It's not that everyone is poor. Haiti has a tiny elite, many of whom are descendants of European colonialists. The richest one percent owns fifty percent of the nation's wealth. It's no surprise, then, that some people decide to leave Dame Marie, and other villages, and move to the city in search of economic opportunity. The poverty rate there is somewhat lower than in the countryside.
Incomes are somewhat higher.
Some people even get jobs working in factories making goods for export to the United States and other wealthy countries. Two dollars and twenty cents does not go far, even in Haiti. But with an unemployment rate measured at seventy percent, the women who take these jobs obviously think sewing Pocahontas pajamas for 28 cents an hour beats the alternative. Having a meager income, after all, is better than having no income. The United States government believes these assembly jobs are the key to Haiti's economic future.