Tents Encampments

Some of these photos were taken from a car while on the road, but it gives you a good idea of what it’s like. While in Jacmel, we spent some time at Pinchinat, the largest tent encampment in the city located on the main soccer field.  Some of our artist friends were living in tents with their families, as were some of the ACFFC kids, and we also found old friends while walking through the maze of temporary shelters. People were cooking meals together, latrines were being built, and eventually the Venezuelans came in with larger tents and even some cots. No one was or is happy with the situation. Eventually small markets began to spring up, aid organizations brought in water and supplies, and we even saw a brothel tent at Pinchinat. We encountered mild violence, once taking a young girl to the police station because of an argument that caused a small mob scene. Throughout our travels and along the roads from Port-au-Prince through Leogane and Jacmel, tent encampments were everywhere with the range of temporarily shelters made from sheets, curtains, cardboard, corrugated metal, banana leaves, sticks, tarps, prefab tents, and then some seriously professional looking tent communities.  The floors for most are dirt or mud from the rains, there is no privacy, some families are required to eat and sleep with others, and they don’t know how long they will have to live in these places.

[kml_flashembed  movie=”[kml_flashembed movie=”http://zanmilakayblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Tents Cities/Tents Cites.swf” base=”http://zanmilakayblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Tents Cities/Tents Cites.swf” width=”700″ height=”500″ scale=”showall” /]

---