Here is a fascinating article that I came across about the safety in Haiti:

Trying to stay safe in Haiti

As the United Nations decides to keep its peacekeepers in Haiti for another 12 months, Nick Caistor travels to the country to find out how dangerous the situation is for himself.

Whenever possible, I like to travel into Haiti by bus from the neighbouring Dominican Republic. It is a long seven-hour ride, but it allows me to take the political temperature at the border and to see if there is any improvement in the crippling poverty immediately obvious in the Haitian countryside before I am submerged in the sprawling mess of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

I... more

"Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of." (From The Farming of Bones)

A couple of months ago, I read the book The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat. The Farming of Bones takes place on the island of Hispaniola in the 1930s. It begins in a fictional village in the Dominican Republic; at the same time Dictator Rafael Trujillo began his policy on Haitian genocide. We... more

Every so often, I’d like to share a little about what it is like to be in Haiti from my personal perspective. The other day, I was answering the question about why it takes so long for an adoption to be completed in Haiti. One of my responses was “the Haitian Attitude”. I used dining in a restaurant as an example. After I was finished sharing a snippet about that, I had to chuckle to myself. There is nothing quite like dining in Haiti. It’s not that the food is so unusual (though chicken spaghetti or hotdog spaghetti are a little... more

Here are a couple more news stories about the UN from Haiti over the weekend:

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Twenty-four hours of clashes between UN forces and armed gangs in the Haitian capital's sprawling slum of Cite Soleil have left at least five people dead and 12 wounded by gunfire, the UN mission in Haiti said.

"Four people, all likely gang members, were killed in clashes Wednesday at dawn between the blue helmets and gunmen," said a spokesman for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Six people were... more

News about Haiti’s inclusion as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank from the Nassau Guardian:

Recent inclusion of Haiti as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank may hold economic benefits for its Bahamian neighbor.

Arrangements for the poorest nation in the western hemisphere to take full membership in the Bank were completed last week, effectively vaulting Haiti's status in the region at the same time improving its long-term economic outlook.

"We have been working assiduously over the past two years to bring Haiti into the (Bank's) family," said its President Dr Compton... more

I try and look for news articles about or from Haiti on a regular basis. This morning, I found a happy story, as well as a tragic story. I thought these two stories well-represent Haiti—a country filled with sorrow and strife; but one with great promise and hope.

MONTREAL - A freelance photographer was gunned down in his home near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, apparently a victim of gang wars, Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday.

Jean-Remy Badio was shot Friday at his home in Martissant, a... more

Flights to Haiti just got cheaper:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Discount carrier Spirit Airlines will offer flights between Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Haiti's capital beginning in March, the airline said.

The Fort Lauderdale-based airline will have three flights per week to Port-au-Prince starting March 22 and will offer daily flights starting in May, Spirit said in a statement. Spirit's one-way fares between Fort Lauderdale and Port-au-Prince will start at US$93, according to its Web site, compared to US$255 for American Airlines flights. Barry Biffle, the airline's chief marketing officer, said in a statement that the new service would give the 250,000 people of... more

Last week, I received a lovely email from a new reader. She was sharing with me how her heart was for adoption. She had spent quite a bit of time with research for Chinese adoption, only to discover the new rules would exclude her from being able to adopt from China. She had felt drawn toward Haitian adoption in the past, and with the recent news about China, started looking more at Haitian adoption. She told me that she was happy to find my Haiti blog, because there wasn’t much available in regards to personal stories about adopting from Haiti. She is right.... more

Brief History of Haiti continued from Part Two...

Democracy continued to falter in Haiti for the next two decades until 1957, when Doctor François “Papa Doc” Duvalier was elected president. In 1964, Duvalier consolidated power, naming himself President-for-Life. Using his notorious enforcement squad, the Tonton Macoutes, thousands were imprisoned, exiled, and murdered.

Before his death, Papa Doc named his son Jean-Claude as his successor. When he... more

A Brief History of Haiti continued from Part One...

A short time after they gained independence, the people of Haiti were thrown into a fierce civil war; dividing the country for almost 20 years. Dessalines was assassinated, and an illiterate ex-slave named Henri Christophe took his place. King Christophe ruled the North, and Alexandre Petion, a mulatto, ruled the South.

In 1818, Alexandre Pétion died and Jean-Pierre Boyer, the former secretary... more