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.