Desarmes and Port-au-Prince are only about 135 km (84 miles) apart but the trip takes about three hours. Some sections of the road are fine and you can clip along at 50-60 mph, then all of a sudden you slow and limp through in 1st gear going through potholes 4ft long and 1ft deep. As we approached Mouri (the town where an important bridge was destroyed in the hurricanes), we slowed because there was an accident: a smashed truck, a motorcycle in pieces, and a crowd of people.
We pull over and park. The crowd of people are looking at a body lying on the shoulder: the motorcycle driver, who is clearly dead. Our teammates hopped out; they explain to us that the dead man is from Desarmes and is on the Executive Committee of ODD (the committee that just had the elections). They asked, "Aren't you coming to look?!" I respond, "No, I don't want to, thanks."
As I sit and watch from the back of our truck for the next 45 minutes, pickup trucks full of people come racing to the scene to look at the body; tap-taps (public transportation) stop so people can look; everyone stops to look. One man hopped out to sell snacks and drinks to the growing crowd.
One of our team members came running back to the truck to get the camera so he could take close-up pictures of the body. We waited until the police showed up to remove the body, and then because we knew the man, we went to the local police station to give an accident report.
I'm still processing the whole event. Travelling on the road here is dangerous no matter how you go: trucks are always swerving to avoid potholes, goats, children, people, etc.; buses travel as fast as they want wherever they want no matter what's in their way. I guess it's sort of a stereotypical North-Americans-in-a-foreign-country story, but it's unavoidably startling to deal with a sudden, tragic death. Especially when our culture does not deal with bodies - when someone dies, we call Someone Else to come and deal with it. If someone dies in an accident, we cover the body with a sheet or a jacket or whatever we have.
And it's not that human life isn't valued here; death is definitely not taken lightly. However, it seems that Haitians are more up-front about death than Americans. Maybe it's too light to say that death is more a part of life here, but accepting death and grieving within one's community is an important part of processing loss.
On the other hand, the fact that over 700 people died in the floods in Gonaives seems to make people feel angry and wonder why more help wasn't given. Accepting death doesn't mean accepting the factors that contribute to people dying, or excusing those who may share responsibility. And maybe a crowd of people stopping to look at a body is an effective and sad reminder to drive safely and (for a totally cheesy ending) treasure relationships while we have them.
2 comments:
WOW! rubbernecking taken to the extreme... even snacks & drinks! So curiosity never got the best of you?
Bryan ... I know exactly how you feel. Every time I see a traffic death here it is the same. Body laying in the street, everyone kinda detached, no real attempt to cover, hide, or dignify death. Always a wake up call to me. I am praying for you and the family of the victim.
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