Days 233 -237 (6/20 – 24)

Wednesday – We sent one team off to the airport early this morning for their flight home and our new team off to their work site in Leveque. Then Tom and I had to run to an 8:00 AM meeting of the EMH Housing Project Management Team. The team consists of Engs. Derly Charles and Roger Laplanche, Pastor Jacob, Jim Gulley, Lauren James, Tom and me. Lauren was away on vacation but everyone else was there. Eng. Derly gave us a status report on the 20 home sites in Mellier and the 3 that have been started in Carrefour. Homes for Haitians has 5 homes finished and should have their other 5 completed by the end of July. World Hand Alliance is still having block production problems and probably won’t have their homes completed until September. Pasto Paul wants to have a dedication ceremony for the completed homes on July 17^th. So – we decided to schedule a site inspection of all 20 of the Mellier home sites for 6/29 to determine which homes will be dedicated. The contracts for the 2 new contractors that will be building 10 homes in Carrefour were reviewed in both their French and English versions. The funding requests are in New York and we should have the money in place for a contract signing on 6/29.

Two more teams arrived from the State this afternoon. Tom and I staged their equipment and supplies after  dinner so that we get them on their way to their sites early in the morning.

Thursday – We got the new team on the road for their 3 ½ hour ride to Les Cayes and then loaded up the team that will be working locally at Delma 33. I then had a meeting with Eng. Laplanche and an electrical contractor to go over the electrical work I wanted to get done on the main electrical service to both the Guest House and the Swiss House. Over the years boxes have been added, circuits rewired, wrong material used and we’ve ended up with a jumbled mess. My goal is to rip everything out and start all over with new service boxes and switches. It won’t be an easy job and I wanted to make sure the contractor fully understood the scope before he prepared an estimate.

This afternoon I still had some work to do on the 2^nd draw request for the HHAP grant. I gave it my best shot and sent it off to New York before dinner.

Friday – Our only team this morning is our team staying at the Guest House and working at Delmas 33. Since they don’t have to load equipment and supplies every morning they can get out very quickly after breakfast.

With no teams to shepherd, Danette, Mario, Spana and I left in the D-Max for Carrefour and the workshop of Einstein Albert. Einstein Albert is a Haitian wood craftsman and designer whose hand-made pieces are sold all over the world at places like Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue. I have purchased a couple of his bowls and fell in love with his work. This was my first opportunity to visit his workshop. His workshop is on a backstreet in Carrefour and there are no signs identifying it. If you didn’t know where it was, you would never find it. You enter through a door in the security wall into a covered outdoor work area where a dozen women are staining and finishing various sizes and designs of bowls. Further out in the yard are a couple of men cutting and carving 3 compartment serving bowls. All of the pieces are made from Ochebe wood. The bowls go through a 16 step process to become the beautiful works of art that they are. The old house on the property houses the final finishing process and the merchandise display. The merchandise display is limited to whatever product is currently being made. With the export demand, there is not a lot of stock on hand. However, I found plenty that I liked and walked out with my arms full.

This afternoon Tom and I continued on our project of analyzing the status of our project sites. We have 5 or 6 sites that are very near completion and either reached their budget limits or are at a stage where they are no longer team friendly. That is, there is no longer unskilled labor work to do or the sites have become to confined to work with large numbers of people. We’ve visited most of the sites recently and are familiar with the stage of construction and have received estimates from the site engineers on completion costs. I’m getting more adept at reading and understanding estimates written in French or Creole. I’ve also gotten a better understanding of costs of construction in Haiti. This makes the process a whole lot easier than it was 6 months ago.

This afternoon we welcomed a new team arriving from the states.

Saturday – Our new team was loaded up and sent on their way to Arcahaie. They will probably be the last team sent to this site. Our Delmas 33 team left shortly after for their site and will probably be the last team sent there. After we got the teams out, I escaped the confines of the Guest House and went for a long walk before it got too hot. Saturday is market day in Petionville and it’s a great time to see all of the street vendors and crowds of people. I had lunch when I was out and about and returned to the Guest House in time to greet Wendy Vencuss’s team newly arrived from the States.

Sunday – We got Wendy’s team loaded up early so that they could get up to their site in Furcy in time for church. The Delmas 33 team left for church at – where else – Delmas 33 and then for a day of sightseeing.

Today is Father’s Day in Haiti and I had been invited by Pastor Marco to go to College Bird for a special Father’s Day service. I decided not to go and attended the service here on the Frere Campus. I later found out that the College Bird service lasted 4 ½ hours. I think I made a good choice. The rest of my day was a day of rest and relaxation and trying to stay cool.