Archive for the ‘Haiti’ Category

A good sign in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, is the vendors lining the streets selling bags, clothes and food.

But there are still more signs like this of the long-term devastation…tented villages, rubble and collapsed buildings.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on a two-day mission to see the earthquake’s devastation in Haiti and to tell the population here that Canada won’t abandon the country. After touching down in the flattened capital city of Port-au-Prince, Harper met with Haitian President Rene Preval. He said even though Canada faces its own financial challenges in the coming years, helping Haiti will be a top priority.

We went to the police HQ missed the President but met the UNICEF rep who had interesting things to say.

We stopped at another tent city in Delmas and witness a vicious fight for food.

Police waved their guns, but nothing changed.

This girl said they’d had no food or water delivery since Tuesday’s earthquake.

There are approximately 300 tent cities, the Canadian ambassador said today.

Then we stopped at the airport.
Saw CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta help a little girl and increase TV ratings.

There was food at the airfield, but mostly military installations as its home base for the Canadian and American army.

The line up for gas.

I guess Fed Ex really does deliver.

People heading to America.

We stopped at l’Hopital Universitaire de la Paix, which looked a lot different (and a lot better) than a few days ago.

A lady passed out drugs.

The place was busy, but not crowded.

While the banks are supposed to open Saturday, the CAM outlet was opened for business.
We dropped by around 3:30, and people who lined up at 8 a.m. were finally getting their cash… Not sure how many of these people made it in before the branch closed at 5 PM.

We passed more help signs.

And this one, telling us the cemetery was full.

(Apologies for Thursday’s positing, we had no internet last night).

Wednesday, we woke up early (due to the earthquake). After rushing out of our rooms in our pajamas — the owner of the hotel said one woman rushed out naked, we had a hard time going back to sleep. Blackberries were buzzing with people back home concerned about our health and welfare. But Haitians here said it really didn’t compared to last Tuesday’s quake.

We tried to see if there was any more damaged done to Port-au-Prince.

We stopped to see if they had pulled out two people believed to be alive near the Cathedral. But rescue workers said their job was harder Wednesday because the morning’s earthquake had packed up the concrete more tightly.

We stopped to see if Ena Zizi was still at the health centre run by a Cuban team of doctors. She was not there. A patient said she was airlifted to the Dominican Republic for treatment. The doctor i spoke with Tuesday said he was going to talk to the UN about Zizi’s case to see if anything could be done.

We also stopped next door at the Cathedral to see if the other person they were looking for Tuesday was found.
No one was at the site.
The team from Cancun had left a picture of Christ on the pile of rubble.

On the other side of the street, the face of Christ from the stained glass window was no more. The last earthquake had shattered it to the ground.

We went downtown, a man was emptying his store worried about looting.

There were a lot of police around.

We stopped at a tent-city, where they told us there would be a water delivery.
There was no water.

No one seemed concerned about that morning’s earthquake, including these girls.

Lots Haitians are now homeless but they are still connected. Cell phones are every where — including tent cities.

The tent city at “Le centre sportif” houses 7,000 people. All their names are being entered in a computer database to help with the distribution of food and water.

There are starting to be quite a food goods available for sale.

In the camp.

And out of the camp.

We stopped at Hotel du Quebec to speak with Levis Berube, its owner.

Berube showed us his amazing view.

You could even see the U.S.’ floating hospital.