Days 259 – 262 (7/16 - 19)

Monday – It’s a slow week for teams. We won’t have anybody at the Guest House until Thursday. But it’s still busy for the staff. My projects are in full swing; Tom is busy putting together a report on all of our sites for the Site Review Committee meeting this afternoon; Mario is getting things ready for the GBGM auditor who will be here next week; and Danette is putting together a job description and protocol for our interpreters.

The Site Review Committee consists of the usual suspects – Pastors Paul and Depestre and Sylvio Rocourt from the EMH and Tom and I from VIM. We invited Engineers Laplanche, Abicher and Roos to the meeting today to get their input about finishing some of our sites. Tom’s report showed that since the beginning of the Haiti Response Plan we have worked on 43 different sites and completed 23.  The initial report of EMH earthquake damage assessment was 6 Churches destroyed, 24 damaged. Of the 6 destroyed churches 2 are completed and 3 are in progress. Of the 24 damaged churches 5 are completed and 2 are in progress. Of the 8 schools destroyed 1 is completed and 2 are in progress. Of the 18 damaged schools 5 are completed and 3 are in progress. Of the 410 homes destroyed 50 are in progress. Of the 360 damaged homes 6 are in progress. The purpose of today’s meeting was to decide how to best finish the projects in progress and choose sites to work on for the remaining 1 year of the Haiti Response Plan. We anticipate between 150 - 170 teams during that time period. This translates into approximately 1 to 1.2 million dollars in matching funds to work with. The EMH sets the priorities of these projects.

Tuesday – Tom and I left the Guest House at 6:00 AM to meet Pastor Paul and Eng. Laplanche at Pastor Paul’s house in Pacot and drive to Tapion. We picked up Eng. Abicher in Carrefour on the way. Tapion is a rural community a few miles before Petit Goave. Their church was heavily damaged in the earthquake. There is no road into Tampion so you have to park your car off of the highway and walk down the mountain about ¾ of a mile. The trail is a little steep in places but really quite beautiful. I’m glad that we were doing this in the morning and not in the heat of the day. The leveled out in a little valley then up the next hill a little way to the church. Before we got to the valley floor you could hear singing coming from the church. They knew we were coming and several dozen people from the community had come to the church to welcome us.

At first glance my first impression was that this building was going to have to be torn down. The damage was extensive. However, further inspection revealed that the main structural components of the building could probably be saved. We could buttress the columns like we did at the church in Torbeck. Engs. Laplanche and Abicher agreed and will draw up a plan and estimate for the repairs. After the inspection we met with the people from the community and explained our plan to them and told them that if everything was approved, we could probably begin rebuilding their church by October. Needless to say, they were very happy. By the time we started our hike back up to the car it was almost noon and the heat was rising. When we got our sweaty bodies into the car, several people came walking down the road carrying food and a big pitcher of lemonade (actually lime aid). So – we sat in the car and enjoyed a lunch of fried chicken legs, French fries and fried plantains. I’ll have to say that they were the best plantains I have had in Haiti.

We drove on in to Petit Goave so Pastor Paul could see the work at Brakeman College and the Petit Goave bookstore. Pastor Paul was the Circuit Superintendent in Petit Goave for about 13 years before becoming President so everyone knows him. Driving down the street people would call his name and we would stop so he could shake their hand and say hello. It took us about an hour to get out of town. Tom and I got back to the Guest House about 6:30 PM. It was a long day.

Wednesday – No teams, no site visits and no meetings today. But I had a lot of work to do. I’m leaving for home on August the 1^st and we will be shut down at the Guest House until August 19^th. However, the work on the Guest House and the Staff Annex has to continue so everything will be ready when the teams start arriving in force in early September. Roger Laplanche and Madam Ruth, the Guest House Manager will also be gone for most of that period so there will be little oversight available. It’s essential that Engineers Abicher and Roos know exactly what needs to be done. I’ve discovered that there is no certification program for engineers in Haiti and the training they receive varies from school to school. Abicher and Roos are good at structural design and construction techniques but I have yet to meet a Haitian trained engineer who has had one day of training in construction management, budgeting and scheduling. So I am putting together a weekly work schedule and a room by room scope of work for both projects. It will be their bible while I’m gone.

Thursday – This morning Tom and I had a 9:30 AM meeting with Pastor Paul and Constantine with World Hand Alliance, one of the EMH Housing Project Contractors. We were meeting at Pasto Paul’s office and he had not arrived by 9:30. So – we called him and he said “You did not tell me about this meeting.” And I said “Pastor Paul, you’re the one that called the meeting”. Oh well. If it’s important I guess he’ll reschedule.

At 11:00 I had my meeting with LaPlanche, Abicher and Roos. I told them, “Gentlemen, this project is like no other project you have done before. In the U.S. we call it fast track. We have a very limited time to get a lot of work done and you can’t get it done by having the same 5 guys going from one job to the next. We need 25 guys doing 5 jobs at the same time”. I then gave them the work schedules and went through them week by week. Then I gave them the room by room scope of work. Needless to say, there were raised eyebrows. However, there was immediate buy-in. They rose to the challenge and actually seemed excited to have something to work with. We’re going to meet every week to track the schedule. Who knows, maybe a whole new method of construction management will take hold in Haiti. Don’t hold your breath.