Alice Smeets | Blog

I have just 3 1/2 days and 4 nights left here in Haiti. I’m half sad, half happy. I’m looking forward to see all my family and my friends again, but I will miss the life here in Haiti as well! It was a special trip and I’ve seen so many things, places, situations that I’ve never seen before in my life. I will certainly return!

What a day! I spent out the whole day traveling from one place to another. I’ve been at Fort Dimanche. It’s really a sad place. It was once a terrible torture prison. It was closed many years ago, but people still lived inside because they had nothing else. They eat mudcakes as food – it’s a mixture of mud, water, bullion and salt. .

I can’t imagine how they can eat that. I bought one, I will show it to you when I’ll come back.
There were sooo many mosquitoes at that place… My legs have now a pattern: white with red points on it. Before I go to sleep today I will count them, I think I have at least 50.

I want to show you some new pictures.

p.s. I haven’t done anything with photoshop yet, so they miss a bit of contrast..

Today we’ve tried to get into the hospital again, but they didn’t want to let us enter. I wanted to see a room where all the dead children are dumped one over another. But we have to go to the administration first and they probably will also say “no”. But we will still try it.

I also tried to get into the prisons, so I went to the director of the police, they didn’t let me talk with him, so I wrote a letter, than called some days after, but because I’ve mentioned photography they don’t want me to enter.. As a reason I told them, they I’m doing a reportage about streetchildren, about their daily lives, their situation, their success and their failures. I said thats for a charity organisation and not for the press. But “no”…

I decided today that I will go to another festival of Voodoo on Tuesday. I need some change. It’s at the Cap Haitien and it’s much bigger than the last festival. I will stay there for 2 days or so.

I wanted to write a post already yesterday, but there was again no electricity in the whole evening. So I went sleeping at 9 pm, what I haven’t done since some years..  

Yesterday we brought Guidlande to a hospital. A German, Jan, has written me an email because he had seen the picture of Guidlande. He told me to take her to a hospital in Petionville (Part of the city

Guidelande is a 17 year old girl. She lives with her parents in Cité Soleil. She was once a girl full of life. At the age of 10 years she got a fever. They went to the doctor, who gave her an injection that was already expired. That’s why she has to live now as you see her on the picture. The family has no money and so they can not afford a lawyer to  claim damages for pain.

I already wanted to write a post yesterday, but there was a problem with the electricity like every day. Half of the day you don’t get electricity. That’s a bit annoying.  Yesterday was a great day. We have been in Cité Soleil the whole day. It was hot, we had nothing to eat with us, but it was worth it. The one guy, that we’ve met the day before was with us and talked so easily to all the people. With him on our side, I could take pictures from everyone without that the people got offended. When we passed at one of the little churches, they invited us to come in. It was really nice inside there and the people sang, danced and prayed. We had to introduce ourselfs, everybody applauded and than the prayed for us. That was a nice experience. We also saw a lot of babies crying because they were hungry. So we bought something to eat for some of them. The mothers were so happy about it.
Today we have been in the main hospital. That was quite shoking. In the section of the abadoned children we saw many deformed and handicaped childs. No one of them laughted, they felt sad and the situation was sad too. In the afternoon we went again to the hospital of medecins sans frontieres, because we had promised to give the pictures of the children to the mothers. They were so happy to have a photo of there child. Unfortunately, one of the children was already dead…
I took some new photos and promised to bring them with me the next time I go there. I’m sorry for my English, there must be so many mistakes in it. It’s because I’m always writing late in the evening when I’m already tired.

The times passes by so quickly. I’m already one week here and saw lots of shocking but also great things. I’m beginning to getting used to the chaos here I don’t regrett to have choosen Haiti and I’m a bit sad that the time passes by so fast..

Today was not the best day. The car has been broken this morning, so we had to take it to the mechanic and he needs 3 days to repair it. So we had to walk a lot and took “tap-taps” (haitien taxis, or kind of busses). That was exhausting because of the hot temperature. Unfortunately I didn’t take much good pictures today… First we went to the hospital, who didn’t let to take me pictures there, than we went to another hospital (for children with tuberculosis), who also didn`t let to take me photos and than also another charity organisation -guess- didn’t let to take me pictures… So we decided to go to a slum where we have already been 2 times, but today it was kind of different than the other days.. I don’t know why.. Today was not my day, I think. Tomorrow it will be better. I’m shure. We found someone who will take us to Cité Soleil in the dangerous zones (he knows the people and bandits there very well, so we are safe). So we will stay there the whole day.

The internetconnection today is better than the other days, so it’s possible to upload some more pictures from the last week:

Today I’ve been in Cité Soleil in the hospital of “medecins sans frontiers”. These are some of the pictures, I`ve taken there:

Click on the images to see them in a smaller size and right proportions. They are a bit deformed. It´s because when I reduce the size, I cannot do it equally on both sides.

17 days old dead child

Ill child in the arms of her mother

Ill child, some days old

The days here are so hot, that I’m very tired every evening. It’s exhausting.. But it’s better than beeing in rainy Belgium

Yesterday I´ve been in Cité Soleil. It´s the poorest and most dangerous part of Port-au-prince. But as you see, I’m still alive No, it’s calm there… Since 3 months the violence has diminished a lot. Of course, the people are still very poor. But these people there are the friendliest people I’ve met in Haiti. The children were very curious and came to touch me, because my skin is white and they are not used to this. Many of them were ill or malnourished. But still full of life. It was great to see this and to experience the kindness of those people…

In the evening they have organized a birthdayparty for me and Charline (a friend of Nathacha and Audel, who had birthday on the 4th). It was nice!  It´s great to be here! The Birthday cake was really sweet and I loved it I got a skirt from Nathache, a cap and a bracelet from Audel. Thanks again to all of you!

Today we have been in the school MEVA of Haiti Care. The children there are very well treated. They are ful of energy, they laughted, jumped and played.. Afterwards we have walked around to search “restaveks” . We have found one, that I could photograph. She is still lucky becuase she isn´t one of the worst cases. She still lives a normal life and after she has done her work, she sometimes can go to school… But it was shocking to see a girl from 11 years who is hold as a kind of slave. I often see awful scenes here: A women who hits her child, children without clothes who are dirty and ill, a woman who takes her baby into a bus with music as loud as in a disco, … and then the worst thing is the garbage who is all around here. I have never seen something like this in my whole life. It´s so messy and pollutes here. It seems like the people would throw everything on the ground…

I really would like to show you some new pictures, but I can’t find time to upload then. I’m so tired again, that I will go to sleep now!

Wish you all the best!

Ok, I can upload one picture… It´s a child in Cité Soleil in the middle of the “public toilet”