If you take a vacation, you probably go to the "tourist" locations of an area. Which is fine. You can see all the places that makes the location attractive to visitors. And will encourage them to return time and time again. And the beauty in these locations often encourages one to do just that. And who wants to go to a place, spend time and money on the trip, and not enjoy what they do or see?
But often, it takes really stepping outside the "tourist" spots to really see what a location has to offer, and to really learn about the people and their culture. Such is our trips to Haiti. We not only get to see the beautiful locations, such as above, but we get to see the "other side" of Haiti, the one where poverty lives, and lives sometimes hang on by a thread. Where the families struggle to survive, and children don't have enough to eat. Where people attempt to support their families while they compete with many others doing the same thing. Where people survive in situations most of us can not understand, let alone imagine. And where the impoverished area exists in the beauty which is also there.
So the following photos show both the beauty and the harshness which is Haiti. And all are a way of life to this little island, where parents still dream of making a better life for themselves and for their children.
