Today I was an apprentice to one of the long-term volunteers name Miso (a guy from Slovakia with a Λ over the “s” in his name). We started the morning with some basic, shirtless carpentry stuff – using a table saw to cut some wood, hammering, measuring – being that I had a pencil behind my ear I felt pretty official. God, measuring twice and cutting once without a shirt on feels so manly. We were building some overhangs with tarp to be attached to certain key locations where a lot of rain comes into the base. Putting these things up was pretty damn difficult. For the two we put outside the windows of the baggage storage room (which flooded two days ago and soaked all my stuff) we had to take a ladder to the side of the base, stick it on top of a ton of mud and non-flat surfaces, and Miso did the hammering while I held the ladder. He reminded me early on that my life was in his hands. As if this wasn’t enough, we had to go to the roof to attach the second half of the piece where I layed on my stomach, hanging off the edge holding the wood while he hammered. It made me nervous, not so much because I’m afraid of heights but rather am afraid of falling of the sides of buildings. We got up three rain diverters in total in the morning. I also got started building rain flies for the giant windows near the bunks (when it rains hard, the bunks nearest to the windows usually get pretty wet). The first one we were making was just a prototype to see if it was feasible and workable.
In the afternoon I worked with a couple volunteers, Steve and Al, in finishing the prototype for the window cover. We did and tested it out – worked like a charm. We’ll just have to see how it stands up to the rain. Tomorrow we are going to make a second one to put over the other giant window. Today I felt good about knowing I helped to make the base a little less wet! Team leaders have to speak at the nightly meeting about how things went for their project for the day –Miso asked me to speak because he thinks his English isn’t good (even though it is) and everyone seemed appreciative of the new designs.
Tonight I’m looking more into the mandatory trip I’ll be taking in the next week or two. I say mandatory (it’s true, it is) but I’m really looking forward to it. I’m fairly sure at this point I’ll be going to the Dominican Republic for my break. I’ll be joined by Jeanene, another volunteer, from Brooklyn, and possibly others; at the meeting I announced our trip to see if anyone wanted to join as well. Hopefully I’ll have everything sorted out ASAP.
Hope you had a good hump day.
Love,
Daniel
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Finish Site? Check.
Today was a really great day – I finished my first project as team leader! The morning was, again, stressful before leaving as I was running around making sure we had everything and such. I got to the site with the group, which included a few people rubbling for the first time, and did tons of shoveling and wheel barrowing all morning and finished with about 45 minutes to spare. Like yesterday there were tons of kids and other locals watching and running around near the site so I did have to constantly have to ask them to move off the slab we were working on. But we finished without incidence.
I had a nap after lunch and woke up groggy. One of the teams already at a site needed a bunch more people so my group split up and went to two different active sites. I went back to the team I usually work with and got to go to an awesome project. Most of the team did rubble clearing while the rest (myself included) did some demo (demolition) work. Usually a site is classified as either rubble or demo/decon. This site had some of both. Demolition means there are dangerous things going on and there are usually hazards – for example, a site with a roof or high walls or something else when specialized things need to be done. In our case there were a bunch of walls needing to be taken down. I learned a lot about the process – I got to help use a pulley (or “come along”, rather) to bring a wall down and did some precision sledging. So it was a lot of fun. Now I’m back on base and tired as usual. The executive director of HODR, David Campbell, came to the base today. Apparently he comes down here about once a month and then returns to the US to fundraise and all that.
Every 30 days Hands On requires that volunteers take a mental health break somewhere off base for a few days so I’m starting to seriously plan for that. I really want to go to the Dominican Republic so I may do that. I want a room with AC and something to eat other than rice and beans. I’m not being too demanding so I’m sure I’ll be able to find some accommodations to suit my needs.
Tomorrow I’m staying on base to help out doing some infrastructure work around the house. It should be pretty interesting and now that I’ve done two days of rubbling I want to rest my back (part of my process of easing my back back into work).
Hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Daniel
I had a nap after lunch and woke up groggy. One of the teams already at a site needed a bunch more people so my group split up and went to two different active sites. I went back to the team I usually work with and got to go to an awesome project. Most of the team did rubble clearing while the rest (myself included) did some demo (demolition) work. Usually a site is classified as either rubble or demo/decon. This site had some of both. Demolition means there are dangerous things going on and there are usually hazards – for example, a site with a roof or high walls or something else when specialized things need to be done. In our case there were a bunch of walls needing to be taken down. I learned a lot about the process – I got to help use a pulley (or “come along”, rather) to bring a wall down and did some precision sledging. So it was a lot of fun. Now I’m back on base and tired as usual. The executive director of HODR, David Campbell, came to the base today. Apparently he comes down here about once a month and then returns to the US to fundraise and all that.
Every 30 days Hands On requires that volunteers take a mental health break somewhere off base for a few days so I’m starting to seriously plan for that. I really want to go to the Dominican Republic so I may do that. I want a room with AC and something to eat other than rice and beans. I’m not being too demanding so I’m sure I’ll be able to find some accommodations to suit my needs.
Tomorrow I’m staying on base to help out doing some infrastructure work around the house. It should be pretty interesting and now that I’ve done two days of rubbling I want to rest my back (part of my process of easing my back back into work).
Hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Daniel
Monday, May 24, 2010
Captain Me
Sunday was a pretty typical day off. I spent most of the day doing nothing of real importance. I took a walk around Leogane in an attempt to find a sim card for my phone. I didn’t buy one but I now know where I can buy one. I should have known you couldn’t buy a sim card after 1 p.m. on a Sunday, right? It was nice just walking around town a bit – it gave me a chance to take some pictures, which I often don’t do enough during the week. I also went to the hot Sunday restaurant – Massaje - and got a chicken burger, fries, and a strawberry milkshake! The rest of the day was nice, as Sunday’s are. It rained unbelievably hard last night and my bed got wet.
Today was a pretty epic day for me. We had our usual Monday morning pancake breakfast-meeting. I was really excited to get back on rubble after being off of it for so long so I planned to sign up with the team leader I usually work with. By the time I got to the board the site was already full. I went to ask the team leader, Ton, if I could join anyways and he pretty much just grabbed my name magnet and put my name on the board for a new rubble site in the team leader position. Being a team leader was something I didn’t think I’d do for several more weeks but now works too, I guess. So being team leader I had to pick up a cell phone to keep on me at the site. I also had to go to the tool shed and coordinate all the tools and wheelbarrows we were going to take (which was tough since I hadn’t been to the site before). The team also has to take water and a first-aid kit. But I wasn’t planning to be team leader so remembering all this stuff made for a kind of stressful morning. Each tap-tap makes two runs to different sites in the morning and my team was scheduled to be second so we were requested next door at the hospital where we moved a big triage structure. After that we headed out to the site (about 12 of us, including a few local volunteers). When we got to the site it was just a whole bunch of rubble – usually there are huge slabs of concrete that need to be sledged, but in this case all the structure was totally in pieces. This meant there was a lot of shoveling, pick-axing, and wheel barrowing going on. There was also this one piece of solid concrete that proved to be a real challenge – it was leaning up against a neighbor’s wall so every time we hit the piece, we risked breaking the wall, not to mention there was the danger of somebody getting hurt if we weren’t careful. I decided I would consult with someone at lunch and we’d take care of that problem in the afternoon. One of the other jobs of team leaders is to make decisions on what people do work-wise and all the questions about pretty much everything on site came to me. Despite my being nervous and the rain we got, the morning went really well. Lots of stuff got taken care of. And the neighbors all wanted to keep the rubble to use to elevate areas from flooding. One other real concern I had were all the kids around. This site was in a pretty confined area and there were literally a couple dozen kids so I was constantly having to ask them to back away for their own safety and so that we could work. Being team leader all these things fall on me so even though all the volunteers are responsible adults, there is a fair amount of responsibility (and pressure) on the team leader, I learned to appreciate today.
Lunch/afternoon break was really interesting today. I saw some people with badges milling around while I was eating and was told they were Acupuncturists Without Borders. They had come from their base in Port-au-Prince and did a session with us! So everyone who wanted to went to the big outdoor tent, sat down, and got ten needles, five in each ear! I’m not sure how much of it was the needles and how much of it was the fact that I was closing my eyes and taking deep breaths, but the whole thing felt really great and was totally relaxing. When this was done I had to go get all the equipment ready for the afternoon.
The team returned to the site in the afternoon and we basically kicked ass. Everyone worked so hard clearing the slab and doing what needed to be done. I worked with a couple of the guys taking the wall down – which got done safely with very little damage done to the neighbor’s wall. We got rained on once again in the afternoon, which was pretty refreshing. Our ride arrived and the team all got back, everyone and everything still intact, so I feel like I didn’t completely fail as a leader. Thinking about it, it’s also a bit weird being team leader but also being younger than everyone I’m leading. It’s not an issue or something anyone brings up (or even thinks about, probably) but it’s been on my mind. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but here’s an interesting fact – I’m the youngest person on base. But anyways, I’ll be leading the team again tomorrow and plan to finish the site in the morning. Then I’ll be off to a new rubble site and a new adventure.
I’m so tired.
Love,
Daniel
Today was a pretty epic day for me. We had our usual Monday morning pancake breakfast-meeting. I was really excited to get back on rubble after being off of it for so long so I planned to sign up with the team leader I usually work with. By the time I got to the board the site was already full. I went to ask the team leader, Ton, if I could join anyways and he pretty much just grabbed my name magnet and put my name on the board for a new rubble site in the team leader position. Being a team leader was something I didn’t think I’d do for several more weeks but now works too, I guess. So being team leader I had to pick up a cell phone to keep on me at the site. I also had to go to the tool shed and coordinate all the tools and wheelbarrows we were going to take (which was tough since I hadn’t been to the site before). The team also has to take water and a first-aid kit. But I wasn’t planning to be team leader so remembering all this stuff made for a kind of stressful morning. Each tap-tap makes two runs to different sites in the morning and my team was scheduled to be second so we were requested next door at the hospital where we moved a big triage structure. After that we headed out to the site (about 12 of us, including a few local volunteers). When we got to the site it was just a whole bunch of rubble – usually there are huge slabs of concrete that need to be sledged, but in this case all the structure was totally in pieces. This meant there was a lot of shoveling, pick-axing, and wheel barrowing going on. There was also this one piece of solid concrete that proved to be a real challenge – it was leaning up against a neighbor’s wall so every time we hit the piece, we risked breaking the wall, not to mention there was the danger of somebody getting hurt if we weren’t careful. I decided I would consult with someone at lunch and we’d take care of that problem in the afternoon. One of the other jobs of team leaders is to make decisions on what people do work-wise and all the questions about pretty much everything on site came to me. Despite my being nervous and the rain we got, the morning went really well. Lots of stuff got taken care of. And the neighbors all wanted to keep the rubble to use to elevate areas from flooding. One other real concern I had were all the kids around. This site was in a pretty confined area and there were literally a couple dozen kids so I was constantly having to ask them to back away for their own safety and so that we could work. Being team leader all these things fall on me so even though all the volunteers are responsible adults, there is a fair amount of responsibility (and pressure) on the team leader, I learned to appreciate today.
Lunch/afternoon break was really interesting today. I saw some people with badges milling around while I was eating and was told they were Acupuncturists Without Borders. They had come from their base in Port-au-Prince and did a session with us! So everyone who wanted to went to the big outdoor tent, sat down, and got ten needles, five in each ear! I’m not sure how much of it was the needles and how much of it was the fact that I was closing my eyes and taking deep breaths, but the whole thing felt really great and was totally relaxing. When this was done I had to go get all the equipment ready for the afternoon.
The team returned to the site in the afternoon and we basically kicked ass. Everyone worked so hard clearing the slab and doing what needed to be done. I worked with a couple of the guys taking the wall down – which got done safely with very little damage done to the neighbor’s wall. We got rained on once again in the afternoon, which was pretty refreshing. Our ride arrived and the team all got back, everyone and everything still intact, so I feel like I didn’t completely fail as a leader. Thinking about it, it’s also a bit weird being team leader but also being younger than everyone I’m leading. It’s not an issue or something anyone brings up (or even thinks about, probably) but it’s been on my mind. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before but here’s an interesting fact – I’m the youngest person on base. But anyways, I’ll be leading the team again tomorrow and plan to finish the site in the morning. Then I’ll be off to a new rubble site and a new adventure.
I’m so tired.
Love,
Daniel
Sunday, May 23, 2010
My Adventure
Alright so the following post is a summary of the trip I took to Jacmel for the satellite teaching project. Some of this I wrote during the trip and some after so the tense changes a lot and whatnot. It’s a pretty long post but I suppose a lot can happen in a few days.
Day I: Today, Thursday, has been a pretty wild day. It started off with my waking up at 4:45 a.m. I finished packing for the Jacmel trip and had some breakfast. We left base around 6:30. The tap-taps are not comfortable to begin with but taking long trips on them pretty much sucks. But aside from the discomfort, the ride was really nice – we rode up and through the mountains. We got to the place we’re staying at within a couple hours. Unfortunately we were meant to be at the school (our first teaching site) by 8:30. So anyways we arrive at the base here in Jacmel. We set our stuff down and left for our first work site in a town called Etain (sp?), a supposed 30 minute drive away. The first bit of the drive was fine – semi-paved roads, nothing crazy. It was when we got to the first river that the problems started. Just for a little background – the tap-tap we were in was a piece of shit to begin with. An old, rusting pickup with some elevated bench seating in the back and a metal piece covering the top. Ok so we get to this river and we just go at it, full on. Drove right into it. It wasn’t a huge, deep river (at least at the part we were crossing) but it was still several feet deep and totally rocky on the bottom. Half way across the car stalls. This is an occurrence that subsequently happened about 200 more times throughout the day. So after a couple minutes the boyfriend of one of our translators (who is tagging on long on this trip for some unknown reason) hopped out of the tap-tap and, with some assistance from the locals, got the truck going again. We get across the river and drive on some road that was getting progressively worse. Then we hit another river. We got through it, barely. Then came the mountain. Now perhaps it should have been a sign to us not to proceed seeing as how there were only a couple motorcycles going up – maybe our vehicle would be unable to handle the terrain. But we went for it, of course. The next hour was some of the scariest minutes I’ve had in a while. Basically think – extreme inclines and declines, no real road to speak of, a very narrow and rocky path, and being inches away from a cliff steep enough to base jump off – this was non-stop the whole way up. There were several occasions we had to jump off the back of the tap-tap due to close calls. We’d walk while the driver negotiated the particularly nasty bits of mountain. But somehow we got up! We were two hours late but glad to be alive. The teaching sessions went smoothly in the morning for the most part. The teachers were asking lots of questions and we didn’t have much time since we were so late but we managed to finish. We had some lunch of – you guessed it – rice and beans (and some fish and really awesome lime juice)! Afternoon session went by alright even though we were on an even tighter schedule. My portion which deals with floods/hurricanes and fire/fire safety went well although the teachers had more interest and questions about earthquakes, which is fair enough and doesn’t surprise me. Regardless I still feel like my section includes some pretty important information. So we finished up and got back in the tap-tap. Now at this point I had developed a bad headache. Let me say that the being in the back of a tap-tap, careening down a mountain isn’t the most comfortable position to be in, especially when you have a headache. As we were leaving the school everyone on the team was talking about their imminent deaths. Going down the mountain really, legitimately was scary. Even worse than on the way up. So going down was easier in that we didn’t have to jump out but, again, was way scarier. We made it down and through the river (although the engine died again in the middle). After nearly an eternity in the back of the death-mobile we got back to the house where the truck pretty much died in front of the gate. Needless to say I was happy to hear we’d be using a new truck Friday. Upon getting back we set up a big ol’ tent in the front yard of this Haitian NGO’s compound we were staying at. The group got together to go for dinner in downtown Jacmel but I was feeling pretty crap so I stayed at the compound all by myself. It sucked feeling so bad but quite nice having free range of the house – this included a real toilet, a proper shower, and cold drinking water. After less than three weeks in Haiti these things seemed like luxuries. So I had a shower (still had a cold one), got myself some water, threw on my headphones, and started writing this entry. I then took a little nap and woke up when the others came back with a box of food for me. I got a delicious piece of chicken, fried plantains, and the infamous spicy, Haitian coleslaw. I ate quickly and went back to bed. I decided pretty quickly that sleeping on a sleeping pad is not enough comfort for me but putting a pillow under my back and using clothes as a pillow made me marginally more comfortable. But I slept.
Day II: I woke up at a quarter ‘till six, had breakfast, and the team was off for the day. Being that our “30 minute ride” Thursday took a good two hours, I had some real trepidation getting onto our new, smaller tap-tap to embark on an hour and half journey through even more mountains in a town called Brettan (again, sp?). The ride was horribly uncomfortable but, again, there was a stunningly beautiful view for most of the ride. Also, when we were a few minutes into the ride we stopped and two older Haitian women got in the tap-tap with us (along with huge sacks full of something heavy). For a little while I thought they were teachers, hitching a ride to the seminar with us but when we dropped them off an hour and some later I realized they weren’t. This same kind of thing happened several more times through the rest of the trip. It only took two, two and a half hours. And there were only a handful of times when I feared for my life. It’s amazing how many more stares and looks of sheer bewilderment you get the further outside of major cities you get. And instead of the “hey you’s” I’m used to getting in Leogane, the kids mostly just shout “blanc” (white) over and over at us. Getting to the town today I was still feeling pretty sick and really tired. I barely made it through the morning session. While we were taking a break and waiting for lunch our team leader, Chris, suggested we make a quick run to the beach before eating. We made the short walk to the water – we walked through a graveyard, which had a path that ran through the gravestones (all above ground, as Haitian culture dictates people not be buried in the ground) and came right out onto the beach. The water was a beautiful, light shade of blue and there wasn’t any sand but instead there were stones. The stones were all very smooth so walking barefoot wasn’t a problem. We all basically got down to our underwear and went swimming. The water was really warm and we mostly had the beach to ourselves – there were a few young Haitian kids swimming. We only had a few minutes in the water but it was extremely refreshing and I did feel a lot less sick. We finished the afternoon and headed back to Jacmel. I know I’ve complained a lot about the tap-tap rides but this ride was no different than the rest – long, uncomfortable. But this time we even got some rain. We were lucky that the driver had a tarp, which we all huddled under. It felt like the days of making forts (kind of). We had street food for dinner (old oily chicken that didn’t agree with a lot of the group the next day). Because our last teaching site was in Jacmel itself, we were going to have to leave until 8 the next morning. That meant sleeping in!
Day III: I slept later Saturday morning than maybe any day so far – 7 a.m.! When we went to load the tap-tap there were some mechanics outside who had fixed the problem on our initial tap-tap but weren’t happy with the amount our driver was trying to give them. They were demanding twice the cost of what the work should have reasonably cost (so I was told). The mechanic even threatened to put the engine back the way it was if he didn’t get paid. One of our translator’s boyfriend, Gito, a big guy, put half the money being demanded into the mechanics pocket and hustled him away. The session was only 15 minutes away from the house and the whole day went really quickly. Before I knew it, we were packing up our giant tent and packing up the tap-tap. The ride back wasn’t too bad and I was actually happy to be back! People here are really great. Coming back in, lots of people ask how everything went and welcomed me back “home”. Seriously, the people here are so wonderful.
One thing I find very entertaining about doing the teaching sessions is the questions we get. A lot of the questions are reasonable but every session we typically get a couple ridiculous ones. I just want to share a couple of the better questions we got just so you have an idea of what I mean (I’m paraphrasing but the questions remain essentially the same):
-I heard there is a car that can create an earthquake, true?
-I heard that on December 21, 2012 the US is going to set off lots of bombs and missiles and if you want to survive you have to go underground, true?
Sometimes I seem to get so wrapped up in everything going on with HODR I forget to really look at and enjoy the country I’m in. Getting out to do this satellite project was great in that I was able to see more of the country and think more about all the cultural differences. I also got to spend time with a small group of really great people. One of the guys on the trip, Steve, did some calculation on the way back. He figured out that during the trip we had spent more time on a tap-tap then we had sleeping. Anyways, I’m really glad I went.
Day I: Today, Thursday, has been a pretty wild day. It started off with my waking up at 4:45 a.m. I finished packing for the Jacmel trip and had some breakfast. We left base around 6:30. The tap-taps are not comfortable to begin with but taking long trips on them pretty much sucks. But aside from the discomfort, the ride was really nice – we rode up and through the mountains. We got to the place we’re staying at within a couple hours. Unfortunately we were meant to be at the school (our first teaching site) by 8:30. So anyways we arrive at the base here in Jacmel. We set our stuff down and left for our first work site in a town called Etain (sp?), a supposed 30 minute drive away. The first bit of the drive was fine – semi-paved roads, nothing crazy. It was when we got to the first river that the problems started. Just for a little background – the tap-tap we were in was a piece of shit to begin with. An old, rusting pickup with some elevated bench seating in the back and a metal piece covering the top. Ok so we get to this river and we just go at it, full on. Drove right into it. It wasn’t a huge, deep river (at least at the part we were crossing) but it was still several feet deep and totally rocky on the bottom. Half way across the car stalls. This is an occurrence that subsequently happened about 200 more times throughout the day. So after a couple minutes the boyfriend of one of our translators (who is tagging on long on this trip for some unknown reason) hopped out of the tap-tap and, with some assistance from the locals, got the truck going again. We get across the river and drive on some road that was getting progressively worse. Then we hit another river. We got through it, barely. Then came the mountain. Now perhaps it should have been a sign to us not to proceed seeing as how there were only a couple motorcycles going up – maybe our vehicle would be unable to handle the terrain. But we went for it, of course. The next hour was some of the scariest minutes I’ve had in a while. Basically think – extreme inclines and declines, no real road to speak of, a very narrow and rocky path, and being inches away from a cliff steep enough to base jump off – this was non-stop the whole way up. There were several occasions we had to jump off the back of the tap-tap due to close calls. We’d walk while the driver negotiated the particularly nasty bits of mountain. But somehow we got up! We were two hours late but glad to be alive. The teaching sessions went smoothly in the morning for the most part. The teachers were asking lots of questions and we didn’t have much time since we were so late but we managed to finish. We had some lunch of – you guessed it – rice and beans (and some fish and really awesome lime juice)! Afternoon session went by alright even though we were on an even tighter schedule. My portion which deals with floods/hurricanes and fire/fire safety went well although the teachers had more interest and questions about earthquakes, which is fair enough and doesn’t surprise me. Regardless I still feel like my section includes some pretty important information. So we finished up and got back in the tap-tap. Now at this point I had developed a bad headache. Let me say that the being in the back of a tap-tap, careening down a mountain isn’t the most comfortable position to be in, especially when you have a headache. As we were leaving the school everyone on the team was talking about their imminent deaths. Going down the mountain really, legitimately was scary. Even worse than on the way up. So going down was easier in that we didn’t have to jump out but, again, was way scarier. We made it down and through the river (although the engine died again in the middle). After nearly an eternity in the back of the death-mobile we got back to the house where the truck pretty much died in front of the gate. Needless to say I was happy to hear we’d be using a new truck Friday. Upon getting back we set up a big ol’ tent in the front yard of this Haitian NGO’s compound we were staying at. The group got together to go for dinner in downtown Jacmel but I was feeling pretty crap so I stayed at the compound all by myself. It sucked feeling so bad but quite nice having free range of the house – this included a real toilet, a proper shower, and cold drinking water. After less than three weeks in Haiti these things seemed like luxuries. So I had a shower (still had a cold one), got myself some water, threw on my headphones, and started writing this entry. I then took a little nap and woke up when the others came back with a box of food for me. I got a delicious piece of chicken, fried plantains, and the infamous spicy, Haitian coleslaw. I ate quickly and went back to bed. I decided pretty quickly that sleeping on a sleeping pad is not enough comfort for me but putting a pillow under my back and using clothes as a pillow made me marginally more comfortable. But I slept.
Day II: I woke up at a quarter ‘till six, had breakfast, and the team was off for the day. Being that our “30 minute ride” Thursday took a good two hours, I had some real trepidation getting onto our new, smaller tap-tap to embark on an hour and half journey through even more mountains in a town called Brettan (again, sp?). The ride was horribly uncomfortable but, again, there was a stunningly beautiful view for most of the ride. Also, when we were a few minutes into the ride we stopped and two older Haitian women got in the tap-tap with us (along with huge sacks full of something heavy). For a little while I thought they were teachers, hitching a ride to the seminar with us but when we dropped them off an hour and some later I realized they weren’t. This same kind of thing happened several more times through the rest of the trip. It only took two, two and a half hours. And there were only a handful of times when I feared for my life. It’s amazing how many more stares and looks of sheer bewilderment you get the further outside of major cities you get. And instead of the “hey you’s” I’m used to getting in Leogane, the kids mostly just shout “blanc” (white) over and over at us. Getting to the town today I was still feeling pretty sick and really tired. I barely made it through the morning session. While we were taking a break and waiting for lunch our team leader, Chris, suggested we make a quick run to the beach before eating. We made the short walk to the water – we walked through a graveyard, which had a path that ran through the gravestones (all above ground, as Haitian culture dictates people not be buried in the ground) and came right out onto the beach. The water was a beautiful, light shade of blue and there wasn’t any sand but instead there were stones. The stones were all very smooth so walking barefoot wasn’t a problem. We all basically got down to our underwear and went swimming. The water was really warm and we mostly had the beach to ourselves – there were a few young Haitian kids swimming. We only had a few minutes in the water but it was extremely refreshing and I did feel a lot less sick. We finished the afternoon and headed back to Jacmel. I know I’ve complained a lot about the tap-tap rides but this ride was no different than the rest – long, uncomfortable. But this time we even got some rain. We were lucky that the driver had a tarp, which we all huddled under. It felt like the days of making forts (kind of). We had street food for dinner (old oily chicken that didn’t agree with a lot of the group the next day). Because our last teaching site was in Jacmel itself, we were going to have to leave until 8 the next morning. That meant sleeping in!
Day III: I slept later Saturday morning than maybe any day so far – 7 a.m.! When we went to load the tap-tap there were some mechanics outside who had fixed the problem on our initial tap-tap but weren’t happy with the amount our driver was trying to give them. They were demanding twice the cost of what the work should have reasonably cost (so I was told). The mechanic even threatened to put the engine back the way it was if he didn’t get paid. One of our translator’s boyfriend, Gito, a big guy, put half the money being demanded into the mechanics pocket and hustled him away. The session was only 15 minutes away from the house and the whole day went really quickly. Before I knew it, we were packing up our giant tent and packing up the tap-tap. The ride back wasn’t too bad and I was actually happy to be back! People here are really great. Coming back in, lots of people ask how everything went and welcomed me back “home”. Seriously, the people here are so wonderful.
One thing I find very entertaining about doing the teaching sessions is the questions we get. A lot of the questions are reasonable but every session we typically get a couple ridiculous ones. I just want to share a couple of the better questions we got just so you have an idea of what I mean (I’m paraphrasing but the questions remain essentially the same):
-I heard there is a car that can create an earthquake, true?
-I heard that on December 21, 2012 the US is going to set off lots of bombs and missiles and if you want to survive you have to go underground, true?
Sometimes I seem to get so wrapped up in everything going on with HODR I forget to really look at and enjoy the country I’m in. Getting out to do this satellite project was great in that I was able to see more of the country and think more about all the cultural differences. I also got to spend time with a small group of really great people. One of the guys on the trip, Steve, did some calculation on the way back. He figured out that during the trip we had spent more time on a tap-tap then we had sleeping. Anyways, I’m really glad I went.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
So Much to Come...
Well I made it back from Jacmel. Barely. I'm completely beat so I'm going to save all my stories for tomorrow. Check out the blog tomorrow and there will be new posts and tons of stories from my little trip.
Love,
Daniel
Love,
Daniel
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
To Jacmel and Beyond!
This morning I took charge in the next step of the orphanage sort. The process today was to take a towel, wrap in it shorts, pants, dresses, socks, shoes, shirts, hats, sunglasses, and stuffed animals. We made 20 some packages for boys and 20 some for girls aged 2-12. As I said previously, these clothes are really quite nice. In the afternoon I prepared for my upcoming satellite project (see next paragraph). For dinner we had make-your-own egg sandwiches. On one hand it was a nice change from rice and beans but on the other hand, egg sandwiches are what sustain me every Sunday. Oh well, I can’t complain – the food here suits me fine. This evening I’ve just been milling around, packing, and will try to get a good amount of sleep tonight.
Tomorrow (and Friday and Saturday) are going to be exciting days for me. I’ll be heading to Jacmel, a coastal town about an hour and a half from Leogane. There is a group of about ten of us going and we’ll be doing seminars on disaster preparedness as well as art therapy as a medium for dealing with traumatized children. I did this locally a couple weekends ago and it went really well so we decided to expand. Over the course of three days we’ll be working with over 200 teachers! I’ll be doing the same portion I did last time – giving some background on fires and floods and talking about how to stay safe in case a fire of flood occurs. During our time we’ll be staying in a tent and (hopefully) will get some beach time. I’ll be leaving very early tomorrow morning and getting back Saturday night – this means I most likely will be unable to blog or email at all until Saturday or Sunday. I’ll miss the connectivity but I’ll hopefully come back this weekend with some cool stories.
I’m off to do a few more emails and finish packing. Be sure to tune back into my blog, which will be updated by Sunday AT THE LATEST!
Have a great rest of the week and lovely weekend.
Love,
Daniel
Tomorrow (and Friday and Saturday) are going to be exciting days for me. I’ll be heading to Jacmel, a coastal town about an hour and a half from Leogane. There is a group of about ten of us going and we’ll be doing seminars on disaster preparedness as well as art therapy as a medium for dealing with traumatized children. I did this locally a couple weekends ago and it went really well so we decided to expand. Over the course of three days we’ll be working with over 200 teachers! I’ll be doing the same portion I did last time – giving some background on fires and floods and talking about how to stay safe in case a fire of flood occurs. During our time we’ll be staying in a tent and (hopefully) will get some beach time. I’ll be leaving very early tomorrow morning and getting back Saturday night – this means I most likely will be unable to blog or email at all until Saturday or Sunday. I’ll miss the connectivity but I’ll hopefully come back this weekend with some cool stories.
I’m off to do a few more emails and finish packing. Be sure to tune back into my blog, which will be updated by Sunday AT THE LATEST!
Have a great rest of the week and lovely weekend.
Love,
Daniel
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Nice Shot, Colonel
It’s currently pouring rain here in Leogane. It’s nice because it tends to cool things off overall but sucks because causes the internet to not function. I’m writing this post in a Word document, hoping the net will be back up soon.
My Flag Day was really great! I spent pretty much the whole morning and a good portion of the afternoon on the computer (emailing, watching The Simpsons, etc.). Late afternoon I took on the responsibility of organizing the basketball team to go play against the Sri Lankan Army UN guys. I was able to get about six others to come along (two just to spectate). We took a few moto-taxis over to Sri Lankan UN compound – only a five-ten minute drive away. When we arrived and one of the Sri Lankans saw me I made the basketball shooting gesture and was led to the court. It was definitely makeshift but totally worked. Pretty much there was an area (less then half the size of a real basketball court) that was enclosed with tarps. There were two goals and even lights for when it gets dark. One of the goals was stuck around eight and a half feet and the other goal had a gaping hole in the backboard but really it just gave the court a little character. We ended up playing four on four – HODR vs. Sri Lanka. It was a hard fought game by both sides. As I suspected, our team had a slight height advantage overall but their team was full of really fit dudes. I must say Sri Lanka played a little dirty or, lets say, they didn’t play by all the rules I’m used to. There was fouling, a fair amount of goal tending, traveling and such. Regardless the game was still totally fun. I didn’t realize it until late in the game but in playing man-to-man defense I was matched up against a Colonel. Oh and I guess it is worth mentioning that we did end up pulling out the victory although it was a close game – 40-38. And I got to drink official UN water, bottled in a special UN plant. After the game the UN guys told us to come back tomorrow to play again which won’t work but I’ll definitely be organizing some games for the weekends. As soon as we were going to come back to base this torrential rain started. When it slowed down I caught a moto-taxi but the rain picked back up mid-ride. I came back to base soaking wet BUT the victory was totally worth the wet clothes. It’s back to work tomorrow so I’m going to try to get some quality sleep tonight. I’ve been waking up most mornings by 5:45 so going to bed early is key.
If anybody gets a chance, check out WWW.HODR.ORG - they just wrote a four-month update and there are also some pictures and other cool stuff. I also recommend becoming a friend of Hands On Disaster Response on facebook!
I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Daniel
My Flag Day was really great! I spent pretty much the whole morning and a good portion of the afternoon on the computer (emailing, watching The Simpsons, etc.). Late afternoon I took on the responsibility of organizing the basketball team to go play against the Sri Lankan Army UN guys. I was able to get about six others to come along (two just to spectate). We took a few moto-taxis over to Sri Lankan UN compound – only a five-ten minute drive away. When we arrived and one of the Sri Lankans saw me I made the basketball shooting gesture and was led to the court. It was definitely makeshift but totally worked. Pretty much there was an area (less then half the size of a real basketball court) that was enclosed with tarps. There were two goals and even lights for when it gets dark. One of the goals was stuck around eight and a half feet and the other goal had a gaping hole in the backboard but really it just gave the court a little character. We ended up playing four on four – HODR vs. Sri Lanka. It was a hard fought game by both sides. As I suspected, our team had a slight height advantage overall but their team was full of really fit dudes. I must say Sri Lanka played a little dirty or, lets say, they didn’t play by all the rules I’m used to. There was fouling, a fair amount of goal tending, traveling and such. Regardless the game was still totally fun. I didn’t realize it until late in the game but in playing man-to-man defense I was matched up against a Colonel. Oh and I guess it is worth mentioning that we did end up pulling out the victory although it was a close game – 40-38. And I got to drink official UN water, bottled in a special UN plant. After the game the UN guys told us to come back tomorrow to play again which won’t work but I’ll definitely be organizing some games for the weekends. As soon as we were going to come back to base this torrential rain started. When it slowed down I caught a moto-taxi but the rain picked back up mid-ride. I came back to base soaking wet BUT the victory was totally worth the wet clothes. It’s back to work tomorrow so I’m going to try to get some quality sleep tonight. I’ve been waking up most mornings by 5:45 so going to bed early is key.
If anybody gets a chance, check out WWW.HODR.ORG - they just wrote a four-month update and there are also some pictures and other cool stuff. I also recommend becoming a friend of Hands On Disaster Response on facebook!
I hope everyone is doing well!
Love,
Daniel
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