Thursday marks the two-year anniversary of Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake. The 7.0 magnitude quake devastated the capital city, Port-au-Prince, and Haiti’s government estimates the death toll was more than 316,000 people. An international outpouring of support followed, with NGOs, human rights organizations, and the first mass text-based fundraising campaign bolstering the island nation. A little less than a year after the earthquake, an outbreak of cholera further devastated the country and set back relief efforts. So what has and hasn't been accomplished in the time since?

Lawyers representing the families of thousands of people who died of cholera in Haiti are planning to sue the United Nations for wrongful death. The lawyers say U.N. peacekeeper troops inadvertently brought cholera to Haiti from Nepal after the 2010 earthquake that decimated the country. Since the cholera outbreak began in 2010, nearly 7,000 people have died and over 500,000 have been infected. The BBC's Mark Doyle has been in Haiti investigating the situation and filed this report.

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, returned to Haiti on Sunday after spending nearly 25 years in exile in France. Duvalier became president of Haiti in 1971 when his father, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier died. Baby Doc was known for torturing his opponents, and was accused of massive embezzlement; many considered him more of a dictator than a president. A popular revolt overthrew Baby Doc in 1986, ending nearly three decades of Duvalier rule. What are the implications of Baby Doc's return to the country in unstable times? Does the former leader return to lend aid or grasp political opportunity?

A story in today's New York Times takes a closer look at musician Wyclef Jean's bid to be Haiti's next president. Jean's relief organization set up for the country in 2005, Yele Haiti Foundation, was called into question this past winter, when reports found that money given to the foundation for the country's poor was poorly accounted for. But now he has stepped down from the organization to run for president of the country.

Geological events mark their evidence in rock and the position of the earth’s crust. The earthquake becomes a part of the geological identity of a place. Geology is its own narrative and it unfolds very slowly… literally in geological time for the estimated million people still waiting for help. We have a built-in sense that people bounce back from disasters. But perhaps to even look at Haiti six months after as though it is a long time is absurd. It says more about our attention span than it says about Haiti itself. Just as the presence of President Obama on the beaches of Alabama is more likely to produce a headline than the presence of oil that same beach would, it’s our attention span that is the story.

The “headline-breaking-news all-urgency-all-the-time” model of news coverage makes it very difficult to establish the narrative line to give a complex story like Haiti’s aftermath the day-to-day focus it needs. Each tree ring tells a story in the long-term record of life on earth.

The United Nations and the United States are hosting a conference today on paying for rebuilding in Haiti after the earthquake. Haitian President Rene Preval is expected to present a report on his country's needs, and the amount he's asking for may break records. Also on the table will be a vision for Haiti in the near future. The estimated cost over the next ten years? $11.5 billion. 

With two full days down, I continue to be struck by the incredible mix of everyday miracles and frustrating setbacks here.

On Sunday, I watched an airlift transfer of an earthquake victim who is paralyzed from the waist down. Her name is Marilynn. She's 32 years old and has three daughters. This was her fourth trip on a helicopter since the earthquake, she told me. This latest transport would take her from the hospital in Milot, where she had surgery last week to stabilize her spine, to a spinal cord clinic that's opened in a town about 10 miles away. The road, though, was too rugged to keep her healing back immobile en route, so she took the trip in by air.

All this week on The Takeaway, we've been asking listeners to weigh in on what Haiti needs from the international community in order to move on from the devastating earthquake that struck two months ago. A few listeners homed in on one particular issue: jobs.

Even after you restore safety and security, how do you begin to rebuild? Haitian President Rene Preval will meet with President Barack Obama in Washington today to discuss what Haiti needs two months after the earthquake that devasted large swathes of the country. Along with severe damages to infrastructure in the wake of the disaster, Haitians are trying to deal with economic issues — some of them pre-existent — brought into sharp relief by the quake. We're checking in with two people who have a birds-eye view of Haitian need, and how it interacts with that country's economy, past and future. 

A group of ten American Baptists accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children, who the group members said were orphans, has raised complicated questions about the intersection of good intentions and misguided actions. One thing is certain: not all of the 33 children were orphans. In fact, the majority of the children do have families. The group that was asked to look after the children following their ordeal is SOS Children's Villages.

Ten American Baptists were detained in Haiti last Friday, where officials say they attempted to take 33 children into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. The ten are members of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children's Refuge, and they said their intent was to take the children to a hotel in the Dominican Republic that is doubling as a temporary orphanage.

This story is prompting considerable debate, with some saying it is a case of good intentions gone bad, while others say the American group's actions are nothing short of criminal.

The massive earthquake that struck Haiti nearly three weeks ago has left development economists and international aid workers scrambling for the best way to rebuild the country. Some want the United States to take the lead in a Marshall Plan-type recovery program, while others advocate leaving Haiti alone as much as possible. We find out how Haiti might best rebuild — and how the international community can help.

In just over a week Americans have given more than $305 million to help Haitians recover from the recent earthquake in Port-au-Prince.  The numbers are being tracked by the independent charity watchdog Charity Navigator. 

Alex here shepherding tomorrow's show through the night ... 

As already posted on this website, John Hockenberry interviewed the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen today. We'll run that tomorrow along with our continuing coverage of the political fallout from the electoral upset in Massachusetts. Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner (NY) will tell us why the Dems are OK without a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. 

We might have heavy hitters from Washington (or right outside Washington in the Pentagon anyway) but we're not letting up on watching the relief efforts in Haiti. After a serious aftershock today a friend of the show wrote us to say "the aftershock was stronger than I realized and we are concerned more buildings have collapsed. People are screaming outside." So tomorrow we'll get the full update live. We're also following a few different 'big picture' angles. For one, we want to know if the medical risks to patients and doctors are evolving or growing over time with so many victims remaining injured and bodies still unburied. And on a political level, three prominent female political leaders were victims of the quake, so we're looking into what that means for gender progress in Haitian politics. 

Plus graphic journalist Joe Sacco, how Starbucks bounced back, and an examination of the Apple buzz-making machine. 

See ya tomorrow.