Great End to a Great Holiday

Sunday has been a day of digesting and sunshine. I beat my own record and slept in until 8:30. Around 11, a dozen or so other volunteers (local and international) hopped in a tap-tap and headed to Paradise. This is a beach about an hour away, one that I went to once last time around. I had a really nice time – swimming, walking, eating, relaxing. These two and a half straight days off have really spoiled me. I’ve had an amazing holiday, but I’m truly excited and ready to get back to work tomorrow. I’m going to try to get to sleep early so I’m well rested for the workweek.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Love,

Daniel

Jwaye Nowel!

Yesterday and today have been very cheerful days! Even cleaning the base didn’t seem so bad. I’m having a completely new experience and I think it’s that I’m “in the Christmas spirit”. I finished cleaning yesterday with enough time to have a while to relax before lunch. After eating and a short afternoon meeting, we were free to do what we pleased with the day. Another volunteer, Lauren, and I went out to find gifts for our secret Santa’s. We went to the local market to look for presents. It was crazy and hectic and I left empty handed. The only options there would have been cooking oil or batteries, pretty much. On the way back to base I stopped and got a ton of Haitian candy and decided that would suffice as my gift (along with a couple of treats I brought from the States and a little poem). Once back on base I headed to the kitchen to do prep work for the big Christmas day meal as well as the chili and cornbread Christmas Eve dinner. Dinner last night came out great and everybody ate and ate and ate. For dessert we had more candy than we knew what to do with (though we managed to take care of it). After dinner I went out to do a little sky watching. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars shining as bright as last night. It was one of the most breath-taking things I’ve ever seen. Though I could have watched the stars all night I decided to go next door to Joe’s for my first Prestige (Haitian beer) of the trip. Before bed I hung around in the kitchen, chatting before sleeping.

I slept in this morning until 7:45! Now that it’s cooler, I don’t wake up every morning at 5:30, which is sweet. I basically spent the whole day in the kitchen, prepping and cooking Christmas dinner. It was a complete and total success. Everything turned out fantastic and everybody is having a wonderful night. This Christmas thing is pretty awesome, I must admit. We sat around for ages, eating, drinking, and being merry. For dinner we had ham, chicken, cabbage and kielbasa, roasted potatoes, corn bread stuffing, frittata, Mexican beet salad, carrot salad, zucchini stir fry, green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and pickles (don’t know how that made it to the table, but it was a good edition, none-the-less). A true feast; everything was delicious. The tables themselves were super-festive, with candles and fake snow, which was cold to the touch. Before moving on to dessert we all gathered around the tree to open our secret Santa gifts. I got an awesome sun that I’m sure to put a lot of mileage on. Speaking of things that go on your head – we all had paper crowns! After opening gifts we had dessert. We had minced pie, a British treat that I’ve never had before that has fruit and nuts inside a pastry crust, pumpkin pie (partially my creation), and Christmas cookies. And homemade whipped cream on the side. Now we’re all hanging around, attempting to digest the massive amounts of food consumed. Over in the area of base where movies are played, there is a fire being projected on the screen. Next to the fire are our "stockings", pictured above.

There are a lot more details I’d like to include, but I think I’m about to slip into a food coma. I’ll definitely post some more tomorrow. What I can say, for sure, is that this was my best (first) Christmas ever!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

Love,

Daniel

On the Eve of the Eve

Aside from getting a bottle of Coke from down the street I didn’t leave base at all today. I was just so tired from these last few days that I decided to stay on base and work on bio-sand filters. It was more physical of a day than I was hoping for, but I suppose we are about to get a nice little break. Tomorrow, being Christmas Eve and all, we’re only working in the morning. We get the afternoon off, all day Christmas off, and Sunday (our usual non-work day) off. So I’ve got two and a half days to recover and get ready for next week! As I said, I worked on bio-sand filters today. Basically they are a concrete structure, maybe three feet tall, that provides clean drinking water. I don’t know the exact science behind it, but you put a layer of gravel, a layer of coarse sand, and a layer of fine sand into the filter. You put contaminated water into the filter everyday for two weeks and it forms a bio-layer. This layer acts as the filter, purifying any water you put into it (except salt water). It’s brilliant, cheap, and easy to make! Using molds our team made four filters, which are setting as I type this. All we did was put concrete into the mold, beat the hell out of the outside of the mold to get rid of air bubbles, and leave it to dry. What’s also so great about these purification systems is that they can last ten to fifteen years! All Hands is pushing this project and it’s becoming really successful.

I had lunch today on base for the first time since I’ve been here (I’ve been at all-day sites all previous days) and did lunch dishes after. Then I lied down for a bit and listened to part of a This American Life Episode. Ira Glass’s comforting voice nearly put me to sleep, but I fought it and got up for afternoon work. I spend the afternoon working with all local volunteers, sifting sand behind base for the bio-sand filters. The sand was wet so sifting it was a real pain in the ass, but I listened to same Haitian music and learned some dirty words in Creole, so that made things better.

People are starting to get into the Christmas spirit around here. We’ve got a (tropical) Christmas tree, with pieces of wood as a skeleton and huge palm-tree-like leaves. There are little hands we’re all supposed to write our wishes on and they’re going to be the ornaments. Plus we’ve got a little secret Santa thing going on! I’m excited to see what this “Christmas” thing is all about. I figure since finding Chinese food in Haiti is unlikely, I might as well go all out with this holiday!

I just spent the last couple of hours hanging out on the roof of our base. The stars and moon are brighter in Haiti than anywhere I‘ve ever been. To be able to relax up there is a perfect ending to my night and puts me at peace. Tomorrow morning I do house cleaning. I’m off to bed.

Happy eve of Christmas Eve!

Love,

Daniel

Swedish Fish?

I was talking to a volunteer today who was saying that he thought the third day of work is the most physically challenging. Given my current state I would have to second that. I was sore from the first couple days of work and to add to it, today was one of the most physically demanding workdays I've ever had. I went out with a dozen or so others to work on the foundation at school seven. My whole day was pretty much consistently catching buckets (which I'm pretty good at it turns out) and then carrying buckets filled with sand and gravel. And when I wasn't doing those things I was probably schlepping these 100 pound bags of concrete mix. The sun was brutal all morning but, due to the time-sensitive nature of working with concrete, we weren't able to take many breaks. Of course I could go run and get water anytime I needed it, but long breaks where we could sit in the shade and relax were few and far between.

For lunch I had a Haitian delicacy I hadn't had yet this trip - goat. I find it to be pretty delicious. Afternoon was much the same as the morning: hot, sweaty, dirty, tiring. But at the end of the day, we finished the slab. There is now a foundation for school seven to be built on! So in the end, all the work was definitely worth it.

I was really excited to get back to base because I was so tired and also because I've been looking forward to the arrival of my buddy and all around awesome guy Dan, who was here when I was. He brought me Swedish Fish! This is because when I mentioned them to a non-American international volunteer the other day, he had never heard of them. Surely this was an anomaly, I assumed. But upon further inspection and informal surveying, hardly any of the non-American international volunteers here had ever heard of, much less eaten Swedish Fish. A travesty. So I asked Dan to bring some and I passed them out at the meeting. It was a good dessert follow-up to our delicious dinner (which included for my first time this trip, plantains and spicy Haitian coleslaw)!

As usual I'm hanging out in the "internet cafe" right now, just having got out of a long Christmas dinner crew meeting. We've got our menu tentatively set. We're going to do roasted chicken, two salads, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and some other things I can't think of at the moment. It's going to be super delicious and I'm looking forward to spending some time (probably a lot of time) in the kitchen.

Tomorrow I'll be taking it easier, I'm hoping, and will be working on bio-sand filters. Basically it's a sustainable and clean way to purify water and we distribute them to the community. Details on this project will come as I learn more tomorrow. There is lots more stuff I'd like to write about but I'm just too tired, so for now...

Merry hump day.

Love,

Daniel

Dirty All Over

I woke up last night around quarter after two to the sound of dogs fighting. Or maybe they were playing, I can't say for sure. But when I saw what time it was I was extremely excited because right before going to bed I heard there was going to be a lunar eclipse but it wasn't happening until the middle of the night so I figured I'd miss it. Then, thanks to those dogs, I got up and stood in the courtyard by myself and caught the last bit of the moon disappearing and headed back to bed.

I got up this morning at pretty much the exact same time as yesterday, 6:45. I had corn flakes with powdered milk and coffee for breakfast. I may have missed Haitian food, but I really didn't miss the breakfasts. Today was similar to yesterday in that most of the volunteers went to one of the two school projects. I went to school six again and spent nearly all morning sifting sand. It may not sound exciting (and it isn't really) but me and two others got a system going so were working pretty efficiently. While we were sifting, there was concrete being mixed for rendering. At first, the concrete was being mixed in a mixer powered by a stationary bicycle, which people would take turns riding. It was pretty cool but it turns out that mixing it with shovels on a piece of plywood on the floor is faster, so they switched to that method. Then the rendering began. What it is is a mixture of gravelly sand, concrete powder, and water. Once this is thoroughly combined, the resulting substance is applied to the walls, which at this point is just a form board and chain-link fence. So I did a little bit of rendering with a lot of help from a two little Haitian boys who, I must admit, were probably better than me at this.

Like yesterday, we stayed on site for lunch and afternoon break. During the break the team leader from the other school came to school six looking to trade some of his volunteers for those at our site. He said that people were too hot. I should have taken this as a sign to stay where I was, but in the afternoon I walked down the road to go work at school seven, where they are laying the foundation. This was hard, hot work, but fun. From the outside (and to me at first) the process looked like sheer chaos. After participating, I realized that it was, in fact, chaos. But controlled chaos. Here is how it worked in a nutshell: someone fed sand, rocks, concrete powder, and water into an actual cement mixer then would throw the buckets forward to someone who would catch the buckets and throw them to people on the side of the foundation, who would fill the buckets with said rocks and sand and would run the buckets back to the mixer. Once the mixture was made, wheelbarrow runners would have their barrows filled with concrete and would run them onto the foundation, where they would be directed as to where to dump. Then there were people who would run to the wells and fill buckets with water to bring to the mixer. And repeat. I don't know if you'll be able to picture this all happening, but everybody had their place and things ran well. I started as a wheelbarrow runner then switched to bucket catcher. In the afternoon I pretty much managed to get myself covered head to tow in concrete, dirt, and whatever else it was I was covered in earlier.

I came back to base totally wiped out. We had make-your-own egg sandwiches for dinner then had the meeting. Post-meeting there was a brief Christmas dinner crew meeting, where we discussed what supplies we were going to need from Port-au-Prince. Leogane has some of necessities one would need, but when it comes to some of the things like, say, ham or cream, you need to go to the capital. The menu is still definitely not set, so ideas are still welcome. We want to make items that are simple but delicious. After this I decided it was time for a real shave. It was interesting because I got to see what I would look like with different facial hair styles. I can now definitively say that I look goofy as hell with a mustache, though I suspected as much. Now, for the first time in ages, I'm totally clean shaven. I had two main reasons behind shaving - it will be less hot and this way I won't get some horrible facial hair tan from all the time I'll be in the sun. I complimented my shave with a thorough and long bucket shower. I went from extremely dirty to the point I'm at now, less dirty. Bucket showers have their merits, but you really can't get completely clean. But I certainly feel a lot better. And now I'm here in the "internet cafe", updating the blog and jamming out to whatever comes up on shuffle.

As usual, I'm tired (but in a good way). Tomorrow I'm signed up for more foundation fun, where I'm sure to dirty myself terribly once more.

Happy official winter.

Love,

Daniel

Blanc on a Hot Tin Roof

Today, my first work day, was very productive and very tiring. It was nice and cool last night and I slept superbly. I woke up "late" this morning (6:45) and rolled out of bed for the Monday 7 o'clock pancake breakfast meeting. For work today most all of the volunteers went to one of the two school builds that are in-progress. I went to school six, where the progress is further along than seven. I spent the entire morning chillin' in the rafters, helping to put up the tin roof. Being that I know nothing about roofing, I mostly just assisted the three folks working up there. It was a little scary but a little awesome. I ended up covered in this roofing-tar-like-substance. The site was really cool in that there were tons of volunteers, local and international, as well as a lot of community members, children and adults. There were lots of people doing lots of different things but it all came together nicely. School building has definitely become one of All Hands priorities. This is very evident by how quickly the different steps in the building process are moving. Today's work was all-day, meaning that we didn't come back to base for lunch and break but instead had lunch and rested at the site. I ate Haitian food! It was as good as I remembered. We had rice and beans (no doubt), stewed onions, chicken, and some vegetables. It was delicious and comforting. I ate it with the beautiful scenery surrounding the school - mountains, sugar cane fields, cows.

The afternoon moved a bit slower and I stayed off the roof. I spent most of the time shoveling wet sand, putting wet sand out to dry, shoveling dry sand, moving dry sand, and sifting that dry sand. It's part of preparing for tomorrow, where we will do rendering. I'm not exactly sure how it works, as I've never done it before, but it is essentially applying a coat of cement-like material to the walls. Given that I am on the rendering team tomorrow, I should have a better idea of what it is and how it works soon. Anyways, we left the site and came back and had dinner. Dinner was a Haiti classic (in my mind, at least) that consisted of spaghetti with pink sauce (mayo and ketchup), bread, a triangle of bongu "cheese" (probably not actually cheese, but close enough), and some veggies. Again, it proved to be a very comforting meal.

After dinner we had our daily meeting where we talk about our work from the day, make announcements, sign up for chores, and sign up for the next day's work.. By the end I had volunteered to be on the Christmas dinner crew. I asked if I was allowed, being that I'm Jewish and all (apparently, yes, I am). So now I have to brainstorm ideas. Any input would be appreciated, by the way. After the meeting I had my first earned bucket shower. It was cold but completely refreshing. Straight after I went to beginner Creole class. It was taught by one of the local volunteers, Peterson. Some of the stuff I knew already but some of it was new, and what wasn't was a good refresher. I always regret the fact that I didn't learn much Creole at all last time I was here so I'm going to do what I can while I'm here this time. It seems like a pretty easy language to learn (relatively speaking) with a simple grammar structure and Creole seems somewhat intuitive to me. But we'll see. After my language class I came to where I sit now, the "internet cafe" AKA an area with a couple picnic tables where people congregate to use their computers. I'm sitting at a table with a lot of local guys/girl. My "professor", Peterson, stopped by for a while and listened to some Notorious BIG on my big headphones. This reminds me of another huge change on base I neglected to mention - local volunteers are allowed inside! Before, there was a rule that said only international volunteers and on-staff locals (i.e. translators, tap-tap drivers, cooks) could come in. There was a lot of opposition to the rule but when I left, it still stood. But now it's different and is really, really great. We work together all day and the local and international volunteers are often very close, so it only seems fair/makes sense that they should be welcome in our home. And now they are!

Now it is approaching ten o'clock and I'm wiped out. Nearly time for bed.

Goodnight.

Love,

Daniel

By a Hair

So I'm officially at the All Hands base in Leogane, Haiti. I got up this morning around 5, after an hour or so of sleep. My mom drove me to the airport to catch my 7 o'clock flight. I was a little nervous from the get-go about the fact that I had less than an hour between the time my flight landed in Miami and the flight for Port-au-Prince (PauP) took off, but I figured that as long as we got in the air without too much delay, I'd be fine. But, of course, there were two separate mechanical issues that caused delay. So we took off nearly an hour late from Raleigh and I figured missing my connecting flight was a pretty real possibility. When we finally did take off I heard the man sitting behind me talking about his being worried he was going to miss his connecting flight, also to Haiti. I mentioned that I was in the same situation so we decided we'd haul ass together to make the flight. And we did. We ran across Miami Airport's concourse "D" and made it just in the nick of time (as in, had we been a minute later, we probably wouldn't have gotten on the plane).

I got a little sleep on the flight and woke up just before landing. The airport in the capital is pretty hectic but I managed to get through customs, get my checked bag (checked luggage doesn't have a baggage claim per-se, it's more of a free-for-all where all the bags are strewn about an airplane hangar), and find my driver without too much trouble. The ride from PauP to Leogane is under 20 miles but still manages to take hours. We hit some serious traffic, but there is so much to see that I had no trouble keeping myself occupied. Once you get past the city and its traffic and closer to Leogane, you're able to see (and feel) huge cracks on the roads that resulted from the earthquake. Commuting between PauP to Leogane provides ample opportunity to see the poverty and devastation, some of it caused by the earthquake, some of it not. Huge tent cities are still a primary means of housing for those displaced by the quake. One thing I did notice was an increase in the prevalence of political graffiti (or at least it seemed that way), which makes sense because the country is in the midst of "elections".

Though the ride was interesting, I was relieved and excited when we finally got into Leogane. Things looked similar to how I remember (which is comforting but somewhat disconcerting). Once I stepped inside the base I really did feel right back at home. Some things have changed around base, but mostly it's the same, with some improvements. There is more wooden furniture, much of which, I am told, was made while the volunteers here were on lockdown at the base when the election situation was more heated. Small maintenance details, such as putting real doors on the shower stalls and having more shelving space, have really helped make the base come together. One thing that is significantly different than when I was here during the summer months is the number of volunteers on base. There were often 120+ people staying on base when I was last here but now there are maybe 50 or so of us. As it turns out, it was the election violence significantly impacted the numbers, as many people decided not to come, were unable to come, left early, or rescheduled. I can already tell that the group dynamic is really different with the smaller numbers, and it seems to generally be a good thing. But of the people that are here, I know a whole bunch of them from my last trip, which is really nice. I've gotten and given my fair share of hugs today, which made me happy. Oh and one amazing difference is that in the temperature. It is considerably cooler than it was during my last visit, and that fills me with nothing but joy. To be able to wake up not drenched in my own sweat (or even drenched in less sweat) is going to be such a treat in the mornings. Speaking of treats, the internet connection has improved so, so, so much. For better or worse, being connected is a comfort so I'm very pleased with the internet situation.

Today is a Sunday, which means it's a non-work day. I think coming today was good timing; I got to have a whole free afternoon to set my living area up (once again, in the bunks) and schmooze with friends, old and new. I walked around, handing out some of the candy I brought (thanks Brandi!), which led to many new friendships. I met a woman who graduated from UNC in '07, so we spent some time arguing about basketball and talking about how much we love Carrboro! Sunday is the one day of the week we don't get fed, so I ended up munching on the remains of my plane snacks. But I can't wait for some Haitian food tomorrow!

From what I've heard, tomorrow is an "All Hands Day", which means all volunteers are going to work on one of two school projects together. I'm looking forward to seeing how efficient this organization has become at school-building. Though, I must admit, I'm seriously craving some time with my old friend, the sledge hammer. For the rest of tonight, I'm going to just enjoy the weather and relax. Maybe I'll get in a round or two of Bananagrams, who knows? I just had my first bucket shower of the trip. I was actually a little chilly, but I'm definitely not complaining. I think I'm looking at a good night of sleep ahead of me!

Hope everyone is well. Don't forget to keep in touch!

Love,

Daniel