Days 108 – 110 (2/01 – 03)

Wednesday – This morning was a marathon of meetings. Fortunately, there were no teams coming or going so we didn’t have to deal with that. The 8:00 AM meeting was with the EMH Housing Project Management Team. All 20 of the houses in Mellier have been started. Most of the footings, stem walls and slabs have been completed and walls should start going up next week. However, nothing has started on the 20 houses in Carre Four. Todays’ meeting was with WHA (World Hand Alliance) the primary contractor. I’ll have to admit that my frustration got the best of me and I got into a bit of a nose-to-nose with one of the principles of the company. I’ve gotten used to not getting direct answers from the Haitians, but I expected answers from a fellow American. It seems to me that there are 3 possible answers to most simple questions – “Yes, No or I don’t know”- and I would accept any of them. I may not like the one I got, but I’d accept it. To not answer by trying to divert me or waltz me around the room just aggravates me and I become a bulldog. “You’re trying to box me into a corner”! My reply – “That’s exactly what I’m trying to do”. I can’t say that I won the battle, but I was promised answers by the end of the week. We’ll see. My frustration comes from the fact that we started this process 8 months ago and we’re talking about 20 x 20 masonry boxes with a roof not a launch pad for a moon rocket. Now, granted, not all of the delays are the fault of the contractor, but in the meantime, these poor people are still living in tents!

The next meeting was the Joint Leadership Team meeting and was not at all confrontational. It was the first meeting that I have been in with Pastor Paul since his reelection as EMH President and I was curious as to what his state of mind would be. To my relief, he seemed very relaxed and in good humor – quite different than from before the election. He was in such a good mood that he appointed me to take the meeting minutes. Talk about the short straw. At the Joint Leadership Team Meeting the top officials from each of the partner organizations EMH, UMCOR and UMVIM give reports on their programs, discuss any problems and give future plans. Being a Haitian led meeting, few decisions are actually made. Most are deferred to a future meeting. Having to deal with Creole, heavily accented English, countless acronyms and unpronounceable names, I’m not sure that my meeting minutes will make any sense at all. But in all fairness, a lot of what went on at the meeting didn’t make sense anyway. However, it was better than the last one I attended.

After that marathon, I was ready for a nap.

Thursday – We had one team fly in from the states late yesterday and sent them on their way to Les Cayes this morning. Then Tom, Sarah and I jumped into the trusty D-Max with Spana and drove to Thor to check on the progress of the Church and School. We hadn’t been there since October and were pleased to see that the church portion of the restoration was complete. The first floor of the school was still under construction and will contain the kitchen, cafeteria and caretakers quarters. We met with the local pastor and the engineer and established an estimate of time and money needed to finish. This also allows us to schedule the proper number of teams for the site. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish this one by June.

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We got back to the Guest House in time to welcome another team from the states and one returning from Arcahaie. Life goes on.

Friday – This morning we sent one team out to La Tremblay. Then my meetings started. The first was with Pastor Paul and Roger LaPlanche. We did another walk around tour of the Guest House complex and discussed again the maintenance and renovation work that needed to done. Although I’ve been through this process several times, I felt we actually made some progress and a few key decisions. Roger and I were tasked to come up with new estimates on a few items and Pastor Paul said he would present the proposals to the EMH Board next Friday. I feel he is in favor of moving forward.

My next meeting was with Phil Bandy and Warren McGuffin my friends from the Bay Area who were in-country to work on the Hot Lunch program in Thomas. They brought James Lazarre and Stephen with them from Thomas and it was good to see them as well. I set this meeting up so that Phil and Warren could meet with Lauren James who runs the Hot Lunch program for UMCOR and also have Tom sit in to bring the UMVIM perspective. We have a lot of good people like Phil and Warren setting up and successfully running programs outside of the UMCOR/UMV IM envelope and I would like to see more coordination in the effort. I think that more could be accomplished by pooling talents and resources. I felt that it was a productive meeting and everyone went away with a better view of what the others were doing and a pledge to work together where they could.

My third meeting was with the EMH Housing Project Management Team and Doug Ahlfeld and Jesula Mardy from Hands for Haitians, one of the contractors. We were trying to finalize some issues on stem wall design and pricing and I think accomplished that. Doug has 2 teams coming in next week and promises to have 5 houses finished in 2 weeks then 5 more by the end of March. I hope to get down to Mellier next Wednesday to watch them pour the walls on one of the houses.

The sun was setting in the west and dinner was on the table by the time I got back to the Guest House. In my absence, one team had arrived from the states and 2 had come in from the field. It would be another full house tonight. For some reason I was tired and retired early.