If there is one thing that Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald wants you to understand

about Haiti, it is that this is a land of contradictions.

She knows what you've heard about kidnappings and gangs.

She's reported on all of that, but she sees this place a little differently.

She's Haitian, after all.

The last time we spoke, I remember you telling me that you take vacations in Haiti.

Am I remembering that right?

Yes, you are correct, and I took one this year in Haiti.

This was back in January.

Haiti was hosting its annual Jazz Festival.

Usually, it would be held in the Capitol, Port of Prince.

It got moved this year to Cape Haitian.

It's safer there.

So Jacqueline packed her bags.

It was important for me to do that this year because I needed to feel a sense of normalcy.

I needed to be able to walk a Haiti street without the fear of kidnapping,

without looking over my shoulders, without thinking about gangs.

But there were all these little tells that things weren't quite normal.

Like the fact that even people traveling to the show from Inside Haiti itself

couldn't get there by car.

They had to fly the majority of them, you know,

because to drive from one region to the other is to take your life literally in your own hands.

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