Just another day in Haiti- kleenex required

I am a morning person. I like the peace of the morning, the quiet entry into the day with coffee, reading or sitting. In Haiti I rise early, make coffee (thank you Lili!) and read my email. I have developed the habit of daily mass as ritual is comforting to me and this keeps me connected to what is happening outside the walls of the hospital. I have not yet ventured beyond the gates.
The chapel had 3 caskets in front of the altar this morning and it was standing room only. These are the brothers and only family of 2 former orphans from nph. They were pulled from the rubble yesterday and brought to the chapel for a proper burial. Although the mass was in Creole, the homily was given twice, the second time in English and it was perfect. It is difficult to capture this in a few words but we are in phase 2. Phase one was a rush to help, to pull bodies, to rescue, to operate to amputate etc. It was done quickly and was so all consuming that you did not think- you acted which allowed people to work without profound grief getting in the way. But phase 2 involves caring for the living and burying the dead. It is painful as people form new families to care for those who have lost everything. And now we have to care for the limbless and help them form a new life. And we mourn and bury and weep and hug and this is the ritual to water the seeds we plant in the ground to rebuild Haiti. I have not done his words justice. But we are to reach out a grab what is good and hold fast to enable us to get through phase 2. so what is good? The 4 languages I heard in the kitchen this morning, the weeping during a service for strangers that says we care, the laughter of little children, new babies, strangers becoming friends. Love for each other, faith that things will get better and hope for the future.
The sisters of St Teresa have been paying the bandits 200.00 Haitian dollars to uncover their dead sisters to give them a proper burial. They now reside next to the chapel here. And now the sisters have asked these thieves to uncover the 200 children that lie beneath a school so that they can have a proper burial and Father Rick says they will also come to this chapel. Lord give me and all of us in Haiti strength.