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.