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Beyond the mountain is another mountain.

I spent a few days in an orphanage on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince late last year. My friend went down to shoot a video to help the family who runs the complex raise money and I decided to go along with him. The family has a home in Oklahoma but spends most of the year living in Haiti and running the complex, which includes a few schools, a church and housing for sixty Haitian kids who would otherwise have no safe place to live or be educated. It was a remarkable experience and a real perspective adjustment. The family has gone through so much (kidnappings, the devastating earthquake, death threats and land disputes) as have the kids, but through it all there is humanity and hope. The kids play soccer–bare footed–in the afternoons after school and church and before dinner. They play games and do homework. They are relatively safe within the barbed-wire covered walls of the orphanage; but even within the walls there can be trouble. David spoke of an instance of a girl being treated improperly, sexually, by one of his staff members while the family was away in the states. When learning of the incident upon return, his first thoughts were of revenge. The most heart-breaking part of the story was that the young girl had already become accustomed to these sorts of things and the and the crime went unpunished. There is no real legal recourse, only personal-style revenge which is messy and best avoided. Of course, these stories are not unique to Haiti, but after the recent devastating earthquake in a country already struggling to get by, they are only amplified.

I read a quote from author George Saunders in a New York Times profile that reminded me of my time spent in Haiti: “I’d been kind of an Ayn Rand guy before that,” he said. “And then you go to Asia and you see people who are genuinely poor and genuinely suffering and hadn’t gotten there by whining.”

A girl living in the orphanage made fun of me for not having a wife at age 30, saying, “I think you like photography more than girls.” This was just after she told me her story of a bad home environment, an abusive father, a lack of food or education, all with a hopeful smile on her face. While playing games with the younger boys, one of them looked up and asked me if I had a mom. “Yes,” I replied. “Why?” he asked.

My favorite part of traveling is learning and growing from different cultures and different people. It’s impossible to go to Haiti and not be at least a little changed–people struggling to get through the day without starving and without a real roof over their head. Once back into my own comfortable world, I’d like to think I’m a bit more humbled. A bit more caring for my fellow citizens of this planet.

If you’d like to help this particular orphanage, one of many in Haiti, you can visit their website here. I know the kids would be grateful for any help they can get.

You can view the video we shot here; filmed and edited by my pal Ryan Prouty.

You can see some portraits I shot of the kids here & here and you can view the rest of my Haiti images on my photoshelter page.

Thanks to David, Alicia, their family and all the kids for their kind hospitality.