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A troop of Boy Scouts in Leogane move debris to build a foundation for a portable water reservoir.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

Jean Samuel Delva folds his arms and scowls as family members hammer nails into one of about a dozen battered posts that stand on the edge of a highway surrounded by rows of sugar cane.

Mr. Delva's home and about 10 others lie in ruins across the road, shattered by Haiti's earthquake, which struck this seacoast town southwest of Port-au-Prince particularly hard. Now he and 20 other families have salvaged what they can from the wreckage and are starting over - alone.

"No one has come to help us," said Mr. Delva, who grows sugar cane, corn and beans. "We need materials. Wood, nails, tools. All of our tools and farm equipment are underneath our houses."

Instead of proper equipment and decent wood, Mr. Delva and the others are building four makeshift houses out of beams pulled from the roofs of their former homes, corrugated metal taken from farm gates, and plastic sheets. They are eating their half-grown crops and relying on an old well for water, although it is cracked and may not last long.

Similar scenes are playing out across Haiti. While foreign governments and charitable organizations are still concentrating largely on emergency relief - handing out bottles of water and bags of food in what appears to be a haphazard manner - many Haitians have already moved on to the rebuilding process on their own.

Rickety shelters made from sticks and blankets are popping up everywhere - in parks, on boulevards and in farm fields. In Leogane, a Scout troop was busy clearing debris yesterday to make way for a portable water reservoir. The 40 boys and girls were decked out in full uniform complete with Scout scarves.

"We are going all over cleaning things up," said Henderson Isoine, one of the troop leaders.

It won't be easy. Almost every building in the town has been destroyed and many of the roads are impassable because of fallen debris. But in one street a backhoe was pulling apart a crumpled house to help clear a path.

With most offices and businesses closed, many Haitians have taken to the streets to make money selling almost anything from coconuts and rice to barbecued chicken, salted herring and salted pork. One clever entrepreneur hauled out a car battery and offered to recharge cellphones and other electronic gadgets for a fee.

Prices for many goods are about twice what they were before the earthquake, but there are signs some costs are coming down. Gasoline, once a scarce commodity, is becoming more available as more stations reopen.

"We just got a delivery," said Patrick Torres, a transplanted American who owns a Texaco station with his two sons in Port-au-Prince. Mr. Torres still rations customers to a couple of gallons and he won't sell gas to anyone who puts it into a plastic container.

"They are just going to take it across the street and sell it for about $30 a gallon," he said gruffly.

Mr. Torres also owns a 21/2-hectare farm south of the city and has 1,000 chickens. He sells eggs from the chickens at his gas station and despite the earthquake has managed to scrounge enough food to keep the birds fed and producing.

While many entrepreneurs, farmers and townsfolk have moved on to the next phase of the disaster recovery, some foreign aid organizations are mired in red tape.

"It's the bureaucracy," said Jeff Waycott, who was co-ordinating 10 trucks yesterday loaded with rice, beans and soybean oil donated by companies in the United States and Canada. "It's a pain in the butt."

Mr. Waycott, who lives in Florida, came to Haiti last week to work with Eagle Wings Foundation, a U.S. non-profit organization. The group spent five days trying to get permission from the World Food Program to distribute the food. They finally got clearance yesterday but then had to spend nearly seven hours getting the goods out of a WFP warehouse in Port-au-Prince. By late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Waycott and other volunteers were finally handing out the bags to a long line of Haitians, with about 20 private security guards watching the restless crowd.

Mr. Waycott acknowledged that within hours many of the bags will be on the nearby streets, with vendors selling the rice and beans by the cup. When asked about the incongruity of handing out free rice and then watching as it is resold for a hefty profit on the street, Mr. Waycott shook his head.

"The Lord tells us to give," he says after a pause. "What they do with it is their business. I'm just gratified to be here."

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