Haiti: Evening in Sou Piste

Lisa Armstrong, for the Pulitzer Center

The people of Sou Piste do the same things here, in their new makeshift community, as they did in the places they lived before. As evening falls, girls fetch water, women cook beans and plantains and rice on outdoor fires, and boys use the last moments of light to fly their kites. Many of the 40,000 people living here moved to this old airport runway the night of the earthquake, after their homes were destroyed.

They have settled in; these shacks of wood and sheets and plastic may well be home for months, perhaps for years. Despite the fact that many do not have enough food, that children are sick, that the rains will soon come, bringing with them flooding and disease, people have accepted life as it is.

"Well, when you sit around and cry, it's as good as killing yourself," said Rene Jamon, who was building a shack for his family along with with two friends. "You can't sit around crying. The dead are dead, so you have to resign yourself and figure out how you're going to survive."

There isn't time for crying, not even for children. Eleven-year-old Sedline Etienne's parents were crushed when their house fell, but she cannot cry anymore. "They told me not to cry, so I wouldn't dry up," she said. "I was crying too much."

Video shot by Andre Lambertson and edited by Carla Ruff. Translation by Shu-Fy Pongnon