My friend Ross relayed a story to me that I would like to pass on. He is working with coordinating the relief effort for Haiti from the Dominican Republic. Three weeks after the quake he was in Haiti. With Father Rick and others he went to the old hospital to give prayers and say mass for those that died when it collapsed. It had been serving as volunteer housing and admin offices when the quake struck. Next they went to the home of the siblings of Joseph, a man who had grown up in the Haiti orphanage of NPH. The home had collapsed and the bodies of Joseph’s brothers and sisters were still under the rubble. The prayers and mass were said amidst the smell of their decaying bodies. Joseph was among those praying. As Ross told me the story it was obvious how powerful an experience it was for him. And, it helped me to sense again the pain that millions of Haitians are feeling.

On , my last trip a man named Danny accompanied me on the trip back to the DR. He, like Joseph, grew up with NPH and he also lost several siblings. He speaks French, Creole, Spanish and English and spends time helping out in the DR as well as at the hospital in Port au Prince.