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Standing in the rubble of his home, a Haitian craftsman shows a rough soapstone carving of what will be the smooth, polished centerpiece of a distant Christmas celebration – the infant Jesus.

Photos by: Phil Grout

Photographer Phil Grout recently spent a few days in Haiti on assignment for SERRV International, documenting the earthquake’s devastation and the work that the New Windsor, Md. and Madison, Wis., based organization is providing Haitian artists and artisans. These are his impressions. – S.D.K.

Before the trip, I knew Haiti was considered the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. I knew starving children were being fed “cookies,” the main ingredient of which was mud. On earlier visits I had witnessed the back-breaking work of Haitian sugar cane cutters in the neighboring fields of the Dominican Republic. And I had been the recipient of joyous Haitian hospitality by a community of ŽmigrŽs in Miami, Florida.

For more than 30 years SERRV has partnered with Haitian stone carvers, metal workers and papier mache artists. When news of the earthquake broke on January 12, SERRV employees were especially stunned, fearful for their friends in Haiti. Once communication was established, they were relieved to learn that none of the artists had perished, but that many of their homes were leveled.

A United Nations humanitarian flight put us in Port-au-Prince exactly five weeks after the earthquake hit. Never have I witnessed such powerful, indiscriminate destruction. The scene was surreal. It looked as if giants had stomped through the city, flattening or toppling every building in their path.

We saw women standing in a mile-long line, waiting for bags of rice. Families huddled almost on top of each other in hundreds of tent cities in parks and soccer fields; even on the median strip of a high-volume highway. It seemed as if we were driving around the seventh ring of hell.

And yet, in the countryside we witnessed incredible reserves of grit, resourcefulness and spirit on the part of the artisans of SERRV. The soapstone carvers in the mountains near the epicenter of the quake suffered the most damage. Their homes were leveled. But they immediately salvaged what building materials they could and erected temporary shelters. And they went right on carving to fulfill a large SERRV order of nativity crche figures for the new fall catalog. – Phil Grout