Note These Tweets /Status Updates Begin with the Most Recent, and Go Backwards

http://twitter.com/smithjoanna

Joanna Smith is a Canadian journalist working for the Toronto Star. On January 15th she entered Haiti. The following are extracts of the Tweets she has published on Twitter, the social networking site, describing the people she has met and the scenes she has witnessed so far.

NOTE – THESE “TWEETS”/STATUS UPDATES BEGIN WITH THE MOST RECENT, AND GO BACKWARDS.

IN OTHER WORDS, TO FOLLOW HER STORY, START FROM THE END (#61) AND READ BACK TO THE BEGINNING.

 Name Joanna Smith  Location Ottawa, Ont.  Web http://www.thesta...  Bio Political reporter in the Ottawa bureau @torontostar covering health, CFIA, CIDA, CRTC, NDP, Greens

1. A kite made of pastic bag, sticks and green ribbon soars a few feet above sheet tent in Petionville golf course camp. #Haiti 22 minutes ago from txt 2. Floor shifted in supermarket and so rescuers had to pull out and reevaluate game plan. No sounds from man, woman trapped, alive. #Haiti about 3 hours ago from mobile web 3. Nathalie Brunet runs up to media, out of breath, asking 4 so to film local hosp functioning well; heard rprts docs 2 frtnd by horror 2 cm about 3 hours ago from mobile web 4. Wind is blowing ashes into my eyes and mouth dry with soot and having left water back in car. Camping outside mrkt hoping for rescue. #Haiti about 4 hours ago from txt 5. Miami-based photog here was supposed to cover scandal-ridden election and sez wishes he did. He had to ask colleague who won. #Haiti about 4 hours ago from txt 6. Back at Caribb Supermarket mentioned in Friday's @TorontoStar story. A woman was pulled out alive, well, after txt msgs. 65ppl left? #Haiti about 4 hours ago from txt 7. Machete in one hand; other hand outstretched to offer help over log blocking crumbling stairway, after he slipped himself. #Haiti about 5 hours ago from web 8. Cmmty ldr fears HIV and babies born; no condoms, little to do in tent cities. #Haiti about 5 hours ago from web 9. They see notebook and pen; coming running with ID cards to give nothing but names. #Haiti about 6 hours ago from web 10. Activity sheets, workbooks, lie in dust. "Kids in there. Starting to rot," man sez outside school on mountain. #Haiti about 6 hours ago from web 11. Little boy waves fingers from hankerchief sling round neck. Holds stuffed Elephant Babar in other. #Haiti about 7 hours ago from web 12. Cmmty leader does not believe aid groups know mountaintop tent city is there, or too afraid to climb up and see. Fears many wil die. #Haiti about 7 hours ago from web 13.  Fugitive from prison caught looting, taken from police, beaten, dragged thru street, died slowly and set on fire in pile of garbage. #Haiti about 24 hours ago from txt 14.  Luckner Louis asked to send msg 2 Cda: "We're v glad 2 c u in #Haiti bc we need ur help. Biggest prblm is the smelling," sez in2 recorder 1:00 PM Jan 16th from txt 15.  Bgnng 2 communicate better w our DR driver. He just told us he felt a tremor while in bed last nite. We slept thru it I guess. #Haiti 11:17 AM Jan 16th from txt 16.  2 men carry little girl on cardboard stretcher, her arms around their necks, leg in newly set cast, yelping. #Haiti 10:39 AM Jan 16th from txt 17.  Woman shrieking, piercing screams, "Maman! Papa! Jesus!" as dressing on her wounded heel is changed outside clinic. No painkillers. #Haiti 10:13 AM Jan 16th from txt 18.  Man shouting into megaphone to clear road for garbage truck. Told it is on its way to mass burial site. Following, but not sure. #Haiti 9:58 AM Jan 16th from txt 19.  Too dangerous to set up distribution point in notrious Cite Soleil slum now, but assessing. Org gangs trying 2 profit, says UN #Haiti 9:36 AM Jan 16th from txt 20. Ripe mango just fell off tree lining shady cobblestone walkway at UN compound. It was grabbed in about 3 seconds. #Haiti 7:52 AM Jan 16th from txt 21. Making our way to MINUSTAH hq (2nd one) to see relief efforts, to see anything. So hard 2no which stories already told. Evtg is news. #Haiti 7:23 AM Jan 16th from txt 22. Hear siren, but a little bit off. A teen speeds by on bicycle. Siren was his voice. We giggle. "Smtms, u gotta laugh," sez local. #Haiti 6:48 AM Jan 16th from txt 23. I expln I'm here not to bring aid but tell world why we need it, that my job is to tell govts that he says to "hurry up!" #Haiti 2:36 PM Jan 15th from txt 24. Man named Enyu calls me from other side of fence. Ppl gather, hungry for news. He cmplns about slow pace of aid. Cont'd #Haiti 2:34 PM Jan 15th from txt 25. Men, women, kids are bathing with buckets. Modesty gone. Kids splashing and giggling in muddy public fountains strewn with garbage. #Haiti 2:32 PM Jan 15th from txt 26. Sometimes easiest icebreaker is "C'est une cauchemar..." but one woman just smiled. "Oui, mais c'est la vie pour l'instant." #Haiti 2:30 PM Jan 15th from txt 27. A little girl plays in the sand, seemingly unaware of surroundings. Uses a cut-off bottle, twig and ribbon to bld a castle. #Haiti 2:30 PM Jan 15th from txt 28. Jungle gym eqpmnt makes a nice structure for tents. At least six families, 20 kids in different parts, like makeshift apartment bldg. #Haiti 2:28 PM Jan 15th from txt 29.  4 pm is a difficult hour in Port-au-Prince, with ppl nervous bc it was hour of quake in #Haiti 1:53 PM Jan 15th from txt 30.  "There's a little bit of a myth about what risk it poses," she says of morgue so close to patients, adding disease doesn't jump. #Haiti 1:45 PM Jan 15th from txt 31.  "Don't forget us," says man sitting on plastic bucket, pants around ankles, mother rubbing his arm. "After this, we're counting on u." # ... 12:44 PM Jan 15th from txt 32.  Learned white stripes under ppl's noses in #Haiti is toothpaste to mask the stench: "There are a lot of dead bodies," says man. 12:41 PM Jan 15th from txt 33.  A cpl hundred ppl r standing in line 4 gas as police guard station in #Haiti. No one brought car to gas up, just jerry cans, bc tanks dry. 12:19 PM Jan 15th from txt 34.  Roads are dusty here and smells can be intense. Bought face mask leftover from #H1N1 pandemic in Miami and glad I did. #Haiti 12:10 PM Jan 15th from txt 35.  Dtr of local man with us -- pigtailed little thing in pink -- asked me to take her to Cda, but then acknowledged she'd need a visa. #Haiti 12:06 PM Jan 15th from txt 36.  Yani Bidor wants mother Manille Noixilles (Elmhurst Ave., city unknown, USA) that she, brther, dtr alive in #Haiti. Her husband still mi ... 11:39 AM Jan 15th from txt 37.  Team @TorontoStar debatng sleep in cozy room tonightvs outside. 1. Inside: risk of quake 2. Outside: Risk any greater than last year? #Haiti 11:11 AM Jan 15th from txt 38.  Just about ready to roll. Might check out orphanage across street from Cdn Embassy in #Haiti next. Run by Cdns (story in @TorontoStar 2day) 9:47 AM Jan 15th from txt 39.  Cdn Embassy in #Haiti bldg still structurally unsound, so no one allowed inside or even to sit on steps beneath portico. 9:45 AM Jan 15th from txt 40.  Aftershocks cld last a mnth + big quake cldve been a pre-quake tremor. Difficult to imagine more death and devastation in #Haiti 41.  Morgue @ downtown hospital, is a cobblestone parking lot piled w hundreds of dead, swollen, frozen in time, monstrous, anonymous. #Haiti 6:45 AM Jan 15th from txt 42.  Local man helping us navigate keeps whistling "Wowww..." every time we pass devastation he had yet to see. I'm thinking the same. #Haiti 5:30 AM Jan 15th from txt 43.  Rescue teams saved about 30 people from collapsed market (a 4-storey shopping mall) after communicating by banging on concrete w iron ba ... 4:56 AM Jan 15th from txt 44.  Caribbean Supermarket, 95 Delmas, biggest market in #Haiti, collapsed completely. Cars beneath. See metal structure. Box for electric fan. 4:17 AM Jan 15th from txt 45.  Passed a school. Little desks mangled by concrete slabs. Just piles and piles everywhere. Dust thickens as we descend closer to centre. ... 46.  "Take my baby. Take her," cried woman wrapped in blankets lying in park with thousands in PauP #Haiti. "Alors, laisse-moi," when reply no. 3:06 AM Jan 15th from txt 47.  Rubble, people sleeping everywhere. Still not downtown. Park: Lucas recalls jazzfest there in '06 trip. Now a camp, full. #Haiti 2:10 AM Jan 15th from txt 48.  Many people on roadside in #Haiti en route to PauP, trying to hitch ride, clearly walking all night. Carrying pots, pans, children. 1:54 AM Jan 15th from txt 49.  Signs of earthquake beginning to show on #Haiti road. A tipped house, 3 storeys of balconies leaning back. Ppl carrying supplies atop heads. 1:49 AM Jan 15th from txt 50.  #Haiti 11 All is quiet 10 minutes into Haiti, save for music on the stereo of the pick-up truck, the bumps in the 1:35 AM Jan 15th from txt 51.  #Haiti 7 This is Haiti, after all, and this is not the best of days. 1:31 AM Jan 15th from txt 52.  #Haiti 6 No reports of road blocks or ambushes or anything at all, but nerves were jittery. 1:30 AM Jan 15th from txt 53.  #Haiti 5 Border guards told the Spanish-speaking members of the group Thursday night about rumours of a prison break along the route. 1:30 AM Jan 15th from txt 54.  #Haiti 1. BORDER OF HAITI -- Dawn has not yet broke, but the convoy of relative strangers decided it was time to roll. 1:26 AM Jan 15th from txt 55.  @TorontoStar @marissanelson Anyone on webdesk there? Going to attempt unconventional filing method: cut-and-paste via Twitter! Here we go. 1:26 AM Jan 15th from txt 56.  Crossing into #Haiti. Just asked to hide only jewelry I was wearing: wedding band. Smartphone needs to be hidden when light comes up too. 12:34 AM Jan 15th from txt 57.  4 am on phone but feels too early. No sign of light post-fitful sleep at border to #Haiti but we're about to enter. 12:05 AM Jan 15th from txt 58.  @LibArtsandMinds No pavement, flooded road, desolate, dirty. Not necessarily earthquake-related at all. Just #Haiti 7:36 PM Jan 14th from txt 59.  #Haiti border station flooded, so trip to toilet involved concrete stepping stones above sewage. Like Alice in Wonderland, but not. 7:34 PM Jan 14th from txt 60.  Sleeping at border tonight; convoy pulls out at 4 am to head for Port-au-Prince, #Haiti 7:31 PM Jan 14th from txt 61.  Passports stamped to go into #Haiti and so will attempt cross. Comms could be down, so if no word for awhile it means we're good 2 go. 7:09 PM Jan 14th from txt