2nd Day Working in Petit-Goave

Day 4

2^nd Day Working in Petit-Goave

Today is day four of our mission here in Haiti and the 2^nd day of work at the Petit-Goave site. We did not do any work of consequence today although we spent a lot of time playing with the  kids and watching the Haitian men apply plaster to the outside of the church activity center.  They are expert at applying wet, soft mud (mortar mix) to the side of the building in a rapid and exact fashion at the right thickness.

Applying Mortar Coating Inside

We helped the masonry team by mixing mortar and concrete as they apply it to the inside of the activity center today.  Although there wasn’t enough work for the 8 of us to participate we worked as a team and took turns shoveling and sifting.  The highlight though of today was a surprise visit by four youths and other several other smaller Haitian kids who came by to see what we were doing and to see what the “blanc” (white) people were doing.  We played soccer and Frisbee in the afternoon and learned more about them as they learned more about us. 

Haitian Kids at the Work Site

As one might expect, they are all good soccer players. One young man of about 15 years, had exceptional command of English and was also well versed in the Methodist religion.  Nancy thought he could easily be trained in ministry or as a teacher.  All the people here and especially the youth and children are very friendly and affectionate.  Many of the younger children held our hands as we walked around the site and stroked our heads.  It’s something that I think is pretty common when they don’t see many people like us here.

We have all agreed we are a team of individuals that have come together to do a job in Haiti, but we are having a hard time understanding what that job looks like and how it is to be accomplished.  At about 3PM we came home and had a long discussion amongst the group regarding  how we can be more productive with our time here since it is limited; tomorrow is Sunday we only have 2 work days left.  We all wish that there wasn’t such a lack of meaningful  work . We did not make any world changing conclusions but believe we must pursue most of our questions and concerns in some official manner with the UMVIM/UMCOR non-governmental organization (NGO) that arranged most of our accommodations and partially funded our project here.  Steve and I calculated that UMVIM with the UMCOR matching fund is bringing about $1.5 million dollars a year into the Haitian economy assuming that there are at least 3 teams a week down here for most of the year.  Of the $43 million that UMCOR has been given for Haiti relief efforts, about 10% of that is being used to match UMVIM volunteer dollars for each project.  There is about $3 million more remaining in the fund which was just released for projects in October of last year.

Later that evening we had an informative discussion with Pastor Admirable about the Methodist church her e in Haiti.  He said Haiti has 13 Methodist districts which each have a district superintendent.  Pastor Maude is the Petit-Goave district superintendent.  She and Pasto Admirable have 24 churches each that they have to attend to in this district; it takes them 6 months to see each of them (one every Sunday).  There are approximately 45 lay preachers in the Petit-Goave district.  There are about 7,000 to 8,000 Methodists in Haiti and about 184 schools are sponsored by the Methodists here.

Pastor Admirable’s House

Front Yard of Pastor Admirable’s House

The weather has been warm, close to 80 degrees, but it is not too humid so we can handle the heat during the day.  Although it’s been fairly hot at night, each of our rooms has a fan.  Unfortunately, Pastor Admirable’s house is located directly adjacent to a disco which plays very loud dance, rap, reggae and Haitian music late into the night.  Most of us have been averaging 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night.  They love music here as every night a truck or van drives down the road in front of our house advertising loudly that there are more dance places in Petit-Goave.

Tomorrow we are going to attend church service with Pastor Maude outside of Fond-Doux in the mountains at the Eglis-Methodiste De Nabosse church and are going to get an early start with wake-up at 6AM, breakfast at 6:30AM and to commence our journey after 7AM.  That’s all for now.

-          Bruce Stirling and Bob Dixon                            

Day 3 - Working in Petit-Goave

Day 3 – February 25, 2011

Working in Petit-Goave

Today is Friday and after a good breakfast we walked back to the work site and were quickly assigned to several tasks that involved moving building stones, bricks and other earthquake debris out of the building.  Our project is at Pastor Maude’s complex

The Arkansas UMVIM team helped by sifting limestone rock through wire mesh which was used for mixing mortar that went on the building and helping to cut metal pieces with a chop saw for reconstructing windows. 

Sifting Limestone for Making Mortar

Some of the UMVIM Team from Arkansas; Bubba and Mike

Haitian metal workers also spot welded metal into decorate covers for the windows.  The major metal work project was a beautiful door that I understood was going on the new church being built in Fond-Doux.  I had no idea that metal fabrication down here was such an important skill. 

Fabricating Metal for Windows and Doors

 

Seeing this project and how the people here get by with so little, I can’t help but admire them and how resourceful they are with having so little to work with.  They try and make the most of what they have and much of the useable materials get recycled.  It makes me think why I need all the things I do when they complete essentially the same tasks with a fraction of the supplies and resources.  Like Steve commented, “when you don’t have a Home Depot or Lowes down the street, projects become a major challenge.” 

Our primary task was to clean up the inside of the church activity building while the Haitians worked on the mortar and plaster.  I think the goal is to rebuild the exterior and interior walls and replace the windows and doors and then paint everything. This was physical labor and the conditions were hot and dusty but everyone in our group was right there lending a hand and helping each other as best they could.  Everyone was smiling and happy despite how hot and dusty the conditions were.  While we worked, 2 UMCOR administrators visited our site to check on our progress at Pastor Maud’s as well as other sites in the Petit-Goave region.  Nancy, Steve, Mary Margaret and Ricardo discussed with them some of our concerns regarding funding, organization and project understanding.  Only a few children came to the work site today.  I think there will be more as they find out that we are here.  No matter where we go, it seems like we attract a lot of attention.  Almost like you are a movie star back home.

Here are a few pictures of our first day working at Petit-Goave.

Cleaning Rubble from Inside

Plastering the Walls with Mortar

Ricardo Speaks with UMCOR Representatives

 - Bruce Stirling

Day 2 - Petionville to Petit-Goave

Day 2 – February 24, 2011

Petionville to Petit-Goave

Today we travelled from the Petionville guest house to our job site in Petit-Goave where we will be for the next 6 days.  The Petit-Goave site is in a more remote area and we are told less reliable for internet service so our posts and emails made be delayed be a few days.  I'll try and upload these photos as we have more time.

This day started with  a great breakfast at 7AM with a number of UMVIM groups from Washington D.C., Texas and New Hampshire.  We then packed and then left for Petit-Goave. There were the 8 of us from Vashon and Gail, our driver Axel plus our 27 year old interpreter, Ricardo.  Gail was meeting another UMVIM group in Petit-Goave.  All UMVIM groups in Haiti are assigned an interpreter who is hired by UMVIM to assist in language barriers at the work site and throughout out stay here.

Leaving Petionville Guest House

Our 11 Passenger Van

Our luggage was transported in one van while we left in an 11 passenger Kia.  Seeing the streets of Petionville again and on through to Port au Prince and into the countryside to the southwest of Port au Prince was more interesting today than it was yesterday.  The colorful Tap Taps (Haitian Taxis) were packed with people and we saw them on almost every street.

Colorful Tap Taps

Typical Street Vendors

The earthquake damage was more evident now as we traveled through some of the steeper parts of Petionville and back down into Port au Prince.  We also noticed several “tent” camps where crowds of people were living in stressed conditions.  Ricardo told us that many Haitians were still living in tents because of the fear of another earthquake and didn’t want to move back to their homes.  We also saw many homes being repaired along the way.

Evidence of the Earthquake

Repairing the Damage

After a short time we came to an area that had some of the worst living conditions we had seen yet. We all were not sure what to expect once getting here but this may have been more like my vision of what Haiti was going to look like.  It’s difficult for us to understand the way Haitians can live with garbage littering the streets.  Sometimes the smell of burning garbage, food and dirty water were difficult to take along the drive.  Dirt and dust from the roads mixed together with uncontrolled surface water runoff combined for what I would consider unhealthy living conditions.  Although it’s a stark contrast to where we live, the unsanitary conditions (on the surface) don’t seem to affect the people here as they go about their daily lives like we would on a typical Thursday morning in Tacoma, Seattle or Vashon.

Garbage Everywhere

One of the most shocking sights to me was this garbage landfill and an example of how poor some of the people are here.  We saw burning piles of garbage and kids sifting through the trash in the midst of the all the smoke and ash.  I wondered what kind of respiratory stress these conditions must have on them.

Burning Garbage at a Roadside Landfill

As we left the crowded street of the city, the road opened up and the bay appeared on our right.  There we saw vegetation typical to a tropical area; banana trees, sugar cane, mangos. There were quite a few less people as we made our way further into the countryside.  We could also see some of the mountains surrounding the bay above Port au Prince.

Mountains Overlooking Port au Prince

The driving, which was generally crazy and uncontrolled in the City, now became a bit more dangerous as the road opened up and rate of speed become significantly greater.  It reminded me of driving in Mexico where road hazards were common and cars and trucks all raced each other down the highway to be first.  It didn’t seem to matter who or what might be in the way; it was drive faster than the person in front of you.

We encountered some significant road damage and had to slow down at these places and where some speed bumps or Topes were.  There were also several damaged bridges that we saw along the way.  This particular bridge had a by-pass where we drove right through the river.

By-Pass for Damaged Bridge

After about 2 hours we arrived at Petit-Goave and met with Pastor Maude, a soft spoken woman with a strong accent who spoke fairly good English. After some discussion with Nancy about doing some children’s activities, she arranged for us to attend church with her somewhere “up in the mountains” on Sunday where we could be closer to some of the children.  She said that although we could go to the local children’s school, they had over 200 students and that unless we gave gifts to all the children, it made things awkward if a someone didn’t receive something . 

Meeting Pastor Maude in Petit-Goave

Pastor Maud then took us to look at the project we’d be working on and discussed with the local foreman what we’d be doing the next day. The project consisted of repairing a meeting center on the property that was damaged in the earthquake.  Local Haitians were plastering the exterior of the building with stucco that day.

Plaster on the Meeting Center Exterior

We left Pastor Maud’s place and walked down to a house that is owned by Pastor Admirable who is also part of the Methodist church and UMCOR/UMVIM support efforts in the region.  Pastor Admirable lives about a ½ mile down the street from Pastor Maude.  We are staying at his house for lodging and food while we go back and forth to Pastor Maud’s to work.  We took a leisure walk down to the beach with Ricardo and relaxed until dinner time. 

Walking to the Beach

Beach in Petit-Goave

Discussing Our Expectations During Lunch

After that we had some engaging discussion about our thoughts and expectations so far on the trip.  We discussed whether the UMCOR/UMVIN organization needed a local manager to oversee all the projects under their combined efforts.  Someone to identify each project’s specific needs prior to groups coming to Haiti.  For the 8 months leading up to this trip including the first days we spent with Pastor Tom, nobody could tell us what we were going to be helping with.  Without knowing in advance what we were doing it became evident that some or all of the tools we brought may be obsolete.  It seemed to some of us that knowing what each project would be in advance of our trip would have helped in our preparation.  Steve told us again, as he did before our trip, to keep our expectations low and to be flexible.  Our roles would be much clearer as to what types of work we’d be doing very soon.  Some of the things that concerned me were: why 2 teams at one location; what would we do; what was our purpose; do they need us here;  do they have the skills to successfully organize and run more than one work site.  Each of us hopes that our questions will soon be answered tomorrow.

- Bruce Stirling

Vashon, Washington to Port au Prince, Haiti

Our group of 8 arrives safely at the Petionville Guest House after nearly 24 hours of travel.  We are introduced to Pastor Tom Vencus and Dena, another UMVIM member from Minnesota who is volunteering here in Petionville for 3 months.  Things appeared a bit tenious at first when Bob Dixon wasn't sure he'd be able to go as a standby on a 99% full flight but our hearts and spirits were lifted as we he walked down the row to his seat as the plane doors were closing.  The only tradegy on the flight was the chain saw which Alaska Airlines wouldn't allow because, although new and still in the box, contained gas vapors.  We hope that another UMVIM group can bring it down here.

Bob W. and Bob D. along with Vonnie, Sandie and Bruce traveled together from Seattle and met up with Nancy and Mary (who left early from Seattle) in the Miami Airport.  The airport seemed to be bustling with foreigners from all over the carribean.  We posed for a group photo in the Miami Airport before bording our flight to Port au Prince. There was a mix of amerians and haitians on the plane.




Group Photo in Miami: standing L to R, Mary, Vonnie, Nancy, Bob D., Sandie, Bruce, Bob W., and Steve 


Upon arrival, the atmosphere surrounding the Port au Prince Airport was busy and festive.  A live creole band greated us as we were transported to customs.  Here's some video of entering customs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlQLcIPTmu0

I took a few photos of our entry into the country and customs area and of the craziness at the customs and baggage claim and of Jackson (the one arm baggage director) and his cadre of plaid shirt and red hat assitants. 

Entering Port au Prince Immigration

Bus Ride from Gate to Customs Terminal

All of a sudden it seemed like everyone at the baggage area was wearing plaid shirts and red hats as they argued over who would take our bags.  Steve put it nicely in a prior post, "it was like running the baggage gaunlet!"

Jackson's Cadre and Running the Baggage Gaunlet

Driving in the front seat of a passenger truck in a third world country like Haiti is an experience I think everyone should consider taking on.  The smells, sights and sounds of Port au Prince and what poverty in a third world county is really like came home to me during the hour and a half drive from the airport to Petionville (a distance of not more than 5 or 6 miles).  Here are a couple links to some video I took during the drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaCYhAtf00s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RyyIJcWbHg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsU8bHtOQwE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t71TepOCCrQ

There was some evidence of the earthquake in form of rubble from damaged structures but much of that has been cleaned up in the Port au Prince area.  Some of the areas we may see tomorrow may have more evidence of the damage as we go closer to the epicenter and futher away from Port au Prince.  The road up here to the guest house was so overly crowded it didn't seem possible to move.  Men, women and children spilled onto the streets where sidewalks didn't exist and dust, diesel and smoky exhaust from vehicles was everywhere.  The roads suffered severe damage and it was evident.  I didn't see any form of traffic control and there were many near misses with motorcycles and bicycles. Our driver wouldn't stop honking his horn...I wasn't sure if he was saying "hi or get out of my way". 

Vendors and their shelters were almost continuous along the streets up to the guest house with their goods littering every busy intersection.  There is a definate lack of sanitation with everday garbage everywhere mixed in with roadside ditches running with water. 

Despite the perceived chaos it seems like people here exist in this community in a way that we would probably say couldn't be possible.  From the Haitians whom I talked with, everyone seemed to be friendly and able to get along.  It's clear though that many are poor and lack basic needs like a healthy diet.

We'll that's all for today.  Tomorrow we leave for Petiteguave where we'll be for the remainder of the trip.  It may take up to 3 hours to get there. We were told that the guest house there has internet access but the reliability of the system is questionable.  We hope to post more details tomorrow.  I hope those that view these updates post comments or questions.  It's hard to put down in words everything that is happening here.

Bruce Stirling, February 23, 2011

Sunday we were commissioned by the Vashon United Methodist Church for our VIM work in Haiti. That service, the journals we received from the Care Committee and support from family and friends definitely give us the feeling of being surrounded by the love of our communies.

Monday, it feels like a quiet time of preparation and centering on the work ahead. Our suitcases and bins of tools, power saw, childrens activity materials, and soap pockets are all packed. Tuesday, February 22 later in the day we will fly out of Sea Tac airport and arrive the next morning in Port-au-Prince airport. After an orientation and a night's rest we will travel in vans to our work site and Methodist guest house in Petit Goave.

Nancy Vanderpool

February 8th Email from Steve

Hi all,

This will be the last report from Haiti this trip.  We fly home tomorrow and I will be coming back with the Vashon Island United Methodist Church team in two weeks.

Today we took a teeth rattling, bone shaking and bladder splitting ride up to the the village of Furcy.  Furcy is just below the top of a mountain that lies two ridges south of us here.  It is about 5,000 feet in elevation.  The village consists of a clinic, a church a school and some small farm huts.  We took a very bumpy road up the 12 miles from here, a few hundred feet above sea level, to the top of the first ridge, and through a saddle that connected to the next ridge.

The road up was steep, bumpy and crowded for the first half  the distance or so.  As we climbed in elevation the soil changed from the chalky white rock that is around Port au Prince to very red volcanic soil.  When we got to the top of the second ridge, we parked the van and walked about 3/8 mile down a steep trail to Furcy.  Furcy is an agricultural area and the mountains are terraced from the tops, over 5,000 feet to the bottom.  The terrain looks a lot like the steep portions of Hawaii with the long, steep, narrow, parallel vertical draws that run top to bottom, except it is almost all cleared and terraced.   At Furcy the mountain top has pine trees, banana trees and bamboo where it has not been cleared and terraced.  There are also black raspberries that look just like ours at home.  The farm plots are fairlyy small and they grow all kinds of produce. When we were there they were harvesting cabbage.  We were told that because of the poor roads and infrastructure about 60% of the produce they grow goes bad by the time they can get it down to marked.  The view from Furcy is beautiful, but you can see some serious erosion in various places.  The crops looked good, but there were lots of areas you could tell had been farmed but were not any more. We were told that the last hurricane pretty much destroyed the entire local farm "industry" but that seed and fertilizer had been brought back in and production is picking up again.

Today was clinic day and there were a number of Haitians waiting for the doctor and nurse.  They come to the clinic one day three weeks a month.  Although Furcy itself is quite small the school and clinic serve a population of thousands.  We were told people will walk 10 miles to the clinic from further out in the mountains. Unlike around Port au Prince, most of the homes were not concrete block, but were either hand split lapped wood siding over bamboo frames or mud and stick waddle.  The homes were about 15 feet plus or minus on a side and most were one or two rooms.  There are some concrete block homes, but they did not seem to be the majority like down in the city.  Some of the buildings have electricity.  They run it up from further down the mountain using barbed wire.  It is strange looking up and seeing barbed wire run through the trees.  Insulators are anything that won't conduct electricity.  One was a plastic dish soap type bottle stuck on a cut off limb.  The wire was run through the loop formed between the handle of the bottle.

We also visited the school.  We packed in school supplies for the kids, along with a few toys.   The kids and principal were very happy to have visitors.  As I told you before all the schools operated in Haiti are fund by churches and other NGO's.  The kids all wear school uniforms that identify which denomination's school they attend.  As you go around in Haiti you see kids in all kinds of different colored school uniforms.  At Furcy there was a real contrast between the bright clean school uniforms the kids wore and the clothes the older people were wearing around the farms.  Even though the schools are sponsored by churches and non-profits families still have to pay some tuition for their kids to go to school.  Only about 55% can attend, even with scholarship programs to help.  Many poor families put a very large percentage of their income for the kids to attend.  One of the outcomes of the quake is that the Haitians are even poorer than they were due to the loss of work and the local churches are not getting the revenue from their own members they were, so their having an even harder time supporting the schools and clinics. 

When we got to Furcy, we only met older women, other than the people we met at the medical clinic and school.  The children were at school and the men were at work.  One very elderly woman was weaving large baskets out of strips of bamboo that were about 20 feet long.  Some our members bought some baskets, and she showed us how to push the bottom of the basked up to form sort of a hat shape in the bottom to make it easier to carry on your head.  We visited a number of the homes.  As we started walking back to the van we met some of the men coming home and other kids who were wearing different school uniforms because their school is sponsored by a different denomination.  If I remember correctly, the Methodist Church sponsors over 100 schools in Haiti.

One of our members will be bringing a team back to Furcy in April to start construction on a guest house, so outsiders will have a place to stay when they visit.   This is important for not only medical and construction aid workers, but also for services such as agricultural education for the farmers.   In addition to packing in the school supplies our visit gave our team member a chancee to see where she would be bringing her team before they actually get there.  Furcy  would be a pretty rustic place to just show up at if you didn't have a little advance knowledge.  If you would like to see the Furcy area and some of the Methodist Church's work there you can check out this youtube link for Mountains of Hope for Haiti.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br5LklsXueA

Today is the day the President is supposed to step down, but he did not because the legislature had extended his term until May after the earthquake.  There was a little unrest and we saw lots of police and UN forces on our trip back from Furcy, but we did not witness any problems.

Well I guess that about finishes things up for now.  I will forward some photos after I get home and have a chance to get them from the camera to the PC.

Steve

February 7th Email from Steve

Dear Friends and Family,

This morning our group split up and attended two different churches here.  Two of the three pastor team members from our team were guest preachers at the two churches we attended.  A small group of us attended the big Methodist Church in downtown Port au Prince.  It is right beside the national prison where all the prisoners escaped the day of the earth quake.  I don't think they are still hanging around.  The service was in French and Creole. Our team member Genie Fairhart tried to interpret, but I still didn't get much.  I knew almost all the tunes but the lyrics were different, even translated.  I didn't understand very many words, but could hum along with most of the songs.  The Church is a large concrete building, but the only major damage was the steeple fell over.  Sunday in Haiti in some respects is a little like Sunday was at home back in the 50's; families are all dressed up, little girls in nice dresses, little boys in shirts and ties, women in high heels and men in suits.

Haiti in general seems a little like what medieval Europe must have been like.  The government is for those in power and not the people.  The churches provide the schools, medical clinics, vocational schools and the churches and other NGO's provide the social safety net. Buildings of any substance are surrounded by walls.  The common people just do the best they can.

After Church we picked up the rest of the team back at the Guest house and went out for lunch at the same place we had lunch on the first day.  The inside guard, the one with the revolver let me take his picture.  The outside guard, with the shot gun didn't want me to. 

After lunch we went back down town so everyone could see the collapsed presidential palace and much of the damage we all saw on TV.   It was just amazing again the number of people on the streets.  I don't know how many pictures one can take of collapse buildings, but they are everywhere.  We also saw many tent camps.  We also visited the site of the Hotel Montana where a number of the Methodist Church's mission staff were trapped during the quake, and a couple were killed.  Tomorrow night we will meet with one of the survivors who was trapped for 55 hours.  It will be interesting to hear from him.  Also he is managing some sustainable agriculture programs here and I am anxious to hear about them.

Tomorrow will be our last full day here, for this trip.  We are scheduled to go to one of the outlying project areas to get a little exposure to Haiti away from Port au Prince.  From what we hear the poverty is worse, but the countryside is nicer.

Two of the many lasting impression I will have of this place are how nice the people are, in spite of all their hardships and how much rubble and trash there is eveywhere.  The people are so friendly and patient it is hard to believe.  Many of the people we have worked with who come to work every morning cheerful and friendly, go home to a tent slum after work.  Today when we were down time, I started to realize there is no wonder there is so much of a trash problem.  The tents are wall to wall.  The houses are wall to wall.  The businesses are wall to wall.  If I lived in a 12X12 space with my entire family and my tent touched the tent on three sides of me, I don't know where my trash would go.  The are private cars and trucks, but not a lot.  Most of the people either walk or ride Tap Taps, the little passanger trucks.  I told someone today, that if somebody could bring some front end loaders and just go down the hills scooping up trash and rubble.  They could power a larger power plant and build a causeway to Florida.

By the way,  If you wonder whey I haven't also been contributing to the blog, there are a lot of people sharing this computer.  Everyone has to work with others hovering by asking when are you going to be done, not to mention that this PC is really difficult to use.  The mouse has a mind of its own.  The space bar is in a weird place and there is also the missing key.

So long for now.  I'll try to write again tomorrow and send some pictures when I get home.

Steve

February 6th Email from Steve

Vashon Team,

Just so I don't forget, it would be a good idea to bring extra TP even though we will be staying at the Petit-Goave guest house.  The guesthouse here supplies it, but just not often enough.  I brought eight rolls, just in case and have handed them all out to restock the sleeping area bathrooms.

Also, I thought I would pass on that the guest house here has hand sanitizer in the bathrooms and the dining room.  I brought six of the pocket size bottles and will go through three of them.  I figure I will bring about a half dozen again when I come back.

Everything is going fine and I don't think we are going to have any problems.

One thing I wanted to mention on tools.  The tool supply here is a matter of chasing the curve.  They staff tries to predict what tools the crews will need, but often the crews will identify additional tools that are needed.  Of course they don't have access to those tools, but future crews doing the same king of work will.  So, there is a good chance that we won't personally use all the to tools we bring and will find we could use some we didn't bring, but that's just how it works.

Steve

February 5th Email from Steve

Everyday here makes a lasting impression that will stay the rest of my life, the sights, the sounds, the people, the smells.  Today it was two men bathing in the gutter.  We had a short work day as we reached our main work objectives  for the week so we were able to visit the kids at the Children's Home again.

As we stepped outside the gate in the high wall that surrounds the home, we saw two men bathing in the gutter.  They had a plastic water glass and a bar of soap in a soap dish.  They would dip some water with the glass, pour it on their heads and lather up.  The roads and ditches here are full of garbage and trash and open sewer lines run into the them.  The water was about the color of skim milk.  Just as you start to think that the people here may no longer have homes and may not have many material possessions, but they don't look like they are starving and aren't wearing rags you see something like this and realize just how desperate things are here.  At home we might see someone down on their luck who really needs a bath and a change of clothes, but we don't witness people trying so desperately to maintain some kind of normality under such difficult conditions.  On a sad note, we found out today they may have to close the Children's Home due to funding.  There are 38 kids there from toddlers to teenagers who have no parents or whose parents can't take care of them.  The home is about half little , all of whom were taken in after the quake.

Today was a great reminder of how true it is when they tell disaster response volunteers how important it is to be flexible.  This morning I thought the team I am coming back with later in February was going to work here in this compound again.  Before dinner, I was told we would be staying here, but working on housing a little way from here.  Tonight I found out we are going to Petit-Goave and will be staying in a guest house there and working on some project in that small community.  Right now we are a little ways south of Port au Prince.  Petit-Goave is about another hour west of here on the south shore of the large bay that makes up the west end of the island.  It is supposed to be a prettier area and in a place where it is safer.  The guest house like here is inside a walled area.  It seems just about everything here is.  There are so many variables, so many teams staging though, so many things that need to be done and so many different skill sets, it really keeps the staff here jumping to stay on top of everything and to keep everyone safe and productive, you just can not know for certain what job you will do until you actually do it.

Today we had our first vehicles drive up our new road into the back of the Guest House compound.  It is at about the stage that we would call a sub-grade if we were building a forest road.  Not much gravel on it yet, it still is not smooth and there are still some cobbles and roots sticking up.  However, after driving to the Children's Home today, we realized it is smoother and wider than about 2/3rds of the roads in this area. 

The staff here are happy to have the additional access and it will provide safer access in the event of future problems.  The existing access would best be called an alley at home.  It's just wide enough for a car to drive down. There are car bodies, rubble, scrap piles of steel, welding shops and all kinds of things, not to mention its rough, bumpy and dead ends at the Guest House.  The new access opens onto a main wide road.  When Tom, the manager here told some of the team members we were going to turn the area into a road and they just couldn't see how.  Now after less than we week, it looks more like a road than anything else.  Think of building a logging road at home through a grove of trees with no bull dozers, no excavators, not even horses, just 25 men and two women with 3 picks, 5 shovels, 6 machetes, one ax, one hundred feet cheap rope and one pulley.
The plaster removal on the residence is done enough that the engineer came to check it out today.  He will develop the plan for making structural corrections, so there was no more for us to do until that is done.  They have already started delivering materials so it shows that we are contributing to more than just making more rubble, but we really did make a big pile.

Some of you have asked for the blog address again so here it is  http://www.heartsforh8i.blogspot.com/

That's it for now,
Steve

February 4th Email from Steve

Today our road is starting to look more like a road than a wooded courtyard.  We got the last two trees down and three stumps dug up. 

The crew working on the residence continued to knock off the plaster to expose the underlying wall.

Yesterday we had eight Haitian men working on the road project.  Today we had twenty four.  When the word gets out, people just keep showing up until Pastor Tom, who runs this place tells the interpreter no more.  But even then they continue to drift in and just start working.   When we have all the workers we need, their names are written down in a book and at the end of the day, if their name is not in the book there is no pay.  Usually after being told a couple of time we have all we can pay they leave.

Today I learned the Creole word for rock "roch", pronounced rosh.  And soil "tar" as in terra, pronounced like tear.  I could gesture with my hands to show the size of the roch and point where I wanted them, or point outside the road area and say tar and inside the road area and say roch.  It is a very humbling experience.  Some of our workers are university educated and speak three or four languages.  Some speak only Creole.  It is very difficult to try to communicate very simply with simple words and gestures without insulting some of the workers.  Thankfully they have a good sense of humor and I apologize for being so dumb.  Some of our workers are school language teachers, who finally gave up after not being paid for months and months, so now they are happy to do pick up manual labor.  Our workers worked from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM today and got $10 US, about three times the going rate for unskilled labor.  Don't let anyone tell you these people are poor because they are lazy or lack initiative.  We are starting to build a relationship as I learn more about each other and the work is really getting to be fun.

I've come to some conclusions about what to bring and not to bring, or send, to Haiti.  Yesterday when we had to cut the pipe we broke to patch it, we used three hack saws before we got though the 1" pipe.  So I've decided that good old tools and good new tools are very useful, but cheap stuff just doesn't cut it (so to speak).  The other thing I've concluded is if we are going to bring or send something, it should be something that will be used for a long time or something that is going to get used up.  There is so much trash here and it really doesn't make sense to send stuff the has a very short useful life but is not going to disappear.

Another thing I have learned is that they don't need old shoes and clothes.  The people are actually dressed pretty well and the streets are lined with vendors selling shoes and clothes, used and new.  There is a big emphasis on hiring people to do work so they can buy their own rather than just passing out things in order not to undercut others who are trying to make a living.

This afternoon we drove up above the city to see where one of our interpreter drivers lives and to meet his brothers.  They are both building homes as they can afford materials, one is educated as an engineer and both are college educated language teachers.  It was a steep drive up a very steep bumpy road and then a long walk up a steep driveway that could best be described as a jeep trail on a dry day.  The homes they are building up there were surprisingly nice.

We also visited a medical clinic in their community that was just dedicated.  It was built by Methodist volunteers.  The churches here provide the services such as medical and primary-secondary schooling.  Many church's are community centers, schools, medical clinics and schools.

We'll the dinner bell just rang so I had better go.

Steve

Blog Site - Oregon/Idaho Conference Haiti Team

Vashon Teammates

Here is the blog site for the Oregon / Idaho Conference Haiti Team being led by Brenda St. Clair from Idaho Falls.  We will be leaving Monday January 31.

Also FYI, we are supposed to have computer access at the Methodist Guest House in Petonville where we will be staying.  I am planning on sending a daily personal update that will be forwarded to all of you.

Steve
 
blog = http://www.heartsforh8i.blogspot.com/
email = heartsforh8i@gmail.com
twitter = @heartsforh8i

February 3 Post from Steve Meacham

From: Steven Meacham [mailto:sahomefield@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:19 PM
To: Steven and Dee Ann Meacham
Subject: Thursday in Haiti

Hello from Haiti,

I can't believe it's already Thursday.

Safety First:  After much anticipation they announced the runoff candidates for the presidency.  The second and third place finishers will be in the runoff and number 1 it out.  Based on polling and popular support it was pretty widely felt that the the first place finisher's vote was rigged and that is what all the protests have been about.  The second place finishers are popular with the Haitian people so things are looking up here.

Today we continued on clearing the road route and knocking plaster off the residence.  We had some more Haitian helpers and it is something to see them cut down a 12" tree with a machete.  They are pretty good at getting them down, but not so good at directional falling so we had some lessons on how to do undercuts and back cuts.  I've put the arm on some folks to see if we can't bring back some tools more suitable for the work.

One of the workers put a pick through a water pipe so thee of us from our team and our interpreter got to walk down the market street and try to find a coupling and some other tools.  As I said there are vendors all along the street and the stores are more like old fashion bank teller windows than what we are used.  We had some success and were able to find what we could make do with, but to know what to ask for you have to know the name of the part in English and Creole, and of course a lot of parts and tool names aren't in the interpreter's vocabulary so they don't know what to call it in Creole.  We finally found a store we could actually go in and look at the inventor.  Walking down the street is a thrill.  If there are sidewalks the vendors are blocking them.  They gutters are full of trash and the vehicles are zooming by, so you have to watch out all the time.  In spite of everything the people look fit and happy.  Of course I'd look a lot more fit if I only had one meal of beans and rice a day also.

This afternoon we visited the children's home.  We did crafts and played games with the kids.  At the end they sang some songs for us and we thought we'd teach the the Hookie Pookie, but they already knew it.  It was a lot of fun and the kids were great.

A team from New York arrived this afternoon and two semi trailer loads of relief supplies arrived at a building at the back of the compound that is being used by another NGO.  They had everything from medical buckets and health buckets, like we send to UMCOR all the way to a medical examining table.

Tomorrow we are going to continue of the road and the residence and I am going to look at some project work for the Vashon Island Team when we come on the 22nd.

Check out the blog again for some photos.

There is a line behind me waiting for the computer so so long for now.

Steve

Message from Steve (February 3, 2011)

Hello all.

The first thing I want to tell you is that we are all well.  They are still awaiting the official announcement of the Presidential election runoff candidates and there have been some localized protests, but nothing near here.  The guest house checked with the teams out in the field and there is nothing going on where they are either.  UMCOR met with the other NGO's and Agencies in Port au Prince and so we are getting briefings here on the status of things.

Actually we are in Petion-Ville which is about 12 miles from downtown Port au Prince. 

Today we started knocking the plaster off of the residence so the engineers could look at the wall structure.  The construction is red brick pillers on the corners and either side of doors and windows, filled in between with rocks and rubble mortared together.  There is no evidence of reinforcing and it looks like the residence has racked to one side.  There are some large cracks, and the building has settled a little bit and with a slight shift to one side.  Most of the damage looks recent as very few of the cracks have been painted over, but they feel this house is repairable.  I'm not so sure it would be at home, but there is so much to do and they need to keep everything they can that may still be usable.

Half of the team worked on preparing for the new drive way.  The first thing they had them do was to haul a lot of rocks away in buckets.  We worked out a new plan with the coordinator here that rather than hauling the rocks off, we are going to use them to start to build a road bed for the driveway so they won't have to dig as much or need to bring in as much gravel when they are done.  We are using some basic logging road construction methods, filling in and covering larger rocks with smaller rocks to make a firmer road that will hold up better and need less surfacing. 

Most of the team spent this afternoon putting together health kits for the people around here.  They are also going to put together some food packages.  Two of us kept working on the road project this afternoon.  We relocated some plants and dug up a small tree that is in the way.  As we dug the trench to relocate the plants, all the ground we dug up was old rubble.  Everything seems to be made of rubble built in rubble. Two of the Haitian workers are working on taking down a couple of larger trees that will need to go.  They are doing everything with dull axes and could really use a chain saw so some of us who are going to return as team leaders are going to see if we can't come up with one.  Tomorrow we will start rearranging the rocks to begin the road bed.  This is all hand work, picks, shovels, buckets and one wheel barrow.  Think of Cool Hand Luke.  There is no heavy equipment available.  The remainder of the Team will continue knocking plaster off the house wall.  We will also be working some other site visits in while we are here.

Food has been great.  They are feeding us three meals a day and it is very good, and lots of it.  The Methodist Guest house here used to be a commercial guest house.  It's almost like being at a small hotel, except we only have a dribble of cold water for showering and we have to remember to be careful not to drink the water or rinse out tooth brushes in it, and to wash our hands with soap then hand sanitizer, A LOT.

Some of us were a little disappointed when we first learned that we would be working primarily at the main guest house and school compound and not one of the outlying areas, but we have lots of contact with the Haitian people who work here or come to sell their art and the kids.  One of our members speaks French and is learning Creole very quickly and that is a big help.  Everywhere a person can go here there is so much to be done and we have to start somewhere, so it might as well be here, since the folks here are the coordination center for the projects at the outlying areas, and provide employment and schooling for so many.

Even the remote areas that were not damaged by the earthquake have suffered from all the displaced people who have left the Port au Prince area, so even if the earthquake didn't damage buildingsacross the whole country, the aftermath impacted everything.

For all the folks who have heard most of the money has not been spent, that is correct.  BUT, there is so little infrastructure here that the aid agencies want to make sure that the efforts beyond the initial emergency sheltering and feeding result in sustainable improvements, and that is going to take a very long time.

We'll I had better go for now, it's time for lights out.

If you want to see some photos and get some more poetic descriptions, clock onto the blog link I sent out.

Steve