City Cemetery & City Dump Part 1

This week were also able to visit the City Cemetery. The cemetery is a city in and of itself- Home of the dead. There are house size grave sites built in honor of each family member that has ever passed on and places even built for those who will someday pass on. The cemetery is a beautiful place to go, somewhat calming to walk through but the harsh reality of so many lost is indescribable. As we parked and walked alongside some of the rows and rows of condominium style graves (graves of poorer families that are stacked several stories high) I became more aware that death is a huge part of this culture. Some people spend thousands of dollars to build more elaborate gravesites than their own homes. Others, whom do not have the money to build such places, spend money on flowers, bus rides, and candles and visit the the graves each day. I was somewhat shocked and nauseated that so many of the people that are lying in that cemetery have lived their lives in vain for the mere thought that tradition is religion and that alone is salvation. I realize the people who build these traditional grave sites or visit daily to adorn the graves and pray to the dead continue to do what those who have gone before them did. Tradition is religion and that “religion” is believed to be the way to eternity. Please do not misunderstand me and think that I am saying going to gravesites and honoring those who have passed is wrong. I hope that when I die my children will visit my gravesite at times but not to pray to me or pray for me. No, I hope that they go in memory of how I lived my life for the Lord and know that now I am sitting at the feet of my Father rejoicing and praising Him.

Unfortunately the cemetery is also a business. As we walked through the cemetery we heard an echo of chiseling. We rounded a corner and saw a man chiseling out a headstone in one of the “condominiums” style gravesites. That is the price you pay for not paying rent of the deceased-removal. BJ then explain that the coffins in the lots that cannot be paid for are usually dug up, brought out, and disposed of. That space then becomes available for the next paying customer. My heart dropped as I remember the children on the corners begging for money and some probably selling their bodies for prostitution. Are they begging for the money to pay for a gravesite? Can you imagine fretting over a gravesite payment so much that you would sell, or send out your little boy or girl to try to come up with money to pay for a person that is already dead?