Alice Smeets | Blog

Colombia is great. Its a beautiful country with many colors, a rich culture, many different fruits and flowers I have NEVER heard of before. The people are really nice (the only problem is that the majority doesn’t speak anything than Spanish, but I learn more and more each day, Diana teaches me a lot). Yesterday and today I was sick, I had a cold, but I already feel much better. I have no internetconnection where I am living at the moment and no time, so I will not be online frequently until we are back in Dianas house. For people who don’t know: Diana is my friend that I met when I was living in Newzealand. She is Colombian and organized a trip through her country that will show me the nicest places. Right now we are in Armenia, this evening we will continue to Bogota (the capital) and than to the seeside. She lives in Medellin where I will have one week of Spanish lessons before I get back to New York and from there finally back to Belgium.

0013054956038 - You can reach me on this number until Tuesday morning. Please consider the 6 hour time difference (I am 6 hours earlier), I wake up at 6 or 7am and I am busy tomorrow evening, Saturday at noon and evening. Any other time.. feel free to call.

hey guys back in Belgium, try to do the same as this Haitian woman, that would come in handy for you beer drinkers!

My time in Haiti is over. Yesterday I left the country (unfortunately my flight was canceled because of bad weather in Miami, so I had to wait 7 hours at the airport for the next one without having anything to drink, no more money and a Visacard that didnt work ). But I still live and arrived good in Miami where some couchsurfing people (if you dont know the couchsurfing system, go and check it out: www.couchsurfing.org) came to pick me up. Miguel and Alex are wonderful people, I will stay with them until Tuesday. I am here in an appartment overlooking Miami and the ocean. Migi and Alex are Columbians and we had a great conversation this morning. I talked a lot about Haiti and the impressions that I took with me. It was quite hard in Haiti, but wonderful at the same time. Especially visiting the countryside together with Natacha and her friend Merlange was amazing. Seeing the people there living with nothing and yet they are so happy. We walked in the mountains for hours in the middle of Haitis beautiful nature. Another world than the city with all the slums… I could write for hours about my experiences in Haiti, but I don’t think anyone wants to read a really long text, so if you have questions, just ask me, write me an email or talk to me when I am back.

Another great news: I am accepted as a student for the Eddie Adams Workshop in October 2008! I am so happy! This will be a great opportunity to get to know many people of the business and other young photographers. http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/usr/usr-show/U0000lJBwMkpKm9k

“Explanation of the workshop: The Eddie Adams Workshop is an intense four-day gathering of the top professionals in photojournalism, along with 100 carefully selected students. The Workshop’s purpose is to create a forum in which an exchange of ideas, techniques, and philosophies can be shared between both established members and newcomers of the profession of picture journalism. The Workshop is tuition-free, and the 100 students are chosen based on the merit of their portfolios.” (source: http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/)

A woman in the morgue.. They took their organs for medical researches because she has no family anymore that could reclaim her body…

“Life is not the amount of breaths you take, it’s the moments that take your breath away.”

“Who is afraid to die, is afraid to live”

“If we have nothing to die for, we have nothing to live for”

“What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger”

—

Some quotations that describe my way of living. Too many people don’t dare to live their dreams and when it’s too late, they regret it. Not long ago, I read the Alchimist of Paulo Coelho and I found some beautiful quotations in the book:

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” “Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you’ll find your treasure.”

” There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn’t know it.”

“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love…”

Philip Jones Griffiths used to say that too many people are so used to a boring lifestyle, encouraged by the media, that they don’t even see what they are missing. “Go check it out, it is all there and wants to be found”.

I’m just writing this post, because so many people are telling me that they think it’s great what I am doing, but they could never do the same. Of course, they can, everyone can, if you only dare to listen to your heart…

On the way to Fort Dimanche

Eating of mudcakes, Fort Dimanche

Ill streetkid sleeping around daytime.

On the countryside, Cazal.

On the countryside, Cazal

In the general hospital, Port-au-Prince

Dead in the child section in the general hospital. Two babies, one put on the top of each other, in the middle of the corridor and stayed there for hours..