8 results for month: 06/2010

Haiti Blog Update #5…finally

It has been very difficult for me to finish our report and re-visit our experiences in Haiti from January and February, to put together words and photographs showing what we did and what it was like. When people ask us how our trip was, the answer is elusive or short…it was bad, but we do what we can. I keep saying that Haiti was bad on a good day, but if you’ve never been to Haiti then it’s hard to understand. The devastation after the January 12th earthquake that measured 7.0 at 4:53 pm was so widespread and the needs so great that at first I was saying it was unbelievable…but it was reality and it affected millions of people. And it’s ...

Cité Soleil

Although the Cité Soleil markets were bustling (I finally got a chance to see how the clay mud cakes were being made), there was a shortage of money, supplies, and resources. Many buildings and living structures had collapsed and people were living in the streets under tarps, and we also came upon an area where an NGO had set up a tent encampment. The United Nations were stationed throughout Cité Soleil, and at one point Jean Ristil told me to grab my camera because of a commotion. The soldiers called for back up and walked through the tiny streets with their guns drawn ready for action, but the arguments led to dialogue with a neighborhood leader ...

Back to Port-au-Prince during the Weekend of Prayer

President Preval designated Friday Feb. 12-14 a weekend of prayer and all businesses were closed. We drove back to Port-au-Prince on that Friday (lucky we bought gas Thursday afternoon), and the road over the mountain from Jacmel was much better although still only one lane in some places. An especially dangerous curve had a crack with a drop off of over 14”.  Further down the road almost at Carrefour we had to stop and pull the car over because the street was filled with hundreds of people chanting and praying.  Coming into Port-au-Prince I began to notice the word Jesus spray-painted on the front of buildings, houses, doors, and gates.  Holy ...

Tents Encampments

Some of these photos were taken from a car while on the road, but it gives you a good idea of what it’s like. While in Jacmel, we spent some time at Pinchinat, the largest tent encampment in the city located on the main soccer field.  Some of our artist friends were living in tents with their families, as were some of the ACFFC kids, and we also found old friends while walking through the maze of temporary shelters. People were cooking meals together, latrines were being built, and eventually the Venezuelans came in with larger tents and even some cots. No one was or is happy with the situation. Eventually small markets began to spring up, aid ...

Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC)

We spent much of our time working in Jacmel with artists, with young adults in our programs, but mostly with the 60-80 children of Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC). Because there was no school happening after the earthquake, we knew a top priority was to create activities for the kids, and we made a lot of plans. The children were all busy making art, mostly paper maché birds at that time. We got about half of them started on a serious digital Photography Workshop giving out eight assignments while sharing cameras, but each student was able to do some reshooting and work on their own. We also took a bunch of students on a field trip to ...

Jacmel Silent Artist Procession

Zanmi Lakay sponsored an amazing event in Jacmel on February 7, 2010 – The Silent Artists Procession. Because of the earthquake, the annual festive Kanaval parades were cancelled, yet the people of Jacmel needed an event to honor their town and the victims of the tragedy. I mentioned this in an earlier post, and here are the photographs. Hundreds of people including Artisans from G-27 (an organization of 27 paper maché troupes), a funeral band, children from ACFFC, Jacmel’s mayor, and townspeople joined in and lined the streets. Everything was a black and white theme including painted faces, black head and armbands, and the banners. The artists ...

Jacmel 2010

When we drove into downtown Jacmel the first thing we saw was the completely collapsed gas station. One of the hardest hit neighborhoods was the historical area and some of my favorite buildings were marked with a red check meaning they were condemned. Rubble from the main building collapse at Hotel Cyvadier was being crushed by men with simple tools and transported with wheelbarrows, and this was the case all over. When we went to give hundreds of pounds of medical supplies to the Jacmel Hospital, we saw the condemned church across the street and met the priest who had set up tents for his parishioners in an empty lot. Walking through the Jacmel ...

Haiti Student Photo Exhibit in Washington DC opening June 25th

Our photography students in Haiti (pre and post earthquake) will be represented in an exhibition by the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery along with art from children at ACFFC in Jacmel and work from amazing photographer Maggie Steber. Please come to the opening and enjoy some beautiful photography during an evening to help children in Haiti. [kml_flashembed movie="[kml_flashembed movie="http://zanmilakayblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PhotoShow/Through Their Eyes.swf" base="http://zanmilakayblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/PhotoShow/Through Their Eyes.swf" width="700" height="500" scale="showall" /]