Day 2 – Travel to Haiti

400 volunteers and 100 staff left on two charter planes provided by Delta Airlines for Port-Au-Prince, Haiti in the morning. The Carters were on board of the first plane leaving. Delta had specially branded the plane for the cause.

            

I filled up my volunteer kit water bottle one last time at the airport before boarding. Irrational, but all the news about Cholera made me nervous. Clean water is a precious commodity in Haiti. Symbolically, there is nothing more valuable one could bring. My Haitian inlaws have taught me a lot about water conservation over the years, long before the issue was recognized as a major global challenge for all of humanity, caused by global warming.

On board of the two Delta charter flights president Carter used the opportunity to thank every volunteer in person, shaking our hands. I was impressed by how simple, humble, and  amazing the Carters were. We sometimes don’t realize  how election campaigns and politically biased media reports can taint our view of a public figure. My image of president Carter completely changed over this trip, he is a true humanitarian. I enjoyed to hear his unfiltered views during our camp site chats in Haiti.

Upon arrival we boarded the buses to our campsite at Christianville driving through 18 miles of devastation. This was my fourth time in Haiti and what was difficult to see before, is now impossible to bear. The scenery reminded me of a post-apocalyptical science fiction movie like the Book of Eli, a country in a severe depression that cannot help itself because of its own pathology. The combination of rubble, garbage, and overflowing sewers seems to have tipped over what the system could handle. Many tent cities are still located around the airport. A lot of displaced Haitians moved to the area of the airport expecting NGOs to be there for help. The tent cities seem to be managed better and appear cleaner than the other rogue settlements we passed by on our way. As we were warned the evening before, I felt overwhelmed by the task at hand.

By the time we arrived in camp I had a splitting headache. Luckily, since some of my tent mates had arrived earlier with the first charter plane, they had already set up the mosquito nets for us. I was so grateful to them. The women in tent 89 would become a wonderful group of friends to me during my stay. I met my tent mate Christine the first evening who saved me with a headache pill. She is of Haitian descent and was determined to get “Sweet Mickey’s” (Haitian president) autograph on Wednesday. Even before the elections he was already very popular in Haiti for his music.

 

To my great relief the Irish charity Haven who had prepared the camp had build facilities that were much better than just “latrines” and “bucket showers”.  The toilets actually flushed! The showers had running water and were so popular, even Tarantulas tried to use them.

 

The dining tent was air conditioned and we had electricity for fans and even a light bulb in our tent. An internet café was scheduled to open the next day. We even had a wireless network available to receive email on our smart phones and laptops.

Dinner, especially the vegetarian meals, fullfilled all my expectations in regards to Irish food… it was simply “just the way I like it”. After that we were welcomed by the local mayor and Haitian community leaders in the social area. The program proceeded with entertainment by a Haitian dance group meanwhile the bar provided an endless supply of Guinness resulting in what would become a strange Irish – Haitian mixture for our evening experiences.

Day 1 – “Just the way we like it”

Out of the 400 volunteers there were a lot who arrived in Atlanta at the same time with me so the trip to the hotel was a first opportunity to get to know each other. I noticed that many people were already a little bit older (in their 50s and 60s), which surprised me since it had been stated in the application materials that the trip would be physically extremely challenging. Being familiar with the climate in Haiti it was one of my greatest worries not to be phyically fit enough for the working and camping conditions. The volunteer manual had made it clear that we were going to stay in tents and there would only be basic hygienic facilities available (such as bucket showers). Some of the other volunteers described previous global village trips with Habitat and the Carter Foundation that sounded quite luxurious compared to what the conditions in Haiti were going to be.

So I could not help but wondering if some of the other volunteers due to their previous experience were maybe underestimating the physical challenges a little bit.

At the hotel we registered and received our volunteer kit. I realized that a lot of the sun protective gear that I had purchased was actually provided to us. The kit contained more info about the camp and the schedule for the next week as well.

For accommodations would be staying at Christianville with an Irish Charity – Haven – that had already built up the volunteer  camp and completed 50 houses on the job site. We got a map of the job site, my crew would be building houses 606 and 608.

 

Gallery of site pictures

Restrooms and sinks

Charging Station

Workshop

Dining Tent

Tool distribution

In the evening over dinner we were briefed by the Carters and Habitat for Humanity staff about issues that had been overcome to achieve this first major rebuilding effort after the earthquake. One of the greatest problems that we learned about and that I was not aware of is land ownership determination in Haiti. A previous effort in Haiti by Habitat had been obliterated over a land ownership issue. This time around the titles of land donated by the mayor of Leogane for the project had been properly surveyed and assessed. Another reason why it took so long to break ground. The following is a video of the Carters from this first evening in Atlanta. They gave a brief history of the work of their foundation, talked about the conditions in Haiti and discussed the conditions the volunteers would have to face (aka bucket showers and tents).

Later we were prepped a little bit psychologically by other Habitat staffers who warned us that we would not always like what we saw. They asked us to expect feeling shocked, angry, overwhelmed, amazed, thankful. And in case there was something we absolutely could not stand, as a mental tool, we should just say to ourselves: “And this is just the way I like it!”

This saying would become the build motto as we were going through the week, dealing with unexpected obstacles and our own physical and mental challenges in Haiti.

Haiti Habitat for Humanity / Carter Foundation Build

On Tuesday, January 12th 2010 I received a phone call shortly before 5 pm from my husband who was in Port-Au-Prince Haiti to visit his family. He told me that there had just been an earthquake and wanted to let me know that they were fine in case all services would break down.

The following days with the catastrophe unraveling on the media the question was asked by many to me personally, how to help, what charity? Back then I feared that the long term efforts after the immediate disaster relief would be hard to maintain once the news would stop pouring in. So I signed up with Habitat for Humanity.

Almost two years later it happened. I was able to help rebuild along with 399 other volunteers. This is the story from my own point of view of what was accomplished in this first major rebuilding effort.

My team for houses 606 and 608.