Battle of Vertieres

On November 18, 1803 the Haitian rebel forces squared of against the French army at Vertieres in the north of Haiti in the last major battle for Haitian independence. It's along story and I'm too tired after being in the streets so if you want to know more there's this wonderful thing called "google".
In any case, last night a full restriction of movement was implemented for all United Nations staff in Port au Prince. Stay home, they advised, unless you absolutely have to go to work. You see, they were expecting a "mass demonstration" against the United nations mission in Haiti. Thousands of people were expected to take to the streets and demand that the UN leave Haiti. In the end it turned out that only a few hundred actually showed up. Honestly, for me, a few hundred is not get excited about. I was already in the office so I figured I'd nip out for a look. What I found was roads littered with rocks and trash bins and some burning tires, and a few dozen men making a go of standing up to police and clean up crews. In the end they all dispersed leaving a bit of a mess but no major damage.

Photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

A demonstrator throws a rock at a bulldozer that is attempting to clear rubble from demonstrations calling for the departure of the United Nations mission in Haiti.

The women driving this bulldozer seemed unfazed with their smashed windshield and continued their work clearing the streets.

Jubilant demonstrators run after the retreating bulldozer.

A man rips off a poster of a presidential candidate, tears it up, throws it on the ground and jumps up and down on it.

The demonstrators victory against the bulldozer was short lived. Once the police showed up the all scattered.

   

Benchelove's story

This is the story of 7 year old Benchelove. She was admitted to the Cholera treatment center last week while we were there and I wanted to show the process of admittance.
You can read the full story at www.minustah.org.

All photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

As soon as she was carried in by her mother it was clear this little girl was not well.

Skipping the waiting line, the doctor quickly examined her and directed the mother to the cholera treatment center around the back of the hospital. An attempt is being made to segregate cholera patients to slow the transmission rate.

The CTC's are tents donated by UNICEF, hence the UNICEF logo everywhere.

As soon as she is admitted her mother is told to undress her and remove the possibly infected clothes.

Benchelove is examined by the medical staff...

and given an IV. The girl did not even flinch. I've had IVs and tears always come to my eyes.

Sometimes she seemed completely aware of her surroundings- watching me as I took her photo...

and other times she would fade out- even a her mother removed the berets from her hair.

Crowd control

Last week I went to the police academy to cover the graduation of the Haitian National police's crowd control section (CIMO) from an intensive course that started in July. Normally it's a very dull affair with lots of speeches and not much action. This time I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of the regular agenda they decided to put on a display of the techniques they had learned with the help of UN police trainers. 

It's quite fun to be in mock riots - all the action, non of the danger. Instead of throwing rocks - that have a habit of breaking heads and such - they threw water bottle with some pebbles inside. There was much chanting and singing and charging about. There was even water canons. But, I discovered to my dismay that I have become rusty. At one point thee was a massive BOOM and a smoke canister erupted in the midst of the "protesters". Where as in the old days I would have started shooting the moment of the BOOM, I found myself half crouched with my camera pointing uselessly at the ground. Now if you have ever snuck up on someone and scared them you know that the face they make is priceless. When one of these smoke bombs go off it's not just the people's face that reacts, it's their whole body. Thankfully, I regained my composure enough to get some images. Here's the first one unedited, you can see I was a little off aim.

Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

I'm attaching some more images of the demonstration and you can read the story and see all the images at www.minustah.org.          

Photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Mario Rizzolio

Sometimes I think it's important to document the work of our peers in the field. I absolutely refuse to take photos of fellow staff who want to pose with some celebrity or diplomat, but if they are working, great. So here is Mario Rizzolio, new to our staff as a journalist for our Public Information section, at work interviewing a gentleman with Cholera at a Cholera treatment center a couple of hours north of Port au Prince in a town called Lester. After the photo I've added his caption explaining the scene.

Iniasse Macilus was able to walk from home to the hospital thanks to the help of his aunt. Some people, especially the older, are abandoned, because the community is scared. They don’t always understand the way cholera is transmitted. Iniasse told me he drank tap water and wasn’t aware he had to treat it. In the coming days, one of the biggest challenges will be to sensitize people to the precautions they need to have to avoid putting their selves at risk. Though still week, Iniasse was slowly recovering when logan and I left the CTC. Mario Rizzolio
Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Success

So after much hair pulling and cursing, I started to think of a plan to get the photos back. First was to start asking for help. Then it was to implement the advice given. On this occasion Rescue pro was the solution. I downloaded the demo and found that, yes, by George, it could read the files - only problem was that because it's a demo it won't save them. Second step, buy rescue pro. But wait, shipping anything to Haiti is a chore, to say the least. So before I committed the money, I searched my boxes of stuff recovered from my office after the earthquake. And you know, it sometimes pays to be a pack rat because I found not one, but four rescue pro disks that came with the cards that I bought so long ago.
And so you know why I was fretting, I've attached the one photo that would have haunted me if I'd lost it.

An elderly woman shakes rice from a basket to separate it from debris.  Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Nightmares in the digital age

One of the worst feelings you can have as a photographer in the digital age is when an SD card refuses to read in the camera or on the computer. At this very moment I'm pulling my hair out trying to find a way to recover the images I spent all day shooting. I don't know whether to cry or start breaking things.
If any of you have any tips, please, please let me know.

Cholera

Last week the writer Mario Rizzolio and I went into the central area of Haiti called the Artibonite to see the work being done at the Cholera Treatment Centers. Since the outbreak in October of this year, more than 700 people have died and the number continues to rise. It has now spread out to other cities including north to Gonaives (famous for it's annual floods) and south into the capital of Port au Prince. Despite all efforts, this outbreak looks set to spread across the entire country endangering the lives of not only the weak and vulnerable, but the apparently fit. At the treatment centers I saw an elderly man beside a fit looking adolescent. And that wasn't the only time. At a nearby hospital I saw rooms packed to overflowing with people who I didn't expect: middle aged women, thick and strong, muscled men I'd expect to see outside moving heaving things around with ease, teenagers who are usually flirting and hanging out. It most definitely wasn't babies and elderly. What this means to Haiti is beyond me, but I see a big fight coming if this disease is to be stopped. I've attached a few photos but the full story and massive photo gallery can be read and seen at www.minustah.org. 

Photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

A young boy is examined by a doctor at a hospital adjacent to a Cholera treatment center in Lester, a small town in central Haiti. He was given rehydration formula and sent home.

This is the little girl from the minustah.org story, 7 year old Benshelove. It was immediately apparent that something was amiss with the little girl. She was draped over her mothers shoulder, eyes half closed completely slack. The mother passed the waiting line, an exam was conducted and she was sent directly to the CTC.

An elderly man lays beside an adolescent boy in a CTC. Both are receiving intravenous liquids to help hydrate them.

A mother watches over her son while another little boy watches. Both boys are suffering from Cholera, a horrible disease that leaves you vomiting and with horrible diarrhea and can lead to dehydration so bad it can kill you.

This little boy was in a CTC in Port au Prince. While there are relatively few cases at the moment in the capital, the general concern is that if it catches it could race through the camps for displacement people that house more that a million people.

A mother comforts her baby at a CTC in Port au Prince.

And sometimes I like making photos of cute stuff.

Photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Pretty

Sometimes I like to make photos of pretty things. Here we have some type of flower (don't ask me what exactly I'm a photographer not a Botanist) in the rice fields about and hour and a half north of Port au Prince.
Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Going fishing

The moped is the default moving truck of Haiti. Here a man balances specialized nets on his head while he heads to his favorite fishing site.
Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Market place

Yesterday, on our way to cover the continuing Cholera issue, we encountered a traffic jam. The cause? It was market day.
This market is about an hour and a half north of Port au prince, near the city of St. Mark. The local government built a market away from the road, but that's not how it works here. Here, it's drive through service. The shopping literally comes to you, you don't need to drive to it.
Photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

Charcoal, the bane of the Haitian environment, but since they have no alternative ways to cook, they are forced into a spiral of destruction that will inevitably leave this country completely barren.

 

As you can see here, the market banks right up to the road and is in many cases in the road too.