Days 345 – 351

11/11 – 11/17

Sunday 11/11 – Sundays are often quiet days – days when we can get away to the beach or the pool at Hotel Caribe or Ebolele – away from our 24/7 lifestyle - for a little R & R. Today, however, was not one of those. We had several teams arriving and leaving and I had a barrage of emails that needed responses. Most of the issues were regarding the EMH Pilot Project. We are still trying to resolve the ongoing issue of the unfinished World Hand Alliance houses. We originally contracted with them for 10 houses in Mellier and 20 houses in Carre Four. Due to many circumstances they have been unable to complete any of them in a years’ time. We subsequently gave 10 houses in Carre Four to 2 Haitian contractors and have been working with WHA to at least complete the 10 Mellier houses. To date that has not happened. We are now in the process of putting the remaining 10 Carre Four houses out for bid.

Monday 11/12 – Today I had a meeting with Engineer Laplanche to go over the contract with Engineer Samuel Abicher to complete the Mellier church structure. If you recall, the Mellier church was the first VIM project site started under the Haiti Response Plan and the largest VIM/HRP project in Haiti. Unfortunately, it also became the biggest albatross. In the rush to start helping after the earthquake there was inadequate planning and forethought given to the initial projects. I told Tom when I first came to Haiti that the biggest problem we had was that there were too many ministers and not enough engineers. Consequently, the costs were out of control and it became apparent we were not going to be able to complete the church with team funding. UMCOR decided to provide the funds to complete the basic structure and the community will step up to do the finish work. Many lessons were learned and in a way it has helped me to able to set up standardized construction management procedures for all EMH projects - nothing like having a bad example to point to.

Tuesday 11/13 – With Jim Gulley back in town, it’s time for our monthly Haiti Joint Leadership Team meeting. This is the meeting with EMH, UMCOR and UMVIM. The frustrating part for me is that 7 of the 10 people on the team are the same people that I’ve been meeting with all month long on other committees. However, it’s good to try to coordinate our activies – particularly between UMCOR and UMVIM. Today we spent a lot of time explaining the restructuring of the EMH Site Review Committee into the EMH Construction and Property Committee.

Wednesday 11/14 – Today is my Linda’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Sweety. It’s the second year I’ve been out of the country for her birthday. It’s a good thing that she loves Haiti as much as I do and understands why I’m here.

Engineers Derly, Laplanche and I made a final visit to Olivier to go over Derly’s preliminary drawings and verify dimensions and detail for the church refurbishment prior to putting them out to bid. We met again with some of the church elders and while they were excited about finally getting their church repaired, they were disappointed that we weren’t going to make it bigger. It’s a common complaint and we have to continually explain that there is a limited amount of money available. If they want it bigger they will have to figure out a way for the community to fund it. At that time, reality usually sets in.

Thursday 11/15 – My current contract expires in 4 days and I will be going home for the Holidays and return in January. Since I have site visits scheduled for my last 3 days, I am trying to get my things in order and pack for my return. I tend to be a pack rat wherever I am and have accumulated quite a bit of stuff over the past 14 months. I need to downsize what I’m going to leave in-country. Since I will only be here 2 weeks at a time and can bring things I need with me, I should be able to get rid of or take home at least half of my stuff.

Friday 11/16 – Before the end of the year I have to prepare a detailed progress report on the Haiti Home Assistance Program for UMCOR in order to get the final funding payment from the grant. This includes 9 new homes, 5 repaired homes and the 8 unit Guest House Staff Annex. The Annex is in my backyard, so I can keep a pretty close watch on it, but the houses are scattered all over the country side. Some of them I haven’t seen in over a month. So – today Oge, Spana and I are going on site visits.

The first site is Eric’s home. Eric has worked for the Guest House for 42 years and his wife Lise has worked there for 25 years. Their home was destroyed in the earthquake. The new house is coming along a little slower than some, but he’s making progress. His property is on a very steep hillside and all of the homes are virtually built on top of one another. His big heart compelled him to build a huge cistern under the house so that his neighbors would have a source for water(rain water).

Right next to Eric is Ton Tonette’s house. She is the head cook at the Guest House and also has worked there for over 40 years. Her house is at a lower level and was partially damaged. The repairs are nearly complete and will allow for a 2^nd story addition in the future if she wishes.

The next 2 houses are also close to one another and on another steep hillside. Gerda is a housekeeper at the Guest House and in fact takes care of the house I live in and does my laundry. She lost her home and her husband in the earthquake. Her home is about 80% complete and is in the interior finish stage. Johnny is a driver at the Guest House and lost his home in the earthquake. The government took his land for a new road right-of-way and gave him barely enough money to buy another lot. The plans for his new house exceeded the amount available in the grant, so he is putting in all the foundation and stem walls and finishing only 3 rooms to move into. He will hopefully finish the rest of the house over time.

Saturday 11/17 – Four more site visits are scheduled for today. Two are home repairs. The first one we looked at was Marie Claudes. She has been an assistant cook and housekeeper at the Guest House for over 20 years. Her husband was a carpenter but was severely injured in an accident several years ago and is disabled. The repairs to her home have been quite extensive, but are coming along nicely. They are able to live in the house again while they finish.

The second house was Patrick’s. Patrick is an interpreter and in fact was the interpreter for the first team I was on in Haiti. His home was severely damaged but deemed repairable and he qualified for only the repair amount. However, when he started reconstruction they discovered that most of the house had to come down. Unfortunately he was locked into the repair limit under the grant. He has done an outstanding job of getting a livable structure built for his family but doesn’t have the funding available to really finish it. I’m hoping we can raise some additional funds for him somehow.

We also visited two new home sites. The first was Maxo’s. Maxo is a driver and ace mechanic at the Guest House. His house is about 60% complete. It is built on a hillside lot and required some extensive excavation and retaining walls.

The last house for the day was Oge’s. He has been a driver for the Guest House for about 12 years and 2 years ago was also hired on a ½ time basis as a Site Coordinator for the Haiti Relief Plan. Since the earthquake, the area that his house was in has become a high crime area. So, for the safety of his family, he decided to sell the  property and build his new home as a second story addition to his parent’s house. Since he didn’t have any site work to do his house went up quickly and is 100% complete.

Sunday 11/18 – Jim Gulley and I left early in the morning to go to Mellier. Our goal is to visit all 10 of the World Hand Alliance home sites. Negotiations have been going on for months and the Project Committee has finally made the decision to cancel WHA’s contract and hire another contractor to complete the homes. Jim and I want to document the current status of the 10 sites in Mellier.

We had hoped to attend the first hour of the church service in Mellier and then start our visits. However, the Pastor made such a fuss about introducing us to the congregation that we couldn’t sneak out and were stuck for the entire 2 ½ hours. We were able to get to all 10 sites but got back to Petionville rather late.

Monday 11/19 – Today I return home. I have been in Haiti for 14 months and although I have been home several times during that span and will be returning again in January on a ½ time basis, it is an end of my full time in-country involvement. It is the beginning of a new phase in the Haiti recovery plan. We are transitioning from the earthquake recovery phase to the community development and sustainability phase. There is still recovery work to be done, particularly in the area of housing, but most of the damaged EMH infrastructure (churches, schools and clinics) has been repaired under the Haiti Response Plan. The funding for the HRP runs out in October 2013 and we hope to have completed all priority projects by then. In the final months of the program we will be planning how and in what form the program will continue in beyond October. I’m excited to be a part of that planning process. I’m also excited to be able to spend the holidays with my family and friends at home.