Port-au-Prince – Last Friday I finally went to Malpasse to find out what made it a preferable location to buy certain products . Most people, instead of buying at local Haitian markets, choose to shop in Malpasse even though both locations offer the same products.

I woke up early in the morning, got prepared and then called a motorcylists to take me where the mini-bus departs to Croix-des-Bouquets. Arriving at twenty-three past seven, I waited another fifty minutes for the mini-bus to transport fourteen people, including the driver, to Croix-des-Bouquets. Only three of the passengers, including me, were men.

Approximately forty minutes later the driver finally started moving. On the way, we saw different landscapes, from a green garden, to no man’s land, to Lake Azuei - a lake that has continued expanding since 2007.

When I arrived in Croix-des-Bouquets, I was expecting to see an abundance of trade – whether it would be Dominican people buying Haitians products, or vice versa. There were many people representing the two nations but the Haitian merchants were selling Dominican products to Haitian people. This was an interesting reality that I did not expect.

The constant and overwhelming sales pitch, “Mirando, Mirando Mamita, mirando papi”, became very familiar to me only after a few minutes. This is how the merchants grab your attention to look for what you need among their products. I started to look from side to side to find what made it preferable for Haitian people to travel one hour or more to buy similar products that could be found along streets and sidewalks closer to home.  Most of the Haitian people shopping in this market didn’t speak Spanish, and most of the Dominican merchants didn’t speak Creole. You should see how do they negotiate a deal: the buyer touches the desired product and with their fingers shows how many products they want to buy.   The merchant then displays on a calculator the cost of the product. If buyer wants to bargain, they use the calculator to show their offer.

I walked around some more to see what else was going on around the market. My eyes caught a woman carrying a large load of toilet paper over her head. It was amazing! I definitely wanted to have that picture to include in my story.  While trying to take that picture a Dominican soldier walked into my camera’s field of vision. My attention was so concentrated on that woman I did not notice the soldier until after my second shot. Suddenly I saw somebody look my way as if I had done something I shouldn’t have. I then realized it was a soldier and he said something to the effect of “dame la camera”. Even before I answered the soldier, he said “ven” and then started walking away with my camera.  I had to follow him.

He walked to a kind of tent with a sheet-iron roof on four poles and no walls. Under the tent were several uniformed soldiers with some kind of distinction on their arms or their chests. They all looked Dominican. On the other side was a woman wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, long skirt, and sandals. Her badge, with the word ‘official’ written on it, kept bouncing on its tightly tied chain around her neck. Four armed men in plain clothes were also there under the tent; two of them were Haitian. When saw them, I felt more confident resolving what I thought to be a simple misunderstanding. I was wrong; they made it worse.  They said I must go to jail for showing lack of respect to the Dominican.   The soldier who took me there said he already contacted his Major, therefore, it was not his responsibility to decide anything now and we would have to wait for the Major to come. The Major came four hours later; he didn’t look happy. They showed him the pictures on my camera.  The Major looked at me and said something that sounded like “preso” or “priso”.  I could not figure out what the Major meant so I asked the soldier and he said in Creole that I was going to jail. At that moment I thought I better inform my superiors before they decided to take all of my gear away.

A few minutes later my boss asked me for a number on where to call. I told the Major and soldiers and they all started saying “no hablo ingles”. The Major’s decision was to let me go free, without my camera.   I said that would be no problem but asked if they could provide me with a paper that said why my camera had been confiscated, including a valid phone number to call for any follow-ups. He thought about it for a second and then said he would give the camera back but not the memory; then he said let’s just erase the pictures and keep the memory in the camera. I showed him how to erase the pictures. The Major erased all the pictures with the Dominican flag in and the two pictures with the soldier.   Despite the fact they held me for hours, I was never mistreated. I remained calm until they finally gave me my camera back.  The soldier showed me to the gate and said if I ever return to the Dominican I can meet him there.

The key to success in this kind of situation is to remain cool, calm, and wise at all times.  Knowing your rights, faults, and duties will never let you down when you’re not wrong. Even though you may be wrong sometimes this behaviour can get you out of trouble faster than being nervous and disrespectful.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet earlier this year.

Port-au-Prince – There are hundreds of Fresco sellers in Port-au-Prince, but none like Dieuve Pierre. The Fresco’s slushy mix of syrup and ice is a favourite of all Haitians, from beggars on the streets to future presidents (as no one ever knows who the next president will be). But buying a Fresco from Mr. Dieuve’s boat-shaped mobile shop is a totally unique experience.

For Mr. Dieuve, selling Fresco is not about the money: it’s about rules and manners. The first thing you must do to order from Mr. Dieuve is to be very polite. You start by greeting him, then you chose your flavour of syrup (lime, berry, orange or plain), and pick up the telephone corresponding to the desired color to make your choice.

There’s only one way to place your order with at the “Katalina” shop. The customer must say “C’est mon Fresco qui se prepare” into the telephone, in French, where it is “magically” relayed to Mr. Dieuve’s home-made helmet. There is never any misunderstanding about your choice because you hold the coloured phone from the time the Fresco preparation starts, till it ends.

Children love this process, and will always ask their parents to buy them some Fresco, both because of the heat and because it a sweetened beverage. Mr. Dieuve will sometimes reproach the parents of children who try to order in Creole, telling them that French is Haiti’s second official language, and the children must learn it. Furthermore, every Fresco customer must order for themselves — parents only have the right to pick up the phone for the youngest kids. According to Mr. Dieuve, kids have to be prepared for their future — they need to learn not only from school, but also from life itself.

When you’re running a business, usually one of your goal is to have as many customers as possible, and have some customers buying several items. But at Mr. Dieuve’s shop, there’s an iron rule: one Katalina, per person, per day. It doesn’t matter if the customer is a kid, a grown up, a foreigner, or a president; he wants to have enough for everyone.

For Mr. Dieuve, the rules matter — both at the Katalina, and in life.

Dieuve Pierre has extensive knowledge in masonry, carpentry and plumbing, and built his Katalina shop by hand. This beautiful work is not only his creation, but according to him, also a gift from God. The proof? He has been pushing his wheeled ship around Port-au-Prince for twenty-five years, and no one has ever make another one like his.

However, Mr. Dieuve would be very happy if the Haitian Minister of Culture would provide other Fresco sellers with models like his. He also hopes for more sanitary conditions to sell his Fresco in, so he’d have less worries about dust and flies.

I was lucky enough to have my first Katalina Fresco today, and was converted to the cause: aside from Fresco, beautiful mobile shops like this could be used to sell candy, fruits, bread and everything usually sold along the streets. It would create jobs, improve sanitation, and support tourism. Mr. Dieuve’s Katalina shop is an example of Haitian ingenuity that should make all of us proud.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Every World Cup year, the Haitian people become divided into two big, antagonistic groups of football fans: Brazilians and Argentineans. Other countries’ teams have fans as well, but not even a fraction of the two football powerhouses, our continental neighbours.

As soon as the location of this year’s World Cup was officially announced, the effects of the event began to be felt in Haiti. From street paintings to stores, it seemed like every advertisement was about football. Many generator-powered TV stands have been built across the city, just in case the electricity drops or cuts out during a match.

Next, the two teams started distinguishing their street blocks by flags and paintings. But here is something to keep in mind: next to any Argentinean or Brazilian flag there is a Haitian one.  The fans’ love for those teams would be swept aside if Haiti made a return to the World Cup – but that hasn’t happened since 1974.

This year in Port-au-Prince, the heated Brazil-Argentina rivalry has already killed one Haitian. Last Friday Romain Acelas, a 35 year-old Argentina fan, dropped dead of a heart attack on the street while celebrating the elimination of Brazil at the hands of Holland.

He died around 10h after the football game. My first photo of the scene was taken at 12: 25, and it took until after 4pm for the ambulance to come and get him out of his suffering after death. The family managed to flag down two ambulances, but they insisted they didn’t have the right to move him. Since he died on the streets, his body is a state responsibility.

The crowds gathered, the media arrived, and for more than six hours this young man stayed there, covered with a cloth under hot sun, waiting for an ambulance to come and pick his corpse up.

The next morning, the Argentina-Brazil rivalry exploded after Argentina was also eliminated, by Germany 4-0. The Brazilian fans ran the streets as if in a demonstration, waving leaves, flags and T-shirts.

Now that both teams have been eliminated, the interest in the rest of the World Cup has begun to wane. Both of the big groups have declared the World Cup “over”, and the stands are empty even during matches. There’s no more cheering in the streets for the goals.

For Haiti, the wait for the next World Cup has already begun.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

Port-au-Prince -Last weekend I traveled to Terre-Neuve. My main objective was to meet my grandmother and find out the truth about several rumours. The area is not totally covered by the telephone network, even though lots of people own cell phones back there, and are willing to buy more.

Terre-Neuve is a place I knew quite well before the quake, as I went to school there for three years.  I remember it as cool quiet place with lots of agriculture. I was curious to see how things had changed since the quake, and looking forward to a break from the dust and noise of Port-au-Prince.

As I drove on the road to that place, at first it felt like there was no life at all on this rocky and sandy road behind these scarcely forested mountains. Approaching the place, several parts of the road had been enhanced long ago by some NGOs. The technique they used for these parts of the road is quite simple; the NGOs provided tools like shovels, wheelbarrows, pickaxes and then people came to work. Firstly, they have their road done. Secondly, they receive some food like wheat, oil, beans and even some money.

Suddenly the green forest I discovered surprised me a lot.

This is was exactly a place to look for a break. I enjoyed that natural breeze I felt under these trees, and the free water freshly taken from sources or rivers depending on its usage. I’ve found that the nature in the area is diminishing, which is nothing strange, considering this environment is being exploited, and never has had a real environmental evaluation for its protection.

It is a place where environmentalists and agronomists are needed.  I urge this, as people can’t grow enough stuff to sustain themselves yearly, so they keep on taking trees down in order to make charcoal. The only fertilizer they are using, and have been using over and over, is manure.

On my way back I talked to one of my former teachers. He told me that he had been obliged to organize several meetings with the parents of his students before they could agree about sending their kids back to school.  The earthquake left a certain kind of fear of buildings for the kids, who react as soon as they hear a buzzing sound. I felt pride in him for making a living on his own; the same pride I feel when talking to one of my grandparents.

Here’s a fact to underline: governments seem to be no longer needed all around Haiti now, maybe for other reasons, but not for any distribution. There seems to be more NGOs present than the governments are and the NGOs may have done more for them over there. The people would prefer to receive their help, no matter what it is, directly from the NGOs. Back in the days, NGOs seemed to donate a lot, from bridges to roads to students feeding. Now it seems like all the attention is mostly concentrated on Port-au-Prince and its closest areas.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Inozile Jean Wisguen is more than a victim of the earthquake; his story has been complicated since he was five years old.  Born in 1983, Inozile’s father abandoned his son with his mother, who died in 1988.  The boy was obliged to live with his grandmother, who decided to move them both to Port-au-Prince.

Inozile did his early studies in Port-au-Prince, but they moved back to Verrettes afterwards for his Secondary classes. During that time, a foreign program called the Crosby Fund decided to sponsor him with a scholarship and additional funds for the school year. Ever since then, they have supported him through school

Inozile finished his Secondary studies in 2007, which meant he was ready for university. He wanted to take Environmental Science, but due to a lack of enrolled students in that program, he couldn’t find a university that carried the necessary courses.

Facing no other choice, he decided to take another program, this one in Computer Science.  Even though he worked as hard as he could, it was a completely new program and not what he had prepared for and he wasn’t able to pass all his courses.

Inozile had a chance to take a make-up exam, but the fee was $500 Haitian dollars.  He tried to call the organization about it, but unfortunately couldn’t reach them.  He tried to borrow money from friends or family members, but nobody had that amount of money.  In the end, he lost the entire school year and would have have to start over. Fortunately, by this time another university was offering an Environmental Science class, so withhelp from the Crosby Fund he switched universities and programs.

Then, January 12th and the indelible earthquake arrived, and collapsed his university.  Three months later, the university opened again — but not the Environmental Science class.  Inozile tried to switch again, but the university’s policy did not allow any newcomers in mid-session, so he would have to wait till September to start.

Meanwhile, Inozile decided he didn’t want to stay and do nothing.  He was able to borrow $300 Haitian dollars, and opened a small business which consists selling cell phone cards, phone to phone recharge and public phone calls. This kind of franchise is one of the easiest to run, with very little know required — all you need is enough money to buy the equipment. The profits, however, are not high: only $8 Haitian dollars for every hundred in sales.

But Inozile has not forgotten his training in Environmental Science.  He told me he has noticed, with the knowledge he acquired from his year and half at school, that the removal of city refuse cannot continue the way it is being done.

According to him, the removal process should begin in every house, by separating the organic trash from the glass and plastics — having them all together is a complete waste and very bad for the environment.  Throwing all the rubbish into one place and burning it pollutes the atmosphere, and this pollution is transported through the air and the water. At this point, trash on its own can begin to cause lots of health problems.  Poor health means not being able to work, and not working slows our economy.

Before we were finished the interview, a five minute rain began to pour down.  The rain caused so much damage to the soil around us, that Inozile said he wished he had a device to tell him how far the productivity of that area had been affected in just that short time:

As a Haitian citizen, he seized the opportunity to thank the NGOs, which have hired a lot of young people to help with the removal of rubble and trash from the streets.   At the same time, he added that university educated young people should think twice before taking these jobs.  In his mind, taking these kinds of jobs is almost anti-patriotic: when you’re waiting to be hired to clean up your own streets, it’s almost like waiting to be be paid to clean up your house. Where are the citizens’ obligations?

Despite his fickle route through higher education, Inozile’s dream remains the same – to learn enough to be among the ones to rebuild a green Haiti. Once it is possible to involve every Haitian in the mentality of putting Haiti first, then we will only need international support in the way it should be, limited help for limited needs.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet earlier this year.

Port-au-Prince – It has been said that the earthquake has affected everybody. The earthquake’s strike was so huge that even today big companies, businessmen, and even Catholic churches still can’t rise from it.

Catholicism is well known all around the globe as a big religion with billions of believers. At first when people saw the many damaged Catholic churches, they thought they would quickly be rebuilt. But no, five months after the earthquake, the churches are still piles of rubble.

Ste Therese is one the best-known and oldest Catholic churches of Port-au-Prince, located in Petion-Ville. This church has been a parish since 1987 and was under the control of a vicar named Edmond Jean Pierre. This meant that the building existed for years before it became a parish in 1987. On the 12th January, 2010 it collapsed due to the earthquake.

Many experts visited and eventually concluded that the standing walls of the church needed to be demolished, which meant that the church had to be rebuilt completely. When the Priest, Barthélus Charles Peters, contacted the demolition company CNE, for the demolition, he thought there would be no charge, or if there was one it would not be high. When the company arrived, they informed the Priest that the demolition would cost $2000 per day.

According to Priest Barthélus Charles Peters, the church still hosts all of its weekday activities in a school playground located at the back of the church. On Sunday they have to move to a bigger school playground located a few miles away. Neither of the playgrounds can handle all the believers, but most of them come anyways, even though there’s not enough chairs in the tent for everyone to be comfortable.

The Priest, church members, choir’s members and the youth association called “Jeunes en recherche”, are all willing to receive help from anyone, no matter their religious beliefs. They are hoping for people to at least help them find some chairs, benches or even a tent, so the church can continue it’s holy duty.

I questioned the Priest, asking how Rome is involve in this situation.

He answered by saying that hierarchically speaking, Rome is concerned a great deal, but on the other hand it comes down to the economy. When considering the rate of Catholic churches that have been affected, Rome can’t rebuild all of them on its own since nobody knew this was going to happen. Instead, every member and believer must come in and show support in order to show recognition to their devotion.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

Port-au-Prince – Almost four months have passed since the earthquake, but the Haitian people can’t get the rubble out of sight. This keeps the disaster present every day in their lives, from their streets to the deepest part of their hearts; and the effects are getting worse. People feel like they are slowly losing the opportunity to rebuild their country like they hoped it would be, right after the disaster.

Here’s an example of an everyday downtown street filled with trash and rubble in Port-au-Prince – I wish cameras could capture odour so you could truly feel what it’s like to be near this in the heat:

The mouting tension came to a head on Monday with a serious demonstration ran by the “Fanmi Lavalas” members and their partisans. Their goal was to clearly demonstrate that they don’t want his Excellency, René Garcia Préval, as President any more. In addition, they seized the occasion to demand the return of the founder of their political party to Haiti: his Excellency Jean Bertrand Aristide.

It all started quietly around 9 o’clock in the morning at Bas Delmas, where a lot of people seemed to be waiting for an order to start the demonstration. Around a 9:45am, some rara bands showed up, followed by a pickup truck with a DJ, MC and political members, and the demonstration started. From Bas Delmas to Bel Air, the energy of the demonstrators grew so big that they began to run down the street.

Regardless of the brand or the colour of the car you were driving, if you got close to that demonstration, “aba Preval” would be sprayed on your car.

But there are no easy good and bad guys here: even inside each good and bad side of an issue in Haiti, you’ll find another good and bad side. While this demonstration was against the government, the reason is that Preval has been accused of trying to stay longer than the constitutional term allows, which would normally be against the law. These are soldiers keeping the demonstrators away from the destroyed Presidential Palace of Mr. Preval:

But will the demonstration contribute to change?

In the Bel air neighborhood several shots rang out in the afternoon. At the Champ-de-Mars, looting sessions caused more fights, which led to more shooting.

Many young people were accused of looting, and were beaten by other civilians before being taken to the police officers nearby, or caught by the officers themselves.

But many young people, including me, believe that this should be a time of reflection, not violence, in Haiti. Being against or for governments has never brought any global satisfaction to the population of this country. That’s one of the reasons why several grass roots organizations are now being formed, to see how this country’s youth can come up with solutions for the upcoming generation to help the country as a whole, not just a particular group with its own petty interests.

Here are some of the questions those youth are asking: can a government elected for five years make a change that will last for a lifetime? Can one man, the President, ever find solutions to satisfy more than 10 million people?

And if the answers to these questions are no, where do we go next?

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

Port-au-Prince — Last week in Port-au-Prince, several walks were organized by different groups of people for a variety of reasons. Here is a story about two of them.

On the 28th of April, REVISE-12 (Reseaux des Victimes du Seisme-12 Janvier), an association made of young people from different blocks, walked from Delmas 33 to Champs-de-Mars for different social issues. Their goal was to catch the attention of the government and the international community.

They have been living in tents and are protesting being taken from their current tent city just to be dropped into another one. The group also would like to know what have been done with all the millions that Haiti has received since the earthquake. Where are the jobs that were promised? It doesn’t make sense that even university-educated young people can only find work picking up rubble, amongst other things. This sign says “Occupation Means Misery”:

And this one is a criticism of the United Nations:

As I were following the walk at Nazon I met Mr. Dérolus Jean Claude, who had just joined in. He said everybody should join that walk, and that he felt sorry he had not of known of this earlier; otherwise, he would have joined in earlier.At Nazon, a picture of the ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was passed around the crowd. The picture was entitled “TITID”, and the lower centered sentence means “We’re waiting for you”.

At Lalue things were a bit disorderly. Some young men took their spray paint out and started to graffiti “aba Preval” on anything they could find, from walls, private vehicles, buses and even on an international army truck.

The soldiers caught one of them with their hands in his bag, hopefully they only warned him not to do it again.

Finally the marchers arrived at Champs-de-Mars exactly at noon;they had to stop since they had started at 9:30am.

On the 29th of April, the next day, there were another walk organized by the artists and the Ministry of Culture. This group started walking from Cabane Choucoune at Petion-Ville to Canape-Vert and then to Champs-de-Mars. The artists were at the back of a truck under Voila umbrellas, while the rest of the followers were walked on foot under the hot sun.

The DJ kept on playing a Masters song entitled “on ti chans pou Ayiti” song which was recorded almost 14 years ago.

Once arriving at Champs-de-Mars they went directly to the Ministry of Culture’s location. Right after the artist got in; however, it seems like the security guards wanted to close the gates. The walkers pushed the gate causing a little situation and a struggle went on for several minutes.

A few minutes later everything settled down and was cool.

Then the artists gathered on the stage and Zagalo, the MC, took his place and started by greeting the public and introduced the Minister of Culture, Madame Marie-Laurence Jocelyn-Lassègue, followed by the artists. When Ritchie had the microphone, he asked everybody to join hands and to lift up a sign of unity, similar to Richie’s t-shirt saying: “ L’union fait la force”.

Several good speeches continued until Zagalo announced that the artists were finished speaking and “it is time for the little ones”. Dead Krazy, a hip hop artist, spoke next, after the special introduction, and made a few jokes for the crowd.

Next it was the turn of Don Carmelo, a “Master’s member”, and while he was speaking the DJ dropped the music on.

Don Carmelo said, if we had paid attention to the Master’s hit track, “on ti chans pou Ayiti” back in the days, we wouldn’t be in such mess nowadays. While I was taking his picture on the stage, I didn’t notice that he had lost his hands. As I interviewed him back stage he told me that he has lost both of his hands trying to get a kid out the rubble after the disaster. His injured hands had only been tended to eleven or twelve days after the quake due to the mass amount of people that needed to be healed.

Finally, it was three o’clock and everything was done; so I wanted to ask few questions to the Minister. One of her security guys told me it is not possible and my only option was to request a meeting. However, the secretary had already left even though the Minister herself was still there, right before my eyes!

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi is blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

Port-au-Prince - Tele Mobil is a mobile cinema organization, founded before the earthquake by accomplished Haitian movie Director, Jacques Roc, the director of several Haitian blockbusters.

The camp where they’re working tonight in Port-au-Prince used to be a soccer field, according to Jean Marcson Benoit, a young volunteer, who is leading the crew. TeleMobil, which is supported by the UN’s MINUSTAH as well as other firms and companies, was initially set up especially for Cité Soleil.

However right after the earthquake, the organizers realized that the project could not only be for Cite Soleil, but should be for other camps that needed activities.

So, they have enlarged the program, with the crew split into small units of 4 members, plus equipment, per camp. They program began in February the 25th at four particular camps: Champs-de-Mars, St Louis de Conzague, place Boyer and Ste Thérèse.

At first, I thought this was the same free movies and music provided by other organizations, playing any type of movies or music to keep people busy. I was wrong. Tele Mobil does not just screen movies: they analyze the movies first, they chose movies without too much violence, and they also cut the adults scenes out when necessary. The most interesting thing is they randomly pick, train and employ youths in order to bring the same programs to more camps.

I have also seen more than ten trailers onscreen featuring Haitian actors providing information about cases like assault and theft. These were shot specifically for the purpose of being aired at camps so that if any of those watching find themselves in those situations, they will know exactly what to do, and even how to prevent those events.

I asked Marcson, the young volunteer, what will happen when Tele Mobil are no longer in these camps, as the authorities have started moving camp people to their temporary shelters elsewhere. He told me they will follow and deliver the same programs to the people anywhere as long as they are needed, from Thursday to Sunday, from 4:00 pm in the afternoon to 10:00pm in the night.

At the Tele Mobil screening tonight, I met a guy named Chery Wilner, who told me that the screenings are good for people in the camps, since it provides a break in their lives from the stress and worry that they are surrounded with.

In addition to the social perks, M. Wilner also points out, that these activities have helped bring him more customers to his little “mobil boutik”, which he runs alongside the nightly screenings.

Marcson also tells that he is proud to be a member of this group, because whenever he runs into people on the streets that he used to see at the camps, they greet him and ask why he doesn’t come by every day. As a young camera assistant, he already feels his fame is growing!

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

Port-au-Prince – The gasoline situation has been blowing up in Haiti since last Tuesday. The distributors say the stations haven’t ordered on time, the stations say they’re not delivering the gas on time. People seem to be get more frustrated just talking about the situation than living through it themselves.

Even police patrol cars, bank vans, and big organizations haven’t been able to escape the gas shortage. Police officers are often around the lineups to get gas for themselves:

But they are also showing their presence to “protect and serve”, as it is their motto.

Electricity shortages have become worse since the gas situation began. Some cybers [internet cafes] have had close their doors due to the lack of electricity. Some areas near Pétion-Ville have less than 6 hours of electricity every 24 hours.

Back in the gasoline lineups, many of the car owners were obliged to take their gasoline by the gallon:

And then transport it back to their vehicles by hand:

It’s easier to queue on foot than in vehicles, which causes big traffic jams around the stations.

One young biker that I spoke with, Evens Charles, blamed the government for the shortage and said they must take responsibility for it.

I was at the Pétion-Ville SOL gas station last Saturday afternoon, when a big gas truck pulled up. A worker at the station confirmed that this was not the usual gas delivery, but a special order made by the SOL stations from the Dominican Republic.

But even after that huge effort made by the SOL gas station, the lineups have still lasted until today, and people are still waiting for the gas availability to go back like it was before.

In Port-au-Prince today, you can watch people waiting from morning till night at gas stations, thinking that the the gas may finally come at any time, so you have to always be there. But nobody, from the stations to the police to the government, can confirm when the gas is coming, and so the frustration continues.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi is blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.