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Haitians wait in tents for a recovery that has still barely begun
They're still bringing victims to the Grand Cimitière in Port au Prince, a few blocks from the ruined Presidential Palace, which remains a globally recognized symbol of a crippled nation.
But almost six months after the worst natural disaster in modern history, the flood of new arrivals has slowed to a trickle. Oginel Pinchinat, a caretaker who mans the main gate of the 10-acre site, reckons on having to find burial spots for roughly a dozen new earthquake victims each day, a number he calls a relative trifle.
"Back in January, bodies were just being dumped, everywhere," he says. "Big trucks would pull up and leave them in piles, often a hundred at a time. It was a mess. Now, business is slower and people have more time to do things with dignity and respect. Even if they find an unidentifiable body in the rubble of a building they will at least wrap it up in a plastic sheet, and try to make sure that it gets laid to rest inside a proper tomb."