GPzMike Abroad

It was a 1/2 day or work today. 'My Crew' has hit their stride very nicely with the corrugated roofing. Monday we will finish up the roofing and do some punchlist stuff to prepare for the 'rendering' (aka, stucco) team to come in Tuesday.

Has a week really gone by since my last update? That surely can't be. I'm sooo tired and been suffering intestinal difficulties as well as some more doubting thomas' and so it's been all I can do to put out the effort to shower, eat, sleep, work.

Tomorrow I am going to the beach to sit in the surf and soak up the 'everything'. Whatever is there to soak up I'll be there soaking. Then we are off to a restaurant for a meal. The car we've found to drive us is air conditioned. Some site seeing is involved...but I figure I'll take the ride just to sit in some air conditioning.

Don't have goggles to dive in the ocean, but figure I'll just try and open my eyes anyway and see what happens. Would be nice to have a facemask, but can't take everything in the suitcase that I'd like.

It's apparent that HODR is committed to working with Haiti well beyond clearing rubble or build schools (correction: transitional schools - can't imagine the locals rebuilding the school before it falls apart - apparently it's a somewhat political name). Other projects HODR is spearheading include: compost toilets, sand-filtration water systems, training local teachers in hygiene, PTSD, & Emergency Response, assisting the Mayor's Office with better systems and infrastructure, Public Spaces assessments for parks and the like (studies have shown that these spaces are very important to the healing process from a disaster like this - in particular for the children), and other projects I'm surely forgetting to mention. It's great to see that HODR is not 'just rebuilding' and 'enabling' and 'taking jobs from Haitians' and some of the other hard core questions that accompany any relief effort. HODR is trying to rebuild with an eye toward the future, and trying hard to engage the local Haitian's in the process so it becomes a part of their future as well (and not just a band-aid that will be tossed aside once we leave).

Without being here you just cannot comprehend the living conditions and the destruction. I have no way to properly convey the destruction. It dawns on me today that the community has been built to withstand hurricanes - concrete and concrete blocks are the normal building materials (well, wood on an island is somewhat scarce, too). Along comes an ugly earthquake and everything falls down. Wood is pliable and many of the wood structures are intact around town. Imagine that. But what are the poor folk supposed to build for now? Hurricanes or earthquakes? Both? The price just goes up and up. How does a person or an organization make that kind of decision? What part of the equation is paramount?