Haiti
From
July 28 August 1st, Doug Clorey
and Attilio Galimberti
visited the Emergent Fraternity of Haiti.
The purpose of the visit was to express to the brothers and sisters of
Haiti the solidarity of the Secular Franciscan Order, to meet with the
Provisory National Council of Haiti, to verify the implementation of the
recommendations that were given to them during the course of the visit made in
June 2010, and to explore the possibility of further developing the Project
CIOFS for Haiti. Doug, Vice General
Minister of the OFS, represented The General Minister and the International
Presidency of the OFS in this visit; he took the opportunity to introduce Attilio, coordinator of the Project for Haiti for the
International Presidency. Attilio and his wife Rosa accepted the job of coordinating
the project for the Presidency CIOFS.
What follows is a short diary that reports the reflections and the
experiences that Attilio noted down during this
visit.
The arrangements of the airline schedules meant that,
on the trip from Milano to Haiti, we had a stopover of one day in New York. From there we flew to Port-au-Prince, the
capital, in less than five hours. I am
not sure if this is the reason, but, for me, the impact with the reality of
Haiti was very great. The heat, the
musical Caribbean ensemble that followed the travellers through the arrivals
area of the airport, and the general confusion reigning all around; the
sonority of the Haitian Creole dialect, the traffic in the city, the narrow and
terribly crowded roads, the signs still very evident of the earthquake, the tent-city
that we had to cross on our trip to the convent where we were staying,
everything was a source of a profound emotion that assailed us, but that was
difficult to define and grasp. This emotion increased when we saw the
people, who were everywhere, with their smiles, and the warmth with which we
were received by our secular brothers and sisters, as well as the hospitality
of the Brothers who were our hosts. It
seemed to me that I was in a kind of dream that made me dizzy.
Thus, in order to help one another, I will try to
show, with the history of my visit, to shed light on the particular situations
that we encountered, to help paint a clearer picture of the situation as I
lived it when I spent at least two months trying to make sense of and digesting
the situation.
Thursday, July 28: On this first day I was amazed particularly
by our arrival at the Mission of Saint Alexander, our base. The church and the small convent are located
in a slum, and drowned in the maze of very narrow streets full of people and
shops. To enter the courtyard of the convent,
we needed patience, necessary to wait until the vendor who has his stand in
front of the gate removes it to make space for us. As soon as we pass, everything goes back as
before. As soon as I get to my room I
hear a cheering stadium and I look out the window. I see a mini stadium in the alley. Once again the sellers have taken their
stalls and their wares and the slum kids have drawn a soccer field to play a
game which is watched and cheered, with an infernal noise, by hundreds of
spectators. If a car comes by, well, the
driver and any passengers, waiting for the end of the game and for the road to
return to being passable, join the cheering crowd.
Friday,
July 29: We visited the
diocesan Seminary where, after the earthquake, the Bishop, Mons. Guire Paulard,
came to live. During the brief duration
of the encounter, he was very down to earth, and proposed to the Secular
Franciscan Order two types of service:
the first in the prisons, which he define this way Haiti is hell, and the prisons are the hell of hells and the
second, the defense of the environment, which is definitely badly wounded,
disfigured and exploited, for the concept of respect for the environment is
totally absent in the Haitians. In
addition to the tents that stretch for miles and miles and are home to refugees
of the earthquake, and in the shanty towns that existed even before, the
accumulation of waste and plastic are huge, and the smells, in the 100 degrees
ambient temperature, can be felt from afar.
Saturday,
July 30: Following Fr. Columbano, National Assistant of the OFS, we entered an
alley of the slum near the St. Alexander Chapel. Its impossible for me to put into words what
I witnessed. Tiny overcrowded shacks,
alleys where one can pass with difficulty, open sewers, and unemployed folks,
but all living with great dignity. Those
who work in their shops show their wares with pride. One can feel a great admiration and sense of
powerlessness in the face of what could and should one do. Coming out of the slums we met an empty space
still full of rubble. Under them, over
50 people were killed! There are no
words but only the silence and prayer to overcome the feeling of emptiness and
helplessness that cause so much suffering and poverty.
Amazing also was the monument in memory of the
earthquake. A Madonna lifts up her
mantle embracing the earth, holding the Child in her lap, and in her great eyes
two big tears roll down. Her face
conveys a feeling of despair and pain so deep that it cannot be consoled. I think in this face is condensed all the
drama of the people of Haiti who live with the feeling of being forgotten by
the rest of the world. The value of the
initiative of the International Council, which has tried to convey to our
brothers and sisters of the SFO in Haiti, lies in this, making them feel
proximity, not only spiritual, but also physical, that they are not alone, but
that they are part of a family who loves them and that does not abandon them.
A wonderful time was experienced when we visited the
hospital of St. Damien, run by the Italian Rava
Foundation (an NGO of NPH Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos), one of the
most important international organizations in the service of children. Here too, the National Council of the OFS saw
an opportunity for service to the smallest and poorest.
Sunday,
July 31: The day is quiet
and we lived, in the afternoon, a wonderful moment of fellowship and sharing in
the St. Antonio Fraternity, who is currently in the process for canonical
erection. Great joy, in spite of
everything, singing, laughter!
Final
Thoughts
I hope that the island of Haiti is not like Port-au-Prince
which is a chaotic city, very, very dirty.
I have not seen rich areas, but a great leveling down. We may not have had the opportunity to visit
the rich neighborhoods as we did not go down to the harbor or the sea. Seeing the huge amount of rubble, the ruins
of the earthquake, that still fill the city, the first question that naturally
arises is to ask if you have not so far done something, but what is seen by
comparing photographs taken a year ago, we understand that much has been done
and that the situation at the time of the earthquake must have been
tragic. The brothers live among the
people in poverty, with great availability and sensitivity, accepting all as
brothers and sisters, and gifts of the Lord, without any distinction of
religion.
The majority in Haiti is of the Vaudou
religion, but with great attention to the basic needs. This attitude is clearly understood and
appreciated and is experienced with the affection and esteem that the people and
their children show when they meet us on the street. They admire and support, not only with
prayers, but also with concrete initiatives.
The only note of color and Caribbean culture is visible in the buses and
taxis (the taptaps) all decorated with biblical
phrases and illustrations. And how about our brothers and sisters of the SFO? They live in simplicity, in material poverty,
but also in availability and caring for others.
They are a very young fraternity. The SFO was born in Port-au-Prince
about 20 years ago, and their footing is still very uncertain. The feeling I had is that they are very happy
to support this project, with the support and closeness that the Order has
created.
There are certainly many objective difficulties of
communication, but surely the certainty of being placed in a large family that
loves and supports you, guarantees their safety and
growth.