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.