Hi friends!
For today's post, I'm going to refer you to the blog of Paul Fallon, the architect of both the Mission of Hope school and the Be Like Brit orphanage. Paul is a fantastic writer, and describes situations better than I ever could. His blog is about a wide range of topics, ranging from life in Haiti to cycling adventures in the US.He wrote a post a couple of weeks ago describing a night of concrete pouring, the last night before John left the first time:
http://theawkwardpose.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/concrete-night/
He also just wrote a post about our Haitian vs. American concrete pour last weekend:
http://theawkwardpose.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/a-day-at-the-concrete-races/
Enjoy!
To Him be the Glory!
2.29.2012
2.24.2012
23 February 2012
hi friends! hopefully the pictures from the last post gave you a little bit of an idea of the scale of this school building project. often a picture or two is worth a thousand words, and a video can be worth a million. i've got a couple short video clips of the concrete pouring process, but couldn't upload them because we were close to the internet capacity limit for the day. hopefully sometime soon!
other than those few pictures, i know it's been a long time since i posted anything of substance. there has been a ton going on. daniel and john both left today, so now it's just myself, 45 of my closest new friends, boss pepe, and a crew of haitians. we're mainly going to be backfilling the foundation inside the building perimeter, which will probably need to be done mostly by buckets, since there's now six-course-high (4 feet) block walls everywhere. backfill will bring the floor level up about three feet from where it is now, so the walls will slowly become less of an obstacle, but for now, we'll do the best we can!
today (thursday) is officially day number 38, meaning i have 33 days left here. ten weeks in some ways is a long time, and yet somehow it's already half over. at the same time, it really does feel like i've been here way longer than that. for me, after about the two week mark, my "normal" recalibrates, and life here is just how life is. there hasn't really been anything this trip that i've really been craving. it's going to be nice to be able to eat a salad and take a hot shower when i get home, but at the same time, it's amazing what you can live without when you stop thinking about it. for me, it's very much 'out of sight, out of mind' about all the things i think i need but really don't. honestly, i think that in some ways i'm much more content in this third world context than i am in the united states. our american culture so easily breeds the materialism, immediate gratification, greed, entitlement, self-sufficiency, and ultimately pride that is the root of so much discontent and distance from God. not that life in Haiti is perfect and i'm exactly the kind of person i want to be when i'm here. i think the biggest difference here is that the problems i see or encounter here are actually things of significance, rather than the things we can think are important that are really insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
building a school so that the next generation of kids in grand goave can get an education and can learn about jesus. guys working so that they can earn food for their kids that they run up the hill on their lunch break. guys learning how to build a building the right way so that it's strong and safe and can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. trying to get people to see beyond just today. Haiti is a culture of immediate need, whether it's shelter for tonight, or food for my family tomorrow. The natural result of growing up your entire life in a culture that is so driven by things that are temporary and needs that are urgent is that you will be so focused on the present that you never get to see the big picture; never look beyond tomorrow to six months from now, or to why this is the way it needs to be fixed now so that it doesn't break again next week. it's just the way people think here. it's not that they're not intelligent or are incapable of understanding something; it's that this is the reality of the environment they've been surrounded by their entire life, and because of a lack of education (for a myriad of reasons) they aren't even aware that there might be another way to view a problem, that the quick fix might not actually be the best solution. efficiency and long-term planning are words that i don't think exist in creole, and yet somehow, things still get done. ingenuity and creativity definitely exist here, and often haitians come up with temporary fixes that i never would have thought of. the key is learning how to work in this environment, encouraging positive change, but at the same time not trying to make haiti into america. and all the while speaking creole.
welcome to life in haiti.
to Him be the glory!
other than those few pictures, i know it's been a long time since i posted anything of substance. there has been a ton going on. daniel and john both left today, so now it's just myself, 45 of my closest new friends, boss pepe, and a crew of haitians. we're mainly going to be backfilling the foundation inside the building perimeter, which will probably need to be done mostly by buckets, since there's now six-course-high (4 feet) block walls everywhere. backfill will bring the floor level up about three feet from where it is now, so the walls will slowly become less of an obstacle, but for now, we'll do the best we can!
today (thursday) is officially day number 38, meaning i have 33 days left here. ten weeks in some ways is a long time, and yet somehow it's already half over. at the same time, it really does feel like i've been here way longer than that. for me, after about the two week mark, my "normal" recalibrates, and life here is just how life is. there hasn't really been anything this trip that i've really been craving. it's going to be nice to be able to eat a salad and take a hot shower when i get home, but at the same time, it's amazing what you can live without when you stop thinking about it. for me, it's very much 'out of sight, out of mind' about all the things i think i need but really don't. honestly, i think that in some ways i'm much more content in this third world context than i am in the united states. our american culture so easily breeds the materialism, immediate gratification, greed, entitlement, self-sufficiency, and ultimately pride that is the root of so much discontent and distance from God. not that life in Haiti is perfect and i'm exactly the kind of person i want to be when i'm here. i think the biggest difference here is that the problems i see or encounter here are actually things of significance, rather than the things we can think are important that are really insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
building a school so that the next generation of kids in grand goave can get an education and can learn about jesus. guys working so that they can earn food for their kids that they run up the hill on their lunch break. guys learning how to build a building the right way so that it's strong and safe and can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. trying to get people to see beyond just today. Haiti is a culture of immediate need, whether it's shelter for tonight, or food for my family tomorrow. The natural result of growing up your entire life in a culture that is so driven by things that are temporary and needs that are urgent is that you will be so focused on the present that you never get to see the big picture; never look beyond tomorrow to six months from now, or to why this is the way it needs to be fixed now so that it doesn't break again next week. it's just the way people think here. it's not that they're not intelligent or are incapable of understanding something; it's that this is the reality of the environment they've been surrounded by their entire life, and because of a lack of education (for a myriad of reasons) they aren't even aware that there might be another way to view a problem, that the quick fix might not actually be the best solution. efficiency and long-term planning are words that i don't think exist in creole, and yet somehow, things still get done. ingenuity and creativity definitely exist here, and often haitians come up with temporary fixes that i never would have thought of. the key is learning how to work in this environment, encouraging positive change, but at the same time not trying to make haiti into america. and all the while speaking creole.
welcome to life in haiti.
to Him be the glory!
2.21.2012
21 February 2012: pictures!
as requested... pictures! just a little of the progress. for reference, the highway runs along the north edge of the property, and the property slopes uphill towards the south. depot buildings (yellow with brown trim, painted by the stow alliance team in august) are along the west side.
late january: forming up footers in the southeast part of the building.
some footers poured. overall view of the site a few weeks ago, looking northwest toward the highway.
daniel's uncle lenny sent down a huge bag of tools. you would have thought it was Christmas!
the MOHI construction crew (plus Travis) went up the hill for a tour of the progress at the Be Like Brit site. L-R: Gama, Len, Me, Daniel, Travis, Lisa, and John.
PVC drain pipe laid out along the southern (back) wall of the building. props to daniel and his laser-level abilities for making the grade exactly right. backfill, landscaping filter fabric (to keep dirt out of the drain), "river gravel", pvc pipe, more gravel, top fabric, backfill. quite the process.
overview of the site last friday. southern (back) wall is now substantially higher, and poured east wall is finished. CMU (block) interior walls are going up. everything you see (inside and outside) will get backfilled an additional three feet still (to the bottom of the doorway cutouts you see on the far side). the hooks along the south wall (to the left) are at the height of the ground floor ceiling. the rest of this is all just foundation...
late january: forming up footers in the southeast part of the building.
some footers poured. overall view of the site a few weeks ago, looking northwest toward the highway.
daniel's uncle lenny sent down a huge bag of tools. you would have thought it was Christmas!
the MOHI construction crew (plus Travis) went up the hill for a tour of the progress at the Be Like Brit site. L-R: Gama, Len, Me, Daniel, Travis, Lisa, and John.
PVC drain pipe laid out along the southern (back) wall of the building. props to daniel and his laser-level abilities for making the grade exactly right. backfill, landscaping filter fabric (to keep dirt out of the drain), "river gravel", pvc pipe, more gravel, top fabric, backfill. quite the process.
overview of the site last friday. southern (back) wall is now substantially higher, and poured east wall is finished. CMU (block) interior walls are going up. everything you see (inside and outside) will get backfilled an additional three feet still (to the bottom of the doorway cutouts you see on the far side). the hooks along the south wall (to the left) are at the height of the ground floor ceiling. the rest of this is all just foundation...
2.11.2012
11 February 2012
got some big things coming up...
The world race team (more accurately, an entire squad of 7 teams, 46 people total) should arrive tonight, and be with us here for the next month. my main role will shift from construction boss to project coordinator for these seven teams, trying to keep everyone busy and things running smoothly. Kay Militone won't be quiet anymore! Also, John Armour, construction guru, will be returning on Sunday to keep things running well with the school project. please be praying for their family, as they are working towards all coming down (John, Lisa, and their 4 kids) for a long-term stay to run the school project.
Also, Daniel is on the mend and starting to feel much better, which is a great thing. very very glad to have him back on the site today.
gotta get back to work - getting ready to pour more concrete today!
to Him be the glory!
The world race team (more accurately, an entire squad of 7 teams, 46 people total) should arrive tonight, and be with us here for the next month. my main role will shift from construction boss to project coordinator for these seven teams, trying to keep everyone busy and things running smoothly. Kay Militone won't be quiet anymore! Also, John Armour, construction guru, will be returning on Sunday to keep things running well with the school project. please be praying for their family, as they are working towards all coming down (John, Lisa, and their 4 kids) for a long-term stay to run the school project.
Also, Daniel is on the mend and starting to feel much better, which is a great thing. very very glad to have him back on the site today.
gotta get back to work - getting ready to pour more concrete today!
to Him be the glory!
2.07.2012
7 February 2012
So Travis and I didn't get the generator/welder up in Arcahaie fixed, but we found a burned out pack of diodes and a big capacitor that was actually wired into the circuit wrong [so that it would have burned up the diodes]. That's all electrical speak for we're pretty sure we identified the problem, and replacement parts will be on the way from the states as soon as is practical.
Things are still going well here in Grand Goave. We've been working at a fairly steady pace on the school project. Everyday is more concrete and rebar and dirt and broken creole sentences. The last few work days have been challenging, because Daniel [an engineer from Alaska, and the only other American on site since John and Lisa left for the states] has been pretty sick, and while he's been stubborn and has tried to work anyway, he's had to go home early the last couple days. I honestly don't know how he's done it this far. He's feeling a little better today, but went to the doctor to get a blood test for malaria, and lo and behold, that's what he has. Good to have it identified so he can be treated accordingly, but I know he's still frustrated that he can't be operating at full capacity. Fortunately, we're at a point right now where for the most part, the guys know what they're doing: the carpenters are hanging forms in preparation for the next pour [most likely Thursday], the dirt guys are still moving dirt, which they do well, and I'm left to supervise and attempt to communicate things like "this needs to go over there" [li beswe ale lot bo] and "make this here look like that" [fe ici kon sa] and "great work" [trevay tre byen]. it's an adventure in communication for sure.
language has been one of the best parts of this trip, as well as one of the most tiring parts. at the end of the day, my brain is just fried. however, it's great to be able to understand the guys a little bit better [if they speak slowly enough], to the point that we can have conversations about our families and such. without fail, they're all amazed that i don't have kids and that i'm not married yet. my standard answer is "pita" [which means "later"], which inevitably is met with laughter. they're also normally amazed that i have only one sister, as most of them have 4 or 5 or 13 siblings. while we might say "well they just start having kids really young" or "no one here uses birth control" or whatever, when the guys talk about their kids, their faces light up just like any proud dad, and it reminds me that at the core, we really are all the same.
when i see how ugly the attitude of entitlement is, whether it's in kids that are mad because you won't let them use your ipod when they want to use it, or in 'he got a new pair of work gloves, so i want a new pair of work gloves too', i realize how often i reflect that myself. it might look different, but it's the same underlying pride issue, of 'i need this, and i deserve that', whether it's electricity at the beach house, or a ride to or from the job site when i want to go, or the *huge* inconvenience of not having internet all the time. life will go on without internet, and i know how to use a headlamp, so what am i complaining about anyway?
all in all, things are going well, but God definitely has some things to teach me. i think it's going to be rough, but obviously necessary since He knows what's best in the end anyway even when i'm blind to it.
to Him be the glory.
Things are still going well here in Grand Goave. We've been working at a fairly steady pace on the school project. Everyday is more concrete and rebar and dirt and broken creole sentences. The last few work days have been challenging, because Daniel [an engineer from Alaska, and the only other American on site since John and Lisa left for the states] has been pretty sick, and while he's been stubborn and has tried to work anyway, he's had to go home early the last couple days. I honestly don't know how he's done it this far. He's feeling a little better today, but went to the doctor to get a blood test for malaria, and lo and behold, that's what he has. Good to have it identified so he can be treated accordingly, but I know he's still frustrated that he can't be operating at full capacity. Fortunately, we're at a point right now where for the most part, the guys know what they're doing: the carpenters are hanging forms in preparation for the next pour [most likely Thursday], the dirt guys are still moving dirt, which they do well, and I'm left to supervise and attempt to communicate things like "this needs to go over there" [li beswe ale lot bo] and "make this here look like that" [fe ici kon sa] and "great work" [trevay tre byen]. it's an adventure in communication for sure.
language has been one of the best parts of this trip, as well as one of the most tiring parts. at the end of the day, my brain is just fried. however, it's great to be able to understand the guys a little bit better [if they speak slowly enough], to the point that we can have conversations about our families and such. without fail, they're all amazed that i don't have kids and that i'm not married yet. my standard answer is "pita" [which means "later"], which inevitably is met with laughter. they're also normally amazed that i have only one sister, as most of them have 4 or 5 or 13 siblings. while we might say "well they just start having kids really young" or "no one here uses birth control" or whatever, when the guys talk about their kids, their faces light up just like any proud dad, and it reminds me that at the core, we really are all the same.
when i see how ugly the attitude of entitlement is, whether it's in kids that are mad because you won't let them use your ipod when they want to use it, or in 'he got a new pair of work gloves, so i want a new pair of work gloves too', i realize how often i reflect that myself. it might look different, but it's the same underlying pride issue, of 'i need this, and i deserve that', whether it's electricity at the beach house, or a ride to or from the job site when i want to go, or the *huge* inconvenience of not having internet all the time. life will go on without internet, and i know how to use a headlamp, so what am i complaining about anyway?
all in all, things are going well, but God definitely has some things to teach me. i think it's going to be rough, but obviously necessary since He knows what's best in the end anyway even when i'm blind to it.
to Him be the glory.
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