Six journalists from six different backgrounds come together to publish their first investigative report on international aid, making the front page of Haiti's only daily newspaper. Here's a snippet of a recent conversation I had with a journalist as we headed out of town recently:

Me: "If I told my friends that I was driving along the national highway and there were herds of pigs eating from endless piles of garbage, no one back home would believe me."

Wendy: "If I told my friends that I was driving along the national highway and there were no pigs eating from the endless piles of garbage, no one back home would believe me."

It was a joke, but not really. To travel south from Haiti's capital, you have to traverse a shameful stretch of road overrun with rotting garbage and muck that's gooey even in the dry season. Eventually the road clears and it's a straight shot, except for pig-size potholes and the few areas where the road is split in two because of January's quake.

Destruction from the quake frames the national highway: debris, collapsed buildings, makeshift housing, bed-sheet tents. In Leogane, 25-miles south, the town is still digging out from the collapse of 32,472 homes and 510 public places. There are several hundred tent camps, and more than 10,000 families still waiting for transitional shelter. So far only 5,000 of the 28,560 that have been pledged by 25 non-governmental organizations have been built.

Why so few? This is what a group of six journalists I'm working with set out to understand nearly a month ago. Four trips, countless interviews and weeks worth of investigation resulted in this week's front page article of the country's only daily newspaper, Le Nouvelliste. It marks the first time since my fellowship began four months ago that an investigative piece has been published.

I can't say for sure who smiled widest when the article was passed around, but I suspect my grin was bigger than all the journalists' combined. For the first time since we started working we could look past the frustrations and challenges that have dominated our days and hampered our progress - lack of access to information, the cholera outbreak, Hurricane Tomas.

For the majority of the group, this was their first collaborative effort. Half had never seen their name in print. Only two had ever done anything resembling an investigative report. For all, it was a learning process that has inspired and motivated them to want to dig deeper, and produce such pieces on a regular basis.

Already one of the journalists was interviewed on a local radio station about the reasons why progress has been slow: lack of planning, coordination and storage of materials; a weakened and inefficient government; poor communication. I've been invited to speak about my Fellowship and why training journalists in investigative reporting is so important in Haiti's reconstruction period. And beyond.

After the journalists finished praising each other for their collaborative effort, they also evaluated the process and discussed things they hope to improve on with the next report, which they want to start immediately. But they had so many ideas that they decided each one of them should come to next week's meeting prepared to persuade the others on why their topic was the one we should choose next.

I have my own idea for a topic but I suspect the competition will be fierce. Despite my competitive journalist nature, this is one time I'll be happy to compromise because whatever we topic we choose, I'm confident it will be one worth telling.