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