Days 27 & 28 (10/11 – 12)

Tuesday – This is the start of another busy week for the VIM staff with 5 teams coming and going. John returned from his week with his family in Florida, so we’re back to full strength. But, scheduling a vehicle and driver for my site visits gets a bit problematic with this much activity. So – I finished up the inspection and evaluation of the last couple of rooms at the Guest House. Phase 1 is now complete (or will be when I finish entering everything into my computer).

Beth Guy, who was the Haiti Assistant Site/Team Coordinator before Sarah, is visiting for a week during a break from Divinity school. She is the one that organized the “Bracelet Boys” – the boys who live around the Guest House and make the bracelets from salvaged telephone wire that many of you have seen. She had the boys come this afternoon to show us how they make the bracelets. We had about a dozen boys – and a couple of girls – making the bracelets and it was fascinating to watch. Took a bunch of pictures and will post some.

In the evening we were invited to the house where the UMCOR staff reside for a going away dinner for one of the staff members returning home to India. It was a gourmet Indian dinner and I made a pig of myself. It was an International group with America, India, Cambodia and Albania represented - another fun evening.

Wednesday – Spent the day catching up on my computer work and now have all my site evaluations up to date. I had some time to do a little research, also. I heard that there was a manual on Haitian building standards. I know that that sounds like an oxymoron, but I had to look. Guess what? I found it!! It’s called “Guide de Bonnes Practiques Pour la Construction de Cetits Batiments en Maconnerie Chainee en Haiti”. The good news – it exists. The bad news – it’s voluntary and no one knows about it. Even though it is in French, it had enough pictures and diagrams that I could understand it – and it’s full of really good stuff. Now, if I can just get the EMH engineers to agree to adopt these standards without getting thrown out of the country, it will be a real step forward.