Here are a few photos from the first part of our trip, including Port-au-Prince and the drive to Gonaives. More to come.
Part of the collapsed Palais National in downtown Port-au-Prince.
A particularly creative tent on the soccer field next to our guest house. The field is now home to over 1,000 Haitians. One of the women in the tent village gave birth to a baby boy while we were there. Luckily, there were lots of doctors at the guest house.
Our own tent village behind our guest house, Matthew 25 House. Although the house is still standing and used for daytime activities, everyone spends the night in tents in the backyard for safety reasons.
CJ talks with a woman in a makeshift wheelchair. The woman lives in the tent village next to Matthew 25 House.
The inhabitants of the tent village next to Matthew 25 House enjoy a Saturday evening party, including food, music, and games.
Anyone want to snowboard in Haiti?
A Haitian schoolgirl in uniform. She is the daughter of former Indiana University Creole Instructor Nick Andre. At the end of last summer, Nick decided to stay in Port-au-Prince for the 2009-2010 school year, feeling an inexplicable need to be with his family this year.
Michael and I pose in front of the office of Le Matin, one of the two major Haitian newspapers. Since the earthquake, the newspaper has switched from a daily to a weekly publication cycle and has cut its staff by more than 50 percent. The paper must now be sent to the Dominican Republic to be published. The finished product is flown back to Haiti every week.
Thanks to the graciousness of the owners, we were able to arrange an impromptu tour of the Prestige brewery, the only brewery in Haiti. In addition to brewing Prestige, the factory brews Guinness and bottles most of the beverages in Haiti, including Coca Cola products, Toro Energy Drink, and milk.
A small corner of the massive tent village covering the Champs de Mars in downtown Port-au-Prince. Some estimate there are over 1 million people living at the site.
A staircase inside Le Plaza Haiti Hotel, where many foreign journalists and aid workers stay. The hotel overlooks the Champs de Mars.
A view of Port-au-Prince from an overlook far above the city.
A lovely flower.
Bags of charcoal in the streets of Port-au-Prince.
A hand-painted advertisement for a vocational school in Port-au-Prince, depicting all of the skills you can learn at the school.
One of the many tent villages outside Port-au-Prince.
Jatropha seedlings ready for planting at a test field set up by Haitian geneticist Gael Pressoir (chibas-bioenergy.org). Photos from the ImagineHaitian jatropha project in Gonaives will be posted soon.
En route to Gonaives, we stopped briefly in Montrouis to visit Moulin Sur Mer, an 18th century sugarcane plantation that has been converted into a museum and resort.
Carved wooden figures at Moulin Sur Mer depict the Haitian slave trade.
A view of the lovely gardens at Moulin Sur Mer.
