Updates for my Sunday Night posting. Big, big week.
Alright, there’s been a lot of stuff going on this week, so the post will be quite long, but i can put up pictures and allsorts.
Politics first. There’s been some rioting in Port au Prince, and also a couple of NGO workers have been kidnapped. We’re not really near PaP here, so it hasn’t been going on here, but we do need to go there at some point to get money (there are no banks/cashpoints within a couple of hours drive), and we would need to pass through there on our way back to Santo Domingo. So that’s a little crazy, but it’s a long way off yet so hopefully it’ll calm down. The effects were felt here, we were without fuel for a day which meant no water except what was in our stocks and no light, electric etc. Back to running as normal now.
OK, that out the way, the work started with the school build, a project I’ve been privileged to be involved in, and I got on it on the first day the wooden frame was erected. Now it looks awesome and we are plastering the walls inside and out. Check it:
So that’s really cool. I did some tool repair here at the base, because all of our tools are completely B.r.o.k.e.n. Sledgehammering all day and piling rocks on things apparently makes them break. For those of you interested, I don’t think I’ve posted much about the base yet. The pictures are in there of the base.
But, after that, the fun began. I’ve spent some time rubbling different sites, mainly on one called ‘Yvone’, which is a really big site, and involves a few big floors of sledgehammering and carting rubble. It is a fun site though, and the people there are wonderful, lots of friends. Back at the base, I signed up for ‘Bobcat Ops’ for one of my days of work. A Bobcat is a heavy digger with tyres and a compact shape for maneuverability, but still, it’s a big boy. I assumed I would be assisting the Bobcat team by moving things, clearing the way for the diggers, making tea. Hardly exciting, but I did it on the request of a friend here. When I turned up, it turned out that they needed DRIVERS. I have no experience. Or should I say, I had no experience, because for the rest of the week, I have been driving that Bobcat around and basically doing the best job on base. This is essentially training for taking the Bobcats out on site, which will help a clearing process, or the safe destruction of an unsafe house no end.
Just quickly, as a break, we played the U.N. Sri Lankan cricket team for a friendly game the other day after work. With 3 people who knew how to play cricket, and the rest being American, it was tough. Well, we lost. But, I took a wicket with some killer leg spin, and we scored 50 runs between us. I was proud of our effort to be honest.
In other news, I have been running a radio show with another guy who volunteers here called Gage Love, an awesome guy. We’ve basically been running a sort of ‘HODR news’ for the locals, fielding questions and trying to promote our efforts. We play a western song and a Haitian song (ours is usually Micheal Jackson, they LOVE him here). We then give informational and then anecdotal updates on what we’re doing; we run a call in show, do a sort of informal english lesson, then do any other announcements. We’ve made it into a podcast, and I should be able to put it up on the blog, please feel free to check it out. Be aware that 1) The first intro bit is in Creole, you won’t understand it, 2) There has to be a Creole translator there translating everything we say 3) They call me Jim here, don’t be confused. It’s quite long, about an hour, but have it on background if you want. Also, for the phone in: Hatian phone-in’s consist of an old mobile phone and a microphone pressed up against it. It works infrequently, so forgive the technical problems about 40 mins in.
That’s about it, well, not really, there’s still so much but this post will go on forever, so I will try to post later with more. It is still hot here. I mean hot. It might sounds great to be in the Carribean right now, but we are talking over 100 farenheit every day. It gets up to 40 celcius. That is meltingly hot. I’ve been taken out most of the day by some serious fatigue and heat exhaustion, but I’m alright
Thanks for looking, and any more comments or donations, please send them through.
Big Love
