emergencies

By Oscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga, S.D.B.

As President of Caritas Internationalis, I visited Haiti in February to offer solidarity with the people and to take aid from my home country of Honduras on behalf of our supporters.

When I arrived in Port-au-Prince, I was shocked because the tragedy and devastation were even greater than what I had seen in the media.

Haiti has a soundtrack. Before the earthquake, Port-au-Prince swelled with the noise of two million people in a city that could comfortably accommodate probably one quarter of that number. Then on January 12 the air exploded with the deep bass of the earth itself on the move. Then the screams and laments, the orchestra of the damned. The next day was quiet. People were too dazed and shocked to emote.

On a seaside road winding north of Port-au-Prince, two cars separate us from a brightly-painted bus trundling along the dusty strip of gravel. One by one they overtake the bus, their white roofs carrying with them a white burst of sunshine in the midday heat.

We move closer to the back of the bus, slowly changing gears, and get to within a few metres before we saw it. Him.

There was a man. Dangling. Wedged between the back door of the bus and the ladder that carries luggage and the occasional passenger to sit on the roof.