Here I am sitting in an internet cafe in Port-au-Prince. It's been an unreal few days (and few months).
I think the story of my latest adventure can wait until I get home and we can talk in person.
Until next time.
Love,
Daniel
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
The Surreal World: Haiti
So I’m having a bit of a stressful night and I’ll explain why in a second. For this reason, all I’ll say about the last two days was that Friday I did housecleaning in the morning with my buddy Jason then did more teacher-training stuff in the afternoon. Saturday morning there was a teacher training and that went really well. What was really cool was that the training we did took place at the first school HODR built (and it just opened last week)!
Ok so yesterday after plans changed a dozen times, I headed off to Jacmel (beach town two hours away) with Jason. Three friends, Brandi, Sarah, and Avery, were already in Jacmel and they arranged a room for us. Jason and I hopped on a tap-tap to a town just a little ways away to catch a second tap-tap to Jacmel. We waited around for over an hour at the pick-up point but all the vehicles that passed were full. We saw a couple of NGO people in a nice car so I stuck up my thumb and they pulled over. It just so happened that these two doctors and their translator were heading to Jacmel for the night in their AVIS rented 4X4. So we talked in the car and learned they work at a clinic up in a remote mountain town a few hours from Jacmel. We told them our story and in mentioning we were leaving Haiti on Thursday they made a proposition to us – we come to their clinic and stay for a couple nights and work with them then Jason and I go with their translator and take their rental car to Port-au-Prince on Wednesday and drop the car off at AVIS and stay at their base in PAP for the night and head to the airport in the morning. This saves us the money from taking the shuttle and means we don’t have to get up as early Thursday morning. More importantly, though, it means that we get to have an awesome adventure – see a new, different part of Haiti, see how a remote clinic works, spend time with awesome people, and so on (Brandi will be joining us as well). So the reason I’m stressed is because I have to pack all my stuff and make all these arrangements so I can leave for the mountain in the morning.
But today was absolutely amazing. The five of us HODR people went with the two doctors and translator on a hike, which lead us to this gorgeous waterfall. We dove off cliffs and swam all morning. I won’t go into much detail because, honestly, it was indescribable. I can say, however, that it was one of the more wonderful mornings I’ve had in a while (or ever). The last 24 hours has been pretty surreal but I’m going to roll with it.
So it seems I’m in for one more big adventure before I come home. I likely won’t have internet until Wednesday. I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Lets all have a good week.
Love,
Daniel
Ok so yesterday after plans changed a dozen times, I headed off to Jacmel (beach town two hours away) with Jason. Three friends, Brandi, Sarah, and Avery, were already in Jacmel and they arranged a room for us. Jason and I hopped on a tap-tap to a town just a little ways away to catch a second tap-tap to Jacmel. We waited around for over an hour at the pick-up point but all the vehicles that passed were full. We saw a couple of NGO people in a nice car so I stuck up my thumb and they pulled over. It just so happened that these two doctors and their translator were heading to Jacmel for the night in their AVIS rented 4X4. So we talked in the car and learned they work at a clinic up in a remote mountain town a few hours from Jacmel. We told them our story and in mentioning we were leaving Haiti on Thursday they made a proposition to us – we come to their clinic and stay for a couple nights and work with them then Jason and I go with their translator and take their rental car to Port-au-Prince on Wednesday and drop the car off at AVIS and stay at their base in PAP for the night and head to the airport in the morning. This saves us the money from taking the shuttle and means we don’t have to get up as early Thursday morning. More importantly, though, it means that we get to have an awesome adventure – see a new, different part of Haiti, see how a remote clinic works, spend time with awesome people, and so on (Brandi will be joining us as well). So the reason I’m stressed is because I have to pack all my stuff and make all these arrangements so I can leave for the mountain in the morning.
But today was absolutely amazing. The five of us HODR people went with the two doctors and translator on a hike, which lead us to this gorgeous waterfall. We dove off cliffs and swam all morning. I won’t go into much detail because, honestly, it was indescribable. I can say, however, that it was one of the more wonderful mornings I’ve had in a while (or ever). The last 24 hours has been pretty surreal but I’m going to roll with it.
So it seems I’m in for one more big adventure before I come home. I likely won’t have internet until Wednesday. I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Lets all have a good week.
Love,
Daniel
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Acronyms Galore
Wednesday was a typical day of rubble. I went back to the kindergarten site and wheel barrowed the whole day. One cool thing was that Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) AKA Doctors Without Borders sent a backhoe and a couple dump trucks to the site to pick up some of our rubble – they’ll be using it as a foundation for a new field hospital (which will probably be around for 2-5 years), which is really exciting. Last night I lay in a hammock with my friends Brandi (from Kentucky) and Jason (from Scotland). In attempting to get all three of us in the hammock (build for 1-2 people), it snapped and we all fell on our ass. None of us got severely hurt AND the hammock wasn’t broken in a vital spot, so no big deal.
Today in the morning I worked on more disaster risk reduction (teacher training) stuff. Again, we have a new group of people joining on this project so I worked on getting them up to speed on the disaster portion of the seminar. For lunch we had spaghetti. Most people don’t love this meal, but I do. It’s noodles, which one must dress with ketchup and mayonnaise, and hotdog, which I cut up and throw in. Today was extra special in that there were hard-boiled egg halves and a piece of Bongu cheese (this funky triangle-shaped, of course unrefrigerated, soft cheese), which I mashed in there as well. In the afternoon I went back to the school rubble site. It was a slow afternoon because we had a Bobcat come to make more room for us to dump our rubble (necessary but inconvenient). This site is RIGHT off the national highway, so there aren’t many safe dumping sites.
Also today there were a bunch of high-level officials from the World Food Program (WFP) and possibly some other organizations that came through HODR. In our backyard we have something called the Joint Logistics Base (JLB). The JLB is five acres, which belongs to HODR that we are renting out to other organizations. Currently the Cooperative Hosing Foundation (CHF), the Canadian Red Cross, and Habitat for Humanity rent space in our JLB. More organizations, such as WFP, are looking at renting space there too. What’s exciting about this is that HODR is getting a lot of exposure to some big names in the NGO community. The people that were here today are, essentially, in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars and there is some potential for HODR to see some benefits in the future. In fact, Hands On is getting a lot of really good press from this project. Prior to Project Leogane, HODR has had 13 projects, beginning with the 2004 tsunami project in Thailand (so it’s a really young organization). I’m getting the impression that this organization is seriously taking off, which is awesome because it is such an amazing organization. I suggest that, if you haven’t already, check out www.HODR.org for more information.
Today was Canada Day so the Canadians have made us all poutine, so I’m going to go check to see if it’s ready.
Tomorrow is Friday! Hooray.
Love,
Daniel
P.S. I’m coming home a week from today. I can’t believe it. Bittersweet times.
Today in the morning I worked on more disaster risk reduction (teacher training) stuff. Again, we have a new group of people joining on this project so I worked on getting them up to speed on the disaster portion of the seminar. For lunch we had spaghetti. Most people don’t love this meal, but I do. It’s noodles, which one must dress with ketchup and mayonnaise, and hotdog, which I cut up and throw in. Today was extra special in that there were hard-boiled egg halves and a piece of Bongu cheese (this funky triangle-shaped, of course unrefrigerated, soft cheese), which I mashed in there as well. In the afternoon I went back to the school rubble site. It was a slow afternoon because we had a Bobcat come to make more room for us to dump our rubble (necessary but inconvenient). This site is RIGHT off the national highway, so there aren’t many safe dumping sites.
Also today there were a bunch of high-level officials from the World Food Program (WFP) and possibly some other organizations that came through HODR. In our backyard we have something called the Joint Logistics Base (JLB). The JLB is five acres, which belongs to HODR that we are renting out to other organizations. Currently the Cooperative Hosing Foundation (CHF), the Canadian Red Cross, and Habitat for Humanity rent space in our JLB. More organizations, such as WFP, are looking at renting space there too. What’s exciting about this is that HODR is getting a lot of exposure to some big names in the NGO community. The people that were here today are, essentially, in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars and there is some potential for HODR to see some benefits in the future. In fact, Hands On is getting a lot of really good press from this project. Prior to Project Leogane, HODR has had 13 projects, beginning with the 2004 tsunami project in Thailand (so it’s a really young organization). I’m getting the impression that this organization is seriously taking off, which is awesome because it is such an amazing organization. I suggest that, if you haven’t already, check out www.HODR.org for more information.
Today was Canada Day so the Canadians have made us all poutine, so I’m going to go check to see if it’s ready.
Tomorrow is Friday! Hooray.
Love,
Daniel
P.S. I’m coming home a week from today. I can’t believe it. Bittersweet times.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Last Full Week!?
Monday was a good start to the week. I went out to a site called Daphilus, which was demoed by HODR a few weeks ago and then became a regular rubble site. The volunteer leading the team, Jen, had been asking me to come out to the site for a while so I did. It’s in a pretty secluded area but not secluded enough for there not to be any kids. Now I typically like the kids but the one’s on this site were, frankly, annoying. They would continuously come onto the slab despite our constantly telling them not to. Some of them were even shouting some pretty naughty things (i.e. “fuck you bitch give me one dollar”). So despite the disruption we managed to move a lot of rubble and got pretty close to finishing. The Bobcat came out in the morning and was taking the rubble from our pile and making a road with it. It’s pretty neat working in tandem with the machinery. I also must mention that yesterday was BRUTALLY hot. Like possibly the hottest day I’ve experienced since I’ve been here.
So I made it through yesterday and woke up today, as usual, to the sounds of people eating breakfast. There are lots of rows of bunks and mine is the one right next to the tables. I’ve been waking up a bit later recently (closer to 6) so there are typically a fair amount of people up by then and I get to wake up to people sitting right next to my bed. In the morning I went out to Daphilus again to finish it up. There was just a little rubble left and then we scraped the slab clean. We finished around 10 so had a little while where we just sat around, which is always nice. In the afternoon I went back to the school rubble site I’ve been working on. I did a bit of sledging and then worked on rebar. As a general rule, I hate doing rebar. But today I did it with someone called Ben and it wasn’t so bad.
Something that is really neat about HODR is the diverse people it attracts. I work with and am friends with people from all over – Scotland to Ghana, Australia to Hong Kong, Canada to England, South Africa to Slovakia – the list goes on and on. It’s so cool sitting at lunch or wheel barrowing with so many people from so many different places. People also do so many different things back at home – investment banker to fireman, housewife to taxidermist, nurse to student, etc. Brining all these people together and putting them in one building creates a really interesting living environment.
Tomorrow it’s back to the school. I’m praying for some clouds or a breeze or something, anything.
Love,
Daniel
So I made it through yesterday and woke up today, as usual, to the sounds of people eating breakfast. There are lots of rows of bunks and mine is the one right next to the tables. I’ve been waking up a bit later recently (closer to 6) so there are typically a fair amount of people up by then and I get to wake up to people sitting right next to my bed. In the morning I went out to Daphilus again to finish it up. There was just a little rubble left and then we scraped the slab clean. We finished around 10 so had a little while where we just sat around, which is always nice. In the afternoon I went back to the school rubble site I’ve been working on. I did a bit of sledging and then worked on rebar. As a general rule, I hate doing rebar. But today I did it with someone called Ben and it wasn’t so bad.
Something that is really neat about HODR is the diverse people it attracts. I work with and am friends with people from all over – Scotland to Ghana, Australia to Hong Kong, Canada to England, South Africa to Slovakia – the list goes on and on. It’s so cool sitting at lunch or wheel barrowing with so many people from so many different places. People also do so many different things back at home – investment banker to fireman, housewife to taxidermist, nurse to student, etc. Brining all these people together and putting them in one building creates a really interesting living environment.
Tomorrow it’s back to the school. I’m praying for some clouds or a breeze or something, anything.
Love,
Daniel
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Fun, Fun, Fun!
So Friday was a pretty special day – it was my first birthday spent in Haiti. I went out to do rubble at the school site with a really fantastic team. In the afternoon it absolutely poured so we took refuge for a while under a tarp. The problem was that both our paths where we were wheel barrowing on were completely flooded. After some deliberation we decided we’d work through it. I was slightly disappointed about the prospect of having wet feet and shoes all day again but I sucked it up. We did a fair bit of work. At the evening meeting one of our translators, Berlyn, who I’ve become friends with, announced that it was my birthday. So I had to stand up while everyone sang to me. It was embarrassing but really sweet of them at the same time. I got a couple packs of Chops Ahoy to pass around, too. It was really amazing getting all these birthday wishes from all over. I have my friends from Singapore, my friends and family in the States, and all my new friends here in Haiti (both local and international). I really never use this word, but I think it describes how I felt quite well – blessed. It was really a special birthday. That evening we went to Joe’s next door and got pizza and Joe even gave me and some friends free ice cream.
Yesterday was also a good day. I went out to the school site again in the morning with another really good team. In the afternoon most people didn’t go out to work but instead were allowed to go out and watch the soccer match between the US and Ghana. I walked around town for a bit with a few people looking for a place to watch, but all the local places were jam-packed. I headed back to base and ended up playing with some kids at Plaza Playtime in the back for a while. The game didn’t end well, anyway. Afterwards I lounged and watched some episodes of Criminal Minds on my computer. Last night I wanted to go out and have fun but was feeling really tired so I ended up crashing early.
Today was a really nice day off. Me and 15 or so other volunteers went to a beach in a town called Grand-Guave, about an hour away. We rented a tap-tap for the day ($50 split among all of us). The ride was really cramped but totally worth it. The beach is absolutely amazing. This is the first beach I’ve been to in Haiti that has had sand! It was a gorgeous day. The beach is a bit weird because it’s essentially an NGO beach in that almost everyone there is part of an NGO and is non-Haitian. There is a really expensive restaurant and everything. Something that was very apparent today (but I’ve been thinking about for a while) is how other NGO’s spend their money. Compared to every single other NGO I’ve seen, HODR is the most cost-efficient. All other organizations drive fancy four-wheel drive cars and spend money on non-necessities. At HODR we have everything we could possibly need and more but still don’t spend donated money on the most frivolous things. In comparison our living conditions are modest, our means of transportation is nearly identical to that of the locals, our food is delicious but by no means fancy – this list goes on and on. I’m not putting down other organizations as much as I am pointing out how impressed I am with HODR and their sensibilities. So anyways, it was a bit odd driving up to this beach where there were ONLY nice cars in the parking lot and we pull up, crowded in the back of a tap-tap. But, as I said, the beach was wonderful. The water was lovely, and we spend all day hanging out in the water and I managed to find a lady who was selling fried plantains for super cheap. One of the guys I was with did splurge and got a local fisherman to catch him and BBQ him up a lobster. It was really tasty. So we headed back to Leogane late afternoon and had the tap-tap drop us off at Masaje, the western-style restaurant in town. I got a burger and fries. The occasional comfort food can go a long way. So now I’m back at base, digesting my dinner and writing this blog. It looks like it’s about to pour so I’d better post this blog before the internet goes out.
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
Love,
Daniel
Yesterday was also a good day. I went out to the school site again in the morning with another really good team. In the afternoon most people didn’t go out to work but instead were allowed to go out and watch the soccer match between the US and Ghana. I walked around town for a bit with a few people looking for a place to watch, but all the local places were jam-packed. I headed back to base and ended up playing with some kids at Plaza Playtime in the back for a while. The game didn’t end well, anyway. Afterwards I lounged and watched some episodes of Criminal Minds on my computer. Last night I wanted to go out and have fun but was feeling really tired so I ended up crashing early.
Today was a really nice day off. Me and 15 or so other volunteers went to a beach in a town called Grand-Guave, about an hour away. We rented a tap-tap for the day ($50 split among all of us). The ride was really cramped but totally worth it. The beach is absolutely amazing. This is the first beach I’ve been to in Haiti that has had sand! It was a gorgeous day. The beach is a bit weird because it’s essentially an NGO beach in that almost everyone there is part of an NGO and is non-Haitian. There is a really expensive restaurant and everything. Something that was very apparent today (but I’ve been thinking about for a while) is how other NGO’s spend their money. Compared to every single other NGO I’ve seen, HODR is the most cost-efficient. All other organizations drive fancy four-wheel drive cars and spend money on non-necessities. At HODR we have everything we could possibly need and more but still don’t spend donated money on the most frivolous things. In comparison our living conditions are modest, our means of transportation is nearly identical to that of the locals, our food is delicious but by no means fancy – this list goes on and on. I’m not putting down other organizations as much as I am pointing out how impressed I am with HODR and their sensibilities. So anyways, it was a bit odd driving up to this beach where there were ONLY nice cars in the parking lot and we pull up, crowded in the back of a tap-tap. But, as I said, the beach was wonderful. The water was lovely, and we spend all day hanging out in the water and I managed to find a lady who was selling fried plantains for super cheap. One of the guys I was with did splurge and got a local fisherman to catch him and BBQ him up a lobster. It was really tasty. So we headed back to Leogane late afternoon and had the tap-tap drop us off at Masaje, the western-style restaurant in town. I got a burger and fries. The occasional comfort food can go a long way. So now I’m back at base, digesting my dinner and writing this blog. It looks like it’s about to pour so I’d better post this blog before the internet goes out.
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.
Love,
Daniel
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Demolition Derby
Wednesday I was on the demolition team. We went to a site pretty far from base. In the morning I did a ton of sledging. The house’s first story was destroyed but the second story was intact so we stood on the roof, sledging it out. I just want to point out that the things we do on the demo team I could never in a million years do in the States without a significant amount of training. That being said, we then used a gasoline powered round-blade saw to cut the rebar and then used a pulley-and-rope system to bring the walls down. We came back for lunch – it was white rice and veggie mush (some sort of stew with various vegetables). Halfway through lunch break it stated to pour. Of course this doesn’t stop us from working, so we loaded up the tap-tap and made the long drive to our site and I got completely soaked head-to-toe on the way. The only part of the experience I didn’t like was having my socks and boots totally wet. So we worked through the afternoon rain and got a lot done. It was a little scary being on the wet roof, swinging a 16-pound sledgehammer. But nobody died.
Today I was out on the demo team again. We went to the same site in the morning to finish it off. There was essentially just one big wall and some roof left to bring down. In order to bring down walls, you have to fault them. What that means is you must sledge out the areas where there are columns with rebar and also sledge the bottom portion of the wall to create a pivot point so that the wall falls easily when you pull on it. So we took out the rest of the site and made a big mess that a rubble crew will have to clean up (hopefully not me – it’s a real mess). In the afternoon we got some more rain as we headed out to a new site. We got to the site, which was right near the rubble site I finished a couple days ago. Unfortunately the house was not in a conditioned to be demolished by our team – the roof was extremely sketchy so we couldn’t sledge from the roof, the columns holding the structure up were all weak and badly damaged so working anywhere inside would be dangerous, and the house is sandwiched between two other houses (one literally six feet away) so we couldn’t have anything falling and hitting the neighbors houses. Thus, the site was deemed too dangerous but a Bobcat will go to the site tomorrow and hopefully it can do some of the work safely. Since we couldn’t work at this site we went to another new site. All that was left of it was a big piece of roof that was at a huge downward slope. The team just sledged it out and it slowly came down. We finished the site in just an hour and a half. Because of the nature of the work tomorrow the demo team is nixed but instead I will be rubbling! I’m on a team that, at this point, is four people big but all four of us have been here for a long time and all get along so it should be a nice, intimate day of rubble at a new site.
At the moment it seems I’m developing a cold. It’s no big deal, just the sniffles and a little cough, but it highlights one of the downsides of large-scale communal living. Even though everyone tries to promote good hygiene and such there is often no avoiding the spread of illness. At any given time there is something new going around – usually either a cold or a stomach bug. But I have to say that I really like living with a lot of people in many respects. It’s a long way away from my single dorm room I had last year, but it’s nice. Sure you have zero privacy, but there are always people to be with and talk to. Now that I’m leaving in two weeks I’m beginning to reflect on my time here a lot. I’m really going to miss this place. But at the same time I’m really excited to come home. Anyways, I’m quite tired and I have birthday rubble to do tomorrow!
Have a good Friday!
Love,
Daniel
Today I was out on the demo team again. We went to the same site in the morning to finish it off. There was essentially just one big wall and some roof left to bring down. In order to bring down walls, you have to fault them. What that means is you must sledge out the areas where there are columns with rebar and also sledge the bottom portion of the wall to create a pivot point so that the wall falls easily when you pull on it. So we took out the rest of the site and made a big mess that a rubble crew will have to clean up (hopefully not me – it’s a real mess). In the afternoon we got some more rain as we headed out to a new site. We got to the site, which was right near the rubble site I finished a couple days ago. Unfortunately the house was not in a conditioned to be demolished by our team – the roof was extremely sketchy so we couldn’t sledge from the roof, the columns holding the structure up were all weak and badly damaged so working anywhere inside would be dangerous, and the house is sandwiched between two other houses (one literally six feet away) so we couldn’t have anything falling and hitting the neighbors houses. Thus, the site was deemed too dangerous but a Bobcat will go to the site tomorrow and hopefully it can do some of the work safely. Since we couldn’t work at this site we went to another new site. All that was left of it was a big piece of roof that was at a huge downward slope. The team just sledged it out and it slowly came down. We finished the site in just an hour and a half. Because of the nature of the work tomorrow the demo team is nixed but instead I will be rubbling! I’m on a team that, at this point, is four people big but all four of us have been here for a long time and all get along so it should be a nice, intimate day of rubble at a new site.
At the moment it seems I’m developing a cold. It’s no big deal, just the sniffles and a little cough, but it highlights one of the downsides of large-scale communal living. Even though everyone tries to promote good hygiene and such there is often no avoiding the spread of illness. At any given time there is something new going around – usually either a cold or a stomach bug. But I have to say that I really like living with a lot of people in many respects. It’s a long way away from my single dorm room I had last year, but it’s nice. Sure you have zero privacy, but there are always people to be with and talk to. Now that I’m leaving in two weeks I’m beginning to reflect on my time here a lot. I’m really going to miss this place. But at the same time I’m really excited to come home. Anyways, I’m quite tired and I have birthday rubble to do tomorrow!
Have a good Friday!
Love,
Daniel
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Malaria Tuesday
So the internet has been really, really crap recently (including tonight) so I'm just going to give a quick update.
Yesterday and today I was team leader for a site called Desire. It's been on for about a week but needed a new leader to finish it. There was a ton of wheel barrowing, shoveling, picking - all the rubbly things. Today we finished the site. We were hoping to have been site number 100 HODR finished but two other sites also finished today, both before us, so we were 102. It felt good to get it done, though.
Tomorrow I've joined on the demo team. The demolition team is just what it sounds like - we go to houses that still have walls or ceilings or other hazards up and we safely take them down. After a site is demoed, it turns into a rubble site.
Otherwise things are good here. Its been raining everyday for a few days so we've been having much cooler weather. Oh and the reason for my blog title is because I take my malaria pill on Tuesday's.
I'll give a more detailed update soon!
Love,
Daniel
Yesterday and today I was team leader for a site called Desire. It's been on for about a week but needed a new leader to finish it. There was a ton of wheel barrowing, shoveling, picking - all the rubbly things. Today we finished the site. We were hoping to have been site number 100 HODR finished but two other sites also finished today, both before us, so we were 102. It felt good to get it done, though.
Tomorrow I've joined on the demo team. The demolition team is just what it sounds like - we go to houses that still have walls or ceilings or other hazards up and we safely take them down. After a site is demoed, it turns into a rubble site.
Otherwise things are good here. Its been raining everyday for a few days so we've been having much cooler weather. Oh and the reason for my blog title is because I take my malaria pill on Tuesday's.
I'll give a more detailed update soon!
Love,
Daniel
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