First Work Day

The welcome that we received this morning was heart warming.  "Mr. Bob, Mr. Bob".  Madame St. Jean, Johnny, Henri, Gilbert were all there.  It was almost like a homecoming.

People working.  That was great.  Then, we found out that the paid workers had only begun a couple hours before.  Having wired the money down here about six weeks ago, I had expected that work on the roof would have begun a week or  two ago.  My North American cultural expectations were not met.

Talking with the Haitian site engineer, he indicated that the Haitian Methodist Church only gave him a check to buy materials two weeks ago.  That is plenty of time.  Right?  The Haitian banking system is not the most modern and efficient.  The check had just cleared.  Today was the first day that construction materials were delivered.

And, the construction materials were a surprise.  Instead of roofing materials, about 15 yards of rock were delivered this morning.  These rocks weigh from one pound to one hundred pounds.  They are used to construct foundations.

What is going on?  The workers were digging trenches within the foundation.  The new site engineer, looking at lessons learned from the January earthquake, added two more horizontal and two vertical foundation components within the original foundation to reinforce it.  So, as I did in my previous VIM trips, today we carried rocks positioning them for foundation construction.  Tomorrow, we carry concrete as the foundations are actually built.  This safety addition will be completed Saturday.

As we did last year, we fed all the people on site.  The first day last year we fed about 30 people; today we fed about 60.  We are prepared to feed about 100 tomorrow.

Gilbert, chef leader (the neighborhood boss man), took us on a walking tour of the neighborhood.  Few housed were completely destroyed by the earthquake.  Almost all, though, have structural damage in the way of wall cracks some 4 or 5 inches wide.  Most continue to sleep outside fearing after shocks.  (On the tour, we were shown week old twins girls.  Their father died of injuries suffered in the earthquake.)

These people have next to nothing.  Seven or eight people live in approximately 200 square feet house.  Inside the houses, few material possessions.  But, instead of being downcast, they are positive, cheerful.  One of our friends likes this quote, "Smaller house + fewer possessions = happier life".  These people do not have a choice, but they are a happy people.