Days 73 - 75 (11/26 – 28)

Saturday – Well, the lull ended and it was business as usual today. We had 1 team returning from Petit Goave; 1 team returning from Dasmas and 2 teams arriving from the states today. It’s amazing how the hustle and bustle of 40 or more people coming and going becomes the norm. It’s even more amazing how the staff just takes it in stride.

I was able to get the tool and supply cabinets reorganized and the individual toolboxes that go to the sites with the teams restocked before the crowds appeared. It gave me the same feeling as when I finally get my garage cleaned out and reorganized at home - a dirty but necessary, periodic chore. Tom, Sarah and John were busy playing hosts to the teams – doing debriefs and orientations. I was available in my usual role as backup where needed. I’m in a holding pattern right now with my projects. I have all of my preliminary reports out and am waiting for approval and/or additional input from various people before I can proceed. With my luck, they’ll all come back the same day.

Sunday – This morning we got 1 team off to Mellier ; 1 team off to La Tremblay and 2 teams off to the airport heading home. It’s quiet again at the Guest House. Since we won’t have another team in until Wednesday, Sarah took off for a couple of days of R & R in the Dominican Republic. Tom, John and I wished we had satellite TV so we could watch a little football, but it’s not in the budget. So – we spent the afternoon catching up on all those little things that we put off during the week.

In the late afternoon, Doug Ahlfeld, from Homes 4 Haitians, came in from Mellier. H4H is one of the 2 contractors building the 40 houses for the EMH Pilot Project. Doug came in country last Wednesday, but went directly to Mellier. Although we have talked on the phone and emailed a lot, it was the first time that I’ve seen Doug since the Reconstruction Forum in April. It was fun to catch-up a little and a chance to do some scheduling for the next 10 houses. It’s a nice feeling to finally have some houses under construction.

Monday – Today John Alcorn’s replacement arrived. John is going home Wednesday after nearly 7 months as the VIM-Haiti Financial Director. We’re sorry to see John leave but know that his family will be happy to have him back home. His replacement will be Mario Fils-Ami (see photo), a Haitian-American living in the U.S. for the past 20 years. He decided it was time to return to Haiti and help his people. Mario has a very impressive accounting resume and will be a valuable addition to our team. It’s very inspiring to work with the dedicated people of UMVIM and UMCOR that serve the Haiti Recovery Plan.

Days 71 & 72 (11/24 - 25)

Thanksgiving Thursday – Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day with family and friends. Thanksgiving in Haiti is a non-event. We “blans” (creole for foreigners) had to create our own holiday. We started by giving the Haitian staff the day off. Then we packed our backpacks and headed up to the Hotel Karibe – a very nice hotel not too far from the Guest House with the intention of spending the day and night. However, this being Haiti, we ran into a problem. The confirmation they gave us for the rooms was only confirmation that they had received our request for the reservations and they were full. So – we decided to spend the day around the pool and watch some football on the flat screen at the pool side bar. However, this being Haiti, they didn’t get Fox network. So – we had to settle for updates on ESPN. But, it still was a nice, relaxing day and a kind of a going away celebration for John, who will end his 7 month tour and go home to his family next week. He will be missed.

Since there wasn’t any turkey dinner on the Karibe menu we decided we might as well go down to Hangs, a local sports bar that has good hamburgers and might have the football games on their big screen. Success!! Not only did they have the game on - when we walked in the owner said “We have special Thanksgiving dinner for you.” We had turkey, dressing (no gravy L), vegetables and pumpkin pie. Not as good as Mom used to make, but not at all bad considering where we were. We then headed back to the Guest House and our own beds – full of turkey but missing our families.

Friday – Today started with no breakfast. We had forgotten that we had told the staff we wouldn’t be back until the afternoon.  Claire made us some coffee and we had enough residual turkey left in us from last night that we didn’t suffer. We decided to take advantage of the lull in team activity and do some clean-up and reorganization. Our office was the first priority. We moved some things out; put things away in cupboards; moved some furniture; cleaned and then went shopping. Not exactly Black Friday, thank Heavens. But we did see some Christmas decorations. We bought a table and 4 chairs to put in the little kitchen area and now have a break/conference room. In the process I also scored a new chair. Up until now, my chair was whatever was left over and often ended up being a folding chair.

The next order of business was reorganizing the tools and supplies. With as many as 5 teams out in the field at one time, you can imagine how many cots, water jugs, wheelbarrows, generators, shovels, hand tools, etc., etc. that we have – as well as tarps, medical supplies, clothes, school supplies and toys that teams leave with us to distribute. Things get stuffed into the cabinets in the carport, our office back porch and John’s room. So – time to clean the closets. We worked until dark, had dinner and went back at it for a couple of more hours. We actually got most of it done, but it was too dark to see in the cabinets – so I’ll get on that part in the morning. We have 4 teams coming in tomorrow, so I’d like to get it done before they start arriving.

Days 67 - 70 (11/20 -23)

Sunday – Today was another slow day team wise. We had one small team from the Church of the Resurrection (COR) arrive in the afternoon. So – after attending church on the Frere campus I dug into a new book  -“Unshaken” by Dan Woolley. Dan was trapped in the collapsed Hotel Montana in Petionville for 65 hours before being rescued. What made it more interesting to me was that Jim Gulley (with me in photo) was also trapped in the Hotel Montana just a few feet from Dan and Dan recounts many of their shouted conversations as they awaited rescue. There also was a picture of Jim as he was pulled from the rubble on a stretcher. Parts of the book were not particularly interesting, but the recounting of the actual experience was. It was a quick read and I finished it in one sitting.

Monday – This morning we sent the COR team off to Petit Goave and said goodbye to Tom’s wife Wendy’s team heading home to New York and Connecticut. Then it was back to the computer and sifting through the emails coming and going with the different projects. What did we do before the internet and cell phones?

Tuesday – One team left for the airport this morning and we have 2 teams in the field. There will be no one at the Guest House but staff until Saturday. It’s very quiet around here.

EMH Engineer Roger LaPlanche came by with the drawings for the Guest House and Staff Housing addition, based on the sketches I sent him last week. EMH President, Gessner Paul and EMH Finance Director, Sylvio Rocourt came with him. Roger’s drawings were very good and everyone approved. Roger and I will do a final cost analysis and barring anything unforeseen we could be starting the first 8 units before Christmas.

Engineer Derly Charles the Haitian project manager for the EMH Housing Pilot Project sent me a couple of photos of the crew digging the footings for the first two houses in Mellier. We finally broke ground after 7 months of planning and red tape. It’s very exciting to finally see actual construction start on this much needed project. It’s been a GOOD day.

Wednesday – Today seems rather anticlimactic after all the excitement of yesterday. No teams, no project starts - just another day on the computer in the office. I put some estimated cost figures together for the Haiti Home Assistance Program and sent them on to a few key people for their input. I think we’re getting close to having something to submit to UMCOR for funding approval.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving not a Haitian holiday. After some discussion, Tom, John, Sarah and I decided that, since we have no teams to take care of, we will give the Haitian staff the day off and go off campus for the day and night – a mini-vacation.

Days 65 & 66 (11/18 – 19)

Friday – Today was another Haitian holiday it was Battle of Vertieres Day commemorating the final revolutionary battle against the French. Like most holidays I’ve observed so far, nothing much happens except the schools, government offices and some businesses close down. Sort of like the U.S.

There has been a meeting going on most of this week of the EMH Educational Advisory Committee which includes representatives from the 105 Methodist schools in Haiti. Today Jim Gulley gave a presentation on strategic planning complete with sample forms. They then broke into smaller groups to do planning in their specialized areas, health, finance, curriculum, reconstruction, etc. Jim asked me to participate in the reconstruction roundtable. It was a very interesting process. First of all, my lack of Creole skills was a handicap but, Pastor Marco Depestre, the Port Au Prince District Superintendent and Secretary of the EMH sat next to me and gave me periodic summaries of what was being discussed. It became very clear that no one really grasped the strategic planning process and were just airing the problems they were having in their local areas. In two hours they only got to the first item on the agenda which was to do an inventory of all church owned real estate – a task that could easily be done by Christmas. They decided that someone (task not assigned) would have it done by March 2012. The business models and methods that are an underlying part of our culture are unknown down here.

Today was also my first meeting as an official member of the EMH Project Management and Advisory Team. (Yes, our work goes on even on a holiday) Nothing was really different. I’ve been working with these people for a couple of months now and have established a good relationship with them. But, I did feel my credibility factor increase a notch. Part of the scheduled agenda was to discuss with Roger LaPlanche, the EMH Head Engineer, several specific areas of construction quality concerns. But, I thought, what the heck, let’s go for it. So – I held up my copy of the Guide for Good Construction Practices in Haiti and said, “You know, this is a very good book. Is there any reason we cannot adopt this as our standard for all of our projects?” I expected some push back from Roger but instead he said, “I think that would be a good idea.” I was stunned and I’m sure stood there with my mouth open. He said that it would be difficult to implement. So, I suggested that we get all of the site bosses together and go through the book and tell them that this will be the new standard. He thought that that was a good idea and would set the meeting up right away. Sometimes it’s hard to argue with success. Two home runs in two days was more than I could hope for.

Saturday – This morning we got 3 teams to the airport at the same time - 28 VIM team members on the same airplane. Look out American Airlines! Then Tom left for Furcey to pick up his wife Wendy and her team. And John rode to La Caye to pick up the team there. He’ll overnight there and come back tomorrow. So – with nothing going on until the Furcey team arrived later in the afternoon, Sarah and I just kind of kicked back and relaxed. Life is good.

Days 63 & 64 (11/16 – 17)

Wednesday – Our office is on the 2^nd story of the guest house and there are steps leading up to the back porch. Every day we have people (mostly children) knocking on the back door asking for food or medicine or money. It’s a problem we struggle with daily. How can you say no to people in need? But, how can you indiscriminately continue to give without creating a nation of beggars? It’s a problem with everything we do down here. The more you do the more they expect you to do. “You gave something to him. Where’s mine?” We are trying very hard to develop programs that require individual and community participation - programs that develop a sense of ownership and responsibility for self-sufficiency. It’s not an easy thing to do and sometimes requires some heart wrenching decisions. It’s strange that trying to do good things can sometimes be so difficult. I admire so much the UMCOR and UMVIM staff down here. They are truly caring people doing a very difficult job.

Jim Gulley and I met with Derly Charles, the EMH Pilot Project Engineer, and Pastor Jacob the pastor at the Mellier church over breakfast this morning. Derly reported on his visit with the Mayor of Leogane to get the building permits for Mellier. It appears that everything is in order and we should have all of the permits by the end of the week. But, this being Haiti, I’ll feel better when we have them in hand.

Thursday – Today I finally got to meet with Gessner Paul, the President of EMH (the Methodist Church of Haiti). He returned from Miami on Tuesday and had taken 2 of my proposals with him to review. I needed his stamp of approval before writing the grant proposals to UMCOR. He said, “This is very good. We should do this.” In fact, he thought we should increase the number of units for the Guest House expansion and on site staff housing from 8 to 12 and instructed the EMH Head Engineer to produce the drawings right away (see photos for location). Needless to say, it made my day. When you do this kind of work you never really know if the fruits of your labor will see the light of day. UMCOR has assured me that funds are in place. Hoo-Rah.

Also today, Jim Gulley, GBGM Haiti Liaison, asked me to replace him on the EMH Project Management and Advisory Team. This is the team that provides oversight for the EMH Pilot Project of 40 houses in Mellier and Carre Four. I had been attending the meetings in an unofficial consulting capacity, but now will have a voice in the process. It’s been a milestone day.

Days 61 & 62 (11/14 – 15)

Monday – Happy Birthday to a special lady. Wish I was there to help you celebrate. But, I digress. This morning was taken up with a meeting on the EMH Pilot Project. We were trying to finalize the areas of responsibility of the 6 parties to this project – EMH (The Haitian Methodist Church), UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief), the community of Mellier, the community of Carre Four and the 2 contractors WHA (World Hand Alliance) and H4H (Homes 4 Haitians). The EMH engineer Derly Charles, the Project Manager, is doing a good job of coordinating all the pieces and we should be able to actually start construction within the next week. My role as an EMH advisor is to offer technical advice and assistance. So far that has consisted mainly of working on the construction contracts and drawings. Tomorrow the final contract should be signed and the plans submitted to the Mayor of Leogane for permits. Needless to say, we all are very anxious to see that first house start up.

I worked late, via email, with Doug Ahfield, of H4H, on last minute corrections on the plans. I think we’re done!!

Tuesday – This morning we got Tom’s wife Wendy and her team off to Furcey. We got the team and all their baggage and equipment in one van. They left the Guest House looking like the Beverly Hillbillies.

After breakfast John, Tom and I went with Lauren James (UMCOR – EMH Liaison) and Thodleen Dessources (UMCOR Haiti Desk Manager visiting from New York) to look at the new church being built in St. Martin. I’ve got to say it was the best quality of construction I’ve seen so far in Haiti. Not that there are areas that can’t be improved – such as termination of rebar at columns – but all and all, I was very impressed. They even had a stinger for vibrating the concrete in forms – the first one I’ve seen in Haiti. You can’t believe how good it makes me feel to see this kind of progress. We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’re moving in the right direction.

We went from the St. Martin site to the Collegeburg campus where they have a beautiful church and are planning on building new primary, secondary and administration buildings for the school, complete with computer labs. It will be a very ambitious 3 million dollar project.

The trip this morning took me through some parts of Port au Prince that I had not seen before. When you live and work in Petionville, you don’t see a lot of evidence of the earthquake and you tend to forget. But the trip this morning was a grim reminder. We even took a short side trip to the Iron Market, once the central marketplace of all of Port au Prince. It has been fully restored and is still a bustling hub of commerce, filled with stall after stall of Haitian art work and products (even VooDoo). Another interesting day in Haiti.

Days 58 - 60 (11/11/11 – 13)

Friday – Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all who have served in our military. Haiti is still in a state of flux regarding their army. Ex-President Aristide disbanded the army in 1996 after he was ousted by a military coup in 1991 and regained power 3 years later. President Martelly has promised to restore the army. The main reason given is to get rid of the 12,000 UN Security Forces who the Haitians blame (rightfully so) for the Cholera outbreak. Those opposed to reestablishing the army feel that the Haitian National Police force should be enlarged instead. Most of our Haitian staff that I have talked to seem to favor the army approach – citing better training and national pride as the main reasons. Martelly has stated that he will announce his final decision one week from today. Life will go on at the Guest House regardless of the decision. I think that the only thing that will change will be the color of the helmets.

In between getting 2 teams out to their sites and receiving 2 more teams from the states today, I was actually able to get a little work done. I finished evaluating the housing needs of the Haitian staff (40 people) and using a weighted system to establish need, put together a priority list. Now we have to establish how we are best going to be able help the most people. Not an easy process. We want to lend a hand not just give handouts.

Saturday – Just another day at the office. One team off to Mellier, one team homeward bound to the airport and 2 more new arrivals. Sarah is a scheduling guru.

My day consisted of working on contracts, budgets and payment schedules for the EMH 40 house Pilot Project. This thing has taken forever to put together – getting documents translated from French to English and English to French – getting material and equipment through customs and transported to the worksites – finding secure storage facilities. The KIA 4 x 4 is now sporting a new cage and lumber rack. Not exactly as I drew it, but close enough. So - I think we will actually see some work start next week. A lot of man hours have been put in by a lot of people to get it to this point.

Sunday – This morning 8 of us (Tom, Wendy, Sarah, John, Jim Gulley, Eric (driver) and his daughter Jessica and I) piled into the DMax pickup and drove up the mountain to the church in Thomasinn. John, Jim and I rode in the back of the truck and had a great view on the ride. Tom was preaching this morning and we were there to cheer him on.

This church has a rather interesting history. It was started in the ‘80s by a wealthy, light skinned, group of Haitian Methodists who were frightened about driving down into Petionville to attend church because of the threat of kidnapping, which was very prevalent at the time. So – they built this small church up in the mountains. The congregation today is still affluent and predominantly light skinned, which historically has been the upper class. The service was in French, not Creole and the service did not have the energy of most of the other churches I’ve attended down here - particularly the singing. But, Tom gave a great sermon and Sarah translated (even though most of the congregation was bilingual) and the people were very friendly.

After church we came down the mountain to a restaurant called Munchies and had some great pizza for lunch. Then it was back to the Guest House and a very relaxed afternoon of catching up on my reading.

Days 56 &57 (11/09 – 10)

Wednesday – Today was all about teams coming and going (mostly coming). We had three teams coming in from the states – including Tom’s wife Wendy’s team and one team returning from Petit Goave. For the first time since I’ve been here, there wasn’t a single vehicle left in the parking lot while everyone was reroute. With the 1 team already at the Guest House it was a real crowd – over 50 - for dinner. Amazingly, we didn’t run out of anything. It was a real opportunity to see how well the Guest House and UMVIM staff functions. Needless to say, most of my day was taken up in helping the staff and incoming guests where I could.

Thursday – We got 1 team to the airport and 2 teams off to their work sites this morning. We are expecting 2 more teams from the states and I team returning from Hinche this afternoon - another busy day. But in between departures and arrivals, Tom and Wendy, Sarah and I had to go to Mellier for a Community meeting. Mellier is about 25 miles west of Port Au Prince – just a couple of miles from Leogane where I was on Tuesday for the Carter Work Project. So – we left at 8:30; got to Mellier at 10:00; left Mellier at 11:30 and got back to the Guest House in time to have a quick lunch and greet our first new arrivals at 2:00. I’ve traveled this stretch of road at least a half dozen times since I’ve been here and each time I’ve seen small signs of improvement in buildings and infrastructure – except in Carre Four, of course, which is still a pit.

 Mellier is the location of our largest building project in Haiti. It is the site of a new 4500 sq. ft. church and 20 of the EMH Pilot Project houses. We send 3 teams a month there – more than any other site. The amount of work done on the church since my last visit a month ago was very impressive. The footings and stem walls are finished. The back fill for the slab has been completed and they were placing the rebar for the slab. I calculated that over 500 cubic yards of material was moved to back fill the stem walls. That’s over 50 – 10 yard dump trucks. The amount of concrete and mortar used to build the footings, stem walls and slab will exceed 140 cubic yards or about 20 cement truck loads. And – it was all done by hand – one bucket at a time. In fact, I think that’s pretty descriptive of post-earthquake Haiti. Progress – one bucket at a time.

Days 54 & 55 (11/07 – 08)

Monday – We had 2 teams going out to different sites at the same time this morning. That’s 20 people plus staff loading suitcases, tools, equipment, food and water, etc., into, in this case, 5 vehicles. It was a bit of a circus and our dogs, Blackie and Yorkie, were a big help. However, we were able to get everybody loaded up and on their way.

I know I’ve mentioned before how difficult it is to get a direct answer from a Haitian. I think it stems from a cultural issue of not wanting to commit and not wanting to offend. In fact if you do get a direct answer to a question, chances are he didn’t understand the question. Case in point – this morning Oge came into the office and I asked him – “Oge, will the lumber rack for the Kia be finished this week?” He answered – “Yes … (pause, drum roll) ... Almost”. I love these guys!

I spent the rest of my day putting the final touches on my presentation to the Joint Leadership Committee. The meeting is scheduled for next Monday and I need to email a brief to everyone before the meeting.

Tuesday – Today was Carter Work Project day. Every year Habitat for Humanity puts on a week-long build somewhere in world where sometimes several thousand volunteers come and build several hundred houses in a week. The location for 2011 is Haiti. Because of the limited infrastructure in Haiti, they limited the volunteers to 400 plus 100 Habitat staff. Since UMCOR has partnered with Habitat on several projects in Haiti, they invited us to participate for a day.

Our team consisted of Elizabeth Petheo, Head of Mission UMCOR – Haiti; Lauren James, UMCOR – EMH Liason; Eddison , UMCOR Assistant Shelter Coordinator; and John, Sarah and I from UMVIM. We left Petionville at 6:00 AM and arrived in Leogane, about 25 miles west, at 8:00. The build site is on a 38+ acre site, donated by the Mayor of Leogane. The master plan for the site is for 500 houses. The goal for the Carter Work Project week is to complete 150 houses.

The building design is a kind of hybrid. The bottom half is typical Haitian –slab floor with masonry walls. The top half is typical Habitat transitional shelter – wood frame, plywood siding and metal roof. They are about 200 sq. ft. in size (aprox. 12’ x 16’ ) with just 1 room and  no electricity or plumbing. There are communal latrines and water sources located through-out the compound.

The slabs and masonry ½ walls were all completed prior to the volunteers’ arrival. So the volunteer’s task is to complete the wood frame top ½ ,  metal roof and install windows and doors. Each team – 8 to 10 people – is supposed to complete 2 houses.

We were assigned to a new site and by lunch time had the walls and a couple of the roof trusses up. With 500+ people, the lunch line was pretty long but moved along quickly. Lunch consisted of a sandwich, juice and a granola bar. Just as we finished lunch, Haiti President Martelly and Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter came strolling by surrounded by their entourage. We grabbed our cameras and were able to get a few pictures. They entered the VIP tent and sat down for lunch with Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood and several dozen other unrecognizable VIPs. A few more photos and back to work. We got the remaining trusses up, cross braces in and the purlins set and then discovered that we didn’t have any hurricane clips. I went to the supply container and was told that they had run out of clips. So, we were done for the day. We couldn’t install the metal roof without the clips in place. The Habitat people were impressed with the amount of work that we had gotten done and asked if we could come back. John and I may go back Thursday or Friday if we can get away. All in all, it was a hot, hard days’ work, but at the same time, very interesting and fun.

Days 52 & 53 (10/05 – 06)

Saturday – Tom decided to catch a ride up to Bernice with the van that was going to pick up Sarah and her Mom’s team. Since it’s a long ride, he’ll overnight there and come back with them tomorrow. So – that leaves John and I holding down the fort. Fortunately, we only have 1 team leaving and 1 team arriving – piece of cake. Johnny, one of the Haitian drivers, had the airport run and we planned to go take a look at his home site when he got back to the Guest House. We’ve been trying to get together for a month. Unfortunately we were foiled again. The newly arrived team decided that they wanted to out for a late lunch and Johnny had to drive them.  Maybe next week. It has become a joke with Johnny and me.

The day was kind of quiet with only 1 team here and only John and I in the office. So – I decided to start doing some concept sketches for the new Staff Housing Project. It essentially will be an 8 unit Haitian Motel 6. I will have some preliminary drawings ready for the EMH Leadership Committee meeting next week. If the committee approves the concept, I’ll present a grant proposal to UMCOR for the funding. This could actually start before any of the other projects I’m working on.

Sunday – John and I got the new team off to Mellier by 7:00 AM. We then changed into long pants and shoes and went to church on campus. The church was packed as usual – I’m guessing around 400 people. Although I still don’t have a grasp on Creole, I love the music. They sing with such energy and passion in 2 or 3 part harmony. I can’t resist throwing in a Barbershop 7^th now and then – which elicits a sidelong glance from my pew mates. There was a small ensemble of 6 men and 2 women that sang a hymn – all 37 verses. Then there was an octet of young women – all dressed alike and with a director – that sang a couple of contemporary arrangements that were very nice.

After church we got back into our shorts and sandals and received the team returning from La Tremblay. We decided to skip the peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch at the Guest House and walked 2 or 3 blocks down to Rickey’s, a local bistro, for a hamburger and fries. Although it wasn’t up to “Inn and Out” standards it wasn’t bad for a Haitian burger. Tom and Sarah returned from Bernice after lunch. So we are once again back at full strength. And looking at the team schedule board for next week, we’re going to need all the help we can get.

Days 50 & 51 (10/03 – 04)

Thursday – You know – no matter how hard I try, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to cold showers. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the fact that there is water and it does come out of the wall (as opposed to dipping it out of a bucket with a cup and pouring it over your head). But I think when I get home I’ll stay under a hot shower for a week.

Last night a group of 28 Haitian women arrived at the Guest House to attend some kind of a conference and will be staying until Sunday. With a couple of teams coming and going and our staff, it puts the head count at something over 50 people. We actually could handle up to 60, but it is a bit crowded – particularly at meal time. I ate breakfast standing up this morning. I also have to share my building (The Manse). I’ve gotten kind of spoiled having the whole building to myself (except when Jim Gulley is in-country).

My work routine today was pretty much a repeat of the last couple of days – estimating. If all goes well, I should be able to have the first draft done tomorrow.

Sarah’s mom arrived with a team today, so Sarah went to spend a few days with her in Bernice. And – since I am the utility player on call, I’m filling in in the team hospitality role. It’s interesting to talk with everyone from all over the U.S. It’s also interesting to hear the differences in perspective before and after their missions in the field. It really is a life changing experience for almost all of them.

Friday – I don’t know whether it’s the fact that I’m usually worn out by the time I go to bed at night and fall instantly to sleep or not, but I seem to do most of my reflective thinking in the morning while I’m taking my cold shower and brushing my teeth – making sure not to put my tooth brush under the tap. (Boy is that a hard habit to break). This morning I was wishing that I had a nice, soft fluffy T-shirt to put on. Gerda, the housekeeper that does my laundry every week, does a great job of getting everything clean (by hand) – the whites absolutely sparkle. However, the art of rinsing seems to have been lost or unlearned. Putting on a clean shirt is like rubbing your skin with fine sandpaper. When the soap residue combines with sweat (you do sweat sometimes in Haiti) it creates a toxic element guaranteed to take off 3 layers of skin. (Don’t even ask about the underwear). I’m not complaining, mind you, just wishin’.

Raise a banner!! The first draft of the Guest House Renovation Project is done!! Now I have to go through it room by room with Roger LaPlanche, the EMH Engineer, and Mdme. Ruth, the Guest House Manager, to see if they are in accord with my recommendations. Once that is done I’ll do the final adjustments and write the grant proposal. My reward for reaching this milestone was to be given another job. They want me to design a staff housing project to be built behind the Guest House. Will I ever see my family again?  J

Days 48 & 49 (11/01 - 02)

Tuesday - Today is All Saint’s Day and “The Day of the Dead”. I’m not sure what all that means in Haiti, but it sounds ominous. I do know that tomorrow is also a holiday and the only reason given for the holiday is to rest up from the day before. I think we should make the day after Superbowl Sunday a national holiday. All of the kids are out of school today and tomorrow. I don’t think they celebrate a Halloween like we do.

We sent our one team off to La Tremblay this morning and are now teamless until a new arrival from the states tomorrow. It was a good time to finish installing that ceiling fan. I installed a new switch with no result, so decided to do what they’ve been doing here forever, I wired around the apparent problem. We will be rewireing most of the Guest House when we start the renovation, so I justified my solution as a temporary fix. The good news is that the Haitian staff now has a functioning fan and light in their work/living area.  They were very happy.

This afternoon I made an executive decision. I was going to quit beating my head against the wall (it really hurts when you don’t have any hair) and do the renovation estimating myself. I was having no luck finding Haitian contractors to come and give me bids. I have a pretty good idea of material cost and labor rates down here now and I’ve been estimating jobs for 40 years. So – why not? It felt really good to be moving forward again.

Wednesday – “The Day of The Dead” came and went with little notice. No witch doctors or scary characters in sight. The only noticeable differences were less traffic, some businesses closed and no kids in school. It was business as usual for us.

I spent my day glued to the computer working on the estimating - not very exciting, but a necessary part of the job. The best news is that I’m about half way done. I should be able to submit my grant proposal for the Guest House Renovation in the next couple of weeks.

On the Haiti Home Assistance side, I’m still gathering information. I wanted to go look at Nicholas (one of the Guest house caretakers) home site today but Oge and Erick (2 of our drivers) wouldn’t let me go. Apparently Nicholas’ site is in the middle of City Soleil, the worst section of real estate in all of Haiti – even the police and UN troops stay out. Oge said it was just too dangerous and he and Eric would go with Nicholas and take pictures. Our Haitian staff really do take care of us. They came back with pictures of Nicholas’ shelter surrounded by lots of banana trees. They said it really was a pretty site, but it was far off of the main road and to get to it you had to go through the very worst parts of City Soliel. It just as well that I stayed home. It’s not a place for anyone to be wandering around, particularly with my skin color.

This week has been rather quiet with only one or two teams a day coming through. But next week we will be back up to about 4 a day. I’ll take the peace and quiet whenever I can find it.

Days 46 & 47 (10/30 -31)

Sunday – Today starts the second half of my Haiti assignment. In many ways it seems that I just got here, since there is still so much to be done. Yet when I think of my family and friends, it seems like I’ve been here forever.

We got the team off to Mellier by 8:30 and realized that there would be no teams until 4:30 in the afternoon when the next team from the states arrived. So – we grabbed our swimsuits and towels and Eric, our driver and headed to the Karib Hotel in Petionville. The Karib is a beautiful hotel and spa and is 5 star by anyone’s standard. We spent the day lounging in and around the beautiful pool and feeling our bodies recharge. You don’t realize the stress created by living and working 24/7 in the same place until you get away from it for a little while and feel that stress start to melt away. But – reality returned when Eric arrived at 3:30 to take us back to the Guest House in time for the arrival of the new team.

I fell into bed after dinner and slept like a baby. I guess too much relaxing wears you out.

Monday –We sent a team off to the airport this morning and have a new one arriving at noon. The Guest House has a revolving door. I got the bid back for a new cage and lumber rack to be installed on the Kia 4x4 that will be used by the contractors on the EMH housing project. Also, keeping with the theme of nothing is ever easy, I discovered that there is some front end work needed on the Kia before we can install the rack. But – I think we’re moving forward.

Scheduling to see the remaining staff home sites is problematic. Finding a time when the staff member, a driver, a vehicle and I are available is not always easy, particularly when nothing is 15 minutes away. They all take several hours or more. It generally takes two or three false starts before we ultimately succeed.

I still haven’t been able to find Haitian contractors to come and bid on work at the Guest House. As I’ve mentioned before, there are no yellow pages or website listings. Everything is word of mouth. Most of the referrals I’ve gotten so far are for small contractors who really aren’t equipped to handle the scope of work that will be required. I know that somewhere in this city of 3 million people the right company is out there. I’m still searching.

Finally some good news. Maxo, one of our drivers is also a qualified mechanic and he tore into the front end of the Kia 4x4. In just a couple of hours he rebuilt the front hubs and replaced the front tie rod. The most amazing part to me was that he was dressed in a nice sport shirt and pair of slacks and never got a spot of grease on them. I can’t change a light bulb without having to change my clothes. I love these guys.

Days 44 & 45 (11/28 -29)

Friday – Mornings in Haiti continue to be the best part of the day. The air is the cleanest; the temperature the coolest and the coffee the freshest. I enjoyed sitting on the patio having breakfast with our departing teams and hearing the stories of their mission experiences. They are all different, but somehow the same. Every experience is weighed and filtered through each individuals set of values, life experiences and preconceived expectations. The commonality is everyone recognizing that they have been profoundly affected by the experience. After saying my goodbyes, it was back to work.

My goal this morning was to assemble and install a new ceiling fan and light in the Haitian staff area behind the kitchen at the Guest House. The conditions there are not great to begin with and no one could remember how long the old one had been broken. Now you would think that this would be a relative simple task – I’ve installed hundreds of these in my career. However, one must never forget that this is Haiti. The old fixture came down fairly easily, but I then discovered that the new one that I bought yesterday only came with screws for wood frame installation. There were no machine screws to install it to the ceiling box. Now if I were home, it would be a 15 minute trip to Home Depot to pick up a couple of 10x32 machine screws. However, in Haiti nothing is 15 minutes away and there are no Home Depots. Fortunately, Tom and Sarah were heading to the gym for a workout and had a vehicle and driver. So, I rode along. While they were at the gym, Spana, the driver, and I went in search for 2 – 10x32 machine screws. Two hours and four stores later we finally struck gold. By the time we picked up Tom and Sarah and got back to the Guest House, not only was I worn out, it was too dark to see. Have I mentioned that it gets dark by 5:30 down here?

A new team arrived this afternoon, so after dinner, while the rest of the staff did orientation, I retired to the office and caught up on emails and this blog – then went to bed.

Saturday – We got our new team off to Mellier and received two more this morning. This is one busy place.

After lunch, I got back to my ceiling fan project and with my newly procured machine screws got it securely fastened to the ceiling. I made the electrical connections and threw the switch – no joy. So, I got out my circuit tester and begin going through the rat’s nest of wiring and came to the conclusion that the switch was bad. Did I mention that nothing is easy in Haiti? I know that the switch I need is available at the little store where I found the machine screws. It will probably have to wait until Monday.

Loren James, from UMCOR came over with UMCOR hats and shirts for John, Sarah and I. We have volunteered to join some of the UMCOR staff at the Carter Work Project in Leogane next week. There will be several hundred Habitat for Humanity volunteers working including, of course, Jimmy Carter. Who knows? There might be a photo op.

Tonight was pizza night and pool at a local establishment. It was also a farewell for Deanna Hawkins and her daughter who have been visiting for a week. Deanna was the financial administrator before John.