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
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Shirtless Apprentice
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
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
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
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