2010: A Year in Review

This year has been good to me. It has been jam-packed; from leaving Boston to getting a job in Chapel Hill to going to Haiti for the first time to visiting Singapore to moving to Asheville for school and now being back in Haiti, it has been an eventful 365 days. The year brought sadness in the passing of my grandmother and the year has brought joy in my sister's marriage. There were rough patches like the difficulties I had at Northeastern, more than balanced by the joy I've found being at UNCA. I have maintained relationships with old friends, and made many new ones. I want to thank everybody for being a part of a formative and life-changing year in my life. I can't wait to embark on the adventures of a new year with you all.

I wish everyone a wonderful New Year's Eve and a happy and peaceful 2011.

All my love,

Daniel

The "C" Word

Today was another successful day of rubble. I basically spent the whole day removing rebar, though I got in a few good sledge sessions in. It's unreal how quickly the days pass here. I can't believe I'll be home next week. If I could stay longer I would. But school is calling my name.

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from rubble to go install a playground at one of the local clinics. Patients often spend hours and hours waiting to be seen, so All Hands built a good old fashioned playground (i.e. slide, swings, etc.) to keep the kids occupied.

There are a lot of things going on in Haiti right now, so I'm going to try to talk a bit more about some of the various issues. One that (I think) has been in the news a fair amount recently is cholera. The disease causes severe diarrhea and vomiting, which leads to dehydration. It's spread mostly through ingesting contaminated drinking water or food. Most cases have been reported in an area some 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince, but it has spread to most everywhere in the country. When treated, cholera is usually treatable, but, sadly, many Haitians don't have access to the basics required for recovery. It's frustrating; people should not be dying of cholera in 2010, yet they are. Nearly 3000 people have died during this epidemic so far. The origins of this epidemic are still unknown. A lot of people believe the UN troops from Nepal brought the disease, though this hasn't been confirmed. The UN is "looking into the origins", so we'll see what they conclude. But what can be said is that some Haitians associate the disease with foreigners. There have been stories (including within the very organization I'm working with) of NGO workers being held-up, threatened with violence, and questioned about the origins of the disease. It's obviously a sensitive issue, so we at All Hands don't use the word "cholera" when we're out in town. We talk about it discreetly, using code words and such. We have foot baths by all the doors around base filled with bleach water that everyone steps in before coming inside. We're trying to be extra careful and using lots of hand sanitizer. But there is only so much one can do. There have been some confirmed cases of cholera in Leogane, though it hasn't been a major issue. And we can only hope it stays that way.

I'm too tired to go on, so I must retire.

Hoping everyone is enjoying their last few days of 2010.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. The photo above is of the rubble team that I was on yesterday. This is a picture of us on the clean slab at the site we finished in the morning.

Rubble, Rubble, Rubble

Today was a long and successful day. In the morning I went out to the same rubble site as I did yesterday afternoon. The whole team busted ass and we were able to clear the slab before getting picked up for lunch. For those who don't know, one of the major projects All Hands does is clearing rubble. After the earthquake, some million and a half people were left homeless, and many thousands of structures were left in pieces. So our organization will go out, usually to houses or schools, and clear the rubble. Almost all construction in Haiti is concrete and rebar (steel bars that are used to reinforce concrete), so that's mostly what we're dealing with. Sometimes we begin by demolishing the house if it's needed. Then we use a combination of sledge hammers, pick-axes, shovels, rebar cutters, and wheel barrows to break up and move the rubble, leaving a clean slab that can be rebuilt upon. It's pretty physically demanding work, but I really like it.

So anyhow, finishing the site in the morning was really rewarding. After a quick afternoon nap, our team got sent out to a new rubble site. This one is considerably bigger than the last. It's two stories, twelve rooms. My afternoon was spent on rebar detail, which is a bit like a giant puzzle. When I got back to base, Jolinda and I ran some laps behind the base in the JLB. Then I had make-your-own egg sandwiches for dinner and had the nightly meeting, followed by a cold but refreshing bucket shower.

Now I'm totally wiped out. Typically, I'll be heading to bed early, as I have to get up early for more rubble action.

Missing you all.

Love,

Daniel

Back to Basics

Today was a hell of a first day back to work from the holiday. In the morning I went to school six and spent the whole time sifting sand. It has become a forte of mine and I have, thus, become a go-to-guy when it comes to sand sifting. And when I say it has become a forte, I mean it's something I've done a few times (there is not really much skill involved). There were a TON of kids on site, and it got a little crazy. On one hand you want to involve the community as much as possible, but on the other hand, they can slow the progress and create more work. It's a delicate balance, but we still got a good bit of work done. While I was working with the sand, others were mixing concrete and rendering the backside of the school.

In the afternoon I came back to base for lunch and went out to my very first rubble site of this trip! Picking the sledge back up felt great. Plus I got to do some shoveling, picking, and wheelbarrowing. Getting a good sweat going with all these tools in hand was nice. In a lot of ways, in coming back, I feel like I hardly skipped a beat.

After coming back from work for the day I went out behind our base, to the Joint Logistics Base (JLB), which is a huge backyard we rent out to various NGOs, and went for a jog with one of the base managers, Jolinda. I had dinner and a quick shower. Then it was meeting time. But this was a special meeting in that it was Short Shorts Monday (the last one of 2010), and this one was judged by an esteemed panel. There were four contestants, me being one. We all got up, walked and danced around a bit, were subjected to cat-calls, etc. It was great. We all won in a different category. I won the "classic" award. A former All Hands volunteer, Tim (big ol' Aussie guy), used to wear short rugby shorts (and nothing else) everyday. In homage of him, I wore short rugby shorts (and nothing else). It was a fun experience, getting a little extra skin in the breeze and all. I know the picture above is a little dark, but you get the idea.

I just had my beginner Creole class taught by a local volunteer, Peterson. I'm sitting around now waiting for the Saints-Falcons game to be projected on the big screen. Then it's off to bed good and early. It's back to rubble in the a.m.!

Hope everyone had a good start to the week.

Love,

Daniel

Great End to a Great Holiday

Sunday has been a day of digesting and sunshine. I beat my own record and slept in until 8:30. Around 11, a dozen or so other volunteers (local and international) hopped in a tap-tap and headed to Paradise. This is a beach about an hour away, one that I went to once last time around. I had a really nice time – swimming, walking, eating, relaxing. These two and a half straight days off have really spoiled me. I’ve had an amazing holiday, but I’m truly excited and ready to get back to work tomorrow. I’m going to try to get to sleep early so I’m well rested for the workweek.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Love,

Daniel

Jwaye Nowel!

Yesterday and today have been very cheerful days! Even cleaning the base didn’t seem so bad. I’m having a completely new experience and I think it’s that I’m “in the Christmas spirit”. I finished cleaning yesterday with enough time to have a while to relax before lunch. After eating and a short afternoon meeting, we were free to do what we pleased with the day. Another volunteer, Lauren, and I went out to find gifts for our secret Santa’s. We went to the local market to look for presents. It was crazy and hectic and I left empty handed. The only options there would have been cooking oil or batteries, pretty much. On the way back to base I stopped and got a ton of Haitian candy and decided that would suffice as my gift (along with a couple of treats I brought from the States and a little poem). Once back on base I headed to the kitchen to do prep work for the big Christmas day meal as well as the chili and cornbread Christmas Eve dinner. Dinner last night came out great and everybody ate and ate and ate. For dessert we had more candy than we knew what to do with (though we managed to take care of it). After dinner I went out to do a little sky watching. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars shining as bright as last night. It was one of the most breath-taking things I’ve ever seen. Though I could have watched the stars all night I decided to go next door to Joe’s for my first Prestige (Haitian beer) of the trip. Before bed I hung around in the kitchen, chatting before sleeping.

I slept in this morning until 7:45! Now that it’s cooler, I don’t wake up every morning at 5:30, which is sweet. I basically spent the whole day in the kitchen, prepping and cooking Christmas dinner. It was a complete and total success. Everything turned out fantastic and everybody is having a wonderful night. This Christmas thing is pretty awesome, I must admit. We sat around for ages, eating, drinking, and being merry. For dinner we had ham, chicken, cabbage and kielbasa, roasted potatoes, corn bread stuffing, frittata, Mexican beet salad, carrot salad, zucchini stir fry, green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and pickles (don’t know how that made it to the table, but it was a good edition, none-the-less). A true feast; everything was delicious. The tables themselves were super-festive, with candles and fake snow, which was cold to the touch. Before moving on to dessert we all gathered around the tree to open our secret Santa gifts. I got an awesome sun that I’m sure to put a lot of mileage on. Speaking of things that go on your head – we all had paper crowns! After opening gifts we had dessert. We had minced pie, a British treat that I’ve never had before that has fruit and nuts inside a pastry crust, pumpkin pie (partially my creation), and Christmas cookies. And homemade whipped cream on the side. Now we’re all hanging around, attempting to digest the massive amounts of food consumed. Over in the area of base where movies are played, there is a fire being projected on the screen. Next to the fire are our "stockings", pictured above.

There are a lot more details I’d like to include, but I think I’m about to slip into a food coma. I’ll definitely post some more tomorrow. What I can say, for sure, is that this was my best (first) Christmas ever!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

Love,

Daniel

On the Eve of the Eve

Aside from getting a bottle of Coke from down the street I didn’t leave base at all today. I was just so tired from these last few days that I decided to stay on base and work on bio-sand filters. It was more physical of a day than I was hoping for, but I suppose we are about to get a nice little break. Tomorrow, being Christmas Eve and all, we’re only working in the morning. We get the afternoon off, all day Christmas off, and Sunday (our usual non-work day) off. So I’ve got two and a half days to recover and get ready for next week! As I said, I worked on bio-sand filters today. Basically they are a concrete structure, maybe three feet tall, that provides clean drinking water. I don’t know the exact science behind it, but you put a layer of gravel, a layer of coarse sand, and a layer of fine sand into the filter. You put contaminated water into the filter everyday for two weeks and it forms a bio-layer. This layer acts as the filter, purifying any water you put into it (except salt water). It’s brilliant, cheap, and easy to make! Using molds our team made four filters, which are setting as I type this. All we did was put concrete into the mold, beat the hell out of the outside of the mold to get rid of air bubbles, and leave it to dry. What’s also so great about these purification systems is that they can last ten to fifteen years! All Hands is pushing this project and it’s becoming really successful.

I had lunch today on base for the first time since I’ve been here (I’ve been at all-day sites all previous days) and did lunch dishes after. Then I lied down for a bit and listened to part of a This American Life Episode. Ira Glass’s comforting voice nearly put me to sleep, but I fought it and got up for afternoon work. I spend the afternoon working with all local volunteers, sifting sand behind base for the bio-sand filters. The sand was wet so sifting it was a real pain in the ass, but I listened to same Haitian music and learned some dirty words in Creole, so that made things better.

People are starting to get into the Christmas spirit around here. We’ve got a (tropical) Christmas tree, with pieces of wood as a skeleton and huge palm-tree-like leaves. There are little hands we’re all supposed to write our wishes on and they’re going to be the ornaments. Plus we’ve got a little secret Santa thing going on! I’m excited to see what this “Christmas” thing is all about. I figure since finding Chinese food in Haiti is unlikely, I might as well go all out with this holiday!

I just spent the last couple of hours hanging out on the roof of our base. The stars and moon are brighter in Haiti than anywhere I‘ve ever been. To be able to relax up there is a perfect ending to my night and puts me at peace. Tomorrow morning I do house cleaning. I’m off to bed.

Happy eve of Christmas Eve!

Love,

Daniel

Swedish Fish?

I was talking to a volunteer today who was saying that he thought the third day of work is the most physically challenging. Given my current state I would have to second that. I was sore from the first couple days of work and to add to it, today was one of the most physically demanding workdays I've ever had. I went out with a dozen or so others to work on the foundation at school seven. My whole day was pretty much consistently catching buckets (which I'm pretty good at it turns out) and then carrying buckets filled with sand and gravel. And when I wasn't doing those things I was probably schlepping these 100 pound bags of concrete mix. The sun was brutal all morning but, due to the time-sensitive nature of working with concrete, we weren't able to take many breaks. Of course I could go run and get water anytime I needed it, but long breaks where we could sit in the shade and relax were few and far between.

For lunch I had a Haitian delicacy I hadn't had yet this trip - goat. I find it to be pretty delicious. Afternoon was much the same as the morning: hot, sweaty, dirty, tiring. But at the end of the day, we finished the slab. There is now a foundation for school seven to be built on! So in the end, all the work was definitely worth it.

I was really excited to get back to base because I was so tired and also because I've been looking forward to the arrival of my buddy and all around awesome guy Dan, who was here when I was. He brought me Swedish Fish! This is because when I mentioned them to a non-American international volunteer the other day, he had never heard of them. Surely this was an anomaly, I assumed. But upon further inspection and informal surveying, hardly any of the non-American international volunteers here had ever heard of, much less eaten Swedish Fish. A travesty. So I asked Dan to bring some and I passed them out at the meeting. It was a good dessert follow-up to our delicious dinner (which included for my first time this trip, plantains and spicy Haitian coleslaw)!

As usual I'm hanging out in the "internet cafe" right now, just having got out of a long Christmas dinner crew meeting. We've got our menu tentatively set. We're going to do roasted chicken, two salads, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and some other things I can't think of at the moment. It's going to be super delicious and I'm looking forward to spending some time (probably a lot of time) in the kitchen.

Tomorrow I'll be taking it easier, I'm hoping, and will be working on bio-sand filters. Basically it's a sustainable and clean way to purify water and we distribute them to the community. Details on this project will come as I learn more tomorrow. There is lots more stuff I'd like to write about but I'm just too tired, so for now...

Merry hump day.

Love,

Daniel

Dirty All Over

I woke up last night around quarter after two to the sound of dogs fighting. Or maybe they were playing, I can't say for sure. But when I saw what time it was I was extremely excited because right before going to bed I heard there was going to be a lunar eclipse but it wasn't happening until the middle of the night so I figured I'd miss it. Then, thanks to those dogs, I got up and stood in the courtyard by myself and caught the last bit of the moon disappearing and headed back to bed.

I got up this morning at pretty much the exact same time as yesterday, 6:45. I had corn flakes with powdered milk and coffee for breakfast. I may have missed Haitian food, but I really didn't miss the breakfasts. Today was similar to yesterday in that most of the volunteers went to one of the two school projects. I went to school six again and spent nearly all morning sifting sand. It may not sound exciting (and it isn't really) but me and two others got a system going so were working pretty efficiently. While we were sifting, there was concrete being mixed for rendering. At first, the concrete was being mixed in a mixer powered by a stationary bicycle, which people would take turns riding. It was pretty cool but it turns out that mixing it with shovels on a piece of plywood on the floor is faster, so they switched to that method. Then the rendering began. What it is is a mixture of gravelly sand, concrete powder, and water. Once this is thoroughly combined, the resulting substance is applied to the walls, which at this point is just a form board and chain-link fence. So I did a little bit of rendering with a lot of help from a two little Haitian boys who, I must admit, were probably better than me at this.

Like yesterday, we stayed on site for lunch and afternoon break. During the break the team leader from the other school came to school six looking to trade some of his volunteers for those at our site. He said that people were too hot. I should have taken this as a sign to stay where I was, but in the afternoon I walked down the road to go work at school seven, where they are laying the foundation. This was hard, hot work, but fun. From the outside (and to me at first) the process looked like sheer chaos. After participating, I realized that it was, in fact, chaos. But controlled chaos. Here is how it worked in a nutshell: someone fed sand, rocks, concrete powder, and water into an actual cement mixer then would throw the buckets forward to someone who would catch the buckets and throw them to people on the side of the foundation, who would fill the buckets with said rocks and sand and would run the buckets back to the mixer. Once the mixture was made, wheelbarrow runners would have their barrows filled with concrete and would run them onto the foundation, where they would be directed as to where to dump. Then there were people who would run to the wells and fill buckets with water to bring to the mixer. And repeat. I don't know if you'll be able to picture this all happening, but everybody had their place and things ran well. I started as a wheelbarrow runner then switched to bucket catcher. In the afternoon I pretty much managed to get myself covered head to tow in concrete, dirt, and whatever else it was I was covered in earlier.

I came back to base totally wiped out. We had make-your-own egg sandwiches for dinner then had the meeting. Post-meeting there was a brief Christmas dinner crew meeting, where we discussed what supplies we were going to need from Port-au-Prince. Leogane has some of necessities one would need, but when it comes to some of the things like, say, ham or cream, you need to go to the capital. The menu is still definitely not set, so ideas are still welcome. We want to make items that are simple but delicious. After this I decided it was time for a real shave. It was interesting because I got to see what I would look like with different facial hair styles. I can now definitively say that I look goofy as hell with a mustache, though I suspected as much. Now, for the first time in ages, I'm totally clean shaven. I had two main reasons behind shaving - it will be less hot and this way I won't get some horrible facial hair tan from all the time I'll be in the sun. I complimented my shave with a thorough and long bucket shower. I went from extremely dirty to the point I'm at now, less dirty. Bucket showers have their merits, but you really can't get completely clean. But I certainly feel a lot better. And now I'm here in the "internet cafe", updating the blog and jamming out to whatever comes up on shuffle.

As usual, I'm tired (but in a good way). Tomorrow I'm signed up for more foundation fun, where I'm sure to dirty myself terribly once more.

Happy official winter.

Love,

Daniel

Blanc on a Hot Tin Roof

Today, my first work day, was very productive and very tiring. It was nice and cool last night and I slept superbly. I woke up "late" this morning (6:45) and rolled out of bed for the Monday 7 o'clock pancake breakfast meeting. For work today most all of the volunteers went to one of the two school builds that are in-progress. I went to school six, where the progress is further along than seven. I spent the entire morning chillin' in the rafters, helping to put up the tin roof. Being that I know nothing about roofing, I mostly just assisted the three folks working up there. It was a little scary but a little awesome. I ended up covered in this roofing-tar-like-substance. The site was really cool in that there were tons of volunteers, local and international, as well as a lot of community members, children and adults. There were lots of people doing lots of different things but it all came together nicely. School building has definitely become one of All Hands priorities. This is very evident by how quickly the different steps in the building process are moving. Today's work was all-day, meaning that we didn't come back to base for lunch and break but instead had lunch and rested at the site. I ate Haitian food! It was as good as I remembered. We had rice and beans (no doubt), stewed onions, chicken, and some vegetables. It was delicious and comforting. I ate it with the beautiful scenery surrounding the school - mountains, sugar cane fields, cows.

The afternoon moved a bit slower and I stayed off the roof. I spent most of the time shoveling wet sand, putting wet sand out to dry, shoveling dry sand, moving dry sand, and sifting that dry sand. It's part of preparing for tomorrow, where we will do rendering. I'm not exactly sure how it works, as I've never done it before, but it is essentially applying a coat of cement-like material to the walls. Given that I am on the rendering team tomorrow, I should have a better idea of what it is and how it works soon. Anyways, we left the site and came back and had dinner. Dinner was a Haiti classic (in my mind, at least) that consisted of spaghetti with pink sauce (mayo and ketchup), bread, a triangle of bongu "cheese" (probably not actually cheese, but close enough), and some veggies. Again, it proved to be a very comforting meal.

After dinner we had our daily meeting where we talk about our work from the day, make announcements, sign up for chores, and sign up for the next day's work.. By the end I had volunteered to be on the Christmas dinner crew. I asked if I was allowed, being that I'm Jewish and all (apparently, yes, I am). So now I have to brainstorm ideas. Any input would be appreciated, by the way. After the meeting I had my first earned bucket shower. It was cold but completely refreshing. Straight after I went to beginner Creole class. It was taught by one of the local volunteers, Peterson. Some of the stuff I knew already but some of it was new, and what wasn't was a good refresher. I always regret the fact that I didn't learn much Creole at all last time I was here so I'm going to do what I can while I'm here this time. It seems like a pretty easy language to learn (relatively speaking) with a simple grammar structure and Creole seems somewhat intuitive to me. But we'll see. After my language class I came to where I sit now, the "internet cafe" AKA an area with a couple picnic tables where people congregate to use their computers. I'm sitting at a table with a lot of local guys/girl. My "professor", Peterson, stopped by for a while and listened to some Notorious BIG on my big headphones. This reminds me of another huge change on base I neglected to mention - local volunteers are allowed inside! Before, there was a rule that said only international volunteers and on-staff locals (i.e. translators, tap-tap drivers, cooks) could come in. There was a lot of opposition to the rule but when I left, it still stood. But now it's different and is really, really great. We work together all day and the local and international volunteers are often very close, so it only seems fair/makes sense that they should be welcome in our home. And now they are!

Now it is approaching ten o'clock and I'm wiped out. Nearly time for bed.

Goodnight.

Love,

Daniel

By a Hair

So I'm officially at the All Hands base in Leogane, Haiti. I got up this morning around 5, after an hour or so of sleep. My mom drove me to the airport to catch my 7 o'clock flight. I was a little nervous from the get-go about the fact that I had less than an hour between the time my flight landed in Miami and the flight for Port-au-Prince (PauP) took off, but I figured that as long as we got in the air without too much delay, I'd be fine. But, of course, there were two separate mechanical issues that caused delay. So we took off nearly an hour late from Raleigh and I figured missing my connecting flight was a pretty real possibility. When we finally did take off I heard the man sitting behind me talking about his being worried he was going to miss his connecting flight, also to Haiti. I mentioned that I was in the same situation so we decided we'd haul ass together to make the flight. And we did. We ran across Miami Airport's concourse "D" and made it just in the nick of time (as in, had we been a minute later, we probably wouldn't have gotten on the plane).

I got a little sleep on the flight and woke up just before landing. The airport in the capital is pretty hectic but I managed to get through customs, get my checked bag (checked luggage doesn't have a baggage claim per-se, it's more of a free-for-all where all the bags are strewn about an airplane hangar), and find my driver without too much trouble. The ride from PauP to Leogane is under 20 miles but still manages to take hours. We hit some serious traffic, but there is so much to see that I had no trouble keeping myself occupied. Once you get past the city and its traffic and closer to Leogane, you're able to see (and feel) huge cracks on the roads that resulted from the earthquake. Commuting between PauP to Leogane provides ample opportunity to see the poverty and devastation, some of it caused by the earthquake, some of it not. Huge tent cities are still a primary means of housing for those displaced by the quake. One thing I did notice was an increase in the prevalence of political graffiti (or at least it seemed that way), which makes sense because the country is in the midst of "elections".

Though the ride was interesting, I was relieved and excited when we finally got into Leogane. Things looked similar to how I remember (which is comforting but somewhat disconcerting). Once I stepped inside the base I really did feel right back at home. Some things have changed around base, but mostly it's the same, with some improvements. There is more wooden furniture, much of which, I am told, was made while the volunteers here were on lockdown at the base when the election situation was more heated. Small maintenance details, such as putting real doors on the shower stalls and having more shelving space, have really helped make the base come together. One thing that is significantly different than when I was here during the summer months is the number of volunteers on base. There were often 120+ people staying on base when I was last here but now there are maybe 50 or so of us. As it turns out, it was the election violence significantly impacted the numbers, as many people decided not to come, were unable to come, left early, or rescheduled. I can already tell that the group dynamic is really different with the smaller numbers, and it seems to generally be a good thing. But of the people that are here, I know a whole bunch of them from my last trip, which is really nice. I've gotten and given my fair share of hugs today, which made me happy. Oh and one amazing difference is that in the temperature. It is considerably cooler than it was during my last visit, and that fills me with nothing but joy. To be able to wake up not drenched in my own sweat (or even drenched in less sweat) is going to be such a treat in the mornings. Speaking of treats, the internet connection has improved so, so, so much. For better or worse, being connected is a comfort so I'm very pleased with the internet situation.

Today is a Sunday, which means it's a non-work day. I think coming today was good timing; I got to have a whole free afternoon to set my living area up (once again, in the bunks) and schmooze with friends, old and new. I walked around, handing out some of the candy I brought (thanks Brandi!), which led to many new friendships. I met a woman who graduated from UNC in '07, so we spent some time arguing about basketball and talking about how much we love Carrboro! Sunday is the one day of the week we don't get fed, so I ended up munching on the remains of my plane snacks. But I can't wait for some Haitian food tomorrow!

From what I've heard, tomorrow is an "All Hands Day", which means all volunteers are going to work on one of two school projects together. I'm looking forward to seeing how efficient this organization has become at school-building. Though, I must admit, I'm seriously craving some time with my old friend, the sledge hammer. For the rest of tonight, I'm going to just enjoy the weather and relax. Maybe I'll get in a round or two of Bananagrams, who knows? I just had my first bucket shower of the trip. I was actually a little chilly, but I'm definitely not complaining. I think I'm looking at a good night of sleep ahead of me!

Hope everyone is well. Don't forget to keep in touch!

Love,

Daniel

Take Two

It has been over five months since I was last in Haiti and it has continued to be on my mind ever since. Observing Haiti from the outside is especially disheartening; the news coming out of the country always seems to be one horrible story after another. Since I was last down there, Haiti has been hit with a cholera epidemic, weathered several storms accompanied by flooding (most notably Tomas), and is in the midst of an election fiasco, which has caused intermittent surges of violent protests. This is all happening while Haiti is trying to pick up the pieces from the January 12 earthquake.

But then there are some positives coming out of Haiti, some steps in the right direction. There are thousands of people, Haitian and non-Haitian alike, working together to bring about a safer, healthier, more-together country. The resilience, wisdom, and kindness of the Haitian people is inspiring and this is what gives me hope for the future of Haiti.

Coming to the decision to return to Haiti this winter involved a lot of internal back-and-forth. On one hand, of course I wanted to go back! The time I had spent down there May-July profoundly changed my life. I made friends, both local and international. I was able to see and do some pretty wild things. On the other hand, I kept asking myself whether coming down for three or so weeks was worth it. I didn't want to be a disaster tourist, I wanted to be an effective volunteer. When I weighed my options, in the end, I decided that I could make my short time there worth it. There are a number of things I'm hoping to accomplish on this trip. I will help with the projects that All Hands (formerly Hands on Disaster Response or HODR) are working on - rubble/demolition, bio-sand filters, disaster risk reduction, school building, etc. Check out http://hands.org/ for more specifics on projects and the organization as a whole. Another goal I have for my trip is to collect some information and get some questions answered for a project my friend and fellow volunteer Brandi and I are hoping to put in motion this summer (more on the composting toilets summer project in the future). I also am looking forward to seeing friends, eating delicious Haitian food (oh, plantains, how I've missed you), and moving from the dreary North Carolina cold to the tropical heat down south (it's currently 50 degrees warmer in PaP than Chapel Hill).

My original ticket had me leaving for Haiti this past Monday, but due to civil unrest caused by the elections (which forced the airport to close) I have a new departure date - tomorrow, Sunday, December 19. I leave in the early morning and should be on base in Leogane (about 18 miles west of the capital) by mid-afternoon.

Though I won't be gone too long, I'll still miss all of you, my friends and family. Please keep in touch! I should have consistent access to the internet, so shoot me emails (danielmatchar@yahoo.com), send me stuff on facebook/twitter, and keep checking in with the blog, which I plan on updating frequently. I'll be back in the States January 6, so until then...

Hoping everybody is staying warm.

Love,

Daniel

?

Here I am sitting in an internet cafe in Port-au-Prince. It's been an unreal few days (and few months).

I think the story of my latest adventure can wait until I get home and we can talk in person.

Until next time.

Love,

Daniel

The Surreal World: Haiti

So I’m having a bit of a stressful night and I’ll explain why in a second. For this reason, all I’ll say about the last two days was that Friday I did housecleaning in the morning with my buddy Jason then did more teacher-training stuff in the afternoon. Saturday morning there was a teacher training and that went really well. What was really cool was that the training we did took place at the first school HODR built (and it just opened last week)!

Ok so yesterday after plans changed a dozen times, I headed off to Jacmel (beach town two hours away) with Jason. Three friends, Brandi, Sarah, and Avery, were already in Jacmel and they arranged a room for us. Jason and I hopped on a tap-tap to a town just a little ways away to catch a second tap-tap to Jacmel. We waited around for over an hour at the pick-up point but all the vehicles that passed were full. We saw a couple of NGO people in a nice car so I stuck up my thumb and they pulled over. It just so happened that these two doctors and their translator were heading to Jacmel for the night in their AVIS rented 4X4. So we talked in the car and learned they work at a clinic up in a remote mountain town a few hours from Jacmel. We told them our story and in mentioning we were leaving Haiti on Thursday they made a proposition to us – we come to their clinic and stay for a couple nights and work with them then Jason and I go with their translator and take their rental car to Port-au-Prince on Wednesday and drop the car off at AVIS and stay at their base in PAP for the night and head to the airport in the morning. This saves us the money from taking the shuttle and means we don’t have to get up as early Thursday morning. More importantly, though, it means that we get to have an awesome adventure – see a new, different part of Haiti, see how a remote clinic works, spend time with awesome people, and so on (Brandi will be joining us as well). So the reason I’m stressed is because I have to pack all my stuff and make all these arrangements so I can leave for the mountain in the morning.

But today was absolutely amazing. The five of us HODR people went with the two doctors and translator on a hike, which lead us to this gorgeous waterfall. We dove off cliffs and swam all morning. I won’t go into much detail because, honestly, it was indescribable. I can say, however, that it was one of the more wonderful mornings I’ve had in a while (or ever). The last 24 hours has been pretty surreal but I’m going to roll with it.

So it seems I’m in for one more big adventure before I come home. I likely won’t have internet until Wednesday. I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Lets all have a good week.

Love,

Daniel

Acronyms Galore

Wednesday was a typical day of rubble. I went back to the kindergarten site and wheel barrowed the whole day. One cool thing was that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) AKA Doctors Without Borders sent a backhoe and a couple dump trucks to the site to pick up some of our rubble – they’ll be using it as a foundation for a new field hospital (which will probably be around for 2-5 years), which is really exciting. Last night I lay in a hammock with my friends Brandi (from Kentucky) and Jason (from Scotland). In attempting to get all three of us in the hammock (build for 1-2 people), it snapped and we all fell on our ass. None of us got severely hurt AND the hammock wasn’t broken in a vital spot, so no big deal.

Today in the morning I worked on more disaster risk reduction (teacher training) stuff. Again, we have a new group of people joining on this project so I worked on getting them up to speed on the disaster portion of the seminar. For lunch we had spaghetti. Most people don’t love this meal, but I do. It’s noodles, which one must dress with ketchup and mayonnaise, and hotdog, which I cut up and throw in. Today was extra special in that there were hard-boiled egg halves and a piece of Bongu cheese (this funky triangle-shaped, of course unrefrigerated, soft cheese), which I mashed in there as well. In the afternoon I went back to the school rubble site. It was a slow afternoon because we had a Bobcat come to make more room for us to dump our rubble (necessary but inconvenient). This site is RIGHT off the national highway, so there aren’t many safe dumping sites.

Also today there were a bunch of high-level officials from the World Food Program (WFP) and possibly some other organizations that came through HODR. In our backyard we have something called the Joint Logistics Base (JLB). The JLB is five acres, which belongs to HODR that we are renting out to other organizations. Currently the Cooperative Hosing Foundation (CHF), the Canadian Red Cross, and Habitat for Humanity rent space in our JLB. More organizations, such as WFP, are looking at renting space there too. What’s exciting about this is that HODR is getting a lot of exposure to some big names in the NGO community. The people that were here today are, essentially, in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars and there is some potential for HODR to see some benefits in the future. In fact, Hands On is getting a lot of really good press from this project. Prior to Project Leogane, HODR has had 13 projects, beginning with the 2004 tsunami project in Thailand (so it’s a really young organization). I’m getting the impression that this organization is seriously taking off, which is awesome because it is such an amazing organization. I suggest that, if you haven’t already, check out www.HODR.org for more information.

Today was Canada Day so the Canadians have made us all poutine, so I’m going to go check to see if it’s ready.

Tomorrow is Friday! Hooray.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. I’m coming home a week from today. I can’t believe it. Bittersweet times.

Last Full Week!?

Monday was a good start to the week. I went out to a site called Daphilus, which was demoed by HODR a few weeks ago and then became a regular rubble site. The volunteer leading the team, Jen, had been asking me to come out to the site for a while so I did. It’s in a pretty secluded area but not secluded enough for there not to be any kids. Now I typically like the kids but the one’s on this site were, frankly, annoying. They would continuously come onto the slab despite our constantly telling them not to. Some of them were even shouting some pretty naughty things (i.e. “fuck you bitch give me one dollar”). So despite the disruption we managed to move a lot of rubble and got pretty close to finishing. The Bobcat came out in the morning and was taking the rubble from our pile and making a road with it. It’s pretty neat working in tandem with the machinery. I also must mention that yesterday was BRUTALLY hot. Like possibly the hottest day I’ve experienced since I’ve been here.

So I made it through yesterday and woke up today, as usual, to the sounds of people eating breakfast. There are lots of rows of bunks and mine is the one right next to the tables. I’ve been waking up a bit later recently (closer to 6) so there are typically a fair amount of people up by then and I get to wake up to people sitting right next to my bed. In the morning I went out to Daphilus again to finish it up. There was just a little rubble left and then we scraped the slab clean. We finished around 10 so had a little while where we just sat around, which is always nice. In the afternoon I went back to the school rubble site I’ve been working on. I did a bit of sledging and then worked on rebar. As a general rule, I hate doing rebar. But today I did it with someone called Ben and it wasn’t so bad.

Something that is really neat about HODR is the diverse people it attracts. I work with and am friends with people from all over – Scotland to Ghana, Australia to Hong Kong, Canada to England, South Africa to Slovakia – the list goes on and on. It’s so cool sitting at lunch or wheel barrowing with so many people from so many different places. People also do so many different things back at home – investment banker to fireman, housewife to taxidermist, nurse to student, etc. Brining all these people together and putting them in one building creates a really interesting living environment.

Tomorrow it’s back to the school. I’m praying for some clouds or a breeze or something, anything.

Love,

Daniel

Fun, Fun, Fun!

So Friday was a pretty special day – it was my first birthday spent in Haiti. I went out to do rubble at the school site with a really fantastic team. In the afternoon it absolutely poured so we took refuge for a while under a tarp. The problem was that both our paths where we were wheel barrowing on were completely flooded. After some deliberation we decided we’d work through it. I was slightly disappointed about the prospect of having wet feet and shoes all day again but I sucked it up. We did a fair bit of work. At the evening meeting one of our translators, Berlyn, who I’ve become friends with, announced that it was my birthday. So I had to stand up while everyone sang to me. It was embarrassing but really sweet of them at the same time. I got a couple packs of Chops Ahoy to pass around, too. It was really amazing getting all these birthday wishes from all over. I have my friends from Singapore, my friends and family in the States, and all my new friends here in Haiti (both local and international). I really never use this word, but I think it describes how I felt quite well – blessed. It was really a special birthday. That evening we went to Joe’s next door and got pizza and Joe even gave me and some friends free ice cream.

Yesterday was also a good day. I went out to the school site again in the morning with another really good team. In the afternoon most people didn’t go out to work but instead were allowed to go out and watch the soccer match between the US and Ghana. I walked around town for a bit with a few people looking for a place to watch, but all the local places were jam-packed. I headed back to base and ended up playing with some kids at Plaza Playtime in the back for a while. The game didn’t end well, anyway. Afterwards I lounged and watched some episodes of Criminal Minds on my computer. Last night I wanted to go out and have fun but was feeling really tired so I ended up crashing early.

Today was a really nice day off. Me and 15 or so other volunteers went to a beach in a town called Grand-Guave, about an hour away. We rented a tap-tap for the day ($50 split among all of us). The ride was really cramped but totally worth it. The beach is absolutely amazing. This is the first beach I’ve been to in Haiti that has had sand! It was a gorgeous day. The beach is a bit weird because it’s essentially an NGO beach in that almost everyone there is part of an NGO and is non-Haitian. There is a really expensive restaurant and everything. Something that was very apparent today (but I’ve been thinking about for a while) is how other NGO’s spend their money. Compared to every single other NGO I’ve seen, HODR is the most cost-efficient. All other organizations drive fancy four-wheel drive cars and spend money on non-necessities. At HODR we have everything we could possibly need and more but still don’t spend donated money on the most frivolous things. In comparison our living conditions are modest, our means of transportation is nearly identical to that of the locals, our food is delicious but by no means fancy – this list goes on and on. I’m not putting down other organizations as much as I am pointing out how impressed I am with HODR and their sensibilities. So anyways, it was a bit odd driving up to this beach where there were ONLY nice cars in the parking lot and we pull up, crowded in the back of a tap-tap. But, as I said, the beach was wonderful. The water was lovely, and we spend all day hanging out in the water and I managed to find a lady who was selling fried plantains for super cheap. One of the guys I was with did splurge and got a local fisherman to catch him and BBQ him up a lobster. It was really tasty. So we headed back to Leogane late afternoon and had the tap-tap drop us off at Masaje, the western-style restaurant in town. I got a burger and fries. The occasional comfort food can go a long way. So now I’m back at base, digesting my dinner and writing this blog. It looks like it’s about to pour so I’d better post this blog before the internet goes out.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Love,

Daniel

Demolition Derby

Wednesday I was on the demolition team. We went to a site pretty far from base. In the morning I did a ton of sledging. The house’s first story was destroyed but the second story was intact so we stood on the roof, sledging it out. I just want to point out that the things we do on the demo team I could never in a million years do in the States without a significant amount of training. That being said, we then used a gasoline powered round-blade saw to cut the rebar and then used a pulley-and-rope system to bring the walls down. We came back for lunch – it was white rice and veggie mush (some sort of stew with various vegetables). Halfway through lunch break it stated to pour. Of course this doesn’t stop us from working, so we loaded up the tap-tap and made the long drive to our site and I got completely soaked head-to-toe on the way. The only part of the experience I didn’t like was having my socks and boots totally wet. So we worked through the afternoon rain and got a lot done. It was a little scary being on the wet roof, swinging a 16-pound sledgehammer. But nobody died.

Today I was out on the demo team again. We went to the same site in the morning to finish it off. There was essentially just one big wall and some roof left to bring down. In order to bring down walls, you have to fault them. What that means is you must sledge out the areas where there are columns with rebar and also sledge the bottom portion of the wall to create a pivot point so that the wall falls easily when you pull on it. So we took out the rest of the site and made a big mess that a rubble crew will have to clean up (hopefully not me – it’s a real mess). In the afternoon we got some more rain as we headed out to a new site. We got to the site, which was right near the rubble site I finished a couple days ago. Unfortunately the house was not in a conditioned to be demolished by our team – the roof was extremely sketchy so we couldn’t sledge from the roof, the columns holding the structure up were all weak and badly damaged so working anywhere inside would be dangerous, and the house is sandwiched between two other houses (one literally six feet away) so we couldn’t have anything falling and hitting the neighbors houses. Thus, the site was deemed too dangerous but a Bobcat will go to the site tomorrow and hopefully it can do some of the work safely. Since we couldn’t work at this site we went to another new site. All that was left of it was a big piece of roof that was at a huge downward slope. The team just sledged it out and it slowly came down. We finished the site in just an hour and a half. Because of the nature of the work tomorrow the demo team is nixed but instead I will be rubbling! I’m on a team that, at this point, is four people big but all four of us have been here for a long time and all get along so it should be a nice, intimate day of rubble at a new site.

At the moment it seems I’m developing a cold. It’s no big deal, just the sniffles and a little cough, but it highlights one of the downsides of large-scale communal living. Even though everyone tries to promote good hygiene and such there is often no avoiding the spread of illness. At any given time there is something new going around – usually either a cold or a stomach bug. But I have to say that I really like living with a lot of people in many respects. It’s a long way away from my single dorm room I had last year, but it’s nice. Sure you have zero privacy, but there are always people to be with and talk to. Now that I’m leaving in two weeks I’m beginning to reflect on my time here a lot. I’m really going to miss this place. But at the same time I’m really excited to come home. Anyways, I’m quite tired and I have birthday rubble to do tomorrow!

Have a good Friday!

Love,

Daniel

Malaria Tuesday

So the internet has been really, really crap recently (including tonight) so I'm just going to give a quick update.

Yesterday and today I was team leader for a site called Desire. It's been on for about a week but needed a new leader to finish it. There was a ton of wheel barrowing, shoveling, picking - all the rubbly things. Today we finished the site. We were hoping to have been site number 100 HODR finished but two other sites also finished today, both before us, so we were 102. It felt good to get it done, though.

Tomorrow I've joined on the demo team. The demolition team is just what it sounds like - we go to houses that still have walls or ceilings or other hazards up and we safely take them down. After a site is demoed, it turns into a rubble site.

Otherwise things are good here. Its been raining everyday for a few days so we've been having much cooler weather. Oh and the reason for my blog title is because I take my malaria pill on Tuesday's.

I'll give a more detailed update soon!

Love,

Daniel

Do a Little Dance

As I figured it would be, Saturday was a pretty laid back day (relatively speaking). In the morning I got together with the same two volunteers as Friday to continue working on an emergency hurricane plan for base. We determined the space we will use in the event of a hurricane – we’ll go to a bakery/storage area connected to base. We also got all the windows measured that we will need to cover with plywood. Through this mini-project I’m learning a lot about the extensive nature of putting together safety plans. There are so many things that need to be taken into account it pretty much makes my head spin. But we’re going to keep working at it because hurricane season is upon us so there is a fair chance that several hurricanes will make landfall this season. After lunch I was on dishwashing duty so that took up my rest time, but everyone’s got to pull there weight on base in order for 100 plus people to be able to peaceably live together. After lunch I went to the side of base where we were holding Plaza Playtime. It started with my being led around Leogane by this little Haitian boy, rounding up all the kids we could find to come to the playtime. I had been asked to round up the kids and I think I possibly got too many of them. It’s okay, though, it all worked out. Sort of. We had one group of kids doing English lessons and the other group doing drawing and painting. After each group had done both activities there was a free-for-all playtime. There were all sorts of sports being played, kids being chased, and so on. It was definitely chaotic – even more so because all our translators were busy so it was pretty wild. Despite being really tired at the end of the workday, it was a really good time. Last night I just hung around with people and even got some soft-serve ice cream at Joe’s next door.

Today, my day off, has been quite nice so far. In the morning I watched The Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It wasn’t the greatest film either have done but it was entertaining. Now to understand what happened next in the day I need to give some background. The WakaWaka is a song by Shakira that has become the theme song for the world cup. There is also a campaign behind the song – education for all children in the world. There is a contest to submit an original dance to the song and put it on youtube. One of HODR’s project coordinators, Lenka, choreographed a dance for the song. We’ve been practicing it for some weeks and today we finally took it to the streets. We had a pick-up truck decked out in decorations, a HODR banner, and a sound system in the back. A bunch of volunteers, both international and local, walked behind the truck all around Leogane, dancing. It was pretty awesome. Along the way, residents would join us, dancing and having a good time. The whole thing was filmed, of course. When the video is complete I’ll post a link to it or something. So that took up a couple hours this afternoon and since then I’ve just been bumming around. I watched another movie and read some. Sunday’s are so, so, so nice. It just started raining so that should mean we’re in for a cooler evening. Tomorrow it’s back to work!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Love,

Daniel

Done.

Thursday morning I took my team to Wesley Vernet for what would be the last time. I thought that finishing would for sure take all day but everyone was committed to finishing in the morning. It was absurdly hot but we powered through, wheel barrowing rubble for hours. We spent the last hour or so of the morning doing touch-up work (scraping the slab and such). Getting on the tap-tap leaving the site, I was so happy to know I’d never have to come back to that monster of a site (which is now clean enough to eat off, by the way). I triumphantly walked into base and took a nap. In the afternoon the disaster preparedness group got together to talk about the teacher training we had today. Yesterday evening, after the meeting, I went up to the roof right as the sun was setting. I put on my headphones and lay in this hammock for the next two hours. I didn’t want to get up but I wanted to take a shower before the lights went off. For game seven of the NBA finals we borrowed a television for the night so after my shower I watched the game. Pretty much everyone was rooting for Boston so the game didn’t make anyone too happy. But we did get to watch it, which I was thankful for. I didn’t get into bed until 11, which is extremely late for me here.

This morning I got up and leisurely ate breakfast, as my workday wasn’t going to start until after 8 a.m. The teacher-training group headed out to a school in Leogane, only about a 10 minute drive away. In total I think there were 11 people from HODR (including two translators-in-training) and six teachers. I suppose if you consider how many students each teacher is responsible for, we really are getting the information across to a lot of people even though a group of six feels pretty small. Things went smoothly and it was actually pretty nice having a small group because there was a lot more time for questions and one-on-one interactions. As a couple of members from my portion of the seminar were missing I covered the section on earthquake safety drills and on floods/hurricanes and fires. In between the two sections of the seminar we had a break with snacks and drinks. We had pate (different than pate in the States) – it’s fried dough with meat and other filling – and they’re delicious. Just put a little spicy Haitian coleslaw on top and you’ve got yourself a hell of a snack. The second portion of the seminar covers some background on trauma and then goes over some methods to help children cope with what they’ve been through. There is an emphasis on creative/art therapy. The teachers really get a kick out of this section – there is singing, dancing, and a little project in which everyone makes something out of objects found in nature. So, as I said, the seminar went well and we were back at base around one. In the afternoon I worked with two other volunteers on emergency plans for HODR. We’re mainly working on a plan for if and when a hurricane hits. Today we set some tools aside, worked on a system for tying all the bunk beds together (so they don’t fly around), and made a list of the supplies we need to get. It’s amazing how complicated it can be to make plans for keeping over 100 people safe in case of an emergency (in Haiti, no less).

So it’s Friday night and what am I going to do? Go to bed early, of course. Tomorrow I’ll be doing more hurricane preparedness work in the morning and in the afternoon will be doing “Plaza Playtime” where I get to play games with kids. Tomorrow is going to be sweet.

Hope everyone had a good week and is looking forward to the weekend.

Love,

Daniel

I Can See the Finish Line...

Monday afternoon we got another good chunk of work done. I can say that I have a lot more motivation in the mornings – I think it’s the two-hour break in between work sessions when I’ll get really tired. But we went back to the site and got some quality work done.

Tuesday was a really awesome day. My team went back out to the site and got a whole lot of work done. I ran a lot of wheelbarrows and built a ramp. As team leader I do a lot of this-and-that – just sort of roam the site and do a little bit of everything. The morning was extremely hot with absolutely no cloud coverage. But my team worked through the heat and we had some nice water breaks under the shade of a huge mango tree. I returned in the afternoon actually feeling pretty good (I had a little nap at lunch). Again, the team worked really hard and we got another big portion of the slab cleared. There were some kids around in the afternoon – usually I don’t allow kids on my site – but for a couple reasons (there were only four kids, it’s a huge site so they could be out of the way, and they really wanted to help out) I parked a wheel barrow on the opposite side of the slab as we were working and let them fill the barrow. They loved it. The afternoon flew by and next thing we were loading the tools on the tap-tap. Talking about time flying by I just want to mention that at no point in my life has time seemed to pass so quickly. Days can sometimes seem long, but the weeks absolutely fly by. It’s like a time vacuum here or something.

So after dinner there was another rousing game of soccer in the back yard. I think I might be getting a little be better but maybe not. The nice thing about the game is that I can just sort of blend in and do what I can, typically sparing myself from embarrassment. The game was a low scoring affair – one to one. These daily soccer games are such an awesome way to spend quality time with our local volunteers. I really think it’s instrumental in helping to maintain cohesiveness between the local and international volunteers. And everybody has fun. We then had our nightly meeting, of course. Afterwards I sat down and talked to a new volunteer named Jason who is from Scotland. It was funny because I was sitting in the courtyard thinking about how cool things were (temperature wise). We had just got a little rain and things felt great. For a little reality check, I asked Jason how he felt – he said it felt hot and muggy. It’s amazing how much you adapt to the climate here, especially not having AC and all.

Today was another day of kick-ass work. My team went out and did a ton of work in the morning and in the afternoon. What’s so nice about this site is that there is a lot of continuity – the people who are working with me on it come back every day because they, too, want to finish it. So we work really well together at this point. As I announced at the meeting this evening when I was giving my report – we are on track to finish the site tomorrow! I’m seriously going to be so happy when it’s done.

Happy hump day.

Love,

Daniel

Real Progress, Soccer, Etc.

Saturday was yet another complicated day at base in regards to the local volunteer situation but, in the end, definitely a fun day for all. Before work in the morning, all signs pointed to it being a normal work morning. In the end the local guys decided they weren’t going to work, which caused lots of the volunteers to decide they weren’t going to work either. In my case, there was a group of teachers at a school waiting for the disaster training. I was happy to get to go out to work, anyway. To me it seems counterproductive to strike. Obviously I came to Haiti to work and I think we can work out a solution with the local volunteer program and still continue to work. Anyways, the training group went out to a school in Leogane, just a few minutes drive away. The seminar itself went pretty well considering most of the group was doing it for their first time. It definitely wasn’t as smooth as when everyone was experienced, but that’s to be expected. Where as before I was doing the section of hurricanes/floods and fire safety, I’m now doing the section on earthquake safety. It’s definitely a better, more interactive section – we talk about scenarios and discuss the best solution, go over earthquake drill procedure, and practice drills. I’ll have a teacher volunteer to be the teacher while the rest pretend to be the students. The volunteer teacher will instruct the class on things like the “key word” (a predetermined word to alert the class that there is an earthquake and it’s time to go), the evacuation point, etc. Overall the disaster preparedness section is dry but the teachers seem to really enjoy getting up and practicing. We had a break in the middle of the two portions of the seminar for a snack and finished in pretty good time. I find this experience is particularly rewarding – the teachers all thank us greatly for the training and tell us they will implement what they’ve learned.

We made it back to base for a partially volunteer-cooked lunch of pasta with actual tomato sauce! I thought it would then be off to watch the soccer game but we hit with yet another meeting. At the meeting we talked a bit more about the situation and TC (HODR Project Coordinator) said his goodbyes. He read his resignation email that he sent to the high-powered HODR staff people. There was some crying and general sadness. Fortunately the meeting ended at around halftime in the game so we got to catch the second half. The game ended up being projected over at Joe’s bar next door. It was a ton of fun watching the game with local and international volunteers alike. I even had USA painted on my stomach. The score came out to 1-1, which didn’t make anyone too happy or too unhappy. There was this overall sense of wellbeing and happiness among most people and that was a really nice change of pace. We played soccer in the back yard of the base (the terrain is entirely flattened rubble) and got beat by the locals. Saturday night I took it easy and just watched a movie. Brian set up his projector screen in the base and we watched The Big Lebowski. I had an unusually difficult time falling asleep that night – it was so hot and I just kept tossing and turning and waking up pretty frequently.

Yesterday was a good and relaxing Sunday. I lounged around for most of the day today until I finally rounded up a group to go to the beach. Eight of us walked to the place to grab a tap-tap (about 20 minutes walk). We got into a stretch tap-tap and rode 15 minutes down the road to Ballismo beach. Now this is the elusive beach Jeanene and I tried to go to some weeks ago but never got to. This time we made it, but were told entry wasn’t free (as it typically is) but someone had rented out the beach for the night and was charging 250 gourde (about six-some US dollars) so we said forget it and walked down the road to another beach. Entry for this was 150 gourde and after much discussion we decided that we had come far enough that it was worth it to just pay. The water was interesting. It was really, really warm, for one. Secondly there was a solid piece of concrete that just dropped into the water – no shoreline with sand, no pebbles, nothing. Third, the water was very rocky and full of coral on the bottom so I had to wear my flip-flops in the water. But overall it was really nice hanging in the water. The view was gorgeous. We left as the sun was setting and hailed a tap-tap and got back to Leogane.

I meant to post this last night but by the time I got back the internet was down. There was a trivia night. My team came in second (only losing by one point) and I can’t stop focusing on the fact that my team and I second-guessed a question about Calcium. At least we won our entry fee back.

It’s now Monday afternoon and I just got back from leading the site Wesley Vernet. We had our 7 a.m. pancake meeting this morning and got the good news that the local volunteer program is going to be reinstated and the numbers will remain the same as they were before. The kinks still need to be worked out but everybody is really happy. It felt so good to get out on site, locals and internationals alike, and work. It was hot as hell but we got a lot of work done.

Hope everyone’s ready for the week.

Love,

Daniel

Progress

Today has been an interesting day. I woke up at 5 this morning and decided not to try to go back to sleep. I set up breakfast and threw on my giant green headphones (as I do every morning). I was set to lead a crew at that rubble site, Wesley Vernet, but a bit after 7 we were called outside for a meeting. For the next several hours, all the local and international volunteers discussed the situation. Basically there are two problems – the threatening note one of our Haitian staff members got and the structure of the local volunteer program. At this point the two problems have become interconnected which is a real problem in and of itself. The management decision is to scale back the local program for the time being and reassess at a later date. Most of us feel that’s not the way to go. So a couple hours into the meeting this morning, one of the local guys, Big Junior, stood up and said that he wanted to tell us the names of those who wrote the note. He shared, in front of the whole meeting, two names of those responsible. We all really appreciated him being courageous and loyal to HODR. The meeting ended with things still in the air – there is a CLEAR consensus about how the volunteers feel so it’s just a matter of waiting for the decision to be reversed from the top. We expressed our solidarity with the local volunteers, letting them know we consider them family. The feeling is clearly mutual.

We ended the meeting with just an hour or so left in the work morning so it was decided that my crew wasn’t going to go out in the morning. In the afternoon I worked more with the teacher-training program. Tomorrow we have a training in the morning at a school in Leogane. After we finished running over things, I spent the rest of the afternoon playing Haitian games with a couple other volunteers and this one little Haitian girl. We had dinner and followed that with a rousing game of soccer. We played out back behind our base so the local guys could play as well. Upon their insistence, we played international volunteers vs. local volunteers. Surprisingly we didn’t get killed (it was 2-2, in fact)! But it was a lot of fun. I played goalie for a while which probably wasn’t such a good idea. I was clearly the worst player out there but it’s all good. Today was, again, tense for a while. But at the end of the day people (both local and international) seem really happy. Things are getting better for sure but Monday will be a pivotal day as that’s (supposedly) the day the restructuring of the local program is going to happen.

Tomorrow is going to be super sweet. Like I said, I’ve got the teacher-training in the morning but all the volunteers get the afternoon off to watch the USA vs. England soccer match. The plan is to get a projector set up in our giant outdoor tent and we’ll close all the sides so it’ll be dark and certainly ridiculously hot. We’re going to eat delicious food (likely homemade pizza) and watch sports, which sounds like a plan to me.

Looking forward to the weekend!

Love,

Daniel

Update Overload

Wednesday was a really great day for the most part. It felt so good to get back to work. I led a rubble crew in the morning and we went to a site called Wesley Vernet, which has been an on-and-off site for about two weeks now. It’s a pretty straightforward site – mostly just shoveling, wheel barrowing, and rebar removal. The site itself is quite nice, it’s in the countryside so it’s quiet and peaceful. About halfway through the morning another rubble team who had finished their site came to assist at our site. So at this point we had over 20 people, which was maybe a bit much. But we did get a lot done. In the afternoon I had to do some work with the disaster preparedness team I’ve been working with. Unfortunately all of the team aside from me has left HODR so we have the difficult task of training up an entirely new group to train the teachers. We’re also training new translators and considering the difficult degree of the material this is also going to be tough. So yesterday I went through the material with the new volunteers and then worked with two Haitian guys who are looking to become translators on this project. We essentially went through the documents line by line and we would stop and discuss especially difficult words or concepts. My work yesterday was really great in getting myself back into the swing of things.

When I say that yesterday was great for the most part, I say it because there was some sad news. A Haitian translator and HODR employee named Jacob, who I’ve gotten to know well and become friends with, announced he will be leaving the project. Now Jacob and I have worked together on the disaster preparedness project since I started working with it and we even went to Jacmel together. And he’s been working for HODR for years. He did the last Haiti project (Project Gonaives) in its entirety and has been with Project Leogane for as long as HODR has been here. As he was saying goodbye he explained that he couldn’t discuss why he was leaving but that it was for personal reasons. I went to give him a hug after the meeting and he explained to me that he had received a very threatening note from (we believe) is one of our local volunteers. The note explained that since Jacob is from Gonaives (a town several hours away) and is getting paid, he is taking potential jobs away from Leogane residents and must leave HODR or else there will be violent consequences. So it seems that the bullying worked as Jacob fears for his life and will thus be leaving the project.

So I’ve sort of been writing this post over the span of a couple days so things are developing and changing. Today was a normal day of rubbling. At lunch we were told there was going to be a meeting to discuss something important but it fell through so we worked through the afternoon. This evening we had the meeting and discussion. So today the highest up people in HODR made the decision to essentially cut the local volunteer program because of the threatening note. Now the local volunteer program is a cornerstone of HODR. It’s probably our best connection with the community and overall just amazing. Basically the program is set up so that local people can sign up to volunteer with HODR in many of its projects. In return for work, the locals get lunch and dinner but no money. The people that are doing this program seem almost exclusively awesome and are really just doing it to help their community. So anyways, without volunteer consultation, the decision was made and told to the local volunteers. It was then announced to the international volunteers at the meeting. Long story short – there was an eruption of outrage from the volunteers. We feel that cutting the program will be a huge set back in so many ways. The meeting turned into a heated discussion and things are pretty weird on base. Some people left for the night. One of the main staff members here is talking about resigning unless the policy is changed. Everyone is just really upset. Apparently the local volunteers are also really upset and hurt. They’ve expressed that the note does not express the views of the group as a whole. There has been a lot to take in so I will post more as things develop. On a positive note, Jacob may not be leaving the project after all. We’ll see.

So tonight hopefully things will simmer down and begin to work themselves out. Tomorrow I’m supposed to be leading a rubble team at Wesley Vernet so hopefully things will be cool by then and we can go out and get some work done.

Missing you all.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. I’ve played soccer (futbol, as some crazy people call it) for the last couple days on base. It’s been pretty awesome, surprisingly. With the World Cup right around the corner people seem to be getting in the mood for soccer. We even have a huge pool going. I picked USA as winning it all. Some call me foolish.

Home

My Sunday was concluded with a taco and pasta dinner and then went upstairs for a nap, which, like Saturday, turned into going to sleep for the night. I slept like a baby. Jeanene and I slept in Monday morning and had a late breakfast. We took a walk to a bank, which was about a pretty long walk but was on a secluded, beautiful road. I changed some money. We packed our bags and said goodbye to the good life. We decided to take a public bus into Santo Domingo to save money and it turned out to be extremely easy. It only took a couple of minutes until the bus came, I waved it down, and it cost less than $2 but had AC and was totally comfortable. The bus dropped us right by the Colonial District. We walked for a few minutes, looking for our hotel, and pretty quickly found it. We’re staying at a place called Hostel Freeman, which at $20 is a bargain and it had the amenities – AC, running water, TV. And the location is perfect, right in the Colonial District. We spent the day wandering around the area – we saw the oldest operating church in the Americas, tons of awesome architecture, ate some KFC, looked in shops – the whole nine. There are three other HODR folks also staying at the Freeman and we met up with all of them separately. David we saw as he was coming into the hostel and we were headed out. Flynn we saw walking by as we were having a drink at a corner store. Westin we stopped while eating fried chicken. So we walked around town for the rest of the afternoon then headed to the hostel for a quick rest. For dinner Jeanene and I wandered, looking at menus until we found a cheap, delicious, and nice atmosphere restaurant. I ended up getting an amazing club sandwich. Sitting at dinner, we had a beautiful breeze and we watched some healthy looking dogs play. I felt so calm and happy. We met back up with the other guys, grabbed a drink, and sat in this town-center park. I had a last real shower before going to bed.

We got up today around 7 a.m., packed our stuff, and hopped in a taxi to the bus station. The ride was pretty smooth all the way until we got to the border. It was then that we got caught up in a jam for a couple hours. It was a real mess. We did get through eventually but pretty quickly hit evening traffic in Haiti. After about 10 hours on a bus we got to the station in Petion-Ville where we immediately got into a shuttle to take us to Leogane. Ok so we finally got back. But I can’t complain – the trip was amazing, it was just what I hoping for. It was on the shuttle on the last leg of the trip home that I contemplated a lot of things. It was especially clear at nighttime how chaotic and desperate things are in Haiti. And having just been in the Dominican Republic, I saw the huge discrepancy between the two countries that are one piece of land, merely divided by some arbitrary border.

So anyways it feels so wonderful to be back on base. Everybody has been greeting me with hugs and such, asking about my time. A lot of people have said, “welcome home”. I just had a bucket shower, which was wonderful. Of course there are a ton of new faces but I feel really fresh and ready to do my best to meet everybody and help them out and all. Tomorrow morning it’s back to rubble! In the afternoon I’m doing something related to the teacher-training seminar I’ve been involved with for a while. Back to business as usual.

Love,

Daniel

Just Chillin'

OK so first of all I FINALLY GOT SOME PICTURES UPLOADED so check out my facebook. The pictures on there are just the ones off my camera but I’ll get a bunch more pictures from other people to bring home.

The rest of yesterday was as relaxing as expected. Sitting on the beach, burgers for lunch, swimming in the ocean/pool. For dinner we went to this Mexican restaurant, which was delicious. I got a duck quesadilla! We went back to the room for a post-dinner nap before going out for some dancing or pool or whatever. Things didn’t exactly work out that way, though. I got into bed for the nap around 9:30 and didn’t get out of bed until 12 hours later.

Breakfast today was as wonderful as yesterday. The day was, again, spent relaxing. We went for a long walk on the beach and played some water polo. There has been a lot more eating too of course. I’m also getting to practice my Spanish! We’re planning for a late dinner and not much else. Tomorrow we’re headed to the capital, Santo Domingo, where we’ll hang around the city all day then crash at a hostel near the Zona Colonial, or Colonial District which has lots of good food, music, shopping, and cultural stuff. Then Tuesday it's back on the bus to Haiti.

This trip has been absolutely wonderful so far – I’m just letting my body and mind completely rest. I do, however, have to say that I am looking forward to going back to Haiti. I miss HODR people and, crazy as it may sound, I miss rubble!

Hope you’ve all had a relaxing weekend!

Love,

Daniel

The Grass IS Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

I woke up early yesterday and did some last minute packing and had my usual HODR breakfast of cereal and coffee. It turns out there were seven volunteers leaving for the Dominican yesterday so we all took a shuttle to the bus station in Petion-Ville, a town about 20 minutes outside Port-au-Prince. It was $50 but split seven ways wasn’t bad at all. We all get to the bus station, buy our tickets, and sit around for a while. We all got on the bus, which could hold about 50 people but left the terminal with the seven of us and a few Haitians. We all got our own row. The bus was air-conditioned and the seats were actually comfortable so it was pretty luxurious. After two or three hours we got to the Dominican border where we went through a couple of checkpoints. We barely had to lift a finger – a woman on the bus collected all our passports and they were counted, stamped, and returned to us. Once we were on the Dominican side, the ride was really different. First of all, the country is considerably greener. Haiti has huge environmental issues, deforestation being one of those problems. So it was a nicer landscape and there were proper roads (meaning paved with some sort of traffic rules drivers follow). Five or so hours later we drove into Santo Domingo. It was dark at this point but I could tell it was a nice city. It’s very urban, lots of nice looking shops, restaurants – things most big cities have. We arrived at the bus terminal and the seven of us went our separate ways. Jeanene and I hopped in a taxi and got taken to our hotel in Juan Dolio, 30ish miles outside Santo Domingo. Directly upon getting out of the taxi, we knew we had chosen a good place to stay. We checked in and went to the room, which is amazing. There are two huge beds, a television, a balcony, AC, running water, etc. We spent several minutes just laying down, appreciating the softness of a real mattress. Now it’s not like I’ve been in Haiti forever and have lost touch with the real world, but even a month has made me appreciate certain comforts. By the time we got here, all the restaurants were closed but there is a 24-hour snack bar, which was serving hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, and fries. The food was AMAZING. It just tasted so damn good. We got a Presidente, the Dominican beer, and wandered around the “resort” area then shot some pool. I came back up to the room, had a real shower, and we both lounged in our beds, watching TV. For some reason Half Baked was on television (which is a classic, by the way) so we watched that until falling asleep.

I woke up around 9 this morning but didn’t roll out of bed until 10. Sleeping that late felt so good. We went downstairs for a breakfast buffet which was so, so, so good. The highlight of it was probably the fresh-squeezed juices. Now we’re back in the room getting in some quality internet time. Today we’ve got no real plans – head to the beach, walk around town, eat more, and so on.

This environment is such a dramatic change from where we’ve been so it’s a lot to take in and a lot to reflect on but I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to rest and recuperate a bit.

I have pretty consistent internet here so shoot me emails and such, I’d love to hear from you.

Love,

Daniel

The "Incident"

Yesterday was a nicer day spent working around base. I helped organize the tool shed – we cleared a lot of space. We also worked on starting to fix tools. But overall the day was about an unfortunate incident. So I was taking a day off from the rubble site I’ve been working on and my friend Bram (the guy who has been taking some days as team leader on this really tough site) was leading. Apparently there was a Haitian man who came to the site and, initially, was helping run wheelbarrows and such. The man identified himself to Bram as a new local volunteer so there was no problem. Then he started to use the pick-ax and sledge in a dangerous way. Everyone who works with HODR knows to let the team know if you’re using dangerous tools in their vicinity but this guy definitely didn’t do that. So the team took a break while Bram tried to talk to the guy and explain he wasn’t being safe. Anyways, it sounds like things got worse and weirder so Bram called back to base where a HODR staff member, TC, and one of our translators came to the site to try to speak with the man. He didn’t say anything and payed no attention to anybody who tried to talk to him. So this guy jumps on the tap-tap as the team is leaving for base (an hour early, by the way) and basically rode back to base with the team. When one of the female volunteers started to bring the water cooler inside, the man grabbed at her so she of course screamed and ran to the door. At this time I happened to be right near the front entrance so I hear all this commotion and two of the volunteers come frantically running in and slam the door behind them. I peeked out the window and saw the man being pinned down by our day watchman and a couple of the tap-tap drivers (and some other local guys I think). As the men are trying to get this crazy guy off our property, he makes a mad dash and grabs for two other female volunteers who had been hiding around the corner. He was quickly subdued again and, at this point, several of us international volunteers had come out. The man stood at the gate and we pretty much just made a wall of people in front of the man. He stood there just staring – it was really weird and creppy. We all stood there in this standoff for like 10 minutes. There was a minute or so when this guy was staring at me. It was like he was staring me down but at the same time was looking right through me with his vacant stare. Some HODR people had called the Haitian police so the man stood around until the police got there and he struggled a bit but was no match for the four police officers with handcuffs and automatic weapons. They took the man away in the back of their pick-up. HODR also called the UN Police and the Sri Lankan Army. So it was just one man and all but it was a big deal. HODR has really good connections with the UN. The UN promised to look into the situation and make sure that the man was held in custody for at least a few days. Unfortunately, this didn’t exactly happen. Apparently the man was deemed mentally ill by the police, so what did they do? They released him. When the team returned to the site in the afternoon, the man was back. Well, just as the team was leaving for the afternoon, they saw the man and he did more weird, quasi-threatening things but LUCKILY the tap-tap was gone before he could do anything. Everyone was really shaken up by the whole situation and it made me really angry. Not only did this man make it so that we can’t return to the site (which I was going to finish today), but he really made a lot of the volunteers here feel more vulnerable. Leogane feels like a very safe town (and it is, relatively speaking) but everyone has to be more vigilant. So we’ll see what happens with the situation – the Sri Lankan Army has said they will increase patrol around our base and the UN Police said they’ll follow up but we’ll see. Nobody really understands why this happened. One of our translators says he smokes crack, which seems plausible. But it also seems likely that he’s suffering from PTSD – I was told that around this time after a disaster the disease often starts to manifest itself.

Today I stuck around base in the morning doing more work on the tools. In the afternoon I hit a rubble site where I did tons of sledging. Since I’m leaving for break tomorrow it felt good to get out there and work really hard once more.

Tomorrow I leave for the Dominican Republic. I am taking my computer so hopefully I’ll have internet access. I’m really exciting about totally relaxing for the next few days.

Take care.

Love,

Daniel

Hello Mr. (Former) President

Yesterday I got a much-needed break from leading the rubble site I was at (Cine). I joined up on Tim’s team. Tim is this extremely buff Australian guy who used to be an investment banker and is now just a full time badass. The site we went to was out in the country a bit so I was thankful to be away from the hustle and bustle of the downtown site I’ve been running. The site was also mostly sledging so I spent most of the day taking out any aggression I may have had. In the morning we did a bit of demo work. The team was almost 20 people large (which is huge for one team) and demo work does not take a lot of people. Luckily Tim asked me to help him out with the demo stuff so I didn’t spend the morning sitting around like most of the team. Once we got down the dangerous walls and stuff the sledge-fest began. I was on sledge rotation with Tim, a local volunteer called Peter, and one other international volunteer. Our small group spent the day with America. America is the name of our biggest sledgehammer, a 16-pound beast of a tool. Needless to say, we got a ton of the roof sledged.

Today it was back to my team leading duties at Cine. The morning was pretty slow – we got some Bobcat action, which took care of a lot of our rubble. The Bobcats have turned a three-week job into a week and a half job. Lunch was completely not ordinary. I got back to base, unloaded the tools, and ran down the HODR driveway to the street where I stood around for an hour or so. Why? Because BILL CLINTON was in town, that’s why. Yeah. So the former president is on a Haiti rebuilding taskforce thing and he was making a stop in Leogane – he came here for two reasons – one was to see a temporary shelter that an organization called CHF made (and will be mass producing throughout Haiti) and the second was to draw more attention to Leogane, a town that needs a lot of help. Being that it was the epicenter of the earthquake, some 90% of the city was destroyed. So the shelter he was checking out is literally right across the street from the HODR base (and the slab the t-shelter is on was cleared by HODR, too)! So the Sri Lankan UN had been outside our base all day and then, closer to his arrival, more UN vehicles came in. When Clinton himself arrived, about 20 UN cars with Secret Service people in them came. It was a pretty weird site to see. He had a brief meeting and press conference and, on his way out, he stopped and said hi to the HODR volunteers. I got to shake his hand! Lunch was definitely eventful today and going back to work in the afternoon was tough. The afternoon went well – we got more Bobcat action.

In just the last two weeks or so, the number of volunteers has been fluctuating like crazy. We’ll get lots of new volunteers coming in everyday and different ones leaving everyday. The number of people on base is also really high. HODR’s max capacity is 100 volunteers at a time (we’re around 120 now) and they’re fully booked until the end of the project but they allow volunteers that are already here to stay longer if the want and if you’ve been here once, you can come back at any time later in the project (which is a good thing, I think). So there are more people at the project at all times. At the meeting tonight there were around a dozen new people. There are just a lot more short-term people that will come in for a week or so and then are gone. Now I don’t discount there work at all – any amount of time one is able to commit helps. That being said, the crowdedness of base and all the people who don’t know the rules and such makes for a more stressful living situation. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I’m super glad I’m taking my break on Friday. It’s called a “mental health break” for a reason.

I’m looking forward to working real hard these next couple of days and then taking off for my weekend in the DR.

Love,

Daniel

Lazy Sunday

Saturday is the last workday of the week so everyone is usually pretty worn out – yesterday was the same deal. While I was in the tool shed in the morning getting the tools for my crew I dropped a sledge and it feel and grazed my hand. Now just 24 hours later its become infected. Luckily there is a nurse volunteering here so she’s been giving me advice. Anyways I went out in the morning to the site and attacked it. We had a HODR Bobcat come in and help us for much of the morning. On top of that, another organization called CHF alongside this work-for-pay program run by USAID helped us clear more of our site. We had another, more mobile Bobcat help us along with a giant Caterpillar taking away huge piles of our rubble, which was all getting hauled away by giant dump trucks. So I ended up spending most of the morning doing something I wasn’t expecting to do in Haiti – directing traffic. Now drivers in Haiti don’t tend to follow “traditional” driving rules as we know them, so this tasked proved to be somewhat difficult and somewhat dangerous, but it had to be done. So basically I’d stop traffic while the Bobcat came in and out. We got a whole lot of work done in the morning but it’s still going to be another week or more to finish the site entirely.

After lunch I went back to the site with a slightly smaller crew (which is ok since the site is pretty narrow and there isn’t room for many people). We didn’t have heavy machinery so we were just running wheelbarrows. At this site there is a lot of stuff and an especially large amount of broken electronics. In the afternoon there was a point where things almost got bad when like eight or ten Haitian guys were crowding around the stuff and fighting over it. Dealing with all the stuff we salvage is a really big problem. People like to steal everything from rebar and bricks to broken electronics. There is only one woman who I’ve met from the site that I believe actually lived in the house so I’m directing the questions to her. When all the people were fighting over the stuff I asked her if that was ok with her and she said no so I had one of the translators say, essentially, that we were working, they were in our way, and they had to leave right away. Things ended up ok and didn’t get too out of hand. We finished up the afternoon work and returned to base. For dinner there were lots of fried plantains (among other things), which are one of my favorites. Saturday night was fun – I stayed up a little late (as in 10:30 instead of 10). It was Salsa dance night at Joe’s next door and I met a couple of women who work at a child nutrition program at the hospital next door. What caught my eye was one of the women was wearing an Elon shirt. It turned out she had graduated from Elon in 2009 and one of the other women she was with lives and works in Durham when she’s not in Haiti. I had a nice time talking about southern food and how underrated a state North Carolina is.

Today was a relaxing day. I did some computer stuff in the early morning then took a walk with my friend Brian (an architect from Seattle) around Leogane. We took some photos and I bought a sim card for my phone. I can now call the US at the price of 15 gourde per minute (about 20 cents). It’s nice to know I can make calls but the internet is still the best way to keep in touch for sure. The walk was really nice – we went to a bakery and got Haitian croissants and we ended it by checking out the market. The rest of the day was spent watching episodes of The Simpsons on my computer. I just had a hotdog on a stick for dinner. Tomorrow it’s back to work. But I have my trip to look forward to on Friday!

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Love,

Daniel

Cine

Yesterday was a pretty average day. I finished making a second rain cover for the giant window by the bunks. It rained last night and today and it seems that they have been helping keep water out. In the afternoon I went to a rubble site – pretty typical, nothing noteworthy as far as I can remember. Last night I got a tarot card reading from a practicing witch – a volunteer named Al (female). The reading showed had some real negative aspects but overall came out pretty positive.

Today I took over as team leader for a site called Cine. It’s a very short distance from base and right on a busy road. The site pretty much sucks. Basically it was a three-story structure, which totally collapsed. On top of the three stories of rubble we suspect the neighbors have been dumping their rubble as well. The building was right in between two others so it’s not a very wide area to work with. It’s essentially a very high pile of rubble and we’re working our way from the front of the site back. I did have a bit of a reality check involving the site last night, though. I was given the paper, which gives the details about the site I’d be working at. 20 people had been living at the house - four had died in the earthquake – one child, three adults. It sort of just made me think again about the extent of the devastation. It’s easy to just think of the sites we go to as JUST rubble but they’re definitely more than that – they’re peoples’ houses. The places they’ve lived, often, for generations. Possessions were buried and people were injured and killed. But anyways the site today went pretty well. In the morning we had the HODR Bobcats (you know, the heavy machinery that scoops and such) come in and clear some of our rubble. Late morning we got absolutely poured on. It made for a really, really dirty site. After lunch we came back and just kept going at it. There were a lot of kids and other locals around – some watching, some helping. It’s really tough dealing with kids. You want them to help – in fact, HODR wants kids to help too. But as team leader I still have to make sure the kids stay as safe as possible. My rule has been that kids can shovel and move rocks by hand and move empty wheelbarrows (as long as they’re not in the way too much) but I still find myself telling kids to stop doing something or making them move a lot. Unfortunately this site is probably going to take another week or ten days to finish.

Tonight I’m going to try to get into bed early. Tomorrow is another day at Cine, rubbling my heart out.

An update on my vacation – I will be going to the Dominican Republic in week from today with Jeanene (and others, maybe)! We booked a room at a place called Costa Caribe. It’s going to come out to about $50 per day for me but that includes a room, all my meals and snacks, drinks, and activities! I’m also looking into some day trips around Santa Domingo. It’s amazing to have something to look forward to – it really helps keep me going when things get tough.

Love,

Daniel

P.S. One thing I forgot to mention that just occurred to me while I was taking my bucket shower a minute ago – when I was working at a rubble site a few days ago there was an aftershock. It wasn’t that big. In fact, I didn’t even feel it because I was hammering at the time. But I heard one of the team member shout “earthquake” and we all gathered in the middle of the site. It wasn’t really a big deal and we got right back to work but it reminded me that I was living in an earthquake zone, something I’m definitely not used to.