Days 152 -156 (03/16 – 20)

Friday – Today was a busy “office day”. With Alina, the GBGM Auditor and Susan the VIM stateside coordinator here, we were busy trying to bring them up to date on all of our current projects. In the afternoon we had 2 teams returning to the Guest House – one from Les Cayes and one from Mellier. So, along with putting away all of the returning tools and equipment, there were the debriefs – where we hear about the teams experiences in the field. This is always interesting and helps us track how the program is running.

Saturday – Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I discovered that St. Patrick’s Day is not a big national holiday in Haiti. When I’d greet the Haitian staff with “Faith and Begorrah, ‘tis a wonderful day”, they would look at me like I’d once again mangled something in Creole or was completely crazy.  My mother would be very disappointed. That did not stop me from wearing a green shirt however. I did find a couple of Irishmen on the teams, but they left early for the airport and home. The afternoon brought in one new team from the states, but not a single Irishman. I was a party of one.

Sunday – This morning we sent our one team of to their site in Archaie and Alina off to her home in Peru. She travels all over the world as a GBGM auditor, but once in a while gets to go home to her family in Peru. After saying our goodbyes, Tom, Sarah, Susan, Mario and I packed our swimsuits and headed up to the Hotel Karibe. We decided that having our Haiti Response Plan long range planning session around the pool at the Karibe made a lot more sense than sitting in our hot office.  Even with the swimming, napping, reading, eating and visiting, we actually got some planning work done. Sarah and I even managed to get some sunburn. It was a very fun and relaxing day, but the sun took its’ toll – we headed to our rooms pretty early.

Monday – Today is the start of the UMCOR Board of Directors Meetings in New York. They will be considering my funding request for the Haiti Home Assistance Program at some time during the week. Even though I’ve been assured that it will be approved, I’m going to be on pins and needles until I hear for sure.

Today is also the day that my friends from California arrive. Fred Skeen and Allison Berry from Grass Valley are leading a team from Northern California and Nevada. Fred and Allison were on my first team to Haiti in Feb. 2011. They will be going to Thomas where we worked on that first trip. It was very fun to see friends from home and I spent most of the day visiting with them and telling them what they could expect to be working on in Thomas.

Tuesday – After saying goodbye to Susan, who is returning home this morning, I left in the Nissan Van with Maxo, the driver, to pick up a team in Hinche. Hinche is one of our most distant sites and this is the first time that my schedule has allowed me to go see it. It is located in the Central Plateau region of Haiti, about 3 ½ hours northeast of Port au Prince. You take National Hwy 3 out of Croix du Bouquet and cross the first mountain range. At the top the view of the Port au Prince area and the Bay is spectacular. You can see all the way to Gressier to the west to Arcahaie to the northwest – a distance of about 50 km in each direction. The highway drops down into a rolling plains valley with several rivers running through, including the Artibonite –Haiti’s largest, and up and over a second range of mountains. Just over the crest is Lac de Beligre a lake formed by a dam on the Artibonite River. The dam was built in the ‘50s by Duvalier for hydro-electric power and was very controversial because it flooded some of the best agricultural land in the country. The road then continues down into another beautiful valley and into the town of Hinche. Every time I travel outside of Port au Prince into the more rural areas, I’m struck by how truly beautiful this country is.

The VIM project in Hinche has been the building of a new church and the purpose of my trip today was to ascertain the status of the work. The teams and the Haitian crew have done a wonderful job and I’m going to declare the project complete. The amount of remaining work is insufficient to support another team and can best be left to the Haitian crew.

The return trip took over 4 hours because of Port au Prince traffic and Maxo was exhausted by the time we got back to the Guest House. Heck, I was worn out and I wasn’t even driving.