When Saturday’s rain started to fall, hundreds of people living in Place Boyer’s tent camp in Petionville had no choice but to hunker down for the night. Haiti Reporters, which was hosting their graduation under a tarp at Brazil’s Cultural Center just across the street, was more fortunate. They were able to move their celebration inside.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my Fellowship in Haiti. It was a challenge-filled year and the path that has led me to a place where I have a new vista on journalism in Haiti has been strewn with obstacles and even a few dead ends. My overall experience has been one of tremendous personal growth that encompassed the full gamut of emotions. Ultimately, it has been so positive that I’ve extended the Fellowship. I can say with all honesty that that I am looking forward to building on my past successes and achieving new ones with renewed energy.

On the grounds of the university established by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide in Tabarre, a community just a few miles north east of the capital, some 400 families are about to be displaced. Aristide is reclaiming his property, including dormitories where some residents are squatting, so that he can reopen his school. To facilitate the move, he’s purchased a plot of land and ACTED, a French non-governmental organization, is constructing transitional shelters.

A former Carnival singer and media hound, Martelly embraces the spotlight. Coverage of any kind, he says, is okay, as long as it’s balanced and accurate. On Latin America Freedom of the Press Day, June 7th, however, he cautioned journalists to be more responsible. And to be more united, working together for a common cause - the betterment of Haiti.

To say that Haiti is full of surprises is kind of like saying that summers here are hot. Surprises are as numerous as Haiti’s contradictions: two hundred dollar a night hotels across from tent camps, five-star restaurants facing water distribution points.

Many of the surprises provoke mixed emotions, like when I turn the corner only to find myself in a traffic jam because a pickup truck is finally removing rubble.

This past weekend, 22 journalists in the southern town of Jacmel received a certificate of completion for 36 hours of training in investigative journalism. The four women and 18 men who participated on a volunteer basis are, I hope, the first of many throughout the country who will benefit from this course thanks to a generous donation from a group of anonymous donors.

"Li Ale, Li Toune, Li Ale, Li Toune Net" was just one of the chants throngs of supporters sang outside Haiti's airport early Friday, March 18: "He left, he came back, he left, he's here to stay." The "he" is Jean-Bertand Aristide, the only president in modern history to be deposed and returned to power, then deposed again and returned a second time. Only this time, as opposed to being able to finish his truncated 5-year term as he did in 1994, he's returning from seven years exile in South Africa, ineligible to run for president again.

On Sunday, March 20, Haitians will go to the polls to elect their new president. This second-round vote for the top two contenders from a field of 19 is a first in Haiti’s history.

Several weeks into an investigative training program for Haitian journalists who lost their jobs after the January 2010 earthquake, a second group of journalists asked to join.

Our first session was held in a tent on the grounds of a state school in Cite Soleil, which for years was referred to as the poorest slum in the Western hemisphere. With a million or so people still living in camps throughout the capital since last year’s earthquake, I’m not sure that label still fits. But there’s no argument that the population is poor.