9Feb11

9Feb11

Yesterday was interesting. Had a team that was intent on working, and getting frustrated by all the delays.
Pretty typical for down here honestly.
We did get some good work done, finally, but if things had been ready before we got there, and if the haitians hadn’t taken a lunch break that was twice as long as ours, we could have finished the job. Instead, we completed half of the foundation for a small house yesterday.

In an interesting thought. I was considering the haitian reaction to seeing us put down a concrete foundation. Now, I’ve never done it, so I’m just spectulating here, but this is my logical guess to how it would work.
First, pull up in a backhoe and dig out the footers. Next, use nail guns and chop saws to make any forms that are needed. Then, bring in the concrete truck to pour.
Instead the haitian way is: First, dig the footers by hand, Then begin pouring concrete (after hand mixing with shovels and hand carrying in buckets). After the pillars are poured, start putting 2 rows of block down, filled with mortar, leveling the top course to a string that is approximately level and square.
It’s a lot more work the haitian way. It would just be interesting to see their reaction to all the tools we have at our disposal.

On Thursday I will head up to PAP to meet up with Jeff Swope and the Tims crew. I’ll work with them for a few days, and then head back to PAP to meet up with Tim Muzzie to do some electrical work in Jacmel.

If anyone wants to contribute to the wish list, work with my mom and she will organize things. Most likely, things will need to come in with Tim.

Some electrical needs:
-Electrical tape: Rolls of Black, Red, Green, White, especially the colors. Black is readily available here, but I need to mark different things with the colors.
-An inverter, as previously mentioned. Honestly, I need one myself, and Mission of Hope could really use about a 750W inverter if anyone wanted to donate one.

Other needs:
-some pens. Any type really, I just have troubles keeping them around down here.

Non-essential requests:
-deck of cards.
-cooler of snow (kidding)
-An English/Creole dictionary