Ok, I was MIA last night but I'm back...
Still have poison ivy, though it doesnt itch as much. However, I forgot my emergency pills at home, and that was very unfortunate. Other than that, it was a more relaxing day today. The concrete crew decided to take an early weekend I guess so waking up at 5:30 to start pouring at 6 proved usless. So after doing some random jobs all morning, we decided to have an afternoon with the kids. Paper airplanes, national geographics, and temporary tatoos were hands down the favorite activities. Those kids wore us out! after our time with the kids we all passed out on the floor of our rooms for about an hour or two. Later we went back out, painted the basketball hoop, put up some swings, and played frisbee and soccer on the field. Dinner was looked delicious thooouuugh I played it safe and didnt eat much tonight...
Got to talk to Hope today! Thanks for the comments.
Tomorrow is our last day at this mission.
God bless,
Mike (Senor Vander)
Friday, August 6, 2010
Fifth Day - Jason Kruse
What did Jason learn today?
-Now I know why I am not becoming a teacher
-Haiti time is not the same as US time
-Haitian food is legit
-Paper planes were a bad idea
-so were tattoos
-Haitians can ball...
-the sports complex is turning into the Haitian Olympic training facility
-im still kickin'
-I don't ever want what is on half our teams legs (scabbies?)
-Now I know why I am not becoming a teacher
-Haiti time is not the same as US time
-Haitian food is legit
-Paper planes were a bad idea
-so were tattoos
-Haitians can ball...
-the sports complex is turning into the Haitian Olympic training facility
-im still kickin'
-I don't ever want what is on half our teams legs (scabbies?)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Third/Fourth Day - Jasmine
So yesterday was the longest yet most productive day ever! Danette, Nadia and I set off for PP with Pastor Pierre at 6. After a 4 hours of the bumpy and eventful ride, that involved passing the occasional markets in towns by National Highway -swaped with people, chickens, dogs, products and almost everything you can think of, we arrived at PP. I have to admit, that it did make us a bit nervous to slow down the Range Rover when we'd transit through the open markets in PP. There are no words that could do justice to the dynamics of the streets of PP.
The objective was to touch base with as many contacts as we could till about 3 PM and then head back. Thanks to Danette and her spiderweb of contact network in NY. The first one of the list was Yves, a Haitian architect who grew up in NY and has now been in Haiti for 5 yrs, started his own architecture and construction company. Here's some more info on him- http://archrecord.construction.com/news/haiti/100526yves_francois-1.asp. He is currently partnering with Technologists INC, a design build construction company operating in Afghanistan with USAID and Army Core of Engineers. The company provided jobs to 5000 local labours and 1000 local professionals and is making great investments in the local economy. Since, their Executive Director was visiting town, we had to oppertunity to meet with him. The meeting involved discussions about our project and the logistics of building with containers. Yves mentioned getting a shipping container from an NGO, like UN (where they just use them as fences) might be a good idea. After discussing a few details, some of which included equipment availability/ insulation, Yves took us out for a delicious Haitian lunch. He was also gracious enough to take us to the AFH headquarters thereafter. We met with a few graduate students from Univ of Cincinati and WashU. A few other practicing professional from Ireland. They were all working on school projects. (There's more info of all that on the AFH website if you're interested.) Next was Florentino Latortue, a former state secretary and relative of Gerard Tourtue that came to power as the PM after Arstide. We met him at his office and he told us about his reflied efforts for the people fleeting from Haiti and setting up emergency tents in the mountains. He initially provided them with food and water but when the numbers kept increasing from 5000 to what it is now, they had to stop. Later he we took a drive through tent cities in the mountaines that were put up by refugees. (However PP, post earthquake has more people than ever, from all over Haiti, in the hopes of recieving aid.) These tents were put up by the UN and OXFAM with public toilets and water on the left side of the road. This locally is refered to as Heavan. The refugees that kept flooding in and did not recieve any accomodation build tents out of burlap, corrogated metal and other materials, are living in whats referred by the locals as hell. There are over 150, 000 tents on the mountains. The shocking news is that the tents are around and some are in a dried river bed which is soon to flood since the rainy season is also here. Some efforts were being made to make some canals to reduce the flow of water but I doubt that will really solve the problem..
The ride on our way back was mostly silent. We were just taking it all in.. There is much to be done. But at the very least, we have a start.
-- Jasmine
The objective was to touch base with as many contacts as we could till about 3 PM and then head back. Thanks to Danette and her spiderweb of contact network in NY. The first one of the list was Yves, a Haitian architect who grew up in NY and has now been in Haiti for 5 yrs, started his own architecture and construction company. Here's some more info on him- http://archrecord.construction.com/news/haiti/100526yves_francois-1.asp. He is currently partnering with Technologists INC, a design build construction company operating in Afghanistan with USAID and Army Core of Engineers. The company provided jobs to 5000 local labours and 1000 local professionals and is making great investments in the local economy. Since, their Executive Director was visiting town, we had to oppertunity to meet with him. The meeting involved discussions about our project and the logistics of building with containers. Yves mentioned getting a shipping container from an NGO, like UN (where they just use them as fences) might be a good idea. After discussing a few details, some of which included equipment availability/ insulation, Yves took us out for a delicious Haitian lunch. He was also gracious enough to take us to the AFH headquarters thereafter. We met with a few graduate students from Univ of Cincinati and WashU. A few other practicing professional from Ireland. They were all working on school projects. (There's more info of all that on the AFH website if you're interested.) Next was Florentino Latortue, a former state secretary and relative of Gerard Tourtue that came to power as the PM after Arstide. We met him at his office and he told us about his reflied efforts for the people fleeting from Haiti and setting up emergency tents in the mountains. He initially provided them with food and water but when the numbers kept increasing from 5000 to what it is now, they had to stop. Later he we took a drive through tent cities in the mountaines that were put up by refugees. (However PP, post earthquake has more people than ever, from all over Haiti, in the hopes of recieving aid.) These tents were put up by the UN and OXFAM with public toilets and water on the left side of the road. This locally is refered to as Heavan. The refugees that kept flooding in and did not recieve any accomodation build tents out of burlap, corrogated metal and other materials, are living in whats referred by the locals as hell. There are over 150, 000 tents on the mountains. The shocking news is that the tents are around and some are in a dried river bed which is soon to flood since the rainy season is also here. Some efforts were being made to make some canals to reduce the flow of water but I doubt that will really solve the problem..
The ride on our way back was mostly silent. We were just taking it all in.. There is much to be done. But at the very least, we have a start.
-- Jasmine
Fourth Day - Tom Fraser
Hey all! Going to be a short update today...we are all dog tired and have a very early morning ahead of us. Finished a full strip of concrete today and sunk in the first swingset, and all suceeded in getting some degree of sunburn to add to our...poison ivy rashes!!! After 3/4 of us realized we all had the same itchy, clustered red rash on our legs (and a couple on our arms) we came to the conclusion that we trompted through some of that wonderful plant (or one of it's cousins) when we went to hack down some coconuts. Not the end of the world, but slightly annoying none the less. It had little effect though on the the work ethic of the team and we cranked out some concrete and are aiming to do even more tomorrow, starting at 6 am. So a early night to bed, and rising with the sun to bust some more manual labor out. Until tomorrow, friends and followers.
Tom
Tom
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Michael Noonan Wednesday
Hello Earth. First of all I just want to say hello to all my friends and family back in the states. I love you all and can't wait to see you again. Second, I'm not sure what everyone else is writing about, but I'd like to take a moment to just say that the meal Pastor Pierre's wife made tonight was amazing. We finally got to eat some Haitian food: goat meat, tomatoes and avocadoes, mangos, watermelon, and the infamous rice and beans. It was delicious. Also fried plantains. Yum. Tomorrow we will have coffee and cereal as always then do some more work.
MVP - The Purchase
Today we did some serious shopping in Gonaives. First we looked at containers. The guys we were working with "tenatively" have 4 reserved for us as of right now, and the mission is ready to purchase them as soon as the bargaining goes through. (thats great news!) Next we went to buy some needed supplies for the concrete work on the basketball court, swingset, and soccer field. We purchased 4 shovels and a hoe head from the hardware store. (the hoe head served as a personal comfort for jason as he walked though the market) Next we made our way to a store with a hole in the back wall were old tools were stored. Here we found wobbley rake. Next we made our way through the market to find some empty 5 gallon buckets for concrete. We finally found a stand, but they did not take US dollars so we had to exchange money on the street (sketchy kinda). Once we got that out of the way though, I was set with about $500 goods** which I had no idea what kind of value it held. The buckets were about 30 goods and we stopped on the way back to buy water for everyone ($120 goods) so now I'm sitting at rougly $350 goods and still not a whole lot of an idea about how much their worth.
Hi Hope, miss you and my family.
Until next time....
Mike VP
Hi Hope, miss you and my family.
Until next time....
Mike VP
Third Day - Jason Kruse
What Jason learned today?
-less threatened in Gonaives than at Times Square
-Give a man a dollar and he buys a concrete block, give him a shovel and he will rebuild Haiti
-Duck butter has more applications than WD40
-the exchange rate is approx. one US dollar to seven haitian dollars
-if one gets something they all want it
-still kickin'
-correction, no longer 100% efficient
-less threatened in Gonaives than at Times Square
-Give a man a dollar and he buys a concrete block, give him a shovel and he will rebuild Haiti
-Duck butter has more applications than WD40
-the exchange rate is approx. one US dollar to seven haitian dollars
-if one gets something they all want it
-still kickin'
-correction, no longer 100% efficient
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