We should be
wrapping up this first project today. I wanted to finish it last week but, as I
mentioned in my last brief post, one of the fathers of our workers passed away
on Thursday. While this robbed me of the chance to complete my first project as
a manager here, it did grant me the opportunity to attend a typical Haitian
funeral. It was quite the adventure.
Death in Haiti
is treated almost in a light and dismissive manner. I did not see a single
person crying other than the immediate family who were wailing, literally.
Everyone else just kept repeating “Se
lavi” or “It’s life.”
The night before
the funeral service, the family holds a “vey”
(don’t quote me on the spelling) at their home, a massive party that lasts the
entire evening. The next morning everyone goes to the service where there is a
lot of singing and mourning as people finally give in to the grief. All these
events must be held as soon as the person dies; morgues aren’t exactly
commonplace around here.
Last Thursday
afternoon, when we found out about the death, we immediately dropped everything
we were doing and started to help our friend prepare for the vey and service.
We went to three different markets in three different villages to buy
everything from gasoline for a generator to 7-Up soda. Finishing up around
7:00pm, I then had about an hour to shower and get dressed before leaving for
the vey.
The vey was
wild; there were over 200 people there. As one of the handful of white people
there, I became the life of the party for no reason other than the color of my
skin. I got to bed around 4am that night.
Most our
employees were still helping our friend construct his father’s tomb over the
weekend. I expect that we can resume work again today. In the meantime, I’ve
had time to do some more administrative and finance work. I am exhausted but we
need to finish everything and prepare for several more projects before a large
group from Clemson comes over Spring Break next week.
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