[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/25/christianehaitiun.jpg caption="Christiane at the rubble of the U.N.'s  Headquarters in Haiti"]

By Christiane Amanpour

In Haiti, the emergency phase is still in full swing. Yes, many official rescue efforts have been called off. But the truth is that international rescue crews are still being called out when there's a clue that somebody might be alive under the rubble.

Because of the miraculous rescue of a 24-year-old man on Saturday night, they are not giving up. Hope does diminish with each day, but the rescues haven’t ceased. So they may even pull more people out. I think that gives tremendous hope not just to people here in Port-au-Prince but to people everywhere.

This Sunday, we saw Mass and religious services here and around the country. This is a powerfully religious country. So many Haitians were not just mourning the family and friends they lost, but giving thanks for the survival of friends who made it through and for the resilience and resolve they have shown throughout this incredible crisis.

And now, at last, the aid pipeline is gradually widening and more food and water is gradually getting to people who need it. It’s still not perfect, but it is slowly becoming a much more organized distribution.

We’ve seen signs of rebuilding that will allow Haitians to return to their homes. And the U.N. is conscious that it needs to help put people to work. That will help build a sense of security here - just paying people, so they can keep body and soul together.

One of the U.N.’s plans is to pay people $3 a day to start collecting rubble and get it out of the streets. That might not sound like much, but it's more than the $1 a day most people exist on here in Haiti. Now they can start to get the streets back to normal.

And at the same time, emergency officials want people to get out of the capital city to go see family around the country, whose communities might have withstood the earthquake better than this ravaged city has. We're seeing people leaving town by whatever means they can find – on busses, bicycles, motorbikes, and in cars.

It’s important to know that not all of Haiti has been destroyed. The greatest damage has occurred in this capital city and parts of Jacmel – a cultural capital on the southern Caribbean coast. Leogane, another city close to Jacmel, was also hit hard, and people there are also moving to the countryside.

Many Haitians would like to leave the country altogether. The United States has made it clear in radio broadcasts here in Haiti, in aerial broadcasts from its huge C-130 transport jets, that they are not allowing illegal immigrants to enter the United States. So without a visa, Haitians are being told, “do not come” – you’ll be repatriated. This sounds harsh, but the United States says it is focusing its help inside Haiti, and doesn’t want people to perish trying to cross the high seas.

Still, we see long lines by the immigration offices, by the passport offices, people camping out by the U.S. embassy, the Canadian embassy – all, hoping to leave. All hoping for a future.

Haitians are given bags of rice in front of the National Palace Monday in central Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

By Tom Evans; Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

The government of earthquake-ravaged Haiti must become more visible now, even amid a global outpouring of aid as the impoverished island nation struggles to recover, Brazil's foreign minister said Monday.

"The government, in spite of all the difficulties, should appear more to the people," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

"I think it's important because after all, they are the ones who transmit the needs of the Haitian people to us, to the international community."

Amorim, speaking from an international conference on Haiti in Montreal, Canada, said it's important for the world to follow the priorities of the Haitian government.

// "We cannot lose sight of the central role of the elected leaders of Haiti," he said. "Haiti is a country that has an elected government."

Amorim was among more than a dozen foreign ministers and leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, attending the Montreal conference. Representatives of many international institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union were also there.

FULL POST

A Little While
by Edwidge Danticat

My cousin Maxo has died. The house that I called home during my visits to Haiti collapsed on top of him.

Maxo was born on November 4, 1948, after three days of agonizing labor. “I felt,” my Aunt Denise used to say, “as though I spent all three days pushing him out of my eyes.” She had a long scar above her right eyebrow, where she had jabbed her nails through her skin during the most painful moments. She never gave birth again.

In Haiti right now you notice how patient, considerate, gentle, even noble people are, all things considered. We've seen very little looting. Very little violence and anger from the people. But this week we did see gunfire and death, out near the airport, in connection with five bags of rice.

We want to warn you, this video is extremely graphic and very hard to look at, but very important to know about:

CNN has sent a crew to the Haitian government compound at the airport to ask about this incident and several other similar incidents reported by other media. If and when we get a response, we'll share that with you.

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/25/cahaiti.jpg caption="Christiane – reporting from Port-au-Prince"]

Christiane is in Haiti, where she's reporting on relief and rebuilding. She anchors AMANPOUR. live from Haiti every day on CNN at 2100 CET. Here are her updates from the ground:

• January 26: Huge tragedy for Haiti children: the quake crumbled half nation's schools and three main universities destroyed or damaged. Spoke to three girls age 11 and 13. They’re still afraid and traumatized from seeing so much death and destroyed buildings. They’re desperate to get back to school and see friends and teachers. But the Education Minister tells me the government is still trying to figure out how to get classes reconvened in tents or wherever... they think the very earliest would be sometime in March.
• January 25: What Haiti needs now – a Future
• January 25: I’m in a Gap garment factory in Haiti right now. Workers back at work making t-shirts for US. Vital. Main thing right now is creating jobs. For long term, garment industry could be engine of Haiti’s economic recovery. Companies giving workers food. Main worry from factories: if they can't get up and running quickly, buyers in the US will go elsewhere. The President of the Associaton of Haitian Manufacturers tells me $25m in soft loans now will revive the whole Haitian garment industry. 28,000 workers and massive trickle down effect.
• January 24: Drove over mountains in Haiti to Jacmel on the Caribbean coast; Canadians to the rescue there. En route saw sides sheared off mountains leaving great white gashes. And saw busses stuffed with people getting out of the capital to countryside.
• January 23: A 24 year old man pulled from rubble today – 11 days later. Incredible.
• January 23: There are tent cities springing up here in Haiti: the government and aid workers are trying to relocate 400,000 people out of these tent cities and out of the city
• January 22: I see people lined up at the passport office here in downtown Port-au-Prince – trying to renew passports and trying to get out of Haiti.
• January 22: Landed in Haiti. Airport looks more under control. Saw lots of people in line, outside of the airport, trying to leave Haiti.
• January 21: In Santo Domingo. On my way to Haiti.
• January 21: In New Jersey headed to Santo Domingo
• January 20: I'm going to Haiti to investigate how the country can RISE LIKE A PHOENIX from these ashes into something even better. This devastating horrible tragedy just might also be a rare chance to do right by Haiti, and rebuild, as Europe and Japan rebuilt their shattered nations after World War II