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My Sunday was concluded with a taco and pasta dinner and then went upstairs for a nap, which, like Saturday, turned into going to sleep for the night. I slept like a baby. Jeanene and I slept in Monday morning and had a late breakfast. We took a walk to a bank, which was about a pretty long walk but was on a secluded, beautiful road. I changed some money. We packed our bags and said goodbye to the good life. We decided to take a public bus into Santo Domingo to save money and it turned out to be extremely easy. It only took a couple of minutes until the bus came, I waved it down, and it cost less than $2 but had AC and was totally comfortable. The bus dropped us right by the Colonial District. We walked for a few minutes, looking for our hotel, and pretty quickly found it. We’re staying at a place called Hostel Freeman, which at $20 is a bargain and it had the amenities – AC, running water, TV. And the location is perfect, right in the Colonial District. We spent the day wandering around the area – we saw the oldest operating church in the Americas, tons of awesome architecture, ate some KFC, looked in shops – the whole nine. There are three other HODR folks also staying at the Freeman and we met up with all of them separately. David we saw as he was coming into the hostel and we were headed out. Flynn we saw walking by as we were having a drink at a corner store. Westin we stopped while eating fried chicken. So we walked around town for the rest of the afternoon then headed to the hostel for a quick rest. For dinner Jeanene and I wandered, looking at menus until we found a cheap, delicious, and nice atmosphere restaurant. I ended up getting an amazing club sandwich. Sitting at dinner, we had a beautiful breeze and we watched some healthy looking dogs play. I felt so calm and happy. We met back up with the other guys, grabbed a drink, and sat in this town-center park. I had a last real shower before going to bed.

We got up today around 7 a.m., packed our stuff, and hopped in a taxi to the bus station. The ride was pretty smooth all the way until we got to the border. It was then that we got caught up in a jam for a couple hours. It was a real mess. We did get through eventually but pretty quickly hit evening traffic in Haiti. After about 10 hours on a bus we got to the station in Petion-Ville where we immediately got into a shuttle to take us to Leogane. Ok so we finally got back. But I can’t complain – the trip was amazing, it was just what I hoping for. It was on the shuttle on the last leg of the trip home that I contemplated a lot of things. It was especially clear at nighttime how chaotic and desperate things are in Haiti. And having just been in the Dominican Republic, I saw the huge discrepancy between the two countries that are one piece of land, merely divided by some arbitrary border.

So anyways it feels so wonderful to be back on base. Everybody has been greeting me with hugs and such, asking about my time. A lot of people have said, “welcome home”. I just had a bucket shower, which was wonderful. Of course there are a ton of new faces but I feel really fresh and ready to do my best to meet everybody and help them out and all. Tomorrow morning it’s back to rubble! In the afternoon I’m doing something related to the teacher-training seminar I’ve been involved with for a while. Back to business as usual.

Love,

Daniel

Just Chillin'

OK so first of all I FINALLY GOT SOME PICTURES UPLOADED so check out my facebook. The pictures on there are just the ones off my camera but I’ll get a bunch more pictures from other people to bring home.

The rest of yesterday was as relaxing as expected. Sitting on the beach, burgers for lunch, swimming in the ocean/pool. For dinner we went to this Mexican restaurant, which was delicious. I got a duck quesadilla! We went back to the room for a post-dinner nap before going out for some dancing or pool or whatever. Things didn’t exactly work out that way, though. I got into bed for the nap around 9:30 and didn’t get out of bed until 12 hours later.

Breakfast today was as wonderful as yesterday. The day was, again, spent relaxing. We went for a long walk on the beach and played some water polo. There has been a lot more eating too of course. I’m also getting to practice my Spanish! We’re planning for a late dinner and not much else. Tomorrow we’re headed to the capital, Santo Domingo, where we’ll hang around the city all day then crash at a hostel near the Zona Colonial, or Colonial District which has lots of good food, music, shopping, and cultural stuff. Then Tuesday it's back on the bus to Haiti.

This trip has been absolutely wonderful so far – I’m just letting my body and mind completely rest. I do, however, have to say that I am looking forward to going back to Haiti. I miss HODR people and, crazy as it may sound, I miss rubble!

Hope you’ve all had a relaxing weekend!

Love,

Daniel

The Grass IS Greener on the Other Side of the Fence

I woke up early yesterday and did some last minute packing and had my usual HODR breakfast of cereal and coffee. It turns out there were seven volunteers leaving for the Dominican yesterday so we all took a shuttle to the bus station in Petion-Ville, a town about 20 minutes outside Port-au-Prince. It was $50 but split seven ways wasn’t bad at all. We all get to the bus station, buy our tickets, and sit around for a while. We all got on the bus, which could hold about 50 people but left the terminal with the seven of us and a few Haitians. We all got our own row. The bus was air-conditioned and the seats were actually comfortable so it was pretty luxurious. After two or three hours we got to the Dominican border where we went through a couple of checkpoints. We barely had to lift a finger – a woman on the bus collected all our passports and they were counted, stamped, and returned to us. Once we were on the Dominican side, the ride was really different. First of all, the country is considerably greener. Haiti has huge environmental issues, deforestation being one of those problems. So it was a nicer landscape and there were proper roads (meaning paved with some sort of traffic rules drivers follow). Five or so hours later we drove into Santo Domingo. It was dark at this point but I could tell it was a nice city. It’s very urban, lots of nice looking shops, restaurants – things most big cities have. We arrived at the bus terminal and the seven of us went our separate ways. Jeanene and I hopped in a taxi and got taken to our hotel in Juan Dolio, 30ish miles outside Santo Domingo. Directly upon getting out of the taxi, we knew we had chosen a good place to stay. We checked in and went to the room, which is amazing. There are two huge beds, a television, a balcony, AC, running water, etc. We spent several minutes just laying down, appreciating the softness of a real mattress. Now it’s not like I’ve been in Haiti forever and have lost touch with the real world, but even a month has made me appreciate certain comforts. By the time we got here, all the restaurants were closed but there is a 24-hour snack bar, which was serving hamburgers, hotdogs, pizza, and fries. The food was AMAZING. It just tasted so damn good. We got a Presidente, the Dominican beer, and wandered around the “resort” area then shot some pool. I came back up to the room, had a real shower, and we both lounged in our beds, watching TV. For some reason Half Baked was on television (which is a classic, by the way) so we watched that until falling asleep.

I woke up around 9 this morning but didn’t roll out of bed until 10. Sleeping that late felt so good. We went downstairs for a breakfast buffet which was so, so, so good. The highlight of it was probably the fresh-squeezed juices. Now we’re back in the room getting in some quality internet time. Today we’ve got no real plans – head to the beach, walk around town, eat more, and so on.

This environment is such a dramatic change from where we’ve been so it’s a lot to take in and a lot to reflect on but I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to rest and recuperate a bit.

I have pretty consistent internet here so shoot me emails and such, I’d love to hear from you.

Love,

Daniel

The "Incident"

Yesterday was a nicer day spent working around base. I helped organize the tool shed – we cleared a lot of space. We also worked on starting to fix tools. But overall the day was about an unfortunate incident. So I was taking a day off from the rubble site I’ve been working on and my friend Bram (the guy who has been taking some days as team leader on this really tough site) was leading. Apparently there was a Haitian man who came to the site and, initially, was helping run wheelbarrows and such. The man identified himself to Bram as a new local volunteer so there was no problem. Then he started to use the pick-ax and sledge in a dangerous way. Everyone who works with HODR knows to let the team know if you’re using dangerous tools in their vicinity but this guy definitely didn’t do that. So the team took a break while Bram tried to talk to the guy and explain he wasn’t being safe. Anyways, it sounds like things got worse and weirder so Bram called back to base where a HODR staff member, TC, and one of our translators came to the site to try to speak with the man. He didn’t say anything and payed no attention to anybody who tried to talk to him. So this guy jumps on the tap-tap as the team is leaving for base (an hour early, by the way) and basically rode back to base with the team. When one of the female volunteers started to bring the water cooler inside, the man grabbed at her so she of course screamed and ran to the door. At this time I happened to be right near the front entrance so I hear all this commotion and two of the volunteers come frantically running in and slam the door behind them. I peeked out the window and saw the man being pinned down by our day watchman and a couple of the tap-tap drivers (and some other local guys I think). As the men are trying to get this crazy guy off our property, he makes a mad dash and grabs for two other female volunteers who had been hiding around the corner. He was quickly subdued again and, at this point, several of us international volunteers had come out. The man stood at the gate and we pretty much just made a wall of people in front of the man. He stood there just staring – it was really weird and creppy. We all stood there in this standoff for like 10 minutes. There was a minute or so when this guy was staring at me. It was like he was staring me down but at the same time was looking right through me with his vacant stare. Some HODR people had called the Haitian police so the man stood around until the police got there and he struggled a bit but was no match for the four police officers with handcuffs and automatic weapons. They took the man away in the back of their pick-up. HODR also called the UN Police and the Sri Lankan Army. So it was just one man and all but it was a big deal. HODR has really good connections with the UN. The UN promised to look into the situation and make sure that the man was held in custody for at least a few days. Unfortunately, this didn’t exactly happen. Apparently the man was deemed mentally ill by the police, so what did they do? They released him. When the team returned to the site in the afternoon, the man was back. Well, just as the team was leaving for the afternoon, they saw the man and he did more weird, quasi-threatening things but LUCKILY the tap-tap was gone before he could do anything. Everyone was really shaken up by the whole situation and it made me really angry. Not only did this man make it so that we can’t return to the site (which I was going to finish today), but he really made a lot of the volunteers here feel more vulnerable. Leogane feels like a very safe town (and it is, relatively speaking) but everyone has to be more vigilant. So we’ll see what happens with the situation – the Sri Lankan Army has said they will increase patrol around our base and the UN Police said they’ll follow up but we’ll see. Nobody really understands why this happened. One of our translators says he smokes crack, which seems plausible. But it also seems likely that he’s suffering from PTSD – I was told that around this time after a disaster the disease often starts to manifest itself.

Today I stuck around base in the morning doing more work on the tools. In the afternoon I hit a rubble site where I did tons of sledging. Since I’m leaving for break tomorrow it felt good to get out there and work really hard once more.

Tomorrow I leave for the Dominican Republic. I am taking my computer so hopefully I’ll have internet access. I’m really exciting about totally relaxing for the next few days.

Take care.

Love,

Daniel

Hello Mr. (Former) President

Yesterday I got a much-needed break from leading the rubble site I was at (Cine). I joined up on Tim’s team. Tim is this extremely buff Australian guy who used to be an investment banker and is now just a full time badass. The site we went to was out in the country a bit so I was thankful to be away from the hustle and bustle of the downtown site I’ve been running. The site was also mostly sledging so I spent most of the day taking out any aggression I may have had. In the morning we did a bit of demo work. The team was almost 20 people large (which is huge for one team) and demo work does not take a lot of people. Luckily Tim asked me to help him out with the demo stuff so I didn’t spend the morning sitting around like most of the team. Once we got down the dangerous walls and stuff the sledge-fest began. I was on sledge rotation with Tim, a local volunteer called Peter, and one other international volunteer. Our small group spent the day with America. America is the name of our biggest sledgehammer, a 16-pound beast of a tool. Needless to say, we got a ton of the roof sledged.

Today it was back to my team leading duties at Cine. The morning was pretty slow – we got some Bobcat action, which took care of a lot of our rubble. The Bobcats have turned a three-week job into a week and a half job. Lunch was completely not ordinary. I got back to base, unloaded the tools, and ran down the HODR driveway to the street where I stood around for an hour or so. Why? Because BILL CLINTON was in town, that’s why. Yeah. So the former president is on a Haiti rebuilding taskforce thing and he was making a stop in Leogane – he came here for two reasons – one was to see a temporary shelter that an organization called CHF made (and will be mass producing throughout Haiti) and the second was to draw more attention to Leogane, a town that needs a lot of help. Being that it was the epicenter of the earthquake, some 90% of the city was destroyed. So the shelter he was checking out is literally right across the street from the HODR base (and the slab the t-shelter is on was cleared by HODR, too)! So the Sri Lankan UN had been outside our base all day and then, closer to his arrival, more UN vehicles came in. When Clinton himself arrived, about 20 UN cars with Secret Service people in them came. It was a pretty weird site to see. He had a brief meeting and press conference and, on his way out, he stopped and said hi to the HODR volunteers. I got to shake his hand! Lunch was definitely eventful today and going back to work in the afternoon was tough. The afternoon went well – we got more Bobcat action.

In just the last two weeks or so, the number of volunteers has been fluctuating like crazy. We’ll get lots of new volunteers coming in everyday and different ones leaving everyday. The number of people on base is also really high. HODR’s max capacity is 100 volunteers at a time (we’re around 120 now) and they’re fully booked until the end of the project but they allow volunteers that are already here to stay longer if the want and if you’ve been here once, you can come back at any time later in the project (which is a good thing, I think). So there are more people at the project at all times. At the meeting tonight there were around a dozen new people. There are just a lot more short-term people that will come in for a week or so and then are gone. Now I don’t discount there work at all – any amount of time one is able to commit helps. That being said, the crowdedness of base and all the people who don’t know the rules and such makes for a more stressful living situation. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that I’m super glad I’m taking my break on Friday. It’s called a “mental health break” for a reason.

I’m looking forward to working real hard these next couple of days and then taking off for my weekend in the DR.

Love,

Daniel

Lazy Sunday

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

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.