A Much Needed Day of Rest :)

Hey Everyone!

I really dont know where to START! It is currently 7:04 am on Sunday. :) Been up since 6. Got into a rhythm i guess! A little recap of the week itself. I tried to blog a few times buttt i was so tired by 7 i just couldn't do it!

Sunday feels like such a long time ago! It was my second full day at Jax Beach (what the base is known as). A little about the base I am at. It is the larger of the two bases now, and you can find the Country Director, the deputy directors and all the heads and interns of logistics, heath and sanitation, water and the base manager, along with the construction dudes! (sorry no gals). As i mentioned before we are right on the ocean. There are coral reef spots right out to the right of us. Its very beautiful in some parts. I will post pictures of the overall base at a later time! Hopefully sooner than later!

Soooo on Sunday i got up at a rather early time of 7 am. Had some breakfast and did my devotions for an hour and a half. Than I played soccer with some of the boys that i had met the day before. (Watson, Gerard, Wesley, Donald and little Tiko, he was a cutie!) That was fun until someone decided to kick it a little too hard and it landed on the sharp edge of the fence anddd popped it. That someone was ME! I felt really bad, buttt I was dogtired anyways! The boys wouldnt let me stop! I had to find a way haha! After that i got a coconut opened up for me by Blaine (Base Manager from Vancouver! really good guy) and i drank some of the juice and shared the rest with the boys. Pretty neat to get so much juice out of something that is right on our compund! Than I had some lunch and socialized for a bit. Than I took a huge nap since i was so tired from playing soccer and waking up relatively early! Woke up at around 2 and missed out on snorkeling with Heidi and Steve. Ah well! I ended up doing something that I dont remember for a few hours! lol At 6 we had dinner (chicken etc) and than the highlight of the day, which was worship! It was so awesome! Nat, Katie, Darren, and Travis led it. We had the volunteers visit from the house down the street and it was a good ol church service in which we celebrated communion! One word - Amazing!

Monday was my first real day of work! Woke up at 6 and had some breakfast. A usual work day goes like this. Breakfast is at 6:30. Devotions with the local Haitian workers on our site happens at 7:30 every morning. This is a really cool moment where Ken (foreman/big boss) prays first with Anel (translator) translating to the Haitians. After this Anel will read a bible passage and than people who want to pray can. One day we had 4 guys pray. Another day there was just one. Even though I do not understand hardly any of what they are saying it is pretty cool! Work day commences after this and we work till 12:00. There is an hour for lunch. Than work till 5:00. Trust me it is one long day! We had a few days where in the sun it was over 35. The humidity isnt so bad though so I just drink a lot of water.

The work week was very interesting in itself! Monday was a little frustrating just because I had not done anything related to construction in about two years! Jim (mason from Maine) and I worked on setting up a  concrete form on the top of the block wall to strengthen the house itself and earthquake proof it. I learned alot since I had not done a form like that ever. I was very very very tired by 5:00 pm. I remember eating supper and not being able to even chat with anyone because I was just so out of it. I ended up watching the movie Congo with Jim and Jim (South Carolina master of all trades, quite a guy as well!) and than hitting the hay. On Tuesday it got more interesting! I worked with the local Haitian masons! Now I have experience in masonry for labouring and helping my dad out but my experience in laying blocks is limited! It was alot of fun actually! I was a little stressed out with how I would do but I fit right in with the guys. ( When i was introduced on Monday by Ken, he stated that I am to be considered a boss as well) So they did give me some wary looks at the start but as soon as I formally introduced myself and got to know some names they warmed up really quickly. I worked on the outside wall of the recreation centre with a few guys while some of the masons worked on the wall directly in front of the porch. Our wall was looking good (bonds were good etc). However I looked at the work the other men were doing and they had made one huge mistake that had multiplied by the time they had gotten 4 rows of block up. Instead of laying a half block beside the door they had started with a full block. This caused alot of little cuts to be made at the center of the wall since their (incorrect) method is for two masons to start on either side and meet in the middle and cut whatever they need and place there. Totally not a good way at all!!!!!! So we were forced to tear half the wall down to correct the mistake. It was frustrating because Jim had told them numerous times the correct way and yet they still made the same mistake. And they did not care one bit that it had to be torn down because hey thats 4 more hours of work they get in the long run. Grrrrr!

This is where the Haitian culture is very different from North America. When they are on a job they do not work very hard to finish it. Instead they try to make the job last as long as possible so they can be paid longer. It is illegal in Haiti to tender or contract people. You have to pay workers by the hour. You can not say I will pay you 100 dollars to do this house. Breaking this culture is nearly impossibile. With that said there are some very hard workers amongst the guys. Guys like Lukemon, Schneider, Whitney, Renee, Nicolas, Dorce, Nazir, and Renard are a few that are mostly very hard workers. There are some that needed to prodded along and reminded that work needs to be done. Ken gave a stern warning on wednesday about work ethic and letting people go if they do not starting working hard because Tuesday was a very slack day by a lot of the guys.

Anyways! Back to Tuesday. In the morning I worked with the masons while Jim supervised the concrete pour. In the afternoon Jim and I started to take down the forms and move them over to the other house to start putting them up on the next complex (12 complexes total plus a recreation room etc). At the end of the day I had more energy than the previous day! Steve and I were able to go snorkeling for about an hour out on the coral reef! That was awesome. I love it so much! Good day overall.

Wednesday,Thursday, and Friday were very similar. Jim and I worked on setting up the forms for the next complex on Wednesday and Thursday while also working on a few other projects. I was definitely getting a good hold on how to set it all up with the limited resources we had. A lot of crafty ideas to make sure it is nice and snug to withhold lots of concrete! We also had a meeting tuesday or wednesday night (Week is like a blur to me! lol) and discussed some things such as making sure the guys are always working. I was unaware at that point that I and all 6 construction ex pats (Ken, Jim, Jim, Frank the tank, Darren and myself) needed to ride them very hard so they will work. SP and Ken made the decision the pay the workers higher than the minimum wage. The min wage in Haiti is 1.25 US an hour. Ken pays the guys a 1.75 US an hour to a max of 2.75 an hour depending on your skill set and job on the site. Basically they are very lucky as a lot of other relief organizations only pay minimum wage so they should be working hard and not be "calico"ing (vacation attitude). Friday we poured another slab and it went very very well. I decided to make sure it went very fast and efficient that I would be the one dumping the buckets into the slab. On tuesday it had taken almost 5 hours for them to complete it. On Friday with my presence there it took less than 2 hours! Its amazing how hard they can work if you push them. Its also amazing how inefficient they are if you arent there! My dad would have a heart attack hahha!

Since we are expected to work every other Saturday I called it a night very early and went to bed. I had an amazing sleep and woke up at 630 since we start at 8 on Saturdays and work till 2. It was a good day. After work was done the real fun started! Heidi, Nate Kelly and I went snorkeling at the coral reef! For the first time I saw the continuos wall of fish that swim around there once in a while! There were millions and millions of fish! No joke! It was incredible! And I also saw a rather big fish that was very scary looking. I definitely thought if i had seen something bigger than that I would definitely not be back there lol. After snorkeling we walked down the beach for 30 minutes.  After this I took a nice cold shower and took a 2 hour nap! For dinner there was lasagna that was spicy! (Everything here is kind of spicy!) Makes for some good number 2's thats for sure! hahaha Than we watched Sherlock Holmes on the big projector down in the gazebo. This was Kurt's last weekend here so he chose the movie! It was a good one I must say! After that I talked to a special someone :) and went to bed.

And now it is Sunday! I woke up at 6! Someone in our tent was just lethal and it was NOT ME. They were so lethal I had to get up. I was impressed actually in a disgusted way. haha I have been writing this for the last hour! Some very important things that happened this week. One - We got DirectTV Satelite (600 channels, including all hockey games, soccer games etc BAM!) Two - Tim worked his magic and got me a cell phone for here! which is sweet! Three - I loved the first week. So many highs and very few lows! God is good. One thing that I didnt get to do at all was walk through the communities and interact with the locals other than the workers. I have developed some very good relationships with a few of the guys. They have taught me alot of Creole already!

Anyways this is it for me! We are actually going to a waterfall this morning/afternoon because it Travis's last weekend here and that is his request. Hes been here for 18 months! Crazy eh.

PS Mom I will email you tonight hopefully! :D

Hope everyone is doing well
God Bless!

Justin

Update coming!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, Children and Pets,

I will be blogging it "UP" on saturday most likely as I am in a semi coma state by 5:01 pm (quitting time is 5 lol) the work days are very long and im still adjusting to the heat! It is comin along though :) see ya on Saturday!

Love
Justin

First Full Day of "Work"

Hello Folks!

It is currently 7:41 am on Sunday!  I was way too tired last night to update my blog. Thus I am doing it now! Long story short yesterday was AWESOME. I was very lucky to arrive on a friday night since Saturday and Sunday is the weekend!!(just like back home! lol) I slept in till ten because i was so tired! slept like a baby :). Did the usual morning thing. Breakfast, coffee, juice, and lotsa talking! Met some other people that i hadnt met the previous night.

At around 11 Heidi(who has alot of titles here) and Steve (volunteer counsellor here for 2 weeks who im bunking with at the moment!) invited me to go snorkeling with them just a little ways down where there is a small coral reef! The water was just a perfect temperature, and the different colors of fish that i saw were just spectacular!! We were out there for a good 2 hours! saw so many bright blue, yellow, red striped and solid colored fish. However half the reef was decaying and dying, which has to be tied into the earthquake as well as the pollution etc. It was still very beautiful and a reminder of how cool God's creation is!

After we finished snorkeling we were met by 5 local boys around the ages of 8 to 12. (Watson, Gerard, Donald, Janou, and unknown lol). We let them use the snorkeling gear and they were very excited about that! Gerard and Donald also asked for Creole bibles which SP has in stock at the base! Steve ran back to get a few for them. I thought that was so cool. First day here and we are just having fun but in the midst of  fun we could give two children and their families something hopefully they could cherish and read and learn about the Gospel!

Lunch happened (burgers OH YEAH!) and than i got a tour of the compounds that are being made beside our immediate base. Jim gave me a tour (hes about an hour away from Bangor, Maine! close to my uncle) of the construction and what I will be doing. I will also be working with Frank(recently retired from a southern state i believe), and two Jims (both very nice guys) and our foreman Ken (who is very nice as well). If you havent noticed every single person ive met here have been so welcoming and just awesome individuals! Im very excited to start work on Monday. Right now there are 14 houses being built which are actually split into two separate houses. The goal for these houses at the moment is to house volunteer teams that come to Haiti which at the moment are 2 to 3 groups a month. That is a substantial number and at the moment they either stay in tent places (which I am in right now) or at a house down the road. This project was started in late September. The houses are made of cinder blocks that are locally made. Their are a group of 40 local Haitian men that work on the houses. They are the primary masons laying the blocks with Ken and Jim making sure everything is going smoothly and somewhat correct! What Jim, Jim and I will be doing is doing the concrete forms that go on top of the walls before the roof goes on and the forms on the windows etc. The idea around this is to make it earthquake proof, and be able to stand a large quake. Pretty awesome id say!

After the tour I took a little rest to get showered. The showers are actually pretty cool too. Its a building where the guys and gals showers are separated by a wall that goes three quarters of the way up. So people can converse back and forth! haha So if u havent guessed yet, I had a conversation with Deb while showering. lol  Shes from California and here as an intern with the water sanitation program. Very cool person! After my shower the plan was to go to Port-Au-Prince for the international Jazz Festival located at a very "Posh" Place right past the airport. That was quite amazing. There were three performers for the night. The first group was from Spain called Rubem Dantas Group! WOW, they were good. Some crazy solos by the base guitarist. It was CRAZY! look them up on youtube. Very eccentric too, check the one guys hair out! haha   The second group was Canadian!! Her name was Kellylee Evans, and shes from TO. Won a juno or two! and she blew my mind. So talented! I screamed Go Canada a few times! (OF COURSE!) We unfortunately had to leave before the last performer because of the 11 pm curfew and our journey back to the Jax Beach base which can take 2 hours at the heavy traffic time. We luckily got back in an hour thanks to Nat's awesome driving skills and knowledge of where the crazy massive (and very needed) speed bumps are and the cracks in the roads (remnant of the earthquakes effect). SIDENOTE - I saw Tim K at the festival! We talked alot and got caught up! It was really good to see him. He is at the other base right now which is about 2 and a half hours away. BUTTT he comes to Jax Beach on Monday! So i am pumped for that!

That was pretty much my day in a nutshell, or a little more than nutshell! lol Todays plans are to relax, socialize, go snorkeling again and chapel tonight! which i am very excited to go to! Another cool thing that goes on here actually is that every sunday morning Nat and a few others pick up 60 orphans from the local orphanage and bring them to church. Very cool! Nat is actually one of the co-leads on a massive project that SP is doing down the road called the Lamb Center which will be a place for orphans to go etc. Ill update more on that later though cause im fuzzy on the details!

Anywaysss im all blogged out! and i have bfast to eat! and my bible to read :)

Hope everyone has a blessed Sunday and God Bless!

JD

Hey Everyone!

I have made it safely to Haiti after several missed connection flights and missed terminals...........JUST KIDDING! haha i made it without a problem from Ottawa to Chicago to Miami to Port-Au-Prince. Met some very interesting people on the flights as well, so overall it was a very good day! 

When I arrived in Haiti, I met a native hatian man whos name i forget (bad eh!) who works for Samaritans Purse. His task was to get me to the base in Jacksonville Bay, which is a 2 hour drive through the never ending traffic jams and CRAZY driving skills exhibited by Hatians. It was actually intense. never have I seen such bold moves, and honking ever! It is actually really dangerous. Just last week a man driving a dump truck lost control of it and instead of trying to get control just jumped out of it and let it roll down a hill. It ended up killing 33 people on the way down. Such a sad story. 

This just illustrates how different it is here for sure. At the start of the journey to the base from the airport i was just dumbfounded and heartbroken by the situation all around. Little tents, massive piles of garbage, so unsanitary. Yet the people trudge on. Definitely can pray for this situation and for the work that the people are doing to institute progress.

One really cool story that i heard of today was the fact that the people running the water sanitary program here was able to drill their first well in Haiti!!!! that is very exciting news :) and I have met so many cool, interesting people already that i will be spending alot of time with in the next few months! Got a little tour of the base camp as well. Its right beside the ocean. You can actually hear the waves crashing every time so thats pretty neat! I am currently just getting set up for the long hall here. Maybe organize my room before the 3 months is up! haha 

Hope everything is well with everyone! 

Blessings and Love!

Justin

When I am leaving!

Departure Time : January 20th, 2012 at 6:55 am! Arrive in Haiti at around 5 pm!