Author: Eric Porterfield, Sr. Press Officer, American Red Cross

I’ve just returned from a month-long trip from Haiti with the American Red Cross to help document our earthquake relief and recovery work. We’ve all seen the images of rubble and devastation that resulted from the January 12 earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince. Many of the sights and sounds were what I expected – flattened buildings, people living in tents and lots of aid organizations trying to help as much as possible – but there were several things that surprised me about my time there.

Camp life

Before arriving in Haiti I had preconceived images of what life in camps would be like, but like most preconceived notions, I was totally wrong. I thought I would encounter people begging for food and aid, but instead I saw families doing whatever they could to get back to work and stay dry. While in a camp with American Red Cross health volunteers, I met a young man who opened an internet café in his tent, and another one who opened a barber shop with a line of mostly men waiting to get their hair cut in a desk chair with missing wheels next to a cooler full of cold beverages (for sale of course). I saw countless makeshift beauty salons and restaurants in the camps I visited. It was clearly evident that people were trying their hardest to make the best out of a terrible situation.

Dressed to impress

After meeting and talking to some of our local staff and some of the residents of the camps, I began to notice that everyone was well dressed. Each and every day I would watch as our local staff came to work in neatly pressed business attire and men and women left their tents in professional clothing without wrinkles. After losing so much in the earthquake, it was clear that Haitians have a lot of pride in the way they dress.

Life goes on

I was amazed at the number of people on the street at all hours of the day. In the morning I would see young boys and girls in uniforms walking to school, men jumping in the back of tap-taps (truck-like taxis) to get to work and women carrying rubber buckets full of mangoes on their heads to sell in fruit stands. Even on the weekends families are up and out the door before the sun comes up to go to work selling whatever they can to make money. Their level of drive and determination is uplifting and infectious. A lot of organizations, including the American Red Cross, are putting people to work doing a number of jobs, including rubble removal and disaster mitigation work.

There are endless stories about the amazing people I met and the experiences I had in Haiti, but I think the above capture some of the day-to-day observances most people haven’t heard. The need is still great, but everyone is doing their part to rebuild and recover from this devastating disaster. To learn more about the American Red Cross programs in Haiti, visit www.redcross.org/haiti. Also, check out this video I created about one of the American Red Cross disaster preparedness programs in a camp in Port-au-Prince.