Wanted: jobs, schools, opportunities

The next step, Edie says, "is to try to create work so that people who left Port-au-Prince have money so they can survive."

Experts see the exodus from Port-au-Prince as a chance to ease the strains on the overcrowded capital. And the newly arrived workers actually could be a boon to rural Haiti. Putting them to work improving food production could help reduce the country's chronic hunger problems.

But people were drawn to Port-au-Prince for a number of reasons besides jobs. For the Guerriere family, the capital was also where the opportunities for a better life began. Irene Guerriere sent her daughter Ivena to high school there because there were no good schools in Gonaives.

"Port-au-Prince is where I would like to live," Ivena says, "because I want to become somebody. Port-au-Prince is where I can learn something, and I can't in Gonaives."

Urgent needs

Creating rural jobs is on everyone's to-do list, from the government to the United Nations to aid groups.

VOA - S. BaragonaIrene Guerriere

But so far only a few small projects have begun. For families like the Guerrieres, the need is urgent and it's now.

Ivena Guerriere does her best to be positive.

"Even if we eat only once, in the morning, we crack jokes all day. And we feel good."

If jobs don't come through soon, the food may run out for many Haitians. And the humor won't be far behind.