Reflections

The other day we stopped at the Mass Graves on our way home from Grace Village. When we first arrived,  Wilson and Brunit shared with us a little bit about the earthquake that hit on January 12, 2010. Wilson shared with us that he was in school the day of the earthquake and had gone out to get a bottle of water from a commons area. When he turned back to go back to his class he felt the ground shake. He then witnessed his three level school collapse down on itself to the ground. He lost all of his classmates and teachers. Can you imagine the fear, the shock, the unbelievable grief? I cannot even fathom experiencing something of this gravity. He was telling us it is estimated that 300,000 people died that day. People would recover bodies and put them on the curb to be hauled away by a dump truck. A dump truck, piled high with people...They took these truckloads up to the countryside and dumped them in a big hole. Wilson told me he was able to find his Father's body and he believes he is buried at the Mass Graves. 150,000 people were buried at the site we visited.

We climbed up to the top of the hill and overlooked this massive burial grounds. When we were at the top I looked down and noticed the memorial that some guys prayed with Wilson near on our last trip. The area around it was overgrown, there was graffiti on it and it looked as though it has been forgotten. I asked Wilson about it and he said the new president had a new memorial made for the anniversary this year and that they did a big presentation of it. They made three stages. One for the president, one for the press and one for the people who would attend. Because of the production, they took down all of the black crosses that we're placed there to "clean it up" as Wilson said. I looked at Wilson confused and said, " So you're telling me that the President wanted to make a big deal out of the anniversary and so he had a new memorial built and basically took out all the things placed before?" "Yes," he replied. "Why did he do that when there was already a nice memorial in place?" Wilson looked at me and like it was no big deal said, "He made a new one." I was angry....Angry with the corruption of the government. The president made the anniversary about politics and about making him popular with the people. He had to make a NEW memorial so he could say he was doing this for his people. Really? When you stand by the new memorial, off to the side, less than 50 yards away stands the forgotten memorial. This made me so sad....So very sad for the corruption of the political system in Haiti. It is not about the people, it is about power and deceit. Praying for God to work in the Hearts of the leaders in this country!