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