In Haiti, many wait for renewal

(AP) - The Associated Press asked people around Haiti's capital to share their thoughts a year after the earthquake. Some responses:

Living in misery: Danelie Matthias, 17, has been staying with relatives under a tarp since the quake. It is miserably hot during the day and the ground floods during rainstorms. Many people in the camp are sick.

"We need a home to stay so we can live in health. We can't continue living in this condition."

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Still waiting: Justin Premier, 43, should be raking in money. He owns a construction materials store in Tabarre, surrounded by people whose houses were damaged or destroyed. But there has been no plan, no model for reconstruction, no leadership. Haitians don't even know who their president will be in a month because the Nov. 28 election resulted in chaos and the runoff was postponed. With no guidance, people just buy plywood to reinforce their tarps.

"I can say that until today nothing has really started. Nothing has really started. We lost our investments, we lost our homes. It takes time to work to balance the economic situation. It's going to take a lot of time for us to come back where we were before.

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Divine loans: Lindor Scipion, 16, says the international community has not given him much, but he is hopeful that reconstruction will start in the new year with help from overseas.

"We need material to rebuild Haiti: rebar, cement, water. For all the nations to come in and reconstruct the country. We won't be able to pay them but Jesus will pay them back."

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Love thy neighbor: Wisner Nelson, 39, worries for the safety of his seven children under a flimsy tarp near the St. Louis of Gonzaga high school. He says supporters of President Rene Preval's party tore a hole in his tent to steal from him because they knew he supported a rival candidate.

"The president has never come to sit with people in St. Louis ... Some other people are listening to what I'm saying. They might come and burn my tent, but what I'm saying is the truth."

He hopes the United States will come give him a better home because other countries and his own leaders have abandoned him.

"When you're a poor person, you've got no chance but to live the way people are living."

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For Ericq Pierre, a Haitian economist and representative to the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, the lesson of the earthquake is that his country needs to stand on its own.

"The problem is that at a certain point the international community gave the impression they could solve the problem quickly," Pierre said. "No one should blame them because finally we Haitians should be able to solve our own problems — but I think there was an excess of optimism."