Days 316 – 322 (9/30 – 10/6)

Sunday – Wednesday – I decided that I needed a break from the Guest House routine and took 4 days of personal leave to recharge my batteries. Somehow Haiti got on without me.

Thursday – Back to work today refreshed and with a much better attitude. I’m sure that everyone around me is pleased. With 4 teams at the Guest House a cheery disposition is a good thing to have. Today is also my son’s birthday, Happy Birthday from Haiti to Minnesota, Bill Jr. You can’t possibly be as old as the calendar indicates. Also newly arrived at the Guest House is Una Jones, our boss from Volunteers in Mission/UMCOR in New York. Una comes down to see us a couple of times a year and this visit is to discuss our plans for the final year of the Haiti Response Plan which ends in October 2013. We’ve been discussing this among ourselves and have some ideas on how we would like it to continue, but Una is the final authority. I see many meetings in my future.

Friday – This morning we sent 2 teams off to the airport and home and welcomed 2 more teams flying in from the states. It’s going to be a busy month. After lunch we had our first staff meeting with Una. We spent the first part of the meeting bringing her up to date on all of our various projects. Then she brought us up to date on what is going on at UMCOR - and it wasn’t very encouraging. Apparently the Board of Directors has made drastic cuts in many program areas and laid off about 35 people in New York. It doesn’t bode well for the Haiti Response Plan beyond its’ 3 year mandate. Hopefully we’ll be able to do some strategic planning in the next few days.

Work on the Guest House Renovation, particularly the Swiss House, and the Staff Annex continue although a lot slower than I would like.

Saturday – Still a lot of team activity this morning. We sent 1 team to Leveque; 1 team to Guillette; 1 team to the airport and home and welcomed 1 new team in from the States - lots of people running in many directions. The staging area under the carport sometimes looks like a beachhead at Normandy.

This afternoon I had my 1 on 1 interview with Una. She was very complimentary about the work I have been doing and said that because of my work in Haiti they (VIM/UMCOR) have determined that my role needs to be filled from the very beginning of any new disaster relief response. Then she asked me what my plans were for the future (my current contract ends 11/19). She would like me to continue for at least another 6 months and help in the transition of the program. I told her that I would love to continue to help, that I still had a passion for Haiti and its’ people, but that I have promised my family I would come home. If we could work out an arrangement where I could come down and be in-country for shorter periods of time, I could probably do that. She said that she wouldn’t object to that kind of an arrangement and asked me to write a proposal that would work for me and we would discuss it.

We all went to dinner at the Quartier Latin, one of our favorites. It was a pleasant ending to a very interesting day.

An apology to the few that read this (especially my Mother) for falling so far behind in my journal. The days have been very full with a lot of projects underway and at days end I’ve kind of collapsed.  When you don’t keep this up this at least several times a week you lose some of the detail and days tend to just run into one another. However, I will try to catch up the best I can.

Days 311 – 317 (9/23 – 29)

Sunday – Today was finally pool painting day. Eric and his crew started painting at about 6:00 A.M. We need to get 2 coats of paint on the pool and deck before it gets too hot. After breakfast we got the COR (Church of the Resurrection) team off to airport after their week’s work in Petit Goave. With no more team activity today, Tom, Danette and I went up to Hotel Ibolele to have lunch and spend a few hours around the pool. When we got back the pool was done and looked great. Eric said they actually got 3 coats on before it got too hot. Now  we have to hope that we don’t get any heavy rain for a few days. It has to sit for at least a week before we can refill it.

Monday – This morning I met with Engineer Abicher about the Guest House Renovation Project. The team activity is going to increase measurably in October and we’re going to need the Swiss House completed to house all of the people. He assures me that he’ll get it done in time, but I know it’s going to take constant nudging to make it happen.

This afternoon we had 2 teams return from working on a sanitation project in Don Don. This is a project that is no longer on our VIM/HRP priority list, so they have been working outside of our program – that is they do not receive matching UMCOR funds and we do not coordinate their on-site work. We do, however, take care of their in-country logistics of food, cooks, lodging, transportation and translators.

Tuesday – We got our 2 “Don Don” teams off to the airport right after breakfast and then I had to rush to a meeting with Pastor Paul. This is a continuation of our Site Review Committee meeting from last week. We are applying for an UMCOR grant on behalf of the EMH to help with the completion of the Mellier church. Since Lauren James the UMCOR/EMH Liason is on personal leave, I got assigned the task of writing the grant. I submitted a draft last week and am still waiting for feedback. We’ve had to draw a line in the sand as to what this grant is going to cover. We’ve already spent way too much money on this project and are requiring that the church and the community step up and take some responsibility in its’ completion. We have committed to completing the basic structure but feel that they should participate by doing the finish work. I know the meeting this morning is going to be Pastor Paul trying to pressure me into asking for more grant money – and I wasn’t disappointed. However, I told him that UMCOR has made it very clear as to what they will and what they won’t pay for. If I apply for more, the grant will be rejected and he will have to wait until the Board of Directors’ next meeting in April 2013 to reapply. He wasn’t happy.

Wednesday – Warren McGuffin’s team arrived from the California/Nevada Conference this morning. Warren and I were on one of the first teams to work in Thomas almost 2 years ago and our team started the hot lunch program there. Warren took that initial program and is transforming it into a complete, self-sustaining food program. He is setting up micro enterprises in computer technology and agriculture to enable the local community to sustain the lunch program. He has reached out and gotten corporate funding and technical support and even has Harvard Business School putting together a business plan for a Cyber Café/Computer center at the school. The purpose of his current trip is to explain his plan to Pastor Paul and the EMH leadership and for his team to do survey work for the solar power and internet hook-up at the school.

The meeting with the EMH this afternoon went quite well. The leadership was quite interested in Warren’s plan. Edzair Paul, the EMH Director of Education, was particularly excited about establishing computer classes at the school – complete with laptops, software and training. The future plan is to expand this program to other schools in the Circuit.

Thursday – This morning after breakfast and seeing Warren’s team off to Thomas, I grabbed Spana and the Dmax and went off on a quest to buy a small propane torch. The crew working on the Guest House Staff Annex need one to burn channels in the Styrofoam panels for electrical conduit and water pipes. It should be an easy task to find a torch that you could pick up in any hardware store in the States for about $20.00. Right? Wrong! The first 2 places we went to didn’t have anything. The 3^rd place had one but wanted $120.00! The next 2 places didn’t have anything. Finally, Spana drove down into the heart of old town Port-au-Prince and found a little hole in the wall store that had an iron grill door. They wouldn’t let you in the store. You had to stand outside and tell them what you wanted and they would bring it out to you. You slipped the money through the grill and they opened a little door at the bottom and passed the merchandise out to you. They had one! They wanted $65.00 dollars for it, but by that time I was almost ready to go back to the other store and pay the $120.00. By this time it was 2:00 P.M. We had spent over 5 hours finding something that would have taken 15 minutes at Home Depot and we still had an hour in traffic to get back to the Guest House. I should have known better. Not only did it take most of my day, but I missed the open house and dedication of the new 2^nd story addition at the UMCOR office on Delmas 54. They always have good food at their affairs. Darn! When I got back, a new team had just arrived from the States.

Friday – After breakfast we got the new, small team off to their worksite at Thor. Then – I got to demonstrate my new propane torch to the Haitian work crew. They were totally amazed at how fast you could burn a channel for pipes, and conduit and recesses for plugs and switches. Everyone wanted to try it. I have a feeling that this floor is going to have more plugs than any building in Haiti. After lunch we had another team arrive from the States.

Saturday – After breakfast and getting our team off to Leveque, I had a meeting with my 2 site engineers working on the Guest House and Annex. I’m still struggling with having them follow a schedule. No matter what you put down on paper, they are determined to do it their way. I hope we will have the Swiss House finished it time for the big influx of people in a few weeks. I’ve kind of given up on predicting a finish on the annex and the reality is that I might have to shut it down before it’s completed because some of the funding didn’t come in as anticipated. It’s disappointing, but a reality in non-profit work.

On a brighter note - this afternoon we started to refill the swimming pool!

Days 306 – 310 (9/18 – 22)

Tuesday – At our Site Review meeting yesterday we discussed how we were going to complete the Mellier church project. It has become an albatross and an embarrassment to everyone involved. It was the first EMH/VIM project started under the Haiti Response Plan and was doomed to failure from the start. Under the UMCOR mandate of – let the EMH have control of all projects – there ended up being no control and no one is willing to accept responsibility for the changes that created large cost over runs. Ultimately the work was stopped until we could figure out a way to bring the project to a satisfactory conclusion. The decision was made to have the EMH District (the overall EMH authority) take over the project from the EMH Circuit (the local EMH area authority). We then got an estimate to get the building to a minimum completion stage – walls, roof, windows, doors and crepissage (plaster coat) and will now apply for a new UMCOR grant for this work. Lauren James, the UMCOR/EMH Liaison, is usually tasked with writing the grants, but she is back in the States on personal leave. So – guess who got assigned to write the new grant proposal? You got it. It’s me - another job to do in my spare time.

This afternoon we took 2 teams to the airport for their return home and had 1 team return to the Guest House from their work site in Petit Goave where we have started a new Eye Clinic.

Wednesday – Right after breakfast and getting our Petit Goave team off to the airport, I got a call from Jim Gulley that Pastor Paul wanted to meet with us at 9:00 A.M. to talk about the Mellier church. I changed my clothes (you can’t wear shorts in a meeting with Pastor Paul – it’s disrespectful) and walked over to his office. He wanted to know if I had finished the Grant Proposal. I told him that I had finished a first draft and sent it to Lauren for editing but hadn’t gotten it back. I also told him that under the new UMCOR construction protocol, we would have to get 2 more estimates for the work before I could submit the final document. He was not happy. I also explained in a little more detail about the need for reorganization – how the site engineers needed to be under the direct control of the Head Engineer and not the church; how they needed to take more responsibility for the control of cost and schedule; how we needed to change the way they were being compensated. When he figured out that the site engineers were making more money than he was, he was really unhappy. He said that he was going to change that right away.

I sent an email to Roger Laplanche, EMH Head Engineer, outlining what had been discussed with Pastor Paul and that I wanted to meet with him and Engs. Abicher and Rousse in the morning to discuss the Guest House and Staff Annex projects. I received a reply later in the afternoon that he had already gotten a phone call from Pastor Paul and had a meeting with him in the morning. I see some changes in the wind.

Thursday – My meeting with the engineers this morning went reasonably well. I think they got my message that I was not happy with the way our projects were going – that they needed to do a better job of controlling cost and keeping on schedule. They left my meeting to meet with Pastor Paul where they got another dressing down. It was not a good morning for them. Hopefully, we’ll see some improvement.

I have to spend a little time each day working with the crew that is installing the Styrofoam panels on the 2^nd floor of the Staff Annex. They are doing a good job, but it is new technology to them and they need instruction in the process. The biggest mistake to make is to assume that they understand. The factory in the Dominican is supposed to be sending an engineer for technical assistance, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Friday – I was scheduled to have a meeting with Pastor Paul this morning to go over the Mellier church grant proposal, but I haven’t received the draft back from Lauren, who is in the States. Some other issues have come up that need to be resolved before we can submit the proposal to UMCOR, so we have rescheduled the meeting for next Tuesday. The Guest House renovation and the Staff Annex projects are continuing and require daily oversight to keep them moving in the right direction. This afternoon was spent giving more instruction on how the panel system.

Our Church of the Resurrection (COR) team returned from their week in Petit Goave working on the Brakeman College computer lab addition.

Saturday – We got our COR to off to the airport for their return home with an additional passenger. Danette is going home in Washington DC for a few days of R & R. We don’t have any teams until Wednesday, so it is a good opportunity.

I’ve been trying to get the swimming pool repainted for about 2 weeks. Eric and his crew have cleaned and sanded and patched and then acid washed it. It needs to dry out for at least 3 days before we can paint and naturally, it’s rained almost every night. However, if it doesn’t rain tonight, we can paint tomorrow. So, Eric and I went in to Port-au-Prince to the only paint store in Haiti that has pool paint. We had a choice of colors – turquoise or turquoise. So – we chose – turquoise.

Days 297 – 300 (9/09 - 12)

Sunday – Today is a double whammy Sunday. It is the dedication of the new St. Martin church and the installation of Pastor Paul for his 2^nd term as President of the EMH (officially referred to as the Consecration of the 2^nd Mandate). The date was chosen to coincide with all of the dignitaries being in town for the Roundtable.

The original St. Martin church and school collapsed in the earthquake and several people were killed. The new church and school has risen from the rubble and is a beautiful building – school on the first floor, church on the 2^nd.  I’ve watched this being built from the foundation up and have done several inspections for UMCOR. It is one of the best built structures I’ve seen in Haiti.

We left the Guest House at 8:00 A.M. for the 30 minute ride to St. Martin in Port-au-Prince. There were already a lot of people there when we arrived. The 9:00 service started at 9:15, which is almost a record in Haiti. There were 6 choir performances; 4 scripture readings; 4 congregational hymns; speeches by Rev. Sylvain Exantus, the President of the Protestant Churches in Haiti, Mr. Gerard Granado, the Secretary General of the Caribbean Council of Churches and Melissa Crutchfield, the Director of International Disaster Response for UMCOR; a sermon by Pastor Paul and to top it all off – communion for the 500 people attending a 4 hour service. The previous record for me was 3 ½.

After the service invited guests went back to the Plaza Hotel for a late lunch and a couple of more hours of speeches. Lucky me.

The EMH passed a beautiful booklet with pictures and a history of the progress made within the Methodist church since the earthquake. One interesting table showed the actual damage to church property and parishioners. Deaths - 76; Injured - 117; Houses Destroyed - 410; Damaged - 360; Churches Destroyed - 9; Damaged - 23; Schools Destroyed - 8; Damaged – 18.

Monday – We have one team in-country, one team arriving today and two more coming in tomorrow. So, I spent a good part of the morning walking the Guest House Renovation with the site engineer making sure the finishing touches were put on the completed rooms and the remaining work was following the agreed upon schedule. The afternoon was spent getting the site engineer on the GH Staff Annex prepared to start the installation work of the 2^nd story. The evening was spent preparing for the marathon of meetings taking place over the next couple of days.

Our new team did arrive in time for dinner.

Tuesday – Today is the 11^th anniversary of the9/11 tragedy and the 21^st birthday of my oldest granddaughter, Nicole - a bittersweet day.

We got our new team off to their work site in Bercy, which is a new site about 1 hour out of Les Cayes. Then Tom and I rushed over to Pastor Paul’s office for the meeting of the EMH Housing Project Management Team. We are having serious problems with the inability of one of our contractors to complete 10 houses in Mellier and the meeting was to formulate a plan to deal with the situation before meeting with him tomorrow. The second meeting, also in Pastor Paul’s office was of the Joint Leadership Team. We did a review of the just completed Roundtable and discussed the current EMH – UMCOR – UMVIM projects. There was quite a bit to go over and we didn’t get out of there until 1:30 P.M.

We got back to the Guest House in time for a meeting with Gareth Lewis, the Shelter and Reconstruction Coordinator for UMCOR. We are coordinating another training session for Haitian construction workers on new and better construction techniques. We also are planning a training session for Site Engineers and Site Bosses on Construction Management skills.

Just before dinner we welcomed our 2 new teams.

Wednesday – This morning we got the equipment and supplies staged for our 2 teams going out – 1 to La Tremblay and 1 to Petit Goave . But Tom and I had to leave the final loading to Mario and Danette because we had to be back over to Pastor Paul’s office for the meeting with the Mellier contractor. It was not a pleasant meeting. The committee offered a plan for the completion of the houses and he refused. He was given a week to reconsider and the committee will meet next week to make a final decision.

The next meeting was also in Pastor Paul’s office and was on the New College Bird school project. College Bird is in Port-au-Prince and is the largest Methodist school in Haiti. About half of the campus was destroyed in the earthquake. The reconstruction of this school was the number 1 priority project of the EMH. But because of delays created by the Haitian government’s changing their rebuilding master plan, it is just starting, 32 months after the earthquake. It will be the largest EMH construction project to date – over 3 million dollars and consist of 3 buildings. It is not being funded under the Haiti Response Plan, but by a separate UMCOR grant and a large contribution from the Church of the Resurrection. The EMH Head Engineer and UMCOR have asked me to serve in an advisory capacity and provide some oversight for UMCOR and COR. Something to do in my spare time.

Days 292 – 296 (9/04 – 08)

Tuesday – Today is the start of the semi-annual Partners Roundtable. We have people arriving from England, Canada and the U.S. to meet with the leaders of the EMH (Haiti Methodist Church) to strategize the recovery plan for the next 5 years. Today’s agenda was a trip to dedicate the first 10 houses built in Mellier and the first 5 houses built in Carre Four under the EMH Pilot Project. There was good turnout from the community which along with our entourage made up a good crowd to listen to speeches by Church leaders, UMCOR representatives, contractors and beneficiaries. This was followed by a Haitian lunch put on by the community. The Mellier houses were built by Homes for Haitians and the Carre Four houses were built by Pyramid Construction. There are 10 more homes in Mellier and 15 more homes in Carre Four to be completed.

After stopping off at the construction site of the new church in Mellier, our group returned to the Plaza Hotel in Port-au-Prince for the opening session of the Roundtable. After dinner I came back to the Guest House in Petionville to catch up on my normal work.

Wednesday – Since the Roundtable schedule for today didn’t include any sessions related to my work, I stayed at the Guest House to push the renovation project forward. We have teams coming in next week and we have to have the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms and the dining room downstairs completed. It’s a real challenge to supervise a construction project through the Haitian engineer without becoming the ugly American. I’ve managed to limit myself to only a couple of yelling sessions so far.

My material shipment from the Dominican Republic has yet to clear customs at the border. The shipping broker has been telling me all week – “Maybe tomorrow”.

Thursday – Today I had to head back over the Plaza Hotel for the Roundtable because I have to give a presentation about the Haiti Home Assistance Program and lead a breakout session on reconstruction. Both the presentation and the breakout session went well. Everyone seemed interested and had lots of questions. When I wasn’t in the spotlight, I had 1 eye glued on my laptop trying to track my Dominican shipment. The shipment was turned back at the border again because the driver didn’t have an original invoice, just a copy. The original was sent to the border yesterday to the broker who apparently couldn’t find it. Oh yeah – the customs agent was also looking for an additional $500.00 bribe which I refused to pay -“Maybe tomorrow”.

Friday – This morning I called the Director General of the Haitian Customs Ministry, whom I had met and talked to 5 weeks ago about this shipment and asked what the additional $500.00 was for since I had paid my fees and had signed documents to that affect. He said he would check into it. Two hours later I got a call from the broker at the border and she said everything was in order and the truck would cross around noon. I had made previous arrangements with the Dominican shipping company to have one of our drivers meet the truck at the U.S Embassy, which I thought would be an easy landmark, and guide the truck to the Guest House. I got an email from the shipper saying we would have to have our driver meet the truck at the border because their driver didn’t know how to get to Port-au-Prince. I emailed back that it was inconceivable to me that they would send a driver to Haiti that couldn’t find Port-au-Prince. I paid for delivery and I expected it to be delivered and I would not send my driver on an 8 hour round trip to the border. Magically, at 4:00 P.M. this afternoon the truck arrived at the Guest House. I didn’t even have to send my driver to the Embassy. When we got everything off loaded and I got the shipping manifest from the driver, it was dated July 25^th. Just over 6 weeks. Have I mentioned that nothing is easy in Haiti?

Saturday – After breakfast I got a small crew together to move and assemble the bunk beds in the rooms. While they were doing that, I cut the plywood sheets that the mattresses would lay on. Because of the way that the beds were built, the top sheets had to be cut 3/8” shorter than the bottom sheets. I kept them as long as possible so that they would stay in the frames and they were a tight fit. The crew came to me all excited because they were too long and I was going to have to cut them all again. I grabbed a flat bar and a small sledge hammer; inserted the bar between the frame and the plywood and smacked it with the hammer. The sheet popped right into place. The Haitians laughed and laughed. That was the funniest thing they had ever seen and they couldn’t wait to try it.

Days 285 – 291 (8/28 – 9/03)

Tuesday – The Louisiana team’s chartered jet won’t arrive until around noon, so they wanted to continue to work on the Guest House for a few hours this morning. They certainly have been a big help in getting a lot of needed clean-up done, painting and even some demo work in the Swiss House. I know it wasn’t part of their planned mission trip, but it was work that was very much appreciated by yours truly. I wish them Bon Voyage on their arduous trip home.

I’ve been trying to contact the factory and the shipping brokers in the Dominican Republic since the storm hit to inquire about my shipment, but with internet and international cell calling out it has been impossible. The latest word we get is that a microwave tower between here and the Dominican is down and is causing both problems.

We finally got internet, but it’s intermittent. It’s on for about 5 minutes and off for 30. I have 83 emails, but it’s going to take all night to download them.

Wednesday – I still have about 30 emails to receive this morning, but I’m going to try and start answering some. Quite a few of them are from friends and family worried about the effects of the storm.

At 11:00 A.M. we had a JLT (Joint Leadership Team) meeting in Pastor Paul’s office. The JLT consists of Pastor Paul and Pastor Depestre from EMH, Elizabeth Petheos and Lauren James from UMCOR and Tom and I from UMVIM. The main purpose of the meeting was to assess the damage from Isaac and our response to it. Elizabeth, as Head of Mission for Haiti is responsible for all UMCOR personnel in Haiti. Her husband is an executive with USAID in Haiti and as such they have Diplomat status and are under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy. So – naturally, her emergency response plan pretty much follows State Department guidelines. We all had to agree that her plan worked well and everyone was given pre-storm instructions and contacted at least twice by the phone tree during and after the event.

Pastor Paul gave a report of damage to church property and parishioners’ property that was known to date. He was still waiting to hear from some of the more remote areas. We were all somewhat surprised at the extent of the damage. Lots of wind damage (mostly roofs and crops) and flood damage (buildings, personal property and livestock). We will send teams out to assess the damage and then plan short term and long term responses. Official death toll country-wide stands at 24.

Thursday – This morning I finally got through to the Dominican Republic. They are still struggling with Haiti Customs and it looks like we’re going to have to pay some more fees.  However, all of the paperwork is finally in place and Doug’s 2 trucks will cross tomorrow. Mine probably won’t get across until Monday.

Meanwhile, work goes on at the Guest House.

Friday – Tom and Wendy left for Furcy this morning to assess storm damage with the UMCOR IDT (Inter-Disciplinary Team). Early reports are the damage was extensive especially to crops. We also heard that the roof blew off of The Rustic – a restaurant and bar where they have a lot of outdoor concerts in the mountains.

I got word this afternoon that Doug’s trucks did cross the border and he should have his material to his site in Musak by late this afternoon. I’m jealous but happy that we finally got something through. I’m still pushing the work crews to get the rooms ready at the Guest House for the teams coming next week.

Saturday – Tom and Wendy got back late last night from Furcy and reported this morning that the crop damage was pretty severe. This could be devastating to a community that depends almost entirely on its’ agriculture. The agriculture component of the IDT team will work with the farmers co-op and help them salvage what can be salvaged; help them replant what they can and possibly set up some micro credit for them. The property damage was scattered and consisted mostly of roof damage. That part is fairly straight forward and we can send up a truck load of roofing material.

Sunday – This morning we went up to church in Thomasin. Tom was preaching and Wendy was assisting with the music. It is always a nice service. Afterwards we treated ourselves to lunch and an afternoon around the pool at the Hotel Ibolele. It was very relaxing and fun, but I did manage to get sunburned.

Monday – Happy Labor Day to everyone Stateside. It’s just another day in Haiti.The push is on to get the Guest House finished (except for the kitchen). I think we’ll make it. But I can’t let up for a minute. There is just no sense of urgency from the engineers and bosses. They are just not accustomed to working with deadlines. As far as they are concerned, the longer they can make the job last the more money they’ll make. It’s the same thing with budgets. They’ve never had the responsibility of working within a budget and really don’t know how. They always are surprised when I tell them we don’t have the money to do something they think needs to be done but isn’t in the scope of work.

Days 280 – 284 (8/23 -27)

Thursday – We’re still watching Tropical Storm Isaac and trying to guess where it’s going to track across the island. Right now it looks like it’s moving a little to the west of Port-au-Prince more toward Petit Goave. We contacted our Louisiana team in Leveque which is to the north east and asked them what they would like to do. The storm is definitely tracking away from them, but they elected to come back to the Guest House to ride it out. In the meantime, work goes on at the Guest House.

Friday – The Leveque team is back at the Guest House and looking for something to keep them busy, so I got them to help clean up the area. The less stuff we have blowing around in the storm, the better off we will be. The storm is still tracking to the west of us and is predicted to hit sometime late tonight or tomorrow morning. Other than a few scattered clouds, there is no sign of an impending storm this morning.

This afternoon there is a slight breeze and more clouds, but still plenty of sunshine. The team has finished the clean-up and is sanding and primering the ceilings and walls in some of the guest rooms.

As we headed for bed the wind was picking up and it was starting to rain.

Saturday – Got woken up by the wind and rain pounding on the metal roof. The clock showed 2:00 A.M. – Isaac is here. I laid awake for a while and listened to the wind. It was blowing pretty good, but I estimated that it was probably blowing at about 40 mph with occasional gusts to maybe 50. Not too bad and it didn’t seem to be increasing. The rain was wind-blown, of course, but not coming down in buckets like it sometimes does. So – I decided it was nothing to worry about and went back to sleep.

I got up around 6:00 A.M. and took a walk around the campus - lots of leaves and branches on the ground, no trees down and no apparent damage to any of the buildings. The new drainage canal did its’ job and we had no flooding or water damage. Our team from Louisiana, having lived through Katrina, took it all in stride. After breakfast I got them busy painting rooms. They are supposed to fly out tomorrow, but all flights have been cancelled. They may be spending a few extra days.

Needless to say, we have no power, internet or cell phone service this morning. We cranked up the generator and started watching local TV reports to see how the rest of the country made it through the storm. As predicted the center of the storm swung to the west of us and hit Jacmel, Leogane, Petit Goave and Jeremy pretty hard. There are also reports of property damage and lots of crop damage up in Furcy. All of the rivers are flooded and lots of damage reported from wind, flooding and mud slides in the western regions. The reports of deaths are filtering in.

Sunday – Still no power or internet this morning. We do have cell service, but only in-country. International calls are not getting out. The Louisiana team called American Airlines and were told the soonest that they could get out was Sept. 6^th – 1 week from now. Since the reports on Isaac indicate that it is now a Category 1 Hurricane and picking up strength a back nd heading for New Orleans, they are very concerned and wanting to get home. A couple of team members plan to go to the airport tomorrow and stand in line and see if there is any possibility of securing an earlier flight.

The official death toll so far is 19.

Monday – We had power for a couple of hours this morning, but still no internet or international cell service. Johnny took a couple of the Louisiana team to the airport and dropped them off in a mob scene - 100s of people trying to get out of Haiti. Tom and Danette were on the cell phone to them and they said they wanted to tough it out and try to get to the counter.

Most of the work force showed up today, so we were pretty much back to business as usual at the Guest House. Later in the afternoon we got a call from the airport and our team members finally got to the counter and talked with an agent, but had no luck. September 6^th seems to be the soonest they can get out on a commercial flight. I went with Johnny to pick them up at the airport, but had him drop me off at MSC, a large building supply place near the airport so that I could pick up some building material. By the time he returned from picking them up, I had all the material ready to be loaded. The Kia 4x4 was loaded to the gills.

Apparently the cell service is a little better by the airport because the 2 team members were able to make international calls from there. One of the guys is an executive with a large company and when he told them he wouldn’t be able to get back for another week they said that it was imperative that he be back for an important meeting and that they would charter a jet and send it down to pick-up the team tomorrow - must be nice. The bad news is that they are closing down the New Orleans airport tomorrow because of Isaac and they’ll have to fly to Tampa and rent a van and drive the rest of the way. It makes for a long trip, but it will get them home. 

Days 276 – 279 (8/20 – 23)

8/02 – 8/18 – Vacation at home with friends and family.

Sunday - I left home last night at 6:00 P.M. and flew to Los Angeles. I had a 2 hour layover; then left on the “Red Eye” for Miami. I arrived in Miami at 5:45 this morning and had just enough time to grab a muffin and coffee at Starbucks and walk to the gate for my 6:55 flight to Port-au-Prince. Barring any flight delays, this is my favorite flight connection to Haiti. All other flights require an overnight stay in LA, Dallas or Miami. This is my 6^th flight to Haiti in the last 18 months, so it has become pretty routine. I was aware as we were approaching Port-au-Prince that I was thinking more about the work that I had to do and not feeling the excitement of being in a foreign country. I arrived at 8:45 and went smoothly through Immigration and Customs. I got through the gauntlet of porters with a stern “No, merci” and met Eric in the parking lot. Eric was his usual talkative self and entertained me all the way to the Guest House.

I was the first of the Staff to return from vacation. Tom and Danette are coming in later this afternoon and Mario is scheduled to come in tomorrow. The Guest House was in total disarray when I got there. There has been a lot of work going on, but the schedule that I left for them was obviously not being followed. Rather than working in an organized fashion - where one bedroom or bathroom was finished before the last one was torn apart – every room was under some phase of construction or destruction. After I unpacked, I did a walk around and surveyed the job site. Roger LaPlanche, the Chief Engineer, was still gone on his vacation so I called and left a message for the Project Engineer, Samuel Abicher, that I wanted to meet with him first thing in the morning.

By dinner time Tom and his wife Wendy and Danette had arrived.

Monday – We got a call from Mario this morning. He is having some medical issues and needs to have some lab work done. So, he won’t be able to come back for a few days.

Eng. Abicher finally arrived and I let him know that I wasn’t very happy with the progress of the job. I asked him why he didn’t follow the schedule that I gave him and was answered with a blank stare. It was obvious that he felt it was an interesting document but nothing that he had to pay any attention to. I tried to impress on him – again – that we had teams coming in 2 weeks and this job needed to be done. He shrugged his shoulders and gave the standard Haitian response – “No problem”. It’s very apparent that I’m going to have to turn up the heat if we have any chance of making the deadline.

We actually have a team arriving this afternoon from Louisiana, but it’s a small team and we can put them in the Manse where Mario and I live.

We also have some of the UMCOR New York staff arriving for a 2 day Strategic Planning session. Fortunately, the Haiti Response Plan staff is not included in their meetings, so I can concentrate my energies on the renovation.

Tuesday – We got our Louisiana team off to their Job site in Le Tremblay and I waded in to the Guest House renovation. I started prioritizing the work and moving people around. I was met with a lot of resistance but insisted that this was the way it was going to be or they could find another job. I’ve run out of time and patience to be diplomatic. I hate to have to become the bad guy, but there is just no sense of urgency in any of the work force. By the afternoon most of the grumbling subsided and some productive work was being done.

The one piece of good news is that the first truck load of material from the Dominican Republic finally crossed the border. The container has been sitting at the border for 5 weeks while the shipping brokers have been trying to get all of the Haitian customs paperwork in order. It has been a nightmare. The bad news is that this first container doesn’t have my material in it. It is all going to Doug Ahlfeld’s job in Musak. Mine is still sitting in Santo Domingo. But – at least we have most of the paperwork and procedures in place.

Wednesday – Work continues at a reasonable pace. The new concern is being created by Mother Nature. It seems that Tropical Storm Isaac is knocking on our door and the latest track takes it directly over Port au Prince. The latest reports are that he should be arriving sometime late Friday night or Saturday morning. We’re not overly concerned about our welfare here at the Guest House. Petionville is snuggled up against the leeward side of the mountains and should be protected from the main force of the wind. Our new drainage canal is completed and should prevent any flooding from the rain. However, other parts of Haiti will more than likely be hard hit with flooding and mudslides. We’re keeping one eye on the weather reports.

The BUNK BED saga: I was having little success in finding 25 new bunk beds anywhere in Haiti. So – I drew up a set of plans to have them made out of wood and planned on bringing back some of my tools to assist in the process. The day before I left for vacation, Eric’s brother, Beson, said that he could make them out of metal. I quickly drew up another set of plans for metal beds. Beson gave me a very reasonable estimated price and I commissioned him to build 1 set of bunk beds. A few days after getting home I received an email from Tom with some pictures of the new bed. It wasn’t anything like I had drawn, but Tom said that he, Mario and Oge thought that they were strong and well-built and would work fine. The price estimate went up a little, but was still OK. I told them that if they thought the bed would work to go ahead and have Beson start building. Well – with everything that was going on with the construction, I hadn’t had time to really look at the new beds that were starting to line up in the parking lot until today. The first thing that I noticed was that instead of using nuts and bolts to assemble the frames (as I had drawn), Beson had welded everything together. There was no way we could get these beds through the doors! After much head scratching, I figured the only way we were going to salvage this was to cut them all in half and retrofit some bolt on braces.

Days 267 – 275 (7/24 – 8/01)

Tuesday – Today is filled with emails and phone calls to and from the Dominican Republic. The factory is supposed to be shipping my wall and roof panels today, but the roof panels won’t be off of the production line until this afternoon. Actually it works out a little better for a couple of reasons. One – I can have the people there get the material and equipment that I can’t find in Haiti and include it in my shipment. Two – it gives me an extra day to get the import paperwork completed.

Doug Ahlfeld from Homes for Haitians is building a large project for the EMH in Musac, in the mountains northwest of Jacmel. He is also using some Styrofoam products from the D.R. and we are working together to get our shipments across the border. We have been told that the paper we need is a copy of the Quitus which is issued to the EMH by the Haitian government and shows that they have non-profit status and are therefore exempt from customs fees and taxes. The Quitus and the invoices and bills of lading should do the trick. After being directed to several different people at the EMH District Office, I was able to finally get a copy of the Quitus. I faxed the copy to the factory in the D.R. and they sent the first truck to the border with the first of Doug’s containers.

Wednesday – Late this morning I received word that Doug’s container didn’t make it across the border. There were no problems on the D.R. side, but Haitian customs was demanding some more paperwork. In typical fashion, no one could tell us exactly what it was that we needed. The factory sent their shipping broker to the border to try to find out what the problem was. About mid-afternoon – just when our new team from the States was arriving – I got a call from the border saying that the Haitian customs officer was demanding proof that the taxes on the shipment had been paid. We thought that the Quitus took care of that, but apparently he needed something from the Minister of Finance. Doug and I called several people at the EMH to find out what it was that we needed, but no one seemed to know. They did, however, refer us to a member of the Mellier congregation who was the Director of the Haitian Port Authority. We were able to get him on the phone and made an appointment to see him first thing in the morning.

Thursday – Doug and I left early this morning for the Port Authority and were able to see the Director as soon as he arrived. We explained our situation to him and he told us that we really needed to talk to the ADG – the Haitian Customs Department. He said the Director of the ADG was a friend of his and called him. The ADG Director said to come to his office and he would see if he could help us. We sat down with the Director – the number 1 man in charge of customs in Haiti – and he explained that the Quitus merely showed that the EMH was a non-profit. It had nothing to do with the material we were trying to ship. We needed to have a letter from the EMH, signed by Pastor Paul, stating that this material was going to be used for a church project. Then we needed to have that letter signed by the Minister of Finance. We then needed to bring the letter back to the ADG and they would give us a document showing that these shipments were in fact exempt from duties and taxes. We thanked him and our friend from the Port Authority and rushed back to the EMH District Offices and spent a considerable amount of time trying to explain to Pastor Paul’s secretary what we needed. She finally typed up the letter and we rushed out to Paco, to Pastor Paul’s house to get his signature. By the time we got to the Ministry of Finance it was after lunch. There we hit a wall. We were unable to take the letter to the Minister and get his signature. It had to go through channels and actually needed 2 signatures before it went to the Minister – and – we could not hand carry it from person to person, it had to be carried by an official courier even though the offices were only a few hundred feet apart. So, we surrendered the letter and got a receipt with a routing number and waited for 2 hours at the office of the 2^nd signature until it finally arrived. After explaining our situation for seemingly the 50^th time, we final got signature #2 and walked with the courier to the Ministers office only to discover that he had left for the day.

Friday – I need to tell you about Carnival. This year President Martelly decided to hold the National Carnival in February in Les Cayes because the traditional parade route in Port-au-Prince was still a mess. Needless to say, this upset all of the people in Port-au Prince. So to appease the Port-au Prince voters, Martelly decided to have a 2^nd carnival in July and he called it Carnival de Fluer. Then he decided, just last week, that he would create a non-work holiday from noon Friday through Sunday. (I thought that it was interesting that in a country with 80% unemployment that they needed a non-work holiday).

So – I got to the Ministry of Finance the first thing this morning; located the courier and marched over to the Ministers office only to be told that the Minister had decided not to come in this morning because of the holiday. My “But the holiday doesn’t start until noon!” comment was met with a blank stare. I was told to come back Monday.

Saturday – Fortunately, most of the workers at the Guest House decided that they would rather have a day’s pay rather than a day off. So, today was productive for us even though the rest of the country was shut down.

Mario has relatives and/or friends that have a stand on the parade route so he is participating in the Carnival proceedings. Lauren James from UMCOR got a couple of tickets on a stand for Sunday night and invited Danette to watch the parade. Tom and I will watch some of it on local TV.

Sunday – Today was a true day of rest. The combination of being a Sunday and being a holiday has pretty much shut everything down. It’s a good day to catch up on my reading.

Monday – I went early to the Ministry of Finance to finally get the Ministers signature on our letter. When I got there with the courier and our letter I was informed that the Minister would not be in today because of the holiday. “But the holiday was over last night”, I protested. “Oh, we always take the day after Carnival off,” was the reply. Only in Haiti! In the meantime Doug’s container is sitting at the border.

Tuesday – I had a lot of last minute things to get done today since I am leaving for home tomorrow. I have to leave every 90 days to get my passport stamped and since we have only 1 team in August, we are going to shut the office down from 8/5 to 8/19 for vacation. So I’ll have about 2 ½ weeks at home. Hoo Rah!

Jesula, Doug’s project manager came by the office and picked up the file on our import paperwork and will get the Finance Ministers signature and the form from the ADG and drive everything to the border. Maybe we can get the container across by tomorrow. It’s been there a week. My container is sitting in the factory’s yard waiting for Doug’s container to clear.

I spent the afternoon going over the work schedule with the engineers to make sure everyone knew what had to get done while I was gone. We only have a limited time complete the work at the Guest House before the big influx of teams starts again.

Wednesday – I left for the airport at 7:00 AM and Eric dropped me off in front of American Airlines for my 9:30 flight to Miami, Dallas and Sacramento. I bade goodbye to Haiti knowing that I would be returning in a few weeks and looked forward to seeing friends and family.

Days 263 – 266 (7/20 – 23)

Friday – Team activity this morning consisted of sending one team to the airport for their journey home and I team off to their work site in Arcahaie. After saying goodbye to the teams, I took a tour of the Guest House complex. Apparently my pep talk to the engineers yesterday about the work schedule had a positive effect. Today there are about 20 workmen banging away at various jobs lots of noise and dust. With all the dirt piled up from the canal, septic system and Annex footing excavations; debris from demolition at the Guest House and the piles of sand, gravel and rocks for the new construction, the complex is looking like a war zone. I spent the rest of the morning with my Construction Superintendent hat on and made sure everyone understood the scope of work on their particular project.

This afternoon I called the factory in the Dominican to check on the status of our order. They said all of our wall panels were done and the roof panels should be finished by the first of the week. This should work out perfectly since we are planning on pouring the 2^nd floor deck on the Annex tomorrow. Actually it’s a little scary – things don’t normally go this well in Haiti.

Just before dinner our team from Mellier arrived after a busy week. We’ll send them home tomorrow and won’t have any more teams until late Tuesday afternoon.

Saturday – After saying goodbye to the Mellier team I once again put on my Superintendent’s hat and toured the site. I counted 39 workers this morning. About 24 of them were on the crew that is pouring the 2^nd floor deck on the Annex. They obviously had been working together for some time. Everyone had a specific job and were well coordinated. They had guys bringing buckets of sand and rocks to the cement mixer; another guy putting the sacks of cement; a guy bringing buckets of water; a bucket brigade moving buckets of concrete up the ladder to the 2^nd floor; runners taking the buckets to where the concrete was being placed; 3 or 4 guys leveling and finishing the concrete and even 2 guys running a zip line returning the empty buckets to the cement mixer. It was like a well-rehearsed ballet.

At 10:30 Tom, Mario, Danette and I left for Les Cayes. Les Cayes is about 90 miles from Petionville on the Caribbean side of the island. The trip usually takes about 4 ½ hours. However, this morning we had gridlock traffic in Carrefour and the trip took just over 5 ½ hours. We were in Les Cayes because Pastor Paul had asked us to attend the dedication of the new church in Torbeck – just outside of Les Cayes. I have a connection to the Torbeck church in that when Tom and I looked at it last year, it was partially built but had been sitting dormant since the earthquake. It was a structural nightmare and I told Tom it was not safe to have teams around it. It reminded me of pictures of the bombed out shells of churches in Germany during WWII. I took pictures and sat down with Eng. Laplanche  and suggested that we buttress all the columns to give the walls strength. He agreed and the work was done. It’s now a beautiful new, safe church.

We went down to Gelli Beach for a couple of hours to enjoy the Caribbean breeze and some refreshments - then returned to the Les Cayes Guest House to have dinner with Pastor Ablamy, his wife Donette and Pastor Paul. We all went to bed early and fought the mosquitos all night long.

Sunday – We all got up in the morning nursing mosquito bites (even Tom and he never gets bit) and had breakfast. I like most Haitian food, but fish for breakfast is not my favorite. We got to the church about 8:30 and the place was packed. They had their circuit convention this weekend and people from every church in the circuit were present. I would guess there were 800 to 1000 people there. They marched us up to the front of the church and had us sit with Pastor Paul and the rest of the clergy. I was hoping for a quiet corner in the back. The good news was that there was lots of music – 2 full choirs, 2 smaller ensembles and a band. The bad news was it ran for over 3 ½ hours. We didn’t get out of there until after 12:00.

We got back to the guest house and changed into cooler clothes and had lunch. Then we all packed up and hit the road. Now this was a milestone day for me. I drove back from Les Cayes – my first Haiti driving experience. I actually enjoyed it. There was only one small incident. At one of the many places where the road was torn up, I slowed down to pick my way through it and a SUV came barreling up on my left to pass me and I didn’t see a fairly large rock on my right. I hit it with a glancing blow off of the bottom of the front grill guard. I was going pretty slow and it didn’t hurt anything but made a lot of noise and scared everybody to death. I drove for about 3 hours to Mellier where we stopped to look at the work site. Mario took over the driving from there because he knows how to navigate around Port au Prince better than I do. I’m glad he was driving because we got into another traffic jamb in Carrefour and got rear ended. Not much damage to the D-Max other than a scarred rear bumper. It was another 5 ½ hour journey. We knew we were going to be late so we had called the Guest House and told them not to fix dinner for us. We stopped off at Munchee’s in Petionville for, in our opinion, the best pizza in Haiti.

Monday – After conferring with one of the site engineers about the days work, Spana and I went shopping. I had a whole list of things that I needed to get for the projects. One of those things is 24 full-size, sturdy bunk beds. We went to every source we could think of and found 1 bunk bed that would work. I asked the clerk how many he had in stock. He went away to check and came back in about 15 minutes and said “One”. I asked him how long it would take to get 24. He went away again for about 20 minutes and came back and said “I don’t know”. I love shopping in Haiti. The rest of our list suffered much the same fate. We were unable to find most of the things I needed. It’s very frustrating knowing you could go to a dozen places at home and find everything. In Haiti you end up having to improvise, settle for 2^nd or 3^rd best or completely redesign what you were trying to do. Did I mention that I love shopping in Haiti?

Days 259 – 262 (7/16 - 19)

Monday – It’s a slow week for teams. We won’t have anybody at the Guest House until Thursday. But it’s still busy for the staff. My projects are in full swing; Tom is busy putting together a report on all of our sites for the Site Review Committee meeting this afternoon; Mario is getting things ready for the GBGM auditor who will be here next week; and Danette is putting together a job description and protocol for our interpreters.

The Site Review Committee consists of the usual suspects – Pastors Paul and Depestre and Sylvio Rocourt from the EMH and Tom and I from VIM. We invited Engineers Laplanche, Abicher and Roos to the meeting today to get their input about finishing some of our sites. Tom’s report showed that since the beginning of the Haiti Response Plan we have worked on 43 different sites and completed 23.  The initial report of EMH earthquake damage assessment was 6 Churches destroyed, 24 damaged. Of the 6 destroyed churches 2 are completed and 3 are in progress. Of the 24 damaged churches 5 are completed and 2 are in progress. Of the 8 schools destroyed 1 is completed and 2 are in progress. Of the 18 damaged schools 5 are completed and 3 are in progress. Of the 410 homes destroyed 50 are in progress. Of the 360 damaged homes 6 are in progress. The purpose of today’s meeting was to decide how to best finish the projects in progress and choose sites to work on for the remaining 1 year of the Haiti Response Plan. We anticipate between 150 - 170 teams during that time period. This translates into approximately 1 to 1.2 million dollars in matching funds to work with. The EMH sets the priorities of these projects.

Tuesday – Tom and I left the Guest House at 6:00 AM to meet Pastor Paul and Eng. Laplanche at Pastor Paul’s house in Pacot and drive to Tapion. We picked up Eng. Abicher in Carrefour on the way. Tapion is a rural community a few miles before Petit Goave. Their church was heavily damaged in the earthquake. There is no road into Tampion so you have to park your car off of the highway and walk down the mountain about ¾ of a mile. The trail is a little steep in places but really quite beautiful. I’m glad that we were doing this in the morning and not in the heat of the day. The leveled out in a little valley then up the next hill a little way to the church. Before we got to the valley floor you could hear singing coming from the church. They knew we were coming and several dozen people from the community had come to the church to welcome us.

At first glance my first impression was that this building was going to have to be torn down. The damage was extensive. However, further inspection revealed that the main structural components of the building could probably be saved. We could buttress the columns like we did at the church in Torbeck. Engs. Laplanche and Abicher agreed and will draw up a plan and estimate for the repairs. After the inspection we met with the people from the community and explained our plan to them and told them that if everything was approved, we could probably begin rebuilding their church by October. Needless to say, they were very happy. By the time we started our hike back up to the car it was almost noon and the heat was rising. When we got our sweaty bodies into the car, several people came walking down the road carrying food and a big pitcher of lemonade (actually lime aid). So – we sat in the car and enjoyed a lunch of fried chicken legs, French fries and fried plantains. I’ll have to say that they were the best plantains I have had in Haiti.

We drove on in to Petit Goave so Pastor Paul could see the work at Brakeman College and the Petit Goave bookstore. Pastor Paul was the Circuit Superintendent in Petit Goave for about 13 years before becoming President so everyone knows him. Driving down the street people would call his name and we would stop so he could shake their hand and say hello. It took us about an hour to get out of town. Tom and I got back to the Guest House about 6:30 PM. It was a long day.

Wednesday – No teams, no site visits and no meetings today. But I had a lot of work to do. I’m leaving for home on August the 1^st and we will be shut down at the Guest House until August 19^th. However, the work on the Guest House and the Staff Annex has to continue so everything will be ready when the teams start arriving in force in early September. Roger Laplanche and Madam Ruth, the Guest House Manager will also be gone for most of that period so there will be little oversight available. It’s essential that Engineers Abicher and Roos know exactly what needs to be done. I’ve discovered that there is no certification program for engineers in Haiti and the training they receive varies from school to school. Abicher and Roos are good at structural design and construction techniques but I have yet to meet a Haitian trained engineer who has had one day of training in construction management, budgeting and scheduling. So I am putting together a weekly work schedule and a room by room scope of work for both projects. It will be their bible while I’m gone.

Thursday – This morning Tom and I had a 9:30 AM meeting with Pastor Paul and Constantine with World Hand Alliance, one of the EMH Housing Project Contractors. We were meeting at Pasto Paul’s office and he had not arrived by 9:30. So – we called him and he said “You did not tell me about this meeting.” And I said “Pastor Paul, you’re the one that called the meeting”. Oh well. If it’s important I guess he’ll reschedule.

At 11:00 I had my meeting with LaPlanche, Abicher and Roos. I told them, “Gentlemen, this project is like no other project you have done before. In the U.S. we call it fast track. We have a very limited time to get a lot of work done and you can’t get it done by having the same 5 guys going from one job to the next. We need 25 guys doing 5 jobs at the same time”. I then gave them the work schedules and went through them week by week. Then I gave them the room by room scope of work. Needless to say, there were raised eyebrows. However, there was immediate buy-in. They rose to the challenge and actually seemed excited to have something to work with. We’re going to meet every week to track the schedule. Who knows, maybe a whole new method of construction management will take hold in Haiti. Don’t hold your breath.