Amid the ruin and rubble of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's informal economy of street vendors are selling power to recharge cellphones, laundry service and international telephone calls.
BY JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ
jcchavez@MiamiHerald.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- For less than a dollar, with the sorrow of the loss of his 3-year-old son etched on his face, Sauveur Celestine recharges cellphones in the road using batteries from cars rendered useless by the earthquake.
``This has enabled me to earn some money that is not a great amount, but at least it is enough for me to buy two meals a day,'' said Celestine, 28, an unemployed accountant who has been sleeping in the makeshift camps in front of the Presidential Palace.
Hundreds of informal businesses have emerged on the streets and camps -- given the paralysis of the government -- to come to the assistance of the population and the limitations to the delivery of international aid.
``Every person has to find a way to keep his chin up,'' said Francaise Etienne.
Etienne, 39, sells hot dogs and fried chicken wings in one of the plazas of the Merrete neighborhood, in the city center. The area is crowded with earthquake victims who sleep on the ground. Waste is piled into small piles that the people are burying on one side of the street.
Her husband and 9-year-old son died when their house collapsed in the earthquake. Now she has to feed and care for her daughters on her own.
``I have no other family who can do something for me. I have my three daughters who need me,'' she said. ``You have to get moving.''
Two weeks after the devastating earthquake, one can now find mobile barbers working on almost every street corner, improvised telephone booths with plastic roofs on the Rue Ducoste and women who offer to wash clothes for a four or five Haitian dollars (about 50 cents in U.S currency).
Others, like Sain-Vil Evronie, age 40, clean up rubble for $2 per day.
Even before the earthquake, experts estimated that up to eight in 10 Port-au-Prince residents worked in the informal economy.
But in the middle of an economy jolted by inflation, with losses that may exceed $1 billion, according to estimates from the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, the Haitians who are lucky enough to work amid the misery say this is a first step toward recovery and is a way to feel useful.
The competition in this informal sector grows every day and can at times take a violent turn. Meanwhile, authorities and local businesses are taking timid steps to reactivate the economic market.
``The people of Haiti and the government are very bad,'' said John Baptist, 29. ``Any progress will depend on everyone.''
Like many of his countrymen who were affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake, Baptist has no place to go or a place to mourn his relatives who died. He is thinking of going to another country, although he is still far from having enough money for a new passport.
Other sectors of the informal economy are also trying to find a place and turn the page. Among them are banks and currency exchanges that reopened Saturday for those expecting remittances from relatives abroad. Haitians living overseas send about $1.6 billion to Haiti annually.
``That's the best news that we've heard,'' said Charles Roberson, 23.
With his brother Ronald, Charles Roberson managed to make about $10 exchanging money.
The earthquake also has forced into the street other business operators who've never imagined themselves as street vendors.
Among them: Junioje Mirthil, 29. She sells furniture and wooden chairs in Cité Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods.
With a dampened cloth, Mirthil cleans the dust that has covered the dining room set that she's selling for $100. In addition to furniture, she's running a service to make international phone calls.
``The work is a blessing and my father always told me that I was born to do business,'' Mirthil said. ``This [phone business] could work, everyone wants to speak with their family.''
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