Between heaps of soggy garbage and a growing stench of human excrement, some people cheered up their camps yesterday with portable stereos, charcoal stoves, cooking pots and tethered chickens.
A few people lounged on armchairs, some had wheelbarrows and plastic vats for storing belongings and one man clung to a vial of after-shave rescued from his crumpled home.
Women braided one another’s hair.
As thousands of people settled in for a fourth day on the street after Tuesday’s devastating earthquake, women cooked up vats of spaghetti with tomato ketchup, steamed plantains and even rolled out dough on wooden boards, although most people were still surviving on salty biscuits and sweets.
“We’ve been cooking rice with vegetables but there are no vegetables left and the chicken has stopped laying eggs,” said Andre Simon, 49, an office worker who has set up his large family in a spacious tent made of wooden poles and bedsheets.
