Lespwa fè viv

Hope makes one live

Hope is not decoration, it is the thing keeping you upright. Perhaps the single most-repeated phrase in Haitian life.

The proverb belongs to the Haitian people. The translation and the note are our own.

Same themes

We are ugly, we are here

The river stops you crossing, but it does not stop you turning back

The year did not kill you, it is not a day that will

I am managing as best I can, like Mèt Jean-Jacques

Being badly off is not death

Making do is not a sin