Two weeks after quake, Haitians search for 'new normal'
VIDEO - Like so many in this city, 14-year old Jonel Julius now calls a tent home...
Like so many in this city, 14-year-old Jonel Julius now calls this tent home. His house damaged in the earthquake, Jonel shares this space with his parents and eight siblings.
“This is our house and we don’t have any other place to sleep. We are suffering,” said Jonel.
But adjacent to this sprawling homeless camp, just steps away from Julius’ tent is an oasis from the pain. For these kids, this is more than just child’s play. It’s a welcome distraction from all they’ve seen these last weeks.
In the face of unspeakable devastation, the people of Port-Au-Prince are coming together to find their new normal.
“I’m just trying to give another direction to my thoughts. I don’t need somebody to tell me to cry,” said Julner Julius.
Local commerce is coming back too.
At Port-au-Prince’s largest open-air market, there are signs that business is returning to normal. Some vendors said that they had to come back to work because they needed the money.
“I can’t go home because the house is broken. I have to sit here and try to make a sale,” said local vendor Saintillia Henry.
Back at the camp, Jonel has made a new friend.
“I asked him for his name and we started talking,” he said.
The are talking no doubt about what has happened. And what happens next? Hand in hand. They are navigating this new reality, together.
Click here for more reporting from Mara Schiavocampo on the ground in Haiti
