From NPR's John Burnett – When we walked into Lolo Beaubrun’s garden in Port-au-Prince and sat down, he’d invited three young musicians from a group called All Four Stars to back him up on a song they’d written in the days after, in Beaubrun’s words, “that thing that happened to us.” In an hourlong interview, he never once said the word “earthquake.”

The song is about the suffering that Haiti is now enduring — about the importance of having faith amid despondency, and of reviving humanity’s connection to the spirit world.

As the singing came to an end, his wife’s voice trailed off and Beaubrun said, “We cry a lot. After you see the country, we need to cross over that sadness.”

In Creole, his wife, Mimerose, says, “We are Haitian; we are always joyful. This joy we have, even in our misery, when we're poor, it is a strength for us — strength to rebuild the country.”