c. Valari Jack

One reporter’s first foreign assignment in Haiti turned dangerous very quickly. Janna Graber writes for EPN World Reporter.

A year ago, I decided that I would put my background in International Relations to use by turning my focus to international features. My very first such story, which was for the Chicago Tribune, was in Cite Soleil, a large slum neighborhood in Haiti. An American woman, a former Playboy bunny, was doing great volunteer work there with a school and an orphanage, and I was supposed to write about it.

Along with two local TV news crews, and my friend, freelance photographer Valari Jack, I hopped aboard an American Airlines jet that was taking food and other donated goods to Haiti as part of Airline Ambassadors.

From the moment we touched ground, the story went to heck. The plane, filled to the gills with food, donated diapers, and so on, was "held" by the Haitian government upon landing. They wanted a bribe, then another one, then another. We finally ditched the airplane to the capable hands of Airline Ambassadors, and set out on our own.

The sight of the intense poverty and disorder in Port au Prince was an immediate shock for me. The streets were complete chaos, and we got stuck in the middle of an intersection for over 30 minutes, simply trying to cross the street in our van. Not far from there, a dead person was lying in the middle of the road. I watched in horror as everyone just walked around the corpse. Everywhere we went, people stared at us with unwelcoming eyes.

For the first time in my life, I felt like I was in danger. Although I have lived abroad and travelled a great deal internationally, this was different. The feeling of danger affected the others as well, but those with more experience in such strife-worn parts of the world offered calming advice, telling me what to watch for, how to handle it, how to stay safe. Their confidence was a huge help.

The next day, we were driven into Cite Soleil, to a specific area so dangerous that the Haitian driver, who had not been told we were going there, almost refused to go in. We didn't know it, but a gang murder had taken place in the area the day before. The American woman we were writing about had paid off the gang, trading "peace for a day" for rice.

Things were fine for a half hour or so, as we filmed with school, etc. but then I began to get a strange feeling. The crowd of children, young men and women startled to hum with fervor. They began to circle, walking around and around us. They grew more agitated, making aggressive movements, pointing their fingers in our faces and running their fingers across their necks in a slicing motion. As Valari went to photograph a child who just moments ago had been smiling, the child turned on her, pointing his fingers as a gun at her.

"Something doesn't feel right," I said to Valari. She nodded, and pulled her equipment close. "Something's very wrong."

I saw a fight break out and the flash of metal in and out of pockets. Knives? Guns? "Get back in the van!" one of the cameramen called. Everything in my body told me he was right. Val and I ran for it. The others quickly followed, jumping into the van. But one lone film crew remained. Looking intently at the scene they were filming, they didn't see the danger they were in.

By now, a mob had gathered around the van. They began rocking the vehicle back and forth. There was a frenzied look in their eyes as I looked into the faces on the other side of the window glass. There was not much protection between them and me.

The Haitian driver started pulling out. He was going, with or without the others. "We're leaving! NOW!" another journalist called to the film crew. At the last moment, they noticed, and ran with all their equipment to the van. The door opened for them, and they were in.

None of us said a word as the van slowly pushed its way through the crowd. My heart was beating terribly. This wasn't quite what I had imagined for my first international story.

"There is no hope for this hell-hole," one of the other journos said. Looking around, I had to admit he seemed to be right. Later, we learned that the only reason we were allowed to leave was that someone in our group had paid off the gang.

Back in the hotel, which was safe behind armed guards and barbed-wire fences, I couldn't shake the depressed feeling I had. Nothing I had heard about Haiti seemed to offer any solution or hope for this place. Surely, that wasn't the only story I had to tell. There had to be something positive here as well.

I kept asking around. Eventually, I came across a Haitian woman who smiled with hope and who was determined that her country would someday change. She had pulled herself out of poverty, gotten an education and was now helping women in Haiti in incredible ways. She told stories of meeting outside in yards, teaching women to read, of helping fishermen purchase boats to have a means to feed their families, and of helping young girls get an education. Working with women at all levels, she was making a difference one life at a time. She was not giving up.

Here was my hopeful story. Yes, I filed the story of the American women and the difficult work she did. But then I followed it with a piece on the Haitian woman and her work. In a way, the second story was therapy for me -- a light spot in a very dark story.

Since then, I've covered stories in many countries, but I keep Haiti in the back of my mind. I remind myself that no matter how grim the situation is, there is, somewhere, another angle that gives hope.

Janna Graber will be "Diving in Deep" in New Zealand as well. In April, she'll head to Fiordland National Park, a breathtaking region in the remote southwest corner of New Zealand, where the walls of a glacial fiord plunge almost 1,000 feet below the sea to the ocean floor. The glacial walls are teeming with sea life, and are considered to be one of the most pristine marine environments in the world. Graber's proposed adventure travel article, "To the depths of New Zealand," will describe her submarine dive, a new adventure now open to tourists, to get a view of this spectacular ocean scenery.

Photocredit: Valari Jack, Freelance photographer, Boulder, Colorado, USA. (303) 499-2464