PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Marie Bolivar, a gray-haired woman with a raspy voice, crushes peanuts into paste for sandwiches which she sells by the roadside for 12 cents apiece. These days the paste is thinner, because the price of peanuts has jumped by 80 percent.

But Bolivar, 60, says she still has trouble feeding her four children and paying the rent. “I can’t survive like this,” she said on a recent afternoon as she piled freshly crushed peanuts on a small plastic tray.

Soaring food prices aren’t new in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and heavily dependent on imports. Now those prices are rising again, mirroring global trends, while the cost of gasoline has doubled to $5 a gallon. Haitians are paying more for basic staples than much of Latin America and the Caribbean, an Associated Press survey finds.

More than half of Haiti’s 10 million people get by on less than $2 a day and hundreds of thousands are dependent on handouts. Undernourished children are easy to spot by the orange tinge in their hair. “Haitians have less room to increase their expenditures on their food,” said Myrta Kaulard, Haiti’s country director for the U.N. World Food Program. “This is a serious concern.”

Bolivar is one of many who cope as roadside vendors. They are getting squeezed from both ends — rising prices and customers with less to spend.

It’s ironic to hear Bolivar say “Everything was much easier a year ago,” when a year ago Haiti had just endured a quake that killed 300,000 people and laid waste to large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince. What she means is that food was much cheaper then because of the emergency supplies being rushed in.

But as the aid operation scales back and the market reasserts itself, prices are soaring again. Last month a cab strike was called to protest rising gasoline prices, but it fizzled because drivers were so desperate for fares.

One bit of good news has been the price of rice, Haiti’s staple food. Pushed down by the free food being shipped in after the earthquake, it fell to $0.92 a kilogram in September, climbed to $1.38 in January and then began to fall, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

But corn, which cost $0.68 a kilogram just before the quake, was almost double the price in March.

Incomes haven’t risen, however. The minimum wage is $5 a day but most Haitians don’t have a job that would pay them that minimum. So, like Bolivar, they cope through “degaje,” a Creole term that means “making do.”

It also depends where they shop. In a high-end grocery, a kilogram of white rice can cost as much as $3.03. But the street markets close after dusk, leaving customers dependent on supermarkets.

Nature and the outside world have all taken their toll. Erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms make farming difficult. American imports are stiff competition for farmers. Haiti imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice, known here as “Miami Rice.” A whole chicken costs $8 in Haiti — double the price in Peru. Argentines earn much more than Haitians, but pay less for a kilogram of rice.

The rise of garment factories in the cities since the 1970s has denuded the countryside of working hands. Bolivar is among those who moved here. She lives in a small cinderblock home in a slum in the relatively affluent city of Petionville.

“There was nothing for me in the countryside,” she said.

The winding down of quake aid is meant in part to encourage quake survivors to leave their camps and to stabilize market prices. Groups such as the WFP have launched cash-for-work programs, school meals to ensure attendance, and efforts to get aid workers to purchase goods locally.

But for Bolivar, it’s the cost of living that overshadows everything. She says she usually eats just once a day. One of her sons had to drop out of school because she owed $69 for two months of his tuition.

A daughter helps out from her earnings as a waitress at a Lebanese restaurant popular among Haiti’s moneyed class and foreign aid workers.

Bolivar said she hopes things will get better under Michel Martelly, the musician elected as president on March 20. “We’re waiting for all the promises he made,” Bolivar said. “People want commercial activity. People want jobs. People want to eat.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

If it were any other year, Tuesday would find Marie-Jose Poux throwing a big party with food from her native Haiti for the friends she’s made through the years while selling art at Jazz Fest.

Ted Jackson, The Times-PicayuneMarie-Jose Poux, one of the original Congo Square vendors, will share her culinary heritage.

But this year, with Haiti still digging itself from under the rubble of last year’s catastrophic earthquake, the party has taken on new meaning.

“We’re going to have a party and fundraiser at the House of Blues, with Haitian dance and Haitian art, open to the public, ” Poux said. “I’m doing that because I have 76 kids that I sponsor for school. Some live with me in Haiti and I need shelter for them. I’m trying to raise $300,000 to build a school and residence.”

Poux, a hospice nurse, has been going back and forth from Haiti to New Orleans since 1978. Her gallery of Haitian art here supports the artists there and their families, and she is co-founder of an orphanage there, which she supports through the Hope for Haitian Children Foundation.

Back at the Fair Grounds, the festival is celebrating the culture, music and food of Haiti in what Jazz Fest officials are calling the largest U.S. celebration of Haitian culture since the earthquake in January of 2010.

Poux said she was the first Haitian selling art at Jazz Fest — a pioneer in Congo Square — and considers New Orleans “my second place, my second home, ” because it shares so many similarities with Haiti in food and culture.

It’s the food connection that will send Poux this year to the other side of the Fair Grounds — to the Zatarain’s Food Heritage Stage at 12:30 p.m. Friday and several other times — from her usual Congo Square location.

Poux will demonstrate how to make for pikliz, a relish made of cabbage, peppers and vinegar, that is a staple in the Haitian kitchen.

“You put it on the side, put it on steak or whatever meat you are eating, especially on fish, ” Poux said. “It helps when you want to marinate chicken or anything. It has cabbage in it and keeps a long time in the refrigerator. And habanero, lots of habanero. Yes, it is hot, but you don’t have to take a big spoonful of it. You can put on a couple of drops.”

In general, Poux said, Haitian food is spicy and vegetable-oriented.

“We use lots of garlic, parsley and green onions. Not black peppers, green peppers, usually in our marinades. I will be doing a demonstration of how to blend spices to marinate your fish, for example.”

Probably the most notable New Orleans-Haiti food connection is red beans and rice. It’s “one of the most common foods in Haiti, our dish for the family who has a lot of children. We always cook white rice and red beans. It’s not served (just) on Monday; people can eat that three or four times a week.”

Gumbo is similar too, especially in the south of Haiti, Poux said.

“We don’t have what you call gumbo filé, ” Poux said. “It’s okra gumbo. And we don’t eat it with rice.” Instead it’s eaten with a firm base of mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes.

Vegetables such as mirlitons, cabbage, carrots and string beans are mixed with legumes and a few pieces of fish, seafood or meats, with white rice and red beans served on the side.

Chris Granger/The Times-Picayune”Island flavors are perfect for New Orleans” says chef Dominique of Dominique’s on Magazine.

Mirlitons — popular in south Louisiana dishes, especially around the holidays — are common in Haiti, growing wild in some parts of the country, Poux said. Their connections to south Louisiana cuisine will be further explored Sunday at Zatarain’s Cajun Cabin when Cafe Minh’s Cynthia Vu-Tran demonstrates Pork-Stuffed Mirliton with Ginger Sauce, and on the Zatarain’s Food Heritage Stage May 5 by Broussard’s chef Tory Stewart, who’ll make Stuffed Mirliton Nicola.

Then on May 6, culinary teacher Poppy Tooker will interview Lance Hill about his project to restore heirloom mirlitons in the New Orleans area, and on May 7, culinary scholar, author and historian Jessica Harris will talk about “Culinary Cousins, Haiti and New Orleans.” On May 8 is “Tales of Haiti” with Adella Adella the Story Teller.

Panel discussions on “Haiti & New Orleans: Cultural Crossroads” will take place the first weekend in a tent in the Folklife Village of the Festival.

Musically, Haiti will be represented at the festival by icons including Wyclef Jean, Tabou Combo, RAM, Boukman Eksperyans and Emeline Michel, to name a few, and there will be traditional voodoo drumming performances, visiting master artisans who will demonstrate crafts, and a rara band — think Haitian second-line — parading throughout the Fair Grounds.

Chris Granger/The Times-PicayuneHaitian-style ceviche will be demonstrated by Chef Dominique Maquet of Dominique’s on Magazine

Chef Dominique Macquet of Dominique’s on Magazine will be in the Zatarain’s Cajun Cabin on May 8 with a Haitian-Style Shrimp Ceviche.

“I’m from a French island myself, which has the same Creole French taste as Haitian cuisine, ” said Macquet, who is from the former French colony of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. His cookbook “Dominique’s Tropical Latitudes” has a recipe for Haitian Style Conch. He used to get conch from Haiti, he said, but now he makes it with royal red shrimp from the deep waters of the Alabama-Florida border. The dish is served at his restaurant in a bamboo boat on a banana leaf.

Mauritanian food is similar to Haitian, Macquet said, “because it was ruled by the French and British … we had Indian farmers who came afterwards, so we took a lot of the Indian flavors but kept the Creole-French combinations. Island food fits in New Orleans perfectly.”

Haitian Food Demos at Zatarain’s Food Heritage Stage: Pikliz with Marie-Jose Poux on Friday, 12:30 p.m.; Sunday, 12:30 p.m.; May 5 at 1:30 p.m.; May 8 at 1:30 p.m.

Also: “Stuffed Mirliton Nicola” by Tory Stewart, Broussards, 12:30 p.m., May 5; “New Orleans and Haiti’s Culinary Connection via Chayote Squash, ” Poppy Tooker with “Mirliton Man” Lance Hill, 12:30 p.m., May 6; “Culinary Cousins, Haiti and New Orleans” with Jessica B. Harris, 1:30 p.m., May 7; “Tales of Haiti” with Adella Adella the Story Teller, 11:30 a.m., May 8.

Zatarain’s Cajun Cabin: “Pork-Stuffed Mirliton with Ginger Tomato Sauce, ” by Cynthia Vu-Tran, Cafe Minh, 1:30 p.m., Sunday; “Haitian-style Shrimp Ceviche, ” with Dominique Macquet of Dominique’s on Magazine, 1:30 p.m., May 8.

HOPE FOR HAITIAN CHILDREN PARTY

What: A fundraising concert for Hope for Haitian Children Foundation

When: Tuesday, 7:30-11:30 p.m. Doors open at 7.

Where: The Parish @ the House of Blues, 229 Decatur St.

Tickets: $40 in advance; $50 day of show. Ages 18 and up.

More information: The Treme Brass Band opens for Koudjay Grass Roots Band and dancers from Haiti at the party.

See www.hopeforhaitianchildrenfoundation.org. 504.310.4999; www.houseofblues.com

Martelly is to meet with US government officials, including US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and with top representatives of international financial institutions, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Martelly’s team said the goal of the visit is to ‘send a clear message that the country wants to divorce the past and open its gates to a better form of cooperation.’

Definitive final results of the March 20 presidential runoff election are expected to be released Wednesday after being delayed over the weekend. If preliminary official results are confirmed, Martelly will succeed outgoing Haitian President Rene Preval on May 14.

The international community is key to Haiti’s efforts to recover from the devastating quake of January 12, 2010, which killed at least 220,000 people.