From May 10, 2010 through May 14,

well-known independent journalist Georgianne Nienaber, whose beat has covered everything from environmental issues to the Katrina disaster to the hideous civil war in the Congo, and myself went on a whirlwind tour of the island of Haiti to investigate the current state of affairs after the horrific earthquake of January 12. Georgianne had already been there once with a small medical team, but needed to return to do follow up work. She asked me to accompany her both for added security and journalistic support, since I am a photographer and freelance journalist as well.

We flew into the island early Monday morning on the 10th and were picked up by our “Fixer,” Andre Paultre, a native Haitian fluent in English, Creole and French who seemed to know everyone and everything in Haiti. He was also our driver, and drive he did for the next four days as we went east and west from Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Our itinerary included visiting a number of refugee camps, even private families within and outside of the capital, both self-sustaining (barely) and government and/or NGO run camps; a wide survey of earthquake damage; a trek through the famous slum of Cité Soleil; interviews with leading businessmen; a tour of the Hôpital Universitaire de l’État d’Haïti, Port-au-Prince’s general hospital, including interviews with both the director of the hospital and of surgery; a tour of a huge sugar mill processing sugarcane, a night-time visit to a camp being flooded out during a rainstorm; an invitation to a real and wondrous Vodou ritual by the Order of Light for the Establishment of Fraternity; and last but not least, an interview with three women from the Commission of Women Victims for Women Victims, an organization fighting increasing rape in the camps.

I took well over a thousand photos, so you can imagine how hard it was to pare them down to a handful for AltDaily’s needs, but I am grateful that Jesse is eager to show even these. Following are ten pictures that give you some sense of what things are like in Haiti today:

This is Camp Canaan, a barely self-sustaining camp off of Highway One in the mountains 12 miles to the northeast of Port-au-Prince, at the foot of Mon Cabrit (Goat Mountain). This camp had been hosting as many as 8,000 people before the rainy season began, severe floodwater accumulation and runoff from the heavily deforested mountain driving some families off.

One of the toddlers of Camp Canaan. Note the orange tinge to the hair, an indication of malnutrition. Small babies and their mothers suffer much in these camps set up in open, treeless plains. There is little shade, stifling heat and humidity, plus little to eat. When their children are ill, unless mobile medical services happen to be in camp, mothers must walk down to the highway and hop a tap-tap (Haitian transportation vehicle) into nearby Cité Soleil to get medical treatment at a clinic.

Kids in Haiti are a real trip, very energetic, happy-go-lucky, even impish. Despite all the hardships, they keep their spirits up, and at Camp Canaan, they followed us around with much curiosity and gusto. In this shot, myself and Georgianne pose with some of our newly found friends.

We have left the camps now and are headed to Cité Soleil, the giant slum district of Port-au-Prince. Here is a tap-tap, a privately owned, publicly operated “taxi.”

Now we are at the commercial fishing pier at the very end of Cité Soleil. Moored to the far end of the pier were sailing sloops that were loaded with large sacks of coal that Haitians buy for cooking and heating, while on either side of the pier were fishermen and fishing boats as far as the eye could see. Many of the fishermen net fish together in the water, pulling a large net between them after they wade out, then trapping the fish in their net. Here is one such fisherman wading in the water.

We have left Port-au-Prince and are driving down a main business boulevard. The road is horribly congested and traffic stop and go. On either side of the road you see open markets with ramshackle dwellings just beyond. The average Haitian, who often has mere pennies (actually gourdes) in his or her pocket, depends on these markets to survive, because regular grocery stores and department stores are usually too expensive, and the prices in these are not much cheaper than stores here.

One tiny example of the earthquake damage, which is visible almost everywhere. Port-au-Prince looks like London after the Blitz, although Haitians carry on with amazing resilience. They never did recover all the bodies, so there are some still trapped under the rubble here and there, waiting to be uncovered.

On Tuesday we spent all morning at Port-au-Prince’s sprawling general hospital, Hôpital Universitaire de l’État d’Haïti (HUEH), which suffered considerable damage, yet still managed to keep functioning as masses of injured Haitians poured in. Tents had to be erected to substitute for departments or buildings destroyed or condemned. An influx of foreign medical teams also helped stabilize the situation.

We are peering into one of the temporary pediatric medical tents on the hospital campus. The women and man in white are angels of mercy who have come into this tent to pray for mothers with very sick babies. She is hard to make out, but on the right you can see the head of one such mother with her head bowed on the bed as a prayer for her child is recited.

On Wednesday night we came to this event, a real Vodou ceremony in which they first interrogated us to find out how much we cared for the Haitian people and what did we know about Vodou, which in its distorted Hollywood/New Orleans form is called Voodoo.

Satisfied with our answers, they let us stay and participate and agreed to let me take photographs as well as spread knowledge about their order. This is an order dedicated to the enlightenment and unity of humankind, not merely Haitians, and one that is open to the promptings of Nature and the Divine to heal and evolve the planet. They pointed out that theirs is the nouveau (new) Vodou of the Temple, not the old Vodou of the Peristyle, which is more prone to negative energies.

What you are seeing above is that point in the ceremony where rum, I assume, has just been poured on the floor to next be lit; a machete is then purified in the blue flames. The ceremony contained much rhythmic dancing and chanting, much symbolism and a possession, whether you think that this is an external or internal phenomenon. This is considered a sacred possession, and the possessed individual is then approached for blessings and guidance. Furthermore this order explained that they mean to extend the blessings and guidance they receive to helping the Haitian people create a new and wonderful Haiti, the Phoenix rising from the ashes.

The ritual machete, which is particularly sacred to the warrior and blacksmith deity Ogun, is now being purified in the flames and will be flourished about as the veil between the planes is pierced.

For more of Mac’s pictures, click here, here, here, and here.