Now we are in Bel Air. Venise's house is the tall building on the right halfway up this hill.
Up they go.
Up the stairs.
Now we are on the pancaked top story, cinder-block remains strewn everywhere.
Venise poses in front of the collapsed section of her house.
Some of Venise's extended family has appeared, and Fontaine on the left, an in-law, is explaining the horrors of the earthquake to us.
This actually became a tomb for the family. To quote from Georgianne's own rather intense article on this:
Fontaine was pulled from the rubble hours after the quake, but her niece was not so fortunate and was garroted by a red gate on the stairway. The niece's baby survived on the doomed woman's breast. Venise's daughters Cherlu (28) and Sophia (24) also perished in the rubble that once was home to a close family. Bit by bit, the family has been clearing rubble by hand in hopes of rebuilding. (source)
Another glimpse of Venise's extended family. After much discussion, Venise decided that it was still impractical and yet unsafe to set up her new tent here, so we would take her back and she would have it erected back at the Champs de Mars camp.Some of the ornate stone work once part of the house's architecture.
Now it's time for me to take a look at more of Bel Air. Here, school kids are walking up the hill, the Bay of Port-au-Prince looming in the background, loading docks with cranes and distant freighters clearly visible.
This house was shredded by the January earthquake.
Weathered and damages houses across the street.
Looking at the further hills of Port-au-Prince in the distance, more damage in the foreground.
Zooming in some on the streets below.
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