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
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