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day 5 of our recent trip to haiti:

this post is dedicated to the faces and landscape of haiti.  these little faces make up the future of the struggling nation.  i thought it apppropriate to just give them the spotlight here for a minute.  i do not know after the earthquake who out of all these faces lived.  most of these images were taken in a villiage outside of the city, far into the mountains so from the reports we have been getting, this area is mostly ok.

you will see lots of plaid shirts on the kids, like here in this first photo.  these are the school uniforms.  take a moment to read these startling stats found on the website haiti partners:

• 50% of primary school age children are not enrolled in school.
• of those that attend, approximately 30% will not make it to third grade; 60% will abandon school before sixth grade.

if you think to your self, good at least they go to school, the quality of the education is just as shocking:

• approximately 75% of all teachers lack adequate training; many have just a 9th grade or 12th grade education, with no teacher training at all.
• less than 20% of schools have electricity; 39% have potable water; only 15% have a library.

and possibly most saddening of all, the literacy rate in haiti is among the worst in the world.

• 37.9% of the population is unable to read or write (as compared to only 12% illiteracy in the rest of latin america)!

then you ask yourself, what is the point???  this earthquake was like kicking a baby down before it could even walk.  these stats were taken before the earthquake and surely they will only get worse when the need for food and water takes presedence over school.

but i beg of you to dream with me for a minute.  ask yourself that in such desparate times, what can the people of haiti do?  they can build, they can renew strength, they can fight to survive, they can start fresh.  to me, like eveything in life, this has a light at the end of the tunnel.  to me, haiti has been given a fresh start and can only get better from here.  who was helping haiti before this desaster?  now the world is smiling on haiti and if we continue to help our brothers and sisters, we can make a difference.  the smiling faces you see in the next few images are the future leaders of haiti.  see how much hope is in their eyes?  see the strength?

aren’t these two seriously the cutest ever???  soooooooooo funny they were just laughing and laughing…

landscapes:

alex walked around getting some gorgeous shots of the flourishing parts of haiti.  most of these were taken high in the mountains, the tall trees and lush greenery was so refreshing.

scattered amoung the trees are these huts.  alex asked what they were for and apparently they are grave sites.  maybe they burry more than one body in each?  iam not sure.

sometimes in the villages they will have one pig. this pig was decently friendly, looks like he smiled for the camera.

someone’s house

and another amazing sunset as we finished another day in haiti.