An incredible image (and situation). Have any readers been there? Is there any space for vehicular traffic other than bicycles/mopeds/pushcarts? It's hard to grasp the implications for sanitation, public health, fires, hurricanes...
Photo credit Ramon Espinosa / AP, via The Atlantic.
That looks like those stacked stone houses (Ireland)?
ReplyDeleteI have been in Port-au-Prince several times, though not in that neighborhood. I first went in 2016, and even then there was quite a lot of rubble and wreckage still evident from the 2010 earthquake. Much of Port-au-Prince is on pretty flat land. I understand that Jalousie (the pictured neighborhood) was built up in the aftermath of the earthquake; people basically went up the hillsides and built small homes. The government wanted them painted to give them more Caribbean character, especially since the area could be seen from the more affluent area called Petionville. See this BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-44068840
ReplyDeleteMotorbikes are common transportation, and probably the main automotive thing that can get up those hills. Most people don't have those. They usually just walk and may use taxis (tac-tacs) or hop onto trucks.
Sanitation and health are indeed big issues -- even more so now with national resources severely strained or cut off.