Well, here we are at the end of the first week of our project in Cite Soleil, Haiti. The weather has been hot and humid every day with the worst heat at around 1:30 - 2:00 o'clock. Fortunately things cool down a little after that with a bit of light cloud cover and a slight breeze at the end of the day. One of our challenges has been having enough water on the work site to last the day. This week we were able to start on the reconstruction of a couple of homes in the Boston area of Cite Soleil after getting both sites cleaned of rubble and debris. One of the homes had caught fire after the earthquake and was heavily damaged. With Tim Kasten's expertise (he is a building contractor) we were able to come up with a plan to rebuild the home without having to completely demolish what was left. One wall was removed and reconstructed with new concrete blocks with a couple of posts formed and poured at each corner. The other home is being built on an existing foundation and now has new concrete block walls going up on three sides. We always have a large group of local people that assemble at each work site during the day. Some are friends and neighbors of the recipient of the home, others are there to try to get a job that might pay a few dollars a day, and others are there just out of curiosity. This tends to result in an expressive exchange that has proven to be typically Haitian as we all build relationships with our new found friends in this unfortunate place. Certainly we can appreciate the courage and resolve that our host partner Tammy must have to work in these very difficult conditions. At the end of the day on Friday we were treated to an incredible Break Dancing display by a local group. We will try to upload a video to You Tube and provide a link later.
DWC Haiti Team
No comments:
Post a Comment