Days 103 & 104 (1/27 – 28)

Friday  - Only one team and a few Conference delegates for breakfast this morning. After the Delmas 33 crew left for their local site and the delegates got off to their meetings it got rather quiet. With the large number of teams this month (26) and the Delegates at the Guest House, the quiet was almost deafening. The Haitian Staff has been feeding and caring for up to 50 or 60 people a day for the whole month. They are beginning to look a bit frazzled and a day or 2 of relative quiet will be welcomed by all. They will only have the Delmas 33 team and a team returning from Furcy for dinner tonight. The UMVIM staff and delegates have been invited to the Gala de la Conference at the La Reserve Hotel and Restaurant.

The Gala is the main social affair at the end of the Annual Conference and doubles as a celebration for the elected President on election years. Since it was one of those years it was also Gesner Paul’s celebration party. The bad part was that it was a semi-formal affair and we were supposed to dress up a bit. Since my wardrobe consists of shorts, t-shirts and sandals it was a stretch. Fortunately, I flew down in a pair of long pants, a long sleeve shirt and loafers. Gerda, the housekeeper, had done my laundry the day before – so everything was clean. I borrowed an iron from Belorjn, the Guest House Assistant Manager, and a tie from Jim Gulley. Jim had 3 neckties with him. I can’t imagine bringing 1 tie to Haiti let alone 3.

Our unusually dressed ensemble arrived at the La Reserve promptly at 7:00 PM and were escorted to our tables. Our ensemble consisted of, from UMCOR, Melissa Crutchfield, Assistant General Secretary for International Disaster Response; Jim Gulley, Coordinator for Haiti; Cory Kramer, Acting Head of Mission in Haiti; Lauren James, UMCOR/EMH Liaison (and her visiting parents); and the Haiti UMVIM staff – Tom, Sarah, Mario and me. There were about 135 guests in all – including Reverend Georges M. Mulrain the President of the MCCA (the Methodist Church of the Caribbean of the Americas) who officiated over the EMH elections. The introductions, speeches, presentations and musical entertainment were all done before dinner. So, it was after nine o’clock before we got into the buffet line. However, the food was very good and the La Reserve was a beautiful setting. It was hard to remember that we were still in Haiti.

Saturday – Not a lot of team activity today. Our Delmas 33 team went to work as usual and Wendy’s (Tom’s wife) team went home. Wendy has been here for a month and we’re all sorry to see her leave. She is a great organizer has gotten all of our donated supplies in proper order. We have one small team coming in late this afternoon.

After going through my emails and doing some more prep work on materials that I want to present at a series of meetings next week, I decided I needed to get out of the office. I grabbed my hat and sunglasses and hit the streets for a long walk. The Guest House sits in the center of a triangle of 2 main roads in Petionville – Route de Freres and Route de Delmas. I walked up Route de Freres to the apex of the triangle where it meets Route de Delmas and then went down Route de Delmas  to just past Delmas 60 and took a side street back to Freres and then back up to the Guest House. I’m guessing it was about a 5 mile circuit. It was a great walk. The streets were crowded with people, shoulder to shoulder street merchants selling everything imaginable,  stores, cars, trucks, motorcycles – just so much energy and color and sounds and smell. I got a few curious looks and heard an occasional comment about “the blan” but I’ve discovered that a smile and a “Bon swa” are almost always returned in kind. I never felt hassled or threatened and truly enjoyed the experience.

Tonight was another evening out. Lauren James’s (UMCOR/EMH Liaison) parents were in town so Lauren made dinner reservations for the UMCOR/UMVIM staff (12 of us) at the Club Latino. It was the last night of the week long Jazz Festival in Haiti so they had a very good jazz combo playing. The Club has a large outdoor dining area and really good food - great evening in Haiti with good friends.

        Days 100 – 102 (1/24 – 26)

Tuesday – Today is one of those logistical nightmare days that the VVIM staff makes seem easy. It’s kind of like a duck swimming on a pond. On the surface everything seems calm, but under water he’s paddling like crazy. We have 2 teams going from the Guest House to work sites; one team going to the airport and home; one team flying in from the states and going directly to Petit Goave; and one team flying in from La Gonave (the island in the Bay of Port au Prince) and going to another guest house because of the Annual Conference attendees staying here. Sarah is riding to Petit Goave with the team from the airport so that she can give them their orientation in route. Mario is handling money like a bookie at the race track. And Tom and I are gathering, loading and unloading tools, equipment and luggage. The good news is – we didn’t lose a single person. By the time the last tail light disappeared down the driveway, we realized that we had missed lunch (and we had started a 6:00 AM!). We returned upstairs to the office and caught up with our morning correspondence and started our prep for tomorrow.

Wednesday – This morning we sent one team out to their work site at Delmas 33 and two teams to the airport for their return to the states. I went with the last team to the airport so that I could stop on the way back at MSC a large (for Haiti) building supply store. I had to restock some of our team supplies that had broken, worn out or gone missing. Shopping is always an interesting experience when both you and the clerks have limited language skills. But, I managed to come back with almost everything on my list.

Jim Gulley returned this morning. In fact we waved as we passed in the Guest House parking lot as he was coming from and I was going to the airport. His room has been given up to Annual Conference attendees so, he is going to bunk on the extra bed in my room. I’m always glad to have Jim back in country and look forward to having a “roomie” for a few days. Both Jim and Tom attended the Annual Conference today to witness the EMH Presidential elections. Pastor Gesner Paul was reelected for another 3 year term by a vote of 43 to 40 with 1 abstention. Although not a mandate, we all feel that this is a good thing. Now that the pressure of reelection is gone we hope that things will once again move forward.

Thursday – Sarah and I loaded up supplies and went to the airport with Oge and Johnny to pick up an arriving team. We then made the journey north to La Tremblay (just under 2 hours) and dropped them off at the church construction site where they will be working for the next week. Sarah gave them an in route orientation since they would not be overnighting at the Guest House. While they unloaded the truck and van, I walked around the site and took pictures (slideshow #26) and assessed the site. I needed to determine how many more teams we would need to complete all of the work. We want to finish up as many of our 30 sites as we can before taking on any more projects – which are waiting in the wings. It was my first trip north since returning and I was sorry that I didn’t have time to stop at Thomas on the way back to say hello to all of my friends there. However, I know that I will get back up there soon.

It still surprises me how 4 hours in a truck in Haiti can absolutely wipe you out. It took several cups of coffee after dinner to revive me. Later, I sat with several ministers from Southern Florida, here for the Annual Conference, while Jim Gulley related his experience of being buried for 55 hours in the rubble of the Hotel Montana. I had heard pieces of it before and read about it in the book “Unshaken”, but this was the first time I had heard the full, chronological story from Jim. It was very dramatic and moving.

Days 97 – 99 (1/21 – 23)

Saturday – Three teams went out this morning - one to Delmas 33; one to Furcy and one to the airport and home. We still have 5 teams in-country. It still amazes me how well Tom and Sarah coordinate all the logistics of moving and providing for these teams.

All of the decision makers for the EMH are busy preparing for their Annual Conference that starts next Monday and continues through the following Monday. Three of my projects are on hold until it’s over. So, I’m taking advantage of the time by setting up inspection and documentation protocol for our job sites. There has been nothing in place and it has been hit or miss up until now. I hope to have a suggested outline ready to present at the EMH Joint Leadership meeting on Feb. 1^st.

It has been a quiet afternoon with all of the teams out and Tom and Wendy having a day of well-deserved R&R. Sarah and Mario have disappeared and I have the office to myself.

Sunday – Tom is preaching this morning, so Mario drove Tom, Wendy and I up to Tomasin for the service. Now I’m not saying that Mario is a bad driver, but I haven’t been that nervous since my first trip in Haiti. 20 years in Florida have not sharpened Mario’s Haitian driving skills. However, we did arrive at the church in one piece – shaken but not bruised. The church in Thomasin is very affluent by Haitian standards and most of the congregation speaks fluent English, French and Creole. So, most people understood Tom’s sermon even before it was translated into French by the Lay Minister. I gave him 2 thumbs up.

We had one team return from Petit Goave in the afternoon. So as soon as Sarah had debriefed them, we went over to the UMCOR house in Paco and watched the 49er – Giants playoff game. As the only west coaster, I was the lone 49er booster and it just wasn’t enough to give them the win. Oh well – maybe next year.

Monday – We got the Bradley team off for Delmas 33 and picked up their replacement team at the airport. The Petit Goave team was also taken to the airport for their journey home; four other teams still in country.

As soon as we got everyone on their way, Tom, Wendy, Oge and I left for Mellier for a meeting with the Site Boss and local Church Committee to try and resolve some issues regarding the new church we are building (our biggest ongoing project in Haiti). The main issue seems to be that the Church Committee feels left out of the design and construction of their church. It is a complicated but common problem. The people in charge feel that they know more than the “little people” and don’t involve them in any part of the decision making process. Sound familiar? What we have to make them understand is that we (UMVIM/UMCOR) are not the people in charge. We do not design or manage the construction of these projects. We simply provide the funds, advice and support. However, Tom agreed to talk to Pastor Fede, the District Superintendent, about opening up communications with the committee and I agreed to talk to Head EMH Engineer LaPlanche about providing a set of plans for their use. We left them somewhat satisfied and returned to Petionville (1 ½ ride with good traffic).

We got back to the Guest House too late for lunch and scrounged around in our office kitchen for some snacks. Then it was back to whatever things had piled up on our desks and in our computers while we were gone. Before we knew it, another day was gone.

Days 94 – 96 (1/18 -20)

Wednesday – The Guest House is bustling with teams. We currently have 5 teams in country with 1 or more coming or going each day. I enjoy interfacing with them and already recognize some who were here last year.

Tom and I had an interesting meeting this morning with Gareth Lewis the new Shelter and Reconstruction Coordinator for UMCOR – Haiti. UMCOR has partnered with Miyamoto International Engineering (whose international headquarters are in Sacramento), with funding assistance from the UN, to start pilot training classes for skilled and unskilled workers, householders and community members.  The skilled worker training will be a 6 day class teaching better methods of building new homes and repairing existing homes. The unskilled worker training will be a 1 day training class focusing on safe demolition. The Householder class will be 2 days and will include basic construction processes for the do-it-yourselfers. The Customer Protection training for community members is designed to introduce them to construction and site management, procurement of labor, materials and costs – which will aid them in hiring contractors to do their work. It’s an exciting program. The good news is that it now exists. The bad news is that it has taken 2 years. I will have to admit to a certain sense of smugness. They are using the same training material that we used in our training class last year.

Thursday – Three teams returning from sites today. It never slows down this time of year. We are trying to get some of our 30 construction sites finished so we can start on more that have waiting in the wings. There are 2 or 3 that are very close to being finished.

Pastor Paul was in Canada visiting some of his family over the Holidays and returned yesterday. He stopped by the office this afternoon to welcome me back to Haiti and set up a meeting for tomorrow to talk about my projects. He needs to give his approval so we can move forward.

Friday – And the beat goes on - one team to the airport; one team in from the airport; one team returning from Mellier and one from La Trembley.

I’ve been working on getting Haitian Engineers assigned to all of our active sites. We need to have more oversight to assure that the site bosses are conforming to our new building standards. I’m also working with the Head EMH Engineer, Roger LaPlanche, in setting up a standardized inspection and reporting system. There is no governmental system in place yet, so we have to design our own.

My meeting with Tom and Pastor Paul this afternoon was interesting to say the least. I always enter these meetings with great expectations and am almost always disappointed. As I have reported many times in this blog, the inability or unwillingness to make decisions seems to be endemic in Haiti. The only decision reached in one hour was to set a time for another meeting next week. I am really hamstrung until Pastor Paul gives his approval to proceed. Yet, his parting comment to me was “I’m expecting you to get a lot done.” I’m beginning to fear that my contract will expire before we ever start. Don’t mean to whine, but my frustration is poking through.

Days 92 & 93 (1/16/12 & 1/17)

Monday – I left Sacramento at 6:00 PM PST yesterday; had a 2 hour layover at LAX; arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 6:30 AM EST; had a 7 hour layover and arrived in PAP at 3:40 PM EST. I was back in Haiti for the 4^th time in a year, already sweating (my blood had thickened up at home) and ready to get back to work.

As soon as I got through Immigration, Customs and found my bags, I stepped outside the terminal and heard through the throng of porters – “Meester Beel”. It was our “special” porter “One-armed” Jackson. He pushed through the crowd and grabbed one of my bags (the small one) and escorted me out to the parking lot where Spana our staff driver was waiting for me. After getting a big bear hug from Spana, we loaded my bags into the D-Max and headed for the Guest House in Petionville. As we started out I said “I’m really glad to be back”. Spana turned to me and said “You really love Haiti, don’t you”? I immediately replied – “Yes I do” – and was rewarded with a huge grin from my friend.

When we got to the Guest House, I was immediately greeted with “Meester Beel, Meester Beel” from the Haitian staff – mixed with lots of hugs and hand-shakes. Ysamus, who is smaller than me, put one of my 50 lb. bags on his head, grabbed one more in each hand and carried them to my room in the Manse (about 150 lbs. of bags). I went upstairs to the office and got hugs from Tom, Sarah and Mario. I was back home with my Haitian family.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and late into the evening catching up with everyone and getting a briefing on what was going on. We had 6 teams in country and would have from 30 to 50 people at the Guest House almost every night this week. There were several meetings scheduled for the next few days. It was apparent that I would have to hit the ground running. I went to my room and fell into bed at about 11:30 PM – happy but exhausted. At 2:00 AM my cell phone woke me up. Linda had “butt dialed” me from home. I vaguely remember talking with her for a few minutes before falling back to sleep.

Tuesday – I woke up at about 6:00 AM; had my first cold shower and headed for the Guest House and my first cup of Haitian coffee (love that stuff). I got more hugs and hand-shakes as drivers and interpreters started to arrive. Tom asked me to accompany the first team to start on our new site at Delmas 33. This was Mama Lou Lou’s church that I had surveyed just before leaving in December. (Last night at around 10:30 PM there was a terrible accident at the intersection of Rte. De Delmas – the main road from Petionville to the airport – and Delmas 33. A large dump truck loaded with sand lost its’ brakes and crashed into several cars, motorcycles, vendors and pedestrians – killing 26 and injuring 65. Fortunately, Eric, our driver, knew a way around the scene and got us to our work site without incident). At the church I got the team oriented; conferred with the site boss and then went to the airport with Eric to pick up a team returning on a “puddle jumper” from the island of La Gonave in the Bay of Port au Prince. We got back to the Guest House in time for lunch (Eric doesn’t like to miss meals) and I spent the afternoon trying to get my desk reorganized and my head into the game.

After supper the staff had a cake for Tom and Wendy who were celebrating their 25^th wedding anniversary. I chatted for a while with some of the visiting team members and then retired to my room to unpack and start building my nest for the next 3 months.

Days 89 – 91 (12/12 – 14)

Monday – We were up early and had another great Les Cayes Guest House breakfast; then started our long drive back to Petionville. We drove for about an hour along the Caribbean coast; another hour over the mountains; then another hour along the Atlantic coast to Mellier, where we stopped to check on the progress of our projects there. The ride was testament to the fact that Haiti truly is a beautiful country. The eye appeal decreases proportionately the closer you get to Port au Prince on the hour and a half trek back to Petionville.

We arrived back at the Petionville Guest House at around 3:00 PM and spent the remainder of the day catching up on emails and issues that accumulated while we were gone and tried to get prepared for a couple of important meetings tomorrow. We all slept well after 3 long days on the road.

Tuesday – This will be my last full day in-country before heading home for Christmas. The meetings today will be in many ways the culmination of my last 3 months in Haiti. The first meeting at 9:00 AM was a meeting that I had been working and praying for – for 10 months and was the primary reason I returned to Haiti. It was the first ever introduction class for better building standards in Haiti. (See slideshow #23) We had 27 Engineers and Site Bosses (Contractors) in attendance. I asked Head Engineer Roger Laplanche and Engineer Derly Charles to present the material so that the information was coming from Haitians to Haitians. They did an excellent job and every participant was very attentive and eager to learn. I sat there nodding my head with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. I am certain that all Methodist projects in Haiti will now be built to a much higher, 7.0 earthquake resistant standard. Amen.

The meeting in the afternoon was a meeting of the Haiti Joint Leadership Team. This team consists of the top people from UMCOR, UMVIM and EMH and was a year-end review of progress made in 2011 and an overview of plans for 2012 for the partnership of these three organizations. I was asked to present a report on the Haiti Home Assistance Program and the Guest House Renovation Project. Both of which were positively received. I was impressed with how much had been accomplished by UMCOR/UMVIM in 2011. These are truly hard-working, talented and dedicated people and I’m very proud to be working with them. The bottleneck for moving these programs forward in 2012 seems to be the EMH (Haiti Methodist Church). Since we are in Haiti at their request and working on their projects, they have the final say on projects and as I have said many times, Haitians have a very difficult time making timely decisions. It is probably the biggest frustration we have. However, the overall outcome of the meeting was positive.

It was another eventful day and as I was packing for my return in the morning I was filled with pride for 2011 and great hope for 2012.

Tuesday – I had time this morning, before leaving for the airport, to say my good-byes to the staff and wish them all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - I even got a call from Pastor Paul (EMH President) thanking me for my service to the church and to Haiti.

As the planes’ wheels lifted off of the tarmac and I was homeward bound for the 3^rd time this year, I realized that each time I leave, I leave a bigger chunk of my heart in Haiti.

Happy New Year, Friends! As most of you know, I returned home on December 14^th for the Holidays. The last few days in Haiti were eventful and hectic and I ran out of time to write. Then, catching up with friends and family kept me pretty busy when I got home. However, now that the Holidays are over and I’m back in Haiti, I’ll try to catch you up.   

Days 86 - 88 (12/09 – 12/11)

Friday – Well in typical fashion, I didn’t get to the building supply store yesterday to buy the materials for the new tool cabinet. But, this morning I grabbed a ride with the last team of the year heading to the airport for their return home. (When we dropped them off at the airport, I was surprised to see construction crews starting to work on the terminal building. It was heavily damaged in the earthquake and most of it was condemned and unusable - which made getting in and out of Haiti that much more difficult. We’re starting to see more and more infrastructure projects starting – roads, drains, government buildings - a hopeful sign that maybe the government is starting to function). After dropping off the team, Oge and I stopped at MSC Supply, a Haitian Home Depot wannabe. It has more things than most Haitian supply stores, but falls short of even a small stateside store in depth of material. It’s always a challenge to redesign a project in your head when you can’t find the material you’re looking for. But, we did our best and loaded the blue tap tap and headed back to the Guest House. In case you’re wondering, this took all morning.

The afternoon was spent actually building the cabinet and I got it almost done before I ran out of daylight.

Saturday – Right after breakfast I went back to my cabinet project and it finished in about an hour. Then it was time to clean up and pack for a couple of days. Tom and I were headed for Las Cayes on the southwest coast of Haiti (see map). We were meeting Sarah there, who had left yesterday with her friend Jenn and a couple of her associates from Haiti Health Ministries. We were going to look at a couple of sites in the area to see if they were suitable for sending teams. So, by noon Tom, Spana, our driver, and I were in the D-Max headed for Les Cayes.

It’s about a 5 hour drive to Les Cayes and it seems the farther you get from Port-au-Prince the prettier Haiti becomes. You drive along the coast on the Atlantic side; then over a range of mountains; around a lake; then down along the coast on the Caribbean side. Even though it’s a long ride in a 4x4 truck over less than freeway quality roads, it was enjoyable. We arrived in Les Cayes just before sundown and met Sarah at the Guest House that she had worked at a few years ago, before joining UMVIM. We had a nice dinner at the Guest House and then met Jenn and her HHM friends, her fiancé and a couple of his friends and went out to sample the nightlife in Les Cayes. It was very “local”, very fun evening.

Sunday – After a great breakfast of pancakes with homemade mango syrup, we jumped into the D-Max and headed off to Dasmas. It was a 1 ½ hour trip over rough roads through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve seen in Haiti. Needless to say, Dasmas is a very remote site and although far removed from the earthquake epicenter, the church and school were in need of serious repairs. There have been several non-UMVIM teams working at Dasmas over the past few years. They have put a new roof and a fresh coat of paint on the school buildings, but progress on the church has been very slow. By sending UMVIM teams with matching funds, we can speed the process up considerably. However, before we send teams there, there are several structural issues that will have to be addressed.

On the way back to Les Cayes we experienced an “incident”. Two pickup trucks full of people sped around us and disappeared up the road in a cloud of dust. As we approached a curve in the road 2 men came running around the corner followed by several baseball sized rocks. They stopped and picked up some rocks and fired back and ducked as more rocks came their way. Spana quickly backed the D-Max up and got us out of the line of fire and we watched from a distance as the rock fight continued. Spana finally had enough and jumped out of the truck and walked up the road with his arms in the air in a “What the heck are you guys doing” gesture. Now, Spana is ex-Haitian military and a gentle giant kind of a guy, but he has a look that would intimidate Attilla the Hun. But, before he reached the curve a local policeman on a little motorcycle came roaring up the road and went around the corner. Seconds later one of the pickups came skidding around the corner - heading right for us – followed closely by the cop on the motorcycle. We thought at the very least they would take off the door of our truck that Spana had left open when he got out. But, somehow they got around us without a scratch. When we finally got around the corner we saw that the other pickup had skidded off the road and was nose down in a ditch. No one seemed to be injured by the accident or the rocks, so we continued on our way. We were thankful they didn’t have guns.

We got back to Les Cayes in time to have a late lunch with Jenn and her friends at Gelle (jelly) Beach. There was a Haitian equivalent of a food court with a large common outdoor eating area with several small food providers. I had Lambi which is strips of conch fried in a pepper infused oil. It was one of the best meals that I’ve had in Haiti.

After lunch we took a short walk along the beach and then left to look at the site in Tabor. Tabor is just a few miles from Les Cayes and a site where non-UMVIM teams have been building a new church for several years. At the current rate of construction we figured it would take about 20 years to complete. Again, UMVIM teams could really speed up the process. And again we found several serious structural problems that will need to be addressed.

After a long and event filled day, we returned to the Les Cayes Guest House for dinner and a welcome bed.