A Ceremony For Peace

I live at the Hotel Oloffson, in Port-au-Prince Haiti. Two years ago a man from Brazil, working in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping force (DDR) came and asked me if it would be possible to do a Ceremony for Peace. Things had greatly deteriorated in the country and President Aristide had been forced to leave mid way through his second term. Violence was rampant in Port-au-Prince and it was a blurry line between the Haitian police and the Haitian gangs (Aristide's paramilitary civilian force). The latest round of violence had been baptized "Operation Bagdad". Several Haitian policemen had been beheaded. Things were dark.

I'm a priest. I'm not a practicing priest but I have been through the whole initiation process. I called another priest, a friend, and we decided on an appropriate ceremony. The ceremony was held in August 2005 at the Hotel Oloffson. Hundreds of Priests and Priestesses were invited, by the UN, from many different sections of Port-au-Prince as well as Jacmel, a town to the South, and Gonaives, a town to the North. The Ambassadors from Brazil and Chile were in attendance as was the Haitian Minister of Culture. The American Embassy official I met wasn't there officially. He said he was missing curfew. A lot of Haitians and a lot of non-governmental organizations (NGO's) were drifting in and out of the yard. It was a two-day ceremony starting with a traditional Haitian prayer service.

This year, Rubem, the Brazilian, has asked me to do a ceremony of Thanks. I'll be calling my friend Aniss.

If you want an idea of how bleak life can be when you're in a Haitian gang, keep an eye out for the film Ghosts of City Soleil.