Days 204 – 207 (05/21 – 24)

Monday – We had two teams come in this morning – one from the States and one returning from their week in Torbeck. Sarah, Mario and I are handling the hosting chores since Tom is staying a couple of extra days in Orlando. Although we are all used to the routine, we never tire of interacting with the people. The newcomers are filled with anticipation and excitement. Those returning from their work sites are tired, but filled with an experience that already has them planning on when they can come back. Part of the Torbeck teams’ experience was being held up at a road block coming back from Les Cayes for almost 4 hours because of a demonstration about lack of electricity in the community. That seems to be the most common form of public protest – barricade the highway.

The Guest House Staff Annex is moving along quite well. However, I expected to see a little more progress when I returned – then I realized that last Friday was Haitian Flag Day and a holiday weekend. They are putting in the rough plumbing in preparation of pouring the slab. I walked the site with Engineer Roose to verify that everything was in place according to the revised plans. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. The site boss and his crew are doing an excellent job.

Tuesday – We got an early start this morning in order to get our new team on their way to their site in Hinche – a 3 ½ hour drive over the mountains to the Central Plateau. It’s a beautiful drive over probably the best roads in Haiti. Then we said goodbye to our Torbeck team who were going home.

This afternoon I got to hand out some more advance checks to more Haiti Home Assistance Program recipients. Johnny Cherubin, Marie Claude Charles, Mirelle File, Renette “Ton Tonette” Frederick and Jean Claude Degazon all got their first draw. They are all a little overwhelmed with the realization that they will finally be able to start rebuilding their homes. They’ve been living in transitional shelters or with relatives for 2 ½ years. I feel blessed to be able to help them in this process.

Mike Willis, Tom’s predecessor as Haiti Response Plan Coordinator, arrived this afternoon. He is going to spend a week with his friends Pastor Ablame and his wife Donette in Les Cayes. And, after several hours of delayed flights, Tom finally got back to Haiti.

Wednesday – This morning Tom and I had a meeting in Du Plan which is about 30 minutes up the mountain from Petionville. We were meeting with Jim Gulley, Lauren James and Corey Kramer from UMCOR and the community leaders from the church, clinic and school in Du Plan to discuss their water needs. Corey is the Water, Sanitation and Health Coordinator for UMCOR in Haiti and has a survey questionnaire that assesses the community water needs. The water issues are 1) Source: Well, rain water, streams or rivers. 2) Storage: Cisterns, barrels, reservoirs. 3) Quality: Purification. The current source for the church, clinic and school is rain water. So the critical issue is catchment and storage. The current system is in pretty bad shape and its’ repair will be the first priority. I will need to come back next week with one of the EMH engineers to put together an estimate for the repairs. The purification issue will have to be handled with bio-sand filters.

One new team arrived late this afternoon, after more flight delays. It was Jeff Baker’s team from Missouri. Jeff has been here several times and we had just seen him at the conference in Orlando. His teams have been doing a water project in Arcahaie. So far they have distributed over 150 bio-sand filters to homes in the area. Besides providing the filters they train the people in how to use and maintain them.

Thursday – Jeff’s team got all of their equipment and supplies loaded up and were off to Arcahaie by 9:00 AM. Then Lauren James came by the Guest House and picked Tom and I up to go look at the new St. Martin church being built in Port au Prince. This is an UMCOR project and not a VIM project – that is, no teams have participated in its’ construction and is out of the realm of my responsibility. However, UMCOR has asked me on several occasions to check on its’ progress. It’s a beautiful church and in my opinion one of the better built structures that I’ve seen in Haiti. The current issue seems to be that the project has gone over budget and the church has come up with another list of things that they want done. The fundamental problem is the lack of construction management skills and concepts by the Haitian engineers. It apparently is a missing ingredient in their education and manifests itself in many ways. The secondary problem is the churches expectation that there is an endless source of money. It is a learning process for all of the parties.

Flight delays seem to be coming more of a problem and our new team didn’t get in until quite late this afternoon.

Days 201 – 203 (05/18 – 20)

Friday – I got up early (no thanks to a non-functioning alarm clock); grabbed a quick breakfast and got on the shuttle bus with about 65 delegates that were staying at the hotel. We were transported to the campus of St. Lukes UMC in Orlando – about 20 minutes away. I’m not sure what qualifications are required to be classified as a mega-church, but from a physical stand point, I think St. Lukes would certainly qualify. What a beautiful facility. The campus must be on at least 10 acres and includes a gorgeous sanctuary, an administrative building, at least 20 classrooms, numerous meeting rooms and gathering places, a large auditorium, huge kitchen, dining room, full size gymnasium and on and on. I was very impressed. I can’t imagine what our Haitian brothers (and 1 sister – Pastor Maude) were thinking.

The Haiti Mission Partners Conference was designed to bring together as many participants in  their ongoing vision and learn how we could more effectively work together. Melissa Crutchfield, UMCOR’s Assistant General Secretary for International Disaster Response, was the Facilitator for the Conference and after having all of the participating groups introduce themselves, introduced Rev. Gesner Paul, EMH President, who gave the opening address. In his address he outlined the EMH’s vision for the next 5 years.  Presentations were then made on the five main areas of focus: Education, Health, Shelter and Reconstruction (presented and chaired by Tom and me), Advocacy and Christian Education & Evangelism. After lunch we broke into break-out groups in these 5 areas. We had 18 participants in our Shelter & Reconstruction group and were able to answer questions about our program’s progress to date; give our vision of possible future projects; and hear and discuss suggestions from various members of the group. After a Haitian dinner prepared by Haitian members of the St. Lukes congregation, a representative from each of the break-out groups gave a synopsis of the group’s meeting - all in all, a very informative and productive process. We all arrived back at the hotel around 9:00 PM, a little worn, but still engaged in small discussions.

Saturday – Today was spent mostly in plenary sessions. 1) Partnership, Capacity Strengthening, Sharing Best Practices. 2) Communication and Coordination. 3) Funding: Source & Channeling of Financial Resources. 4) Summary, Next Steps, Action Items and Wrap-up. We ended our formal sessions about 5:00 PM and everyone was on their own for the evening. Una Jones, the Volunteers in Mission Coordinator for GBGM and in essence “our boss”, wanted to meet with “her team”, so we had a dinner meeting at the hotel. Una, Jim Gulley, Tom and Wendy Vencuss, Susan Meister and I spent the evening talking about the future of the Haiti Response Plan – what it should look like if it is going to continue beyond it’s scheduled end date of October 2013 – a long and hopefully fruitful discussion.

From UMCOR on Haiti website - http://www.umcor.org/UMCOR/Resources/News-Stories/2012/May/Working-Together-for-Haiti-s-Future  (highlight and control click)

Sunday – All of the “Haitian Delegation” took a shuttle bus back to St Lukes to attend the 9:00 AM service and then left directly for the airport. Our flight to Miami was delayed for about a half an hour because 2 passengers didn’t show up for the flight and their bags had to be removed. The 35 minute flight proceeded without incident. We had a 3 hour layover in Miami before our Port au Prince connection and it was the first time I had an opportunity to wander around the Miami terminal. I usually have very close connections and have to rush to the next gate. The Miami terminal complex is more of a shopping mall then an air terminal and not a bad place to lay-over - lots of good food choices and lots of places to window shop. Our PAP flight was on time and although pretty bumpy because of weather got us back to Haiti at our scheduled 4:30 PM arrival time. After going through Immigration and Customs, we were met by Jackson, our one-armed porter who escorted us out to “Maxo” who was waiting with a van to take us back to the Guest House. It’s funny how coming back to Haiti is beginning to feel almost as much like coming home as returning to Sacramento does.

Days 197 – 200 (05/14 – 17)

Monday – No teams at the Guest House this morning. However, it was a full day for me. Tom and I had a meeting with Engineers Derly Charles and Roger Laplanche and Constantine from World Hand Alliance, one of the housing contractors in Mellier and Carrefour. We have to do some contract modification with WHA due to time delays caused by increased start-up time in their block manufacturing process.

This afternoon I worked on the MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) NGO speak for contracts, for the Haiti Home Assistance Program. These are the contracts that the beneficiaries will sign outlining how the funds will be disbursed and their responsibilities in the construction and renovations of their homes. I wrote them in English and Sarah translated them into Creole.

We had a team return from Mellier and just before dinner a new team arrived from the states.

Tuesday – This morning we got our Mellier team off early to the airport and then our new team off to work in Petit Goave. Then the fun part of my day began. I was able to hand out the first draw checks to the first 6 staff members so they can start building their new houses. The first 6 recipients were: Nicolas Bruno and Antoinette Gabriel (a couple); Danielle Pierre-Saint; Lysmeus Pierre-Claude; Gerda Torcheno; Oge Celin; and Jean Baptiste Israel “Maxo”. It has taken 7 months of blood, sweat and tears to finally reach this point. The smiles, tears handshakes and hugs I received made it all worthwhile. I have 8 more to go in the next few days.

Wednesday – Engineer Roger Laplanche picked me up at 7:00 AM to do a site visit to Mellier. We picked up Engineer Arbicher in Carrefour and were supposed to pick up Engineer Derly but he had car trouble and couldn’t meet us. We stopped first at the new church. This is our largest project to date and with the mezzanine will have over 6,000 square feet. It has been under construction for 20 months and the 2^nd story is finally going up. We wanted to make sure that the changes we had made at our meeting last week were being followed. They were.

Our next stop was to look at a couple of World Hand Alliance sites to check on Constantine’s progress. It was gratifying to finally see walls going up. The new light weight block design seems to be working very well and the crew built about 80 feet of wall 4 feet high in the 30 or 40 minutes we were at one of the sites. On the way back to the highway we stopped at one of Homes for Haitians sites and watched them pour concrete into the Styrofoam wall forms. They should have 10 homes completed by the end of June. Good progress all the way around.

I got back to the Guest House about 2:00 PM – in time to say goodbye to our “Petit Goave” team and to Sarah who was going to Miami for a long weekend.

Thursday – This morning Tom, Lauren James and Elizabeth Petheo from UMCOR, and I, along with Pastor Paul and all of the EMH District Superintendents and clergy departed for Orlando, Florida to participate in the Haiti Mission Partners Conference. The other participants, from UMCOR headquarters in New York and major partners from all over the US, are gathering for 3 days of meetings about the Haiti response. This is the first time ever that all of the EMH clergy have met together outside of Haiti and the first time in the US for many of them. We flew to Miami, went through Emigration and Customs (much easier for US citizens than for our Haitian friends); caught our flight to Orlando; took the shuttle bus to our hotel; and finally got to our rooms about 4:30 PM.

 My room overlooked the pool and it looked very inviting with just a few people lounging around. I thought I would throw on my trunks and go for a swim. I unpacked, put on my trunks and looked out the window and counted 56 kids in the pool. Welcome to the town of Disney World, Epcot Center and Universal Studios. I decided to go for a walk instead. After my walk, I came back to the hotel for dinner and met up with my friends Phil Bandy and Warren McGuffin from the California/Nevada Conference and several people that had been in Haiti on teams during my tenure. There are over 100 people scheduled to attend.

Days 193 -196 (05/10 – 13)

Thursday – We just had 1 team to get out to their site in Petit Goave this morning. Then Tom and I had to get ready for a meeting that Pastor Paul had called about the church in Mellier. Mellier has been our longest running, largest and most costly project in Haiti. It has been a prime example of how not to run a construction project. The Haiti Response Plan doctrine is to let the Haitians manage these projects, but I must say that a committee of ministers is not the most qualified group to run construction projects. Pastor Paul has finally recognized this and wants to put a stop to the cost overruns. I have been advocating from the beginning that Eng. Laplanche should be the final authority and finally was able to get agreement. We also were able to agree on some design changes and cuts that will help bring the overall cost down - all in all a much better outcome than I had anticipated.

After the meeting I went over my Staff Annex design changes with Roger and he agreed that it was a better solution and will redraw the plans. This was followed by a 2 hour Skype conference call among Jim Gulley in Colorado, Mellisa Crutchfield and Thodleen Dessources in New York and Lauren James and I in Petionville. Ah – the wonders of modern technology. The topic was grant extensions and new contracts for the EMH Housing Project. This is one pilot project that has truly been a learning experience for everyone involved. The good news is that houses are being built – 7 completed, 13 under construction and 20 more to start by June 1^st. I spent the remainder of the day working on the new contracts.

Friday – Another no team morning. But Spana arrived early to take me to the US Embassy for my appointment to get my passport renewed. I was not looking forward to the exercise. My phone call experiences with the Embassy had been less than satisfying. I had been told different things by different people regarding the procedure and requirements. But – believe it or not – it was painless. I was in and out in 40 minutes. They even let me keep my old passport to travel on next week to Orlando instead of having to issue an emergency passport. We were back to the Guest House by noon.

After lunch I was standing in the patio with a cup of coffee when a gunshot rang out right outside our gate to the alley. Both dogs came screaming around the corner of the patio running in the opposite direction. Great guard dogs. Eric and I ran to the gate to lock it and saw a half a dozen Haitian National Policemen in flak jackets wrestling a guy down the alley to their truck. Apparently there had been a fight that involved someone being cut with a broken bottle and when the police tried to arrest the perpetrator, he took off down the alley and one of the policemen fired a warning shot in the air. It stopped the guy, but one has to wonder where that bullet came down in a city of 3 million people.

The rest of the afternoon was spent going over the land ownership documents, plans and estimates that the staff had given me for their new homes. Monday I will start working with them one on one to get everything in place so that they can begin construction on their homes.

Saturday – Today is my mother’s 98^th birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! I’m sorry I’m not there to help you celebrate.

We had one team return from La Tremblay late yesterday and got them off to the airport this morning to start their journey home. I spent most of the rest of my day working on a contract resolution issue with one of our EMH Housing Project contractors. Issues that in the US would be cut and dry from a legal standpoint, become very difficult in Haiti where normal rules of law don’t exist or don’t apply. Couple this with the moral issues of being a Christian non-profit and working with a Christian non-profit contractor and you have a very interesting negotiating condition. The reality is that although we understand and appreciate altruistic intent, we have a fiscal responsibility to properly manage donated funds and finding that compromise position can be a difficult journey. Fortunately, we were finally able to reach an agreement that pleased no one but resolved the issue. I guess that is what compromise is all about.

Sunday – Happy Mothers’ Day to all mothers (especially mine) and Happy Birthday to me. Yep, today I celebrate the 40^th anniversary of my 29^th birthday. YIKES! How did I get so old? I thank the Good Lord that I still feel like I’m 29 and am able to be here in Haiti doing His work. Every day is a blessing and I thank my family for “giving me up” and allowing me to serve in this way. I love and miss you all.

Sarah and I went with Tom to the church in Thomassin where he was preaching this morning. During the service, Sarah and I did a duet on “How Great Thou Art” - one of my favorite hymns. I ooohed the harmony while Sarah sang the verses in Creole. Then we sang the choruses in English. Tom accompanied on the guitar and the organist joined in along the way and by the end the whole congregation was singing.  It was a lot of fun but I realized how rusty my voice has gotten from lack of singing. I miss my barbershop. After church we went to the Hotel Karibe for lunch and a few hours around the pool. Lauren James from UMCOR joined us. Except for missing friends and family, not a bad birthday.

Days 189 – 192 (03/06 – 09)

Sunday – My first Sunday back in-country was rather quiet. We got our 1 team off to Arcahaie early so that they could be in time for church service in the new Arcahaie church. They will be the last VIM team at this site as the work there has been completed.

Sarah is still in Hinche and Mario is off doing his thing with family and friends and Tom is officiating at another church. So – it’s just me today. A good day to get myself reorganized – both in the office and my room. I hear a shady spot and a book calling my name this afternoon.

Monday – Today is a team free day, but not a meeting free day. It started with a meeting with Eng. Roger Laplanche, EMH Head Engineer. He wanted to bring me up to date on the New College Bird school project. College Bird is in Port au Prince and is the largest school and church complex in Haiti. Most of the school and administrative offices collapsed in the earthquake. It will be the largest EMH construction project in Haiti (about 3 million dollars), but has been beset by all kinds of problems. They have yet to put the shovel in the ground after 2 years of planning, contract negotiating and governmental obstacles. I’m not quite sure why Roger wants to bring me in on this because it will not be a VIM project. It will be professionally built by a contracting firm. From our meeting this morning, I think that he just wants a sounding board and moral support to relieve some of his frustration with the whole process. It appears even Haitians can get frustrated with the process.

My next meeting was with one of our interpreters who will be getting some assistance in rebuilding his earthquake damaged home from the Haiti Home Assistance Program. Since the program is designed to have the recipient take on the responsibility of securing all of the paper work, finding a contractor, getting the estimates and in general be totally involved in the process, it takes a little hand holding. This is a totally new experience for them all. They are a little overwhelmed with the concept of assistance rather than handout. But, I think it is essential for the Haitians to start taking ownership in their own recovery.

Tuesday – No teams to go out this morning. There has been a barrage of emails coming and going about the Grant Request for the Guest House Renovation Project. It has been sitting at UMCOR in New York for over 4 weeks while everyone is weighing in on who should be contributing. This whole issue came up after I had already submitted the request. The whole thing is political. The reality is that the money all comes from the same initial source. It’s just a matter of who’s name is on it. Meanwhile the project waits. It never ceases to amaze me how convoluted the seemingly simplest of things can become. However, I’m getting the sense that we are seeing some forward motion.

This afternoon we had 2 teams come in - one team returning from their week in La Tremblay and 1 team in from the states. Life goes on at the Guest House.

Wednesday – Back to normal team activity this morning. Our new team was provisioned and sent off to Mellier and our La Tremblay was sent off with our thanks to return home. Then – another meeting. This one was about the Food Program in Thomas that I’ve been involved with from the very start. The team that I came with on my first trip to Haiti in Feb. 2011, started a hot lunch program at the school in Thomas. Through the efforts of our team leader, Warren McGuffin, the program was adopted by our California/Nevada Conference of the UMC and has been developed into a very successful program. However, it has been run as an independent program and has not been integrated into the VIM, UMCOR or EMH plan. I have been trying for the past 6 or 7 months to get the various entities together. Today was the first meeting in that endeavor and I’m glad to say was a positive step forward. The discourse will be continued at the UMCOR Partnerships meeting in Orlando next week.

This afternoon I finally got a chance to thoroughly go through the new set of plans for the Staff Annex that Roger gave to me on Monday. To my dismay, I discovered that he had made a few changes that drastically reduced the size of the rooms. Since the foundation was already in place, enlarging the footprint was not possible - time to get creative. By dinner time I had redrawn a floor plan that gave us four large rooms and four small rooms, reconfigured the bathrooms and added a small closet in each room. While I was busy with that task, Tom and Sarah welcomed our newly arrived team from the States.

Days 186 – 188 (05/03 – 05)

Thursday – This morning we got the team off to La Tremblay to spend their week working on a new security wall around the new church. Then it was back upstairs to the office to continue sorting through emails. About 10:00, Sarah asked if I would go with here to shop for a motor bike. She has decided that when her contract is up the end of May she is going to rent an apartment and stay another month or so in Haiti to see some of the country she has missed. Then she’ll head to London to start her Master’s program. Since she will no longer have the benefit of a car and driver, she thought a motor bike would be the best way for her to get around. So, Spana and I accompanied her on her search. We stopped at at least 6 different places and checked out their bikes. We all agreed on the best one and went back to make the deal. She ended up with a brand new 110 cc motor bike with all the bells and whistles including 2 helmets, gloves and arm guards for $650.00 US. You would pay 2 to 3 times that amount for an equivalent motor bike in the States. When we got it back to the Guest House, Tom gave her an introductory lesson in the fine art of motorcycle riding. Tom, Spana and I each took a tour around the campus (Mario wouldn’t have any part of it) and then watched as Sarah started her practice runs. She did very well and you could see her confidence build with each circuit. I think in another day or two she’ll be ready to venture around the block.

We decided it was a good night to go to Hang’s, a local sports bar, and have hamburgers and watch some basketball on their big screen TV. By trial and error comparison, we have decided that Hang’s has the best hamburgers in Haiti. The good thing about Hang’s, besides the hamburgers, is that the dining area is a large covered patio – very nice on warm evenings. The bad thing about Hang’s is that the dining area is a large covered patio that leaks like a sieve when it rains – which it did with a vengeance for about an hour. We and the rest of the patrons dodged the rain with varying degrees of success by moving from one table to another – like musical chairs. However, we all ended up a little damp but not dispirited – all part of the Haiti adventure.

Friday – This morning, Roger Laplanche picked me up at 7:00 to drive to Petit Goave. We have 2 project sites in Petit Goave and he wanted me to check them out with him. Traffic was a bear and it took over an hour just to get to Carre Four where we picked Engineer Abicher, the site engineer for Petit Goave. Two hours later we finally made it to Brakeman College the K – 8 Methodist school in Petit Goave. COR (the Church of the Resurrection from Kansas City) has been sponsoring work at this school for several years and is currently rebuilding the 2^nd story on the Auditorium that collapsed in the earthquake. Roger and I had suggested some structural shoring on the 1^st floor and wanted to see that it was properly in place and also check on the work that the COR team had started on the 2^nd story. We also wanted to go over a few changes that Pastor Dorcely, the District Superintendent wanted to make. All of the work looked good and was progressing nicely. And we asked Eng. Abicher to give us a cost estimate for Pastor Dorcely’s desired changes. 

We went from Brakeman to the church in Petit Goave where we had just completed a library and bookstore. We have a team coming next week to start work on a security wall and wanted to make sure everything would be ready for them. On our way back to Port-au Prince we stopped at Mellier to check on the progress of the church construction. 2/3 of the upper mezzanine has been poured and is 7 days into its’ 28 day cure period before the forms can be stripped and the remainder formed and poured. The team coming next week will be able to start on the 2^nd story walls on 2 sides.

We dropped Eng. Abicher off in Carre Four and I was back at the Guest House at 2:30 - 5 ½ hour travel time for a 100 mile round trip - pretty typical for Haiti. After dinner Tom and I debriefed the COR team that had been working in Petit Goave. After a couple of more hours in the office, I staggered off to bed.

Saturday – The COR team left for the airport at 6:30 this morning. I then met with Eng. Roos, the site engineer for the Staff Housing Annex, to go over the weeks’ progress. The footings are poured and the stem walls have been started - everything looks good.

A couple of months ago I prepared a change order form and procedure that I shared with Roger with the hope that he might implement them – or something similar. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and we are still having confusion on the work sites with people making unauthorized changes. I mentioned it to Roger on our ride to Petit Goave yesterday and he agreed (again) that it was a good idea. So – it appears that I’m going to have to implement the changes myself. My task today is to pull up the forms from my computer; make sure they are properly translated into Creole and get them ready to present at the next Joint Leadership Team meeting. Training the Site Engineers, Site Bosses and District Superintendents will be the next step.

We had a young team arrive from Texas this afternoon and since Sarah is doing a site visit in Hinche with Lauren James from UMCOR, Tom and I got the orientation duty after dinner.

Days 184 & 185 (05/01 - 02)

Tuesday – Today actually began yesterday when I left Sacramento at 6:05 PM heading for Los Angeles on American Airlines. After a 2 ½ hour layover in LAX I left on the red eye for Miami arriving at 5:30 AM EDT (today). I had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee and walk to the other end of the terminal and get on the 6:50 to Port-au-Prince. So – as of 8:40 AM I was officially back on Haitian soil.  I had brought 2 - 55 gallon plastic bins of donated items from St. Marks UMC my church in Sacramento and was curious to see if I was going to have any problems at Customs. Some teams have had problems, particularly with drugs. But, I didn’t declare anything on my Customs form and when the Customs officer asked what was in the bins -I told him donated clothing, school supplies and first aid supplies. He asked if I had medicines and I said, “No”. He stamped my form and I went on my way. I headed out the door of the terminal with the 2 bins, my carry-on and my backpack stacked on a baggage cart. As soon as I cleared the door I was swarmed by the porters wanting to help with my luggage. They can be very tenacious and I was holding them off with a pretty stern “No, Merci” when I heard - “Meester Beel, my friend. Welcome back”. It was “One-armed Jackson”, the porter that handles all of our VIM teams. He ushered me out to the parking lot and waited with me until Spana arrived with the D-Max. Spana gave me a big hug and helped load the luggage into the truck; I tipped Jackson 300 Gourdes (about $7.50) and we headed for Petionville and the Guest House.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of traffic. We were literally flying through Port-au-Prince. I asked Spana where all the traffic was and he said it’s a holiday. Apparently May 1^st is the Haitian Labor Day. I thought it was kind of ironic for a country with 70% unemployment to have a Labor Day. But – this is Haiti. We arrived at the Guest House in record time and I was assaulted by “Meester Beel. Welcome back.” from all of the Haitian staff. Mario was the only one in the office when I finally got upstairs. Tom and Sarah were in a meeting.

I went outside to check on the progress of the Guest House Staff Annex and was pleased to see that the rebar for the footings and columns was in place and they were ready to start pouring concrete. However, I saw that they hadn’t placed the rebar per the new building standards at all of the corners and at the footing/column connections. So – I called Engineer Laplanche and told him about the problem and he had the pour postponed until tomorrow so he could come see and get the problem corrected. Timing is everything. A few hours later and it would have been too late.

Jim Gulley was here, but leaving in the morning. So – we had a lot of catching up to do after dinner on the EMH housing project. There seem to be new issues every day and I was going to have to get in the middle of them right away. Roger Laplanche called to remind me that we had 2 meetings in the morning. Remind me? This was the first I had heard of them. By 10:00 PM my head was hitting the table and I had to stagger off to my first cold shower of this extension and then fall into bed. I hadn’t slept for about 40 hours.

Wednesday – I don’t remember my head hitting the pillow (my new pillow that I brought with me this time) and woke with a start to a sunny morning. I looked at my watch and thought it said 7:30. But after dosing my head with cold water and brushing my teeth, my eyes uncrossed and I saw that it was actually 8:45.  Roger Laplanche was patiently waiting for me at the Staff Annex and I showed him my concerns. He agreed with me and ordered the site boss to make the required corrections. I grabbed some coffee in my to-go cup and hurried off with Roger to our first meeting. No breakfast for the late riser.

Our meetings this morning are with the 2 Haitian contractors Engineer Derly and I have selected to build 10 of the houses in Carre Four. One of the contractors that is currently building houses for us in Mellier has run into delays in his block production and is way behind schedule starting the houses in Carre Four. We felt it was unfair to ask the Carre Four people, who have been waiting almost a year already, to suffer further delays. So – this was a pre-contract meeting with the new contractors. If all goes well, construction in Carre Four should start by the end of next week. And it will be non to soon, as rainy season is just around the corner and several of the sites could be severely affected. By the time I got back from the second meeting, I had managed to miss lunch. But – I was able to manufacture a sandwich from material found in our office refrigerator.

I spent the afternoon playing catch-up in the office and then helped welcome a new team in from the States and one returning from a week in Mellier. I made sure I was on time for a Haitian dinner of deep fried chicken, scalloped potatoes, fried breadfruit and rice and beans. Starch, anyone? After dinner, Tom and I debriefed the returning Mellier team and I hit the sack.

Days 180 – 183 (04/14 – 17)

Saturday – We said good-bye to our Haiti Partnership team and sent them off to the airport in the blue tap tap this morning.  We are team free until a new team flies in this afternoon. My project for today is to get all 14 of my staff housing beneficiary files organized. I’ve been collecting copies of deeds, floor plans and construction estimates from the staff. Part of the program is to have them take ownership of this process. We will advise and assist, but we’re not going to do it for them. I’ve already discovered problems in the land ownership documentation for some of them. About half of them actually have official deeds to their land, but some were destroyed or lost in the earthquake, some are handwritten purchase agreements with the previous owner and some seem to be some sort of Haitian “squatters rights” arrangement. It’s going to take some effort to sort them all out. The floor plans are mostly hand drawn on a sheet of paper with no measurements. And most are for “dream houses” that we’ll never be able to build. The estimates reflect that reality. But the good news is that it’s a starting place and they are all engaged in the process.

This evening we were invited over to the UMCOR house in Paco by Lauren James to have some of her homemade bean soup. So, Tom, Sarah and I had Spana drive us over for dinner. The soup was great and afterwards we were joined by Corrie Kramer, the UMCOR WASH Coordinator and Gareth Lewis, the UMCOR Shelter and Reconstruction Coordinator for a game of Jeopardy. The men prevailed - $30,000 to $1,400. By the time we left, it was raining hard and visibility was limited. Driving up John Brown, a dark, twisting road up to Petionville, Spana suddenly swerved around something. I looked back and saw a body lying in the middle of the road. I shouted for Spana to stop and Tom and I ran back in the rain to where the body was. The guy showed no signs of trauma and had a strong pulse, but was totally unconscious and unresponsive. We got him off the road (it was a miracle that he hadn’t been run over) and Spana backed the truck up to where we were. Since you can’t call 911 in Haiti, we put him the back of the D-Max to transport him to a hospital. On the way, we passed a Haitian Police truck parked alongside of the road. We stopped, thinking that they may transport the guy to the hospital. Wrong! They said that they couldn’t leave their post. After a heated discussion, including Tom telling them that he was a doctor (he’s an EMT II) and the guy may have a life threatening condition, they called on their radio and received permission to escort us to the hospital. End of story. Wrong! Their Haitian Police truck wouldn’t start. So, here we were, trying to push start a Haitian Police truck in a blinding rain storm with an unconscious guy in the back of our truck. Despite the situation, I couldn’t help laughing. Only in Haiti! We finally got the guy to the hospital and into the ER where Tom used his doctor persona to get the guy moved up in the queue. The bedlam in a Haitian ER in the middle of a rainy night is a whole story in itself and we left as soon as we were sure the guy would get some attention. We arrived back at the Guest House soaked to the bone but filled with yet another Haitian adventure.

Sunday – We sent our one and only team off to La Trembay, grabbed our swimsuits and headed up to the Hotel Montana. Although the hotel was totally destroyed in the earthquake, the restaurant and swimming pool survived. For $4.00 you can use the swimming pool and enjoy the spectacular views of Port au Prince and for a few dollars more have some good food and beverages. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Tom had to be back before 5:00 for a meeting with Pastor Paul. The purpose of the meeting was to get Pastor Paul to sign off on my next 3 month contract extension. He always waits until the very last minute. I think he does it on purpose. The good news is (at least for me, probably not my friends and family) that he signed and I will be extending until August 1^st. However, there is a price. Along with everything else, he wants me to take over the library and school projects in Petit Goave. He’s unhappy with the engineer that he hired to manage both projects.

Monday – Today the chore is to make sure that everything is in place so that all of my projects will continue to function while I’m gone for the next two weeks. Tom and Sarah are more than capable of handling anything that might come up and I’ll only be a phone call or email away, but they have enough to do with their own jobs without having to worry about mine. So, I’m double checking everything. Oh, yeah. I also need to pack!

Tuesday – I left at 6:45 for the airport accompanied by Tom and Sarah who, after dropping me off are going to continue north to visit the sites at La Tremblay, Cabaret, Arcahaie and Thomas. All but La Tremblay should be finished, but they need to confirm that. To be continued May 1^st.