Jean Gardy wants to come join his mother in Montreal because she is a Canadian citizen, but his half sister Manousheka will remain in Haiti. She must find a husband in Canada in order to emigrate. (Renée Baillargeon/QMI Agecny)

PORT-AU-PRINCE - With the country’s past having gone up in smoke, a present that brings with it terrible suffering and a future that sometimes appears non-existent, a Haitian teen is considering marrying his sister so that he can leave Haiti for Montreal.

More than two weeks after the catastrophic earthquake, there are still huge lines that form each morning in front of the immigration offices and Canadian embassy. While patience is not often rewarded, the hope of a new life hasn’t died.

For Jean-Baptiste, who shares an adoptive mother from Montreal with sister Manousheka but has a different father, that new life involves leaving his home country.

“With the earthquake, I lost all of my belongings,” said the young man, adding that he lost his passport and other documents when his house collapsed. “I want to find my mother in Canada. She lives in Montreal. She works a lot. She is a Canadian citizen. I want her to help me get out of here. I’m dying of hunger. And I don’t want to leave my half-sister in this country. She has forms but she can’t fill them out. Maybe my mother will see me in the media. She comes back to Haiti every two years.”

Rapes and prostitution have Jean-Baptiste fearing the worst for his 20-year-old sister, who, unlike her brother, doesn’t speak French.

In order to leave the country, Manousheka wants to get married.

“A lot of my friends died,” she said, adding that she is ready to leave if she can find someone to help her. “I don’t want to live here anymore.”

Without a legal identity, her brother is considering marrying her to facilitate the process. But the siblings hope mostly their mother will sponsor Jean-Baptist and that a nice, generous man will appear for Manousheka.

“I’m sleeping in the street,” said Jean-Baptiste while showing off the few items he was able to retrieve. “I have only this bag, these photos and the clothes that I’m wearing left.”

Jean-Baptiste said his heritage remains very important to him, and despite the obvious contradiction in wanting to leave his homeland, he said that his people are used to living day to day.

“When my country has changed, I will come back,” he said. “I have no problem (coming back). I can’t stay in Canada. I only want to go there to work.”

The shaken young man wouldn’t wager an opinion as to whether Haiti will be rebuilt in 10 years.

“It’s God that will decide,” he said.