First Lady finds signs of hope in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - She cheered and danced to the welcoming sounds of quake-traumatized Haitian children. She even painted a purple fish with them.

For all the devastation that surrounded her almost everywhere she turned Tuesday, Michelle Obama found hope and inspiration on her first visit to Haiti, and her first solo foreign trip abroad as First Lady.

"The road ahead, as you know, is not going to be easy. And its not going to be quick," said Obama, whose trip was not announced ahead of time for security reasons, White House officials said.

"President Rene Preval and the Haitian government have been working under unimaginable difficulties," she added at the end of a day in Haiti that began with an aerial tour of the capital and its hundreds of tent cities. "But they have a vision for the future, and they have a road map to get there. So little by little, Haiti will move forward."

Preval and First Lady Elisabeth Delatour Preval welcomed both Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden.

'Attention of the world starts to wane'

The goal of the trip was to keep attention focused on Haiti's plight. "We're at the point where the relief efforts are underway but the attention of the world starts to wane a bit," Obama told reporters.

The program, Plas Timoun, or the Children's Place, was set up shortly after the Jan. 12 earthquake with help from one of Haiti's leading artists, Philippe Dodard.

Dozens of children greeted Obama and Biden, singing "welcome" in English.

Obama danced, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her hips as the children sang. At the end, she gave several of them high fives.

As one group ended its presentation, another group of children sang in Creole, "We are glad to see you. We say let's be happy."

Later, Obama and Biden joined the children in an art lesson, and Obama drew a purple fish at the request of one of the children. Biden drew a house. Haiti's First Lady served as the translator.

Other recent U.S. visitors have included former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

On to Mexico

Obama headed next to Mexico City.

At an elementary school where she is scheduled to visit Wednesday, students were busy practicing songs and dance moves and were delighted that the visit meant that their bathroom was getting a new coat of paint.

"They told us that tomorrow we are going to have important people here and that we couldn't be naughty and that we had to be on our best behavior," Rodolfo Martmnez, 10, said Tuesday.

Obama, who had visited eight countries previously but always with her husband, President Obama, receiving top billing, was now the focus of all the attention. Even before her arrival in Mexico, newspapers were dissecting her fashion taste.