rick Frechette, an American Catholic priest and doctor. For the past decade, the team has come to collect the abandoned dead and bury them in a distant cemetery. There aren’t any headstones. a funeral pall, a coffin, a grave, some uplifting hymns and solemn prayers.
This is beautifully written, thanks for posting it.
posted by desuetude at 7:16 AM on December 19, 2017
posted by desuetude at 7:16 AM on December 19, 2017
I haven't read the linked articles but many years ago I worked for Father Rich Frechette in Haiti. Suffice it to say that I am not a fan. He chronically underpaid Haitian workers and, when I complained, said that paying them more would "destroy the Haitian economy."
He told me a story about how, when cleaning his office, Haitian employees would put artwork up with the fronts facing the wall because "poor Haitians don't understand because they don't have things hanging on their walls." He told this story to "explain" to me that the Haitian people who worked for him loved him but really were "stupid" not -- as I'd suggested -- subtly undermining him as their only viable way to protest his racism and colonial attitude.
I've got many more stories about this "White Savior" and his problematic organizations. Suffice it to say, please read any articles about him with some skepticism.
posted by mcduff at 7:41 AM on December 19, 2017 [7 favorites]
He told me a story about how, when cleaning his office, Haitian employees would put artwork up with the fronts facing the wall because "poor Haitians don't understand because they don't have things hanging on their walls." He told this story to "explain" to me that the Haitian people who worked for him loved him but really were "stupid" not -- as I'd suggested -- subtly undermining him as their only viable way to protest his racism and colonial attitude.
I've got many more stories about this "White Savior" and his problematic organizations. Suffice it to say, please read any articles about him with some skepticism.
posted by mcduff at 7:41 AM on December 19, 2017 [7 favorites]
Not to disagree with anything mcduff is saying, because I don't know anything about the situation in Haiti, but I will say that these articles focus primarily on the Haitian men who are conducting these burials and Haitian families who are involved.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:49 AM on December 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 7:49 AM on December 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
ChuraChura: Thank you for adding that. I don't want to take anything away from the Haitian men and families in the articles.
As I said, I haven't read the articles. Seeing Frechette's name really brought back some really difficult memories for me.
posted by mcduff at 7:53 AM on December 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
As I said, I haven't read the articles. Seeing Frechette's name really brought back some really difficult memories for me.
posted by mcduff at 7:53 AM on December 19, 2017 [2 favorites]
> Suffice it to say, please read any articles about him with some skepticism.
Thanks for adding your experience. Even without really knowing anything about Frechette, I picked up that "White Savior" vibe and was suspicious about how humbly he behaves with the ordinary Haitian populace. The middle of the article where Frechette and his work is described is...well, he sounds like a character in a movie, honestly. It's a bit breathless. Thankfully, the majority of the article focuses on Haitians. Those who work on the burial team, the owners of the funeral parlor where the bodies are stored, and people whose loved ones were likely buried by the St. Luke's team.
posted by desuetude at 10:15 AM on December 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Thanks for adding your experience. Even without really knowing anything about Frechette, I picked up that "White Savior" vibe and was suspicious about how humbly he behaves with the ordinary Haitian populace. The middle of the article where Frechette and his work is described is...well, he sounds like a character in a movie, honestly. It's a bit breathless. Thankfully, the majority of the article focuses on Haitians. Those who work on the burial team, the owners of the funeral parlor where the bodies are stored, and people whose loved ones were likely buried by the St. Luke's team.
posted by desuetude at 10:15 AM on December 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
.
posted by quadrilaterals at 11:02 AM on December 19, 2017
posted by quadrilaterals at 11:02 AM on December 19, 2017
« Older Women's March 2018. It's on. 1/20/2018. Planet... | ‘I found the poems in the fields / And only wrote... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Dip Flash at 7:00 AM on December 19, 2017