Human geography Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and life expectancy is only 54. One in eight children die before the age of 8. For a small country it has loads of people and so things get quite crowded. About 80% of the people live in rural areas and earn their living by farming, mainly beans and sweet potatoes. Only about half the children get the chance to go to school. Many Haitians live abroad, and most of them send back money to help their families. When I first arrived I heard people talking all around me. It sounded like French but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I later found out that they were speaking Creole, a language that has words based on French but a structure like West African languages. French and Creole are both official languages, but French is mainly used by the privileged people and most people speak Creole. About 95% of the people in Haiti are descendants of African slaves, the other 5% are of European or mixed descent. Most people in Haiti are Christian, although about half follow traditional voodoo practices as well. Voodoo was based on the beliefs of the people brought as slaves from West Africa, and it has a complex system of spirits, each with their own greeting and ceremony. On July 16th I saw the Saut d'Eau pilgrims bathe in a sacred waterfall near the church where the Virgin Mary appeared in 1884. I then hopped across to Plaine du Nord for the joint festival of St James and Ogou Ferraille. This was great to watch as everyone was dressed in bright red and blue.