By James Addis, World Vision U.S.

Almost one year after one of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history, Port-au-Prince — and in particular the outlying neighborhood of Petionville, where I’m based — is certainly looking a lot better.

The worst of the rubble has been cleared away. Every square inch of the sidewalks seems to be taken up with street vendors selling everything from groceries, to shoes, to cosmetics, to radios, and every other imaginable product. The occasional large, friendly pig roots in the piles of garbage, much as I imagine they have always done.

Children are back at school, and I’m struck by their immaculately clean uniforms, especially their brilliantly white shirts and blouses — quite a feat to maintain given the muddy, trash-filled streets which they must pick their way through.

The traffic is much the same — it is not moving anywhere fast. People squeeze into brightly colored tap-taps (pickup trucks that function as buses) or risk their lives by hanging onto the vehicles’ sides when they do eventually get moving.

Perhaps it is my imagination, but the sea of devastated buildings I saw back in January 2010 doesn’t seem quite so devastated. No doubt some have been patched up. Others, of course, are certainly beyond repair — haphazard hunks of twisted concrete and splintered wood.

Sadly, about a million people live in tents and makeshift shelters. World Vision is among the organizations constructing better housing, but the needs are enormous. Difficulties establishing land title are proving a major headache and slowing progress.

Those living in the camps are especially exposed to hurricanes, flooding, and cholera. Cholera is the biggest concern right now. World Vision organizes delivery of 1.2 million liters of water to camps every day and maintains about 650 latrines.

Theo Huitema, World Vision’s water and sanitation manager, has trained community leaders in the camps to check that the water is properly chlorinated to kill harmful bacteria. Chlorine levels have been increased for safety. “People don’t like the taste and smell of the water,” he says, though naturally it’s better than contracting a disease that can kill within hours. Perhaps a bigger threat comes from the pit latrines, which get dirty, fill up fast, and easily get clogged with plastic bags and other trash.

In camps where World Vision is working, every case of diarrhea is treated as a suspected cholera infection. Theo must hastily organize the disinfection of latrines and double-check the quality of the camp water supply. Meanwhile, World Vision’s Child-Friendly Spaces are about to mount a renewed awareness campaign about the importance of hand-washing with soap.

So things are still very difficult, but you don’t have to dig hard to find inspirational stories. This morning, I was at a church held in a large tent in Corail — a displacement camp 10 miles northeast of Port-au-Prince, on land set aside by the government to house some of the hundreds of thousands rendered homeless by the quake.

Were people down in the dumps? Not a bit of it. The singing, accompanied by children playing a drum and tambourine, was just about as lively and spirited as I have ever heard. And blow me down, who should be leading the singing but Demosi Louphine, a woman who lost an arm and a leg in the quake, and whom I had chatted with the day before in connection with a World Vision program to help quake survivors with disabilities.

At one point, Demosi raised her voice above the impassioned worship and said, “Just as the birds flap their wings to praise the Lord, wave your arms to praise the Lord.” Everybody enthusiastically did so. The excitement in the room went several notches higher. Of course, Demosi could only wave her remaining good arm. The other arm is a short stump.

For some reason, seeing her standing at the front of the church waving her one remaining arm — her act of worship to God — moved me very much indeed.

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*James Addis is a Senior Editor at World Vision US.