Day Five

What a surprise - I couldn't sleep again Thursday night. So I met up with the other insomniacs at the Meal Tent, where we all charged phones, played Words with Friends, and wrote blogs (or notes for blogs, in my case). Matt from my crew was there again, so we hung out until it was time to get up - 4 am - then we each went back to our tents, assuming there would be enough activity that we wouldn't bother anybody as we packed up for the day. We were both back 10 minutes later, as no one was awake in either of our tents.

I didn't exactly get pretty for
middle-of-the-night blogging.

On the last day, they started us an hour earlier on the build, to get us as far along as possible. I can only guess that they'll start every day earlier next year, to let us get more done before the heat kicks in each day. It was usually in the 70s when we got off the bus each morning.

It has been a really long, hot, difficult week, and Matt said he didn't think he'd have any energy to build the last day. Completely spent by three days spent on the roofs in the sun. But there we were, on the first bus out in the morning, already working on the site before the rest of the crew even got there. Enthusiasm on the last day is fantastic - things get completed quickly and easily, we can sprint because we can see the finish line. We also know that there is a post-build that will finish what we can't, which provides a little relief from guilt.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

The Canadian Remembrance Day ceremony changed a bit - it became a much bigger deal, so there was a reading of "In Flanders Field" over the PA, and two minutes of silence site-wide at 11.11 am. People gathered in the center of block 2, essentially blocking work on both of our houses (the HFH Videographer set up on our scaffolding), but making us all a little proud to be at the center of it. A Canadian flag had been raised on a long 2x4, and an American flag soon followed.

Some time during that silence, President and Mrs. Carter appeared at the ceremony, working their way through the crowd to the front. I thought it was a tribute to the crowd that they were focused on the sentiment of the moment, and hardly noticed them. At the end of the silence, Cathy, the Canadian who had done the readings, started us in "O, Canada". Afterwards we waited in an awkward silence for the Americans to jump in, but no one did. Finally, Allison (the Canadian) began "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the Americans followed along. You know how I love to sing the anthems? I was on the opposite side of the square from my houses, and there were about two hundred people at the ceremony. I'm told I could be heard above everyone.

Later the Irish flag appeared, taken from one of the houses on which the Irish were helping us build. I talked to one of that crew, and told her I wish I didn't need so much rest (or could drink better), or I'd come and join them at the bar when I woke up at 2 am each day. I asked her how they could keep it up day after day. She said their ability to drink all night and be up for work before dawn was starting to defy science. Even they are impressed at their stamina.

OUR HOMEOWNERS... OR NOT

Remember how I learned some Creole because I was upset that it took us until Day Four in Thailand to learn that the person we were building with wasn't the homeowner? Well, we communicated the heck out of our homeowners this time. Creole, French, and Spanish were flowing freely on the site all week. The homeowners were engaged and contributing and having a great time with us. Except that on Day Five, we found out that they weren't actually our homeowners. I couldn't f-ing believe it! Marlene worked side-by-side with us for days, but we didn't know she was actually only the cousin of a friend of the homeowner for that house. Albérique was the boyfriend of a relative of the homeowner, who still told us we built the porch wrong because he wouldn't be able to get his motorcycle up there.

CARTER PHOTO

We did so well to finish our houses, they actually moved our scheduled photo from the other crew's house to one of ours. To be fair, the other crew with whom we were getting our photo taken was one of the ones that did not have a House Leader, so we were impressed at how far they came on their own. We got our roofs and porches done, siding finished, shutters on, and one front door hung for the photo. We also, thanks to Irv, were one of the few homes that completed the interior walls which separated a bedroom (approximately the size of my cot) from the rest of the house (approximately the size of my master bathroom at home).

Both crews lined up for the Carter photo - its a quick-strike thing where they shake the hands of the actual homeowners and present them with signed Bibles, ask a couple of questions and then turn around for a single group photo. People worry about how they look, because they don't realise how small they will appear in a photo of 20 people - I don't think you can see me at all in this one. Prior to the Carters' arrival, I distributed the gifts I had brought for the crew - actual Jimmy Carter campaign buttons for them to wear in the photo. You won't see much of us, but you will see those. President Carter seemed amused.

DEDICATION CEREMONY

The photo is followed by the Dedication Ceremony for the houses, which was relatively quick as we were the last house photo taken before the Carter house. Diana conducted the ceremonies with help from Rico, and she came up with the brilliant idea to have a ribbon cutting for each house, with two ribbons each. The first ribbon on the porch was cut by the person who represented the homeowner and worked with us all week long, the second was at the entrance to the bedroom and was cut by the actual homeowner.

During the ceremony, everyone thanked each other for the hard work and camaraderie of the week. Irv announced that he had actually been invited to work on the Carter house, but told them he would rather work on whatever house Vic was on. We all saw his point - Vic was incredibly patient, explained things in ways that could be understood, quickly evaluated skill levels and assigned us all tasks at which we could succeed, and was outspoken about the need to rest if we were not feeling well, so there was no guilt about going to the cooling bus when needed. From what we heard about other House Leaders in contrast, I determined that Vic was actually more nurturing than the House Leader on the Women Build houses.

PACKING UP

Cleanup consisted of getting everything off of the site and returned to Supplies, including the extra tools that we were donating to make it easier for Habitat to continue their work. Back at camp, and enormous pile of donations grew after dinner at the far end of the Meal Tent - clothing, tools, toiletries, even luggage. I personally had 3 pairs of work boots and unopened toiletries to donate, and even picked up another couple of pairs of work boots on my way over. (You'd think I'd have less luggage after shedding 25 pounds of tools and other donations, but it just made me pack like an idiot and take up just as much space.)

This was the hardest build I've done, but my most productive. One of the things my trainer had me do to prepare was simply walk a lot to get used to being on my feet so much, which really helped avoid the foot problems I normally have on builds. That went a long way toward keeping me in the game - it's the little things. (In Thailand, my feet blistered almost immediately, and I got to take A/C time outs in the med tent so they could change my dressing twice a day.) Conditions were better than we were told they'd be, but it was pretty rough - the weather was hotter than it was supposed to be, showers were colder than I thought they'd be, tents were more crowded than I expected. But every single person I talked to said they would be back next year to do it all over again. Including me.

Day Four

The difference between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning is amazing. Wednesday morning you can't believe it's only the third day, Thursday morning you can't believe it's almost over.

Children arriving in Christianville for school.

Today I actually woke up at a reasonable hour. Meaning 4.00, instead of 2.00. I got a chance to talk to the Canadians in the tent about the Remembrance Day ceremony they're having tomorrow on our housing block (Go, Block 2!), and they said I could be one of the readers of "In Flanders Field." I suggested we try to get one of the Habitat camera men there to video the program, so we'd have a better-quality recording than our phone cameras can take. That was my big contribution.

NOTHING I CAN'T DO...

I sat next to a Canadian on the bus, a woman named Allison who had never done anything like this before. Not unusual for a Carter Work Project, except that the Canadians were on a pre-build team that came down a week early, and she has been here on this very intense adventure for almost two weeks. She was very homesick, but said, "There's nothing I can't do for two more days." That's how Thursday feels: we're exhausted, and sore, and a little sunburnt, and cut up and bit up, but there's nothing we can't do for two more days.

ROOF CREW ON DEMAND

Just off the bus, tool bags wait outside

When we got to the site, not last this time, our house leader Vic told me that our roof crew had been requested by other houses that were very far behind. While we have our individual crew goals of how far we can get in finishing houses 219 and 220, the Block Leader also has goals of a minimum they'd like all of the houses on that block to reach. There is always a post-build the next week - sometimes just to paint, sometimes to install plumbing, sometimes to finish major portions that didn't get done by a dysfunctional crew. We were far ahead on Monday, but slowed down by the Hurricane Clips (known throughout the site as Those F-ing Hurricane Clips). Some houses weren't nearly as far ahead as we were, so the Hurricane Clip obstacle was deadly to their goals, and Block Leaders were adjusting their goals and moving productive crews to even out the Block's progress.

Our whole roof crew didn't go, just the two guys who were on the roof itself, Rico and Matt. Rico Roof and Matt on a Hot Tin Roof. Nicky and I were incorporated into the siding crew to finish up the siding begun yesterday. The siding was mostly pre-cut panels which fit around the windows and doors, but other houses had taken their siding first, long before they needed it, and there were several sizes that were unavailable in our block's stockpile when we got there. We spent the morning measuring what we had, figuring out what we needed, and sending me to the siding cutter to get the rest.

I'm told it's best that I don't know what the grafitti says.

SIDING GIRL

We weren't the only ones missing inventory, so my morning at the siding cutter consisted of measuring their stock to see what pieces they still had there, piling them on a pallet so that they could be delivered when we were done (I can carry a couple of pieces, but we needed about 20), and then guarding them with my life as others came by and treated the pile that had a piece on top labelled "Houses 219/220" as their own stockpile. When I had my back turned because he was cutting a piece for me, someone actually stole the labelled piece on top, and I had to make a new sign. I had to yell at people. I know we're all there to do good, and I'd like to think that people are just uninformed about where to get what they need for their sites, but pillaging materials is a real problem on the builds. Hard-to-find pieces disappear at lunchtime, stolen by people either too lazy or too unaware for a few minutes in the wood or siding cutting line to get their own.

There was another woman there with a big order, and despite the whining of the people behind us in line, the cutter did a good job of alternating our jobs with the individual pieces needed by those who came after us. He questioned my count on one piece, and turned out to be right. I really wanted to at least bring him a cold bottle of water for all he was doing for us, but there were none around - at least not close enough for me to get and still be able to keep an eye on our pile. Which also meant that I spent over an hour without water, standing in the sun. Big floppy hat and sunblock in my nail pouch notwithstanding, it was a pretty hot morning.

Finally finished, I looked for the forklift guy who said, "I'll be right over here when you're done." He and the forklift were nowhere to be found. I had no way to communicate to my house that we were ready, and stood there, guarding siding, hoping that they would get curious enough about my whereabouts to send someone, who could then bring the crew to each grab a couple of pieces so I wouldn't have to wait for a forklift which was serving 50 crews on 100 houses. No one. Couldn't even get wifi to play Words with Friends. Just stood there in the sun...

About 10 minutes later, after three heated discussions with folks who, right in front of me, moved the sign away and started measuring my siding pieces to take, I heard the sound of the forklift. In a very well-executed piece of comedy, it came from around the corner, right in front of me, and kept on going. Even better, my friend Karen was Inexplicably driving, and misunderstood my wave to be a friendly greeting. What could I do? I ran alongside until I could get a picture of her, because that's what I would want her to do if the roles were reversed. Then I went back to my siding pile to wait some more.

When I saw Karen walking back, I at least found out from her what the fate of the forklift was, and how I could get it for myself. Bob had it. Bob and Joy ran Supplies, and were therefore very important. I thought it would help that Joy would remember me from the India build, but she didn't and it wouldn't. Bob, however, said he'd get those windows off the forklift for me right away and come get my siding pallet. And he did.

I felt like there should have at least been applause when I returned to our site with the pallet of custom-cut siding and an incredible thirst. There was nothing. Although our Block Leader Laura did at least compliment me on cheating and getting the siding driven over, I had to explain that I couldn't bring anything over by hand because it would mean leaving the rest unguarded, meaning the whole process would have to start again. Then I just became Ground Crew for the rest of the day, completely unspecial, but I'll always have the memory of Siding Girl.

EARN THE ROOF

At lunch I caught up with Karen again - she had asked me to bring a couple of my "Haiti is Habitat-Forming" T-shirts, and she would Ask Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood to sign them for me. When gave her the shirts, she asked if I wanted them both signed to me. I said I wanted them just signed, so I could sell them to raise more money for our fundraiser. She said she didn't think they would do that (autographed items that aren't personalised end up on eBay instead of with the alleged collectors), so I told her to have them autograph one for me, and they could keep the other, because two for me seemed excessive.

After lunch, talking to our Roof Crew before they went out again, we noticed that two guys were up on the roof they had been working on, taking pictures. I found out this is very offensive to them, as these guys hadn't done anything to help them. Good lesson: You have to earn the roof.

SCOTT, THE BUCKET MAN

Scott and Cindy had worked as our siding crew, and Vic wanted it to go twice as fast, so he split them up, assigning Nicky to her aunt, and me to Scott. They had had some division of labour where one of them pre-drilled the siding and the other screwed it into the house. We did it differently, since we didn't have four drills. Scott did all of the predrilling and screwing, and I, um, held the ladder. Ground crew. Which is important, because a shortage of ladders meant that our ladder was really a piece of scaffolding leaning against the house, and you need someone on the ground to hand you a drill and screws and a tape measure, and foot the scaffolding so you don't face-plant. We were told to bring a 16' measure with us, and we're each given an 8M measure in our tool kits. So those that followed instructions had both American and metric tape measures. The only tape measure that we had on site that had both - which turned out to be necessary because there were measurements In the plans in both units - was the Buffalo Sabres novelty tape measure that I brought to sneak into photos that I never took. The Bruins fan really loved that.

I really admired Scott for coming to this build, because he can't tolerate the heat, even more than me, I think. He spent the whole week having issues with the heat, but was still one of our most productive, skilled, and experienced workers. He has been leading Global Village builds for six years, and he says one of the first things he checks before he agrees to go to a site is the weather. The fact that the Carter Work Projects take place in tropical climates meant this one was probably going to be his last. Now that I know about his weather requirements, I just might take some classes at Home Depot and join one of his GV builds.

Scott is known as The Bucket Man because he always brings his tool bucket from build to build, each time decorated with more photos and logos, from the builds he has done since the last time we saw him. I was very proud to be on the bucket this time, as it included the group photo from House 11 in Los Angeles in 2007. This time he used the bucket to bring wine with him, since there was no promise that the Irish Haven group wold be allowed to sell us alcohol at their bar. It turns out that the Canadian pre-build group, my cot-neighbour Deb in particular, lobbied hard to get us served. While Scott had good wine, and I had Bacardi Gold, the Irish had also won the day and ordered 10,000 cans of Prestige, the local Haitian beer, for us. (Prestige won a gold medal in a World Beer Cup, and was known among us as, "The only beer we'll drink! because it's the only beer that's here!"

WORKING LATE

Work hard though we did on Thursday, we were offered an opportunity to stay late on the build site to help us get further ahead. HFH needed us to finish everything that required scaffolding, because it was rented and they wanted to return it. Also, scaffolding looks pretty crappy in the group photos with the President and Mrs. Carter, so we start taking it down at noon on Dedication Day no matter what. Scott and I worked hard (read: Scott worked and I held the ladder and handed him things) to get the siding finished, and we had the last piece up and were screwing it into place when they called us to board the buses. We even had some help from another house's siding crew, which included Allison from the bus. Despite one of our crew member's disappointment that we opted in, it turned out that almost every crew had opted to stay for the extra hour (and those that didn't work late had to wait for us on buses anyway, because of the convoy). Our extra time was really only a half-hour because the buses had to be at camp before it was dark, because dark = danger. Very medieval, but very true.

PROTESTS

I sat next to a woman on the bus who had been down here for one of the Global Village pre-builds in September. She had lost her job but still wanted to come on the CWP, but didn't get accepted. So she opted for the pre-build, which had a lower fundraising requirement. Three days before she left on that build, she was told a spot was available on the CWP, and her $500 was needed by that Friday. She called her Dad, for help and advice, and he told her to commit to go, that it was a once-in-lifetime experience, so here she was. She told me about the protests that had arisen around the project, which I had heard about but not in detail. Apparently one tradesman working on the pre-build had told his friends to come down with him, that he could get them jobs. Of course, there were no more jobs and the friends were turned away. When the Global Village volunteers arrived, the man saved face by telling his friends that those were the people who took their jobs, and protests began. She said one day they were on the build and the protesters dug ditches across the road so that they couldn't leave. They stood at the fence next to their build and they had to stop building because security was concerned that the protesters were going to start throwing rocks at them. She said they backed away, but as soon as they heard the security guard cock his rifle, they ran. No gunfire, but it really defined for her the gravity of the situation in Haiti, a nation of desperation.

BACK AT CHRISTIANVILLE...

The evening entertainment was President Carter doing a Q&A for the crowd. He talked a great deal deal about the Carter Center, so I didn't have to tax my brain too much to follow along, and even got to tell my new friends Tegan's Guinea Worm story, which I'll tell you one day if you're interested.

I had my rum and Pepsi, and anyone near me had rum and whatever they wanted to put it with (rum and beer is a new one on me), because I couldn't find Ian with my Coca-Cola stash. Reason is that, when I found Ian, he didn't have it. Apparently he didn't realise how serious I was about it. Pepsi, dammit. I hung out at the bar with Ian and Matt from my crew, and with Jeff Carter for a little while, who discovered that the Irish are very accommodating when it comes to purchasing wine to go. And I was very accommodating because I still had in my knapsack the Duty Free bag with the plastic bottle separators that the rum came with, so he was able to take them back to the house in style. This is why I overpack.

There was a marketplace set up around the bar, but things were a lot more expensive than I'd expected. Necklaces were $25-40, tote and hand bags were about the same. The only thing that was inexpensive enough for me to risk putting in my luggage were the paintings. I found the larger paintings of the earthquake destruction too disturbing, and suddenly remembered that I'd purchased a painting in Guatemala in 2008 that I'd never put up. So I had bought a couple of small paintings on Masonite that I could hang myself, and a little metal gecko painted the colors of Tegan's room at the cottage. Today I bought a couple of Haitian T-Shirts, as they had underestimated the Haitian people and told us there wouldn't be anything for us to purchase after today (who knew about Saturday's 6 am market at the entrance to the airport?). The T-shirts are silk-screened, with a Haitian flag and the words "L'union fait la force" on the front, and a reference to a Bible verse and a request to pray for Haiti on the back. I was finally able to look up the Bible verse, and this is what 2 Kwonik 7 v 14 says:

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

It seems an odd choice, but it appears to be about the corrupt government of Haiti. Apparently when President Carter met with the President of Haiti this week, he did not mince words, and told Sweet Micky that he had a chance to make history and be the President who ended the corruption, or he could be just another corrupt president doing nothing for his people. I believe that was followed by silence.

We did not get to see a lot of Haiti, but you can tell that it's beautiful, and you can tell from the paintings that Haitians think it's beautiful too. The sky was fabulous every night, something you couldn't capture in photographs. Sunsets through billowing clouds at one end of the camp, and the full moon rising with the dark at the other end of camp. It was a great setting for the temporary recovery of an aching group of people.

Day Three

The Coffee Line

Bathroom maze: Women up the middle, Men's toilets to the
left, Men's showers to the right, unexpected nudity everywhere

Ugh. Who'd a thunk I'd get insomnia after working all day in the hot sun? Woke up at 2.30 this morning because someone else in the tent got up, and never got back to sleep. After some attempts and a little time playing on the iPad trying to tire myself out, I gave up. Grabbed my chargers and headed to the meal tent, went online and worked on and posted the Day One blog. Around 5 am, coffee was ready, and I sat outside with another member of my crew, Matt from Boston, who also couldn't sleep. I promised him there was a nap in my future after lunch. Before we knew it we were in line for breakfast, and the day was off and running.

ROGUE BUS

You'd think with my ultra-early start that I'd be the first to the build site. Buuuuuut... I'm trying to be less travel-anxiety-girl and more friendly and patient. So I tooled around all morning with my new friends Lisa and Traci and Jan. We covered a lot of ground, but we didn't quite make the first bus. We didn't quite make the seventh bus. We were on the last bus, which for some reason got separated from all of the other buses (they're quite serious about all of the buses traveling together in a convoy, with police stationed on each bus and at points along the way). We ended up getting stuck in school traffic, as livery services (read: motorcycles fitted to carry 3-4 children in addition to the drivers for 60¢ a ride) dropped children off at the school within the walls of Christianville. Then we seemed to let every truck, pedestrian, chicken and goat cross in front of us, not arriving to the build site until about 20 minutes after everyone else. It's a 20-minute drive.

I was the last one of my crew to our site. I was encouraged when I got there, because they all wanted to do our exercises before we started work, and these are people who like to work. My trainer, Maddie, had worked on some work-out-the-cot exercises with me, not really knowing how we would use them at the build site. I came up with weird names to help me remember them - Grover the Waiter, Up Up and Away, Tear Down That Wall. They're designed to open up our joints and, well, work out the tightness from sleeping on a cot. I think they work, and everyone seems to at least feel better doing them. Score one for the Madster.

GROUND CREW

Well, with no sleep and intense heat, I was grateful for my job on the ground. Of course, I was still part of the roofing crew as we went to finish up the roof, and had to look up all the time to see if they needed anything. Which, pardon my Creole, just makes me dizzy as fuck. Wow. I didn't want to bail on my team, so I tried to justify staying to shut up my inner Safety Monitor. Even though I get dizzy, I never fall down. When I hand things up to them, there is always something I can hang onto. Nothing we can't drop, so won't pull anyone down if I teeter while handing something up. When I'm carrying things like roof panels, I have plenty of time to get them and can carry them slowly, again being in a position to drop them if something goes wrong, but able to move slowly so nothing will. Probably looked ridiculous, but at least I had an exit plan. As long as I wasn't putting anyone in any danger, I saw no reason to back out.

LUNCH SURPRISE

Glad I stayed, because the Carters aren't here. Jimmy and Rosalynn and other HFHI VIPs were in the Dominican Republic for a big HFHI meeting, leaving us un-Secret-Service-chaperoned. Although, there was suddenly a lot of helicopter activity over camp, with the Secret Service elsewhere. Many of my old and new friends working for Habitat got to build on houses, including my Canadian friend Karen. So I got to eat lunch with Karen, which also meant eating lunch with her friends, Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

Obligatory Sabres photo, taken on the way to lunch.

Now, when I can't sleep, I write things to occupy my mind. Right now it's really 4.30 Thursday morning, so I'm writing my blog from my notes and simultaneously writing a song about our host group, Haven, in my head. This is exactly how I came to write a song about Habitat to the tune of Brooks' "Rodeo" (which I can't get out of my head) a few days ago. Tuesday afternoon, I thought I'd try the theory that you can get a song out of your head if you get it stuck in someone else's, and emailed the song to Karen. At hockey games, I used to play Mental Song Repeat with the locker room guards. Before every game, we'd each sing a part of a song that we thought would stick in the others' heads. I always lost on "Friends in Low Places," actually. Party on, Garth.

Because her charges were serving us dinner on Tuesday, Karen got to eat dinner with us, and we ended up singing the chorus of the "Habitat" song for our friends ("and they call the thing Hab-i-tat..."). There's a video somewhere. Didn't work - still stuck in my head. I was a little surprised on Wednesday when I was talking to a Habitat staffer who said she'd read the song. I was even more surprised when I caught up with Karen for lunch, and she turned around to Garth Brooks and introduced me as the person who'd written the T-shirts Karen and I were both wearing, and rewrote "Rodeo." You know what he told me? I'd missed my calling. When you've had as many careers as I have, you find it hard to believe you missed one... He then asked me what I do, and I said I was a writer. Which was the calling he thought I'd missed, so it was all clearer then.

And that's how I came to have lunch with Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. A bad day to have no social skills, but they were just on break like the rest of us, so there was really no need to be entertaining. They're lovely people.

THE COOLING BUS AND THE NAP HAT

Last pieces, ready to go.

Well, I stuck with the roof until about 2.00. The head-rushes were pretty bad, every time I stood up, or looked up, or turned around. I was trying to tell myself they were kind of fun, but I was starting to think it was time to walk away, in case this was the day I was finally going to faint. I told Nicky, the youngest member of our whole crew and the closest to me on the roof crew, that when we got the last roof panel up, I'd call it quits. I waited until the last roof panel was up to tell Vic, our house leader, in case he had some obligation to take me out right away. I mean, Nicky and Rico and Matt were up in very precarious positions working with hot surfaces for long periods, the least I could do is get them cold water. And come up with great nicknames like Matt on a Hot Tin Roof.

Houses finished by earlier crews: what we're aiming for.

Just as I was getting a little anxious, I handed up the last roof panel. That's when Dr. Bucky, a friend from the Velvett Country resort in India and subsequent builds, came by. He said he was surprised they hadn't seen me. I told him they would in a few minutes, and he just told me where the cooling bus was so I wouldn't have to go to the medical house first. That was the opening of the floodgates. As soon as I knew I was done, I felt horrible. Weak and dizzy and slightly nauseous - there was no turning back once he adrenaline wasn't holding me up any more. I took my great CWP-issue sun hat with the neck protector, turned it around to make it a nap hat, and slept for an hour on the cooling bus before heading home. Just like I'd promised Matt at 5am I would. Because God loves me, He timed it out so that Jan got on the bus and sat with me before anyone else did. Because God loves her, I'd taken an extra juice box before the med team left the bus, which she needed badly.

RUM AND COKE

The night's entertainment was rum. Well, more like Coke. One of my new Habitat friends, Ian McCallister, was seen Tuesday with a bottle of Coca-Cola. While our beautiful bar under the stars is awesome, they serve Pepsi. Apparently it's an Irish thing. When I saw Ian with the Coke, I think I kind of whimpered. After we got back to camp and showered Wednesday, I saw him, and he promised to get me 2 bottles of Coke. In what I described to him as a Family Circus strip (before I found out that Bill Keane had just died - eerie...), he and I circled camp looking for each other, going to all the same places but missing each other. He finally gave the Coke away. I explained to him that I'd bought a bottle of Bacardi Gold at Duty Free and had to drink it before we left. "I'll go get you another one," he said, in immediate understanding.

It wasn't just Coca-Cola, it was Coca-Cola made with real sugar. It was like drinking my childhood. But with really awesome rum in it. Hey, they told me to drink a lot of fluids... I lasted until all of 8.30 before my inner Safety Monitor told me to go to bed, but I got to hang out with Ian, hear some very funny stories about his Dad, and make some rum drinkers very happy. We have another date for Thursday night.

Day Two

The thing about Day Two is that the novelty wears off today. But the Hurricane Clips still have to be installed. Ugh.

WHINER POOL

I finally lost the Whiner Pool, because I complained about the M-F'ing clips. To be fair, I was learning how to hammer correctly, but using short nails being hammered into a metal bracket whose holes were too small for the nails. And this was all taking place over my head, as I stood on a ladder. Two things I shouldn't do with low blood pressure. I was so bad at it, I never did figure out if I hammer right- or left-handed. Ambidextrously bad.

* * The winners of the Whiner Pool are Peter Loomis, who had "I can't get this to work," and Steve Morrell, who had Tuesday morning on the build. Congratulations on sharing my pain. * *

The Roof Crew: Nicky, Rico, and Matt

After I'd already suffered through the first six nails, a drill entered the picture, and the last two took just moments. I left while I was on top and returned to my regularly-scheduled program of being a gopher and lifting heavy things. It makes me popular. Or, at least, that's the impression I get because they're always calling my name.

The crew continues to excel, although the Hurricane Clips bent us all out of shape, even the master hammerers. We didn't finish the overly-optimistic punch list we had for the day, but I believe we universally agreed that it would be easier just to come and rebuild after a hurricane than it was to make the house safe in hurricanes.

I'M CANADIAN!

I am excited to have become Canadian this morning. I'm in one of Team Canada's tents, but haven't really been acknowledged as Canadian. This morning, in the semi-darkness as we all got ready, I reminded group leader Kathy that we had met in India, and that I was, once again, the stray Canadian who wanted to play with them. She actually remembered that. That doesn't mean she doesn't think it's just as pathetic this time around.

AND I WHINE!

Now that the Whiner Pool has been settled, I can tell you: my knees are killing me, my feet are swollen, I'm pretty light-headed, and it's too F-ing hot. Phew - I've been holding that in.

There's not really a lot to complain about. Even though my regulars aren't here, I've been adopted by the Women's Build crew, so I have fun people to play with. I manage to keep my phone charged and I manage to take lots of pictures. And they sell beer after all so I may not have to break into the rum right away (they sell Pepsi at the bar, and if that's my biggest complaint...).

GARTH BROOKS AND TRISHA YEARWOOD

HFHI CEO Jonathan Reckford in front
Garth Brooks in the black hat at the side dishes

When we got back to camp, we had a surprise. I had talked to Chip and Jeff Carter at lunch, and they told me that Garth Brooks would actually perform for us on Wednesday. Two of my friends had lunch with Garth Brooks himself, who had more accurate information. When we got to dinner, we were served our meals by Habitat VIPs, and by Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. They can apparently get us to eat our beans.

After they worked all day, then worked some more to serve us our food, they performed for us. They said they wanted to thank us for just treating them like regular people. If that's true, I'm still waiting for my standing ovation.

This is for the music-lovers... Brooks talked about his influences - he sang a bit of "Carolina On My Mind" before playing "The River," which he says basically rips off a bunch of James Taylor riffs. He explained that an oil boom in Oklahoma in the 1970s brought outsiders to his state, who brought with them music styles he had never heard before. After starting in on "Night Moves," he treated us to "That Summer"' showing the similarity in styles. Then he played one of his own favourites (and one of mine), written about the LA riots in 1991 (Brooks and Yearwood were both in town for an awards show when they started) - "We Shall Be Free."

We weren't allowed to take pictures or video once they
came out, but this is the stage they performed on,
guitars waiting for them.

Trisha Yearwood joined him on stage, as he explained that in their house, whoever has the most Grammys wears the pants. He pulled at the leg of his jeans: "Trisha leant me these for the build." She began with "She's in Love With the Boy." Brooks said the great part about being married to her is that there is always music handy, except that she won't sing in the house unless you start a fog machine and say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Trisha Yearwood..." She laughed - she apparently has a very quick sense of humour herself. And yes, he really refers to her as Miss Yearwood.

Brooks said the downside to being married to her is that she sometimes cuts songs that he wishes he had cut, which was his introduction to "Walk Away Joe." He started playing, she looked confused. TY: "I don't think that's my key, honey." GB: "I'm not mistaking you for somebody else, I promise." TY: (skeptical look) "What house are you working on tomorrow?" Apparently this kind of back-and-forth goes on with them all day on the build.

As Trisha left the stage, she received a standing ovation. As the applause finally died down, Brooks said, "Yeah, I'm sleeping with her... At home they call me Mr. Yearwood, and I'm OK with that." Brooks then dedicated the last song to his crew, "Friends in Low Places," and seemed absolutely tickled when the audience took over the chorus for him, every note and nuance.

I think what we'll remember most is what they said about why they're here. Yearwood says she loves getting in and helping, even if she doesn't have the skills. "Some of the nails are crooked, but they are on all the houses, so it's OK." Brooks said they really come here for themselves, to enjoy the gift of being able to love, without knowing who it is who is the beneficiary. Aren't they awesome?

Extra-long blog, but the bus is taking forever to get us to the site for Day Three!

Day One

I was so exhausted after Day One, I thought I'd blog before bed, but what I did was go to bed before bed instead. 8.30 pm. Don't judge me. I had a headache.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

Getting to the work site is always exciting, seeing for the first time what has been done and what remains. I've been training for the heavy lifting on this build using weights which mimic the weight of cinder blocks, so I was kind of amused to see that all the cinder block work is complete. What remained was the erection of pre-constructed walls and trusses, putting up roofs and siding, and painting. If I can lift cinder blocks, I can lift a paintbrush. Is my guess.

The second exciting thing at the work site is meeting your crew for the first time. I already knew my friend Scott Lyle was on my crew, and I'd met Irv, the 85-year-old man who lets President Carter call him Irwin "because he's my elder." When we arrived, we discovered that half of the crew was Irv-related - daughter Cindy, new son-in-law Rico (this trip was their wedding present), a granddaughter, Nicky, and friend Diana. Scott, myself, and a Bruins fan named Matt balanced out the crew, and our House Leader was the famous Vic Fasolino. Vic is famous for other Habitat accomplishments, but I know him as the guy who met his wife on a Habitat Global Village trip and married her on the roof of a build in Detroit. Laura, his bride, is our block leader. It's very cute, actually.

It wouldn't be so cute, except that our crew is the furthest ahead of the whole build site. I told Scott I'd never been on a crew so far ahead, and that I was starting to think it was me. He just looked at me, confirming that it probably still is me. I have to say, of every build I've done, this is the one on which I'm probably the least useless.

GROUND CREW

Matt and Nicky (drinking her water!)

Because we started on ladders and scaffolding, and I climb neither because of low blood pressure, I have established myself as Ground Crew. I spot problems and hand things up and run and get Vic when needed. "What happened to Safety Monitor?" Well, Laura acts as Safety Monitor for the site, and our crew (being mostly related to each other) does a great job of looking after each other - suggesting breaks and water and electrolytes to each other with no input from me. It's pretty cool, and very productive. We lost Diana to Bus #7 (which was left running with the A/C on to act as this build's 'cooling tent') for a good portion of the day, due to her low blood pressure. It was a great way to gauge how much my training had paid off for this build - I only had a couple of head-rushes, but no real dizziness, despite mid-90 temperatures and high humidity. Our goal as a crew was to get the trusses up on both houses. My goal was to stay out of the Med Tent (which is actually one of the completed prototype houses).

Scott, Nicky, and House Leader Vic

Scott, Matt and Nicky were the heroes of the day, with the rest of us acting as support staff. One incident sticks in my head, though - I was asked to mark the trusses for the placement of the purlins with Diana. Using my Buffalo Sabres tape measure, of course. So we started marking trusses that were on the ground behind one of our houses, and the House Leader from the house behind us came over and started bossing us. Why were we doing it that way? Why didn't we just measure from the top and then mark every 70 centimetres? I finally turned to her and said, "We're just going to do it our way, OK?", since the measurements we had been given were very specific and were actually 69.9 centimetres apart. Then it turned out that we were supposed to be marking the trusses behind our other house, because we were sharing supplies back-to-back with another crew, and not one pile to each crew. She came up to Vic all snarky and said, "What, are you just sending crews around to randomly mark other crews' trusses?" Yes, ma'am, that's exactly what we're doing. What a bitch. She looked right at me and said she was going to mark them. "I figured you would, since you didn't like the way we were doing it." I can be snarky, too, but at least I smiled. Which is good, because I found out later that she's actually in my tent.

M. Albérique, House 220

KRÉYOL AND FRENCH... AND SPANISH

The language thing came up. Diana, who used to be on some international Habitat board, speaks fluent French and Spanish. When our first homeowner showed up, she reeled off a greeting in French to him. Yeah, he doesn't speak French, only Creole (and Spanish, we found out later). She scoffed at this, but it was the equivalent of us listening to our Irish hosts at full speed and trying to figure out the American equivalent. So I was able to communicate with him in my limited Creole, and the rest was miming with the crew. Our other homeowner spoke limited English and French, so she made Diana happy. I got to speak both, so I was feeling all multilingual.

MY DONORS, IMMORTALISED

One project I accomplished on my own yesterday was a fundraiser project. Everyone who donated $100 or more was to have their name written on a block and a photo taken of it in the house. Because the block work was already completed, I was going to write names on top of the finished concrete which would then be covered by installation of the walls. Vic though it would be neat to write them on the walls where it could be seen by the homeowner. I was able to communicate the project to our Creole homeowner, and he did not think it would be so neat to have Sharpied walls in his new home. Glad we could ask. He did help me with the project, clearing up the concrete a bit for me to write on, and he read all the names with me. Thanks again to my fabulous donors!

Almost to the build site for Day Two, so I'm signing off. Went to bed early last night with a headache, and so grateful that was enough to take care of it and I'm ready for the day!

Arrival in Haiti

We're here. Yes.

I couldn't stay asleep last night - woke up at 2.30, which was fortunately post-time change so I at least got my extra hour of sleep before I woke up. Wake-up call was set for 4 anyway (that's when they started serving breakfast, and I love CWP breakfast time), so I got up and played on the iPad. Turns out I wasn't the only one, breakfast started early and went long.

I met a couple on the elevator yesterday who I had breakfast with - she's from Niagara Falls. He - it turned out - was long-time fishing buddies with the cousin of the man who sat down next, Irving. "President Carter calls me Irwin, though." Since President Carter is his elder by two years, Irv puts up with it. Turns out Irv is on my house, so I have someone who will do the work-out-the-cot exercises with me. Had so much fun at breakfast I was almost late for my bus.

Have you ever seen the pilot clean
the windshield before?

Travel to Haiti was uneventful, although it was hard to be patient. Jeff Carter was on my shuttle bus, so we sat together on the way over and made devious plans for if the rumor that no alcohol was being served at the bar turned out to be true. I also became the first person to lose my name badge - arm bands just don't work for me, I explained to he person who found it in the sidewalk outside the bus. Waiting for the bus, waiting for the bus to leave, waiting for the bus to get to the airport, waiting to check in, all so that we could wait three hours for the plane to leave. Do I sound like I'm complaining? If you know about my travel anxiety, you'll know that arriving three hours before a flight is a fantasy of mine. Also gives you plenty of time to shop at the Duty Free. The Carter flight left first, in a specially-decorated Habitat plane. We left on a regular Delta flight, but charter flights feature fabulous hot measl, from first class to the back of the plane, so who's complaining?

Speaking of the last row, I was in the window seat in the last row. Me, who kind of needs to be the first person off of a plane, was destined to be the last. I pondered this, and tacked on the phrase, "just the way I like it" — it works. Come time to get off the plane, it gave us time to use the plane's facilities before our 2-hour bus ride. As we patiently waited. Chatting with the other passengers, we watched groups of 50 before us cram onto coaches for the drive. But when it came to our turn, they were a bus short. Wait some more. For an air conditioned coach that only 15 of us had to share. We were in heaven at our good fortune. We put our carry-ons in their own seats to give us more room. I was sure I wouldn't get a window seat to take pictures - I ended up with a window seat on each side of the bus if I wanted it. Last seat on the plane pays off.

Haiti wasn't as shocking as I'd expected, mostly because I'd been to developing nations before and have seen the slums of Mumbai. The earthquake destruction was visible from the air as we landed - neighbourhoods we're dotted with naked foundations. Colourful encampments could also be seen, as well as obvious developments by builders who came before. I the drive, it reminded me of India and Guatemala. Brightly-painted signs belied the depressing wares they hawked. Geto Bank. Philip Barber. Any number of religious sayings on buses crammed unsafely with passengers. Christ Capable. Thank You Mother. I Love You Lucky. Different religion, that.

When passing the encampments, each tent was identified somehow with the group that brought it. US AID, Shelter Box by Rotary, etc. I thought Shelter Box were he nicest of the tents. OxFam had an enormous camp. Red Cross has begun transitional housing. Livestock co-existed - pigs foraging in the drainage ditch, rooster watching over from the roof. Everywhere we went, children on the sidewalk blew kisses and waved. Men waved, too, but a few of them gave us the finger.

Market

Streets were mainly cleared and passable, but here was rubble and debris on the side of he outside lanes. I began to wonder if it were garbage day. Many places I saw people pushing cars, not looking as though they were trying to start it. That's really the only explanation, though, when you see someone pushing someone else on a motorcycle.

Because so much time had elapsed that there was substantial plant growth, I was having a hard time distinguishing between earthquake damage and decay, and at points realized what I thought was falling down was actually something new going up.

Meal Tent

Arrival at camp, the very last ones, was delayed by President Carter's motorcade and apparently also by Tricia Yearwood and Garth Brooks' arrival. Grabbed my suitcases and headed to tent 75, where not only was I the last to arrive and had very little room left to me, but where there were only three cots for four people. Just the way I like it. I tried to request a cot, but you had to go to the meal tent, through the front entrance, and all the way to the ba... This is air conditioned? I'm just going to sit here for a spell... My new-found friends from registration came in - Lisa Nickerson and Jan Eliot - with their friend, Traci, who did not have work boots and was hoping to avail herself of one of my extra pairs, donated by Sue Campbell. They were staying in the Canadian tent, an enormous structure with 14 people in it. Or was it 13? It was, because now its 14, because rather than torture the three women in my tent, I moved into theirs. I mean, it's already Canadian...

Beautiful things started to happen. On the way to dinner, we encountered Scott Lyle carrying a bottle of wine and a stack of cups. The dinner line that had been halfway around the block was only about 25 people long when we finished our wine. Rice pudding appeared out of nowhere for dessert just when I'd decided I'd not had enough carbs. And after chatting with Chip and Jeff Carter for a while about the lay of the land, I stepped aside for the Carters' encourage, only to have Jeff grab my hand and say, "Watch how easy this is." He just brought me along with the family, seating me with them in the front row for the evening's speeches and preaches and dancing. I don't know where the Coke bottle full of wine came from, but it was delicious. Just what I needed to nudge me off to a sweaty sleep to recover for tomorrow. I just have to learn that you can let a mosquito net touch you - it's not like the side of a tent in the rain. Then I can relax.

Jeff, Rosalynn, Jimmy, Chip

(and yes, I couldn't sleep, so I wrote this at 2am, to be proofread at a later and less-sleepy time)

Emmy's Quote

I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting for the flight. Eating Susannah's spicy pretzels, needing a Diet Coke, wishing you could open Duty Free at the airport. In our last chance for 3G, we're all charging our phones and checking our email. The nervous energy is palpable. I got a comment on my status about insomnia that, on a friend's wall, the following quote appeared below my status.

"Come to the edge, he said.
They said, We are afraid.
Come to the edge, he said.
They came.
He pushed them...
and they flew."

- Guillaume Apollinaire

Thanks, Emmy. It choked me up but it also made me sit taller.

Opening Cermonies

One last trip to the Hrib Crib to return Sue's car, one last chance to drop off what I didn't want to take to Haiti, and grab things I'd realized I did want to take. Also my last chance to grab a bottle of rum, since we found out its going to be a dry build... circumstances worked against me, and I'm going to have to rely upon the kindness of my friend Scott, who is bringing three bottles of wine. He is also the Whiner Tattler, as he will be working with me, and you don't want to whine to the guy with the wine.

I got back to the hotel just in time for the Opening Ceremonies. One theme was clear - this is going to be hard.

The MC, Patrick, talked about how it was going to be a lot of really hard work. In the sweltering heat and humidity. He repeated it slowly: sweltering heat and humidity. Perhaps I should have trained by sitting in saunas over the last couple of months. He pointed out that our recovery was going to take place when we slept on cots. In tents. "How many people questioned your wisdom in volunteering for this build?"

But we know this week isn't about comfort, and it isn't about the easy way out. Patrick reminded us that, "this week is for all the Haitian people, so battered by history and the storms of life. Because humanity always wins."

When greeted with a standing ovation, President Carter told us, "Save your strength!" For the first time, he talked about his age being a factor in the build. He's 87. I'm good with him slowing down a little. A little. Rosalynn even said it was okay that they were staying in a house because (cupping her hands around her mouth like she was telling a secret), "We're old!" She still choked up when she told us that the conditions we would experience this week would remind us that we have everything.

We are being charged with more than just finishing a house. We are being deputized as advocates. Pat Blake (if I got that right) talked about how we would all be story-tellers by the end of the week, that we couldn't build every house, but we could advocate for Haiti and inspire more people to come down to help. "When you come back, you'll take the pictures in your minds and the stories that you hear and the tears that you have shed, and you'll tell stories of Haiti that will impact it for a long time."

Mark Andrews told us he has been working on this project for a year, but it feels like a century. This project is the end stage in Habitat's "Pathways to Permanence" in Haiti. They began with emergency shelter kits, then transitional houses, then upgradable houses, and now permanent homes. No repayment is required, but community involvement and sweat equity is still required to participate in the Santo project.

He pointed out a problem that was unique to this build: they were building homes for a community, but it was a community of strangers. People at that refugee camp were there because it was safe, but were completely disconnected from each other. Habitat had to build a social community, identify leaders, resolve conflicts, and get strangers working together just to get the project moving. Ultimately, this hodge-podge community came together and took part in designing the houses and community, and in determining the selection criteria.

We'll leave the Port-au-Prince airport and drive through the worst slums, including one of the most notorious slums in the world. We will pass a marketplace where raw sewage runs under the vegetable stands. Mark told us to expect to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the destruction and the magnitude of what remains to be done, to be frustrated by how little we can do, to be angry that not much of the hundreds of millions of dollars pledged to Haiti has arrived. He also told us to expect to be energised by the Haitian people, the most resilient he has ever met, who function in a world in which we could not, and do it with a smile. He said expect to be transformed (which choked me up a little), so that when we leave Haiti, we can't wait to get back and talk about it to anyone who will listen.

Our MC returned and said that he had asked Mark what the hardest thing was about working in Haiti. The answer was simple: "Working in Haiti."

Jonathan Reckford, head of HFHI, spoke last. He said that, over the course of the week, we may find something that is not exactly to our liking. And we may choose to express that this thing is not exactly to our liking. He challenged us to tack onto the end of our statement the phrase, "and that's just the way I like it." "My, that's an unusually large and intimidating bug on my bed... and that's just the way I like it." It might take the punch out of the Whiner Pool, but it just might get us through the week. That, and we found out tonight that the meal tent will be air conditioned, which is also just the way we like it.

(thanks to Habitat for the photo)

Registration

Well, this has been very informative. Registration started this morning at 10, and I was able to volunteer for the opening shift. Referring again to my Facebook-Diagnosed Autism, it's no surprise that I excel at repetitive, systematic activity. Compiling documents for the information packet? I'm a champ. Handing out information packets and repeating the same spiel verbatim each time? If only they had medals for such things.

One of the people I was working with was Fiona, a New Zealander whose husband is the build's Project Manager. She knows from Haiti. Remember how it was going to be a soothing 80-degrees this week? Apparently Haiti is experiencing unusually hot weather for this time of year. Today the low is 77. Highs in the 90s all week, with those crazy flash humidity thunderstorms that don't last long enough to cool anything down. Lows in the 70s. I'll say it again: lows in the 70s. That's what we're sleeping in. It's my favourite time of year for great sleeping weather, and I am eschewing the temperate climes in favour of sleeping outdoors in heat and humidity. This Carter person makes me do the strangest things.

Now that I've sprayed all my build clothes - including the three volunteer T-shirts, two staff T-shirts, and two Women's Build T-shirts - with Permethrin, a man I met at breakfast who goes to Haiti a few times a year finally told me he doesn't think the mosquitos are that bad. I suspect he's been sleeping indoors though.

One of the fun parts of today is that Women's Build set up right next to me. Lisa Nickerson, who runs the entire program for Habitat, was there giving out T-shirts. One woman was particularly interested in the shirts - I didn't realize until someone asked her to sign it that she was the artist. Not just any T-shirt artist: she is Jan Elliot, creator of the comic strip Stone Soup. It's one of my favourites. I'd seen her here since yesterday, enough times that we started saying hello to each other in passing. I told her, after she'd autographed my shirt, that I remember that she was in Thailand on the Women's Build house, but I was too shy to ask for her autograph. For this, she mocked me a little.

Time for my pregame nap, for in the end it is still Game Day. Orientation starts at 6.30 - you know that I will be thrilled to finally be oriented.

I'm at the hotel already. I get kind of anxious when I get close to the builds, and it helps to immerse myself in it, get some information, and just get started already.

That's actually how I met two of the nicest people on the planet. When I arrived at the earliest possible moment at my build hotel in India, I just wanted information. What does the site look like? What will we be doing? Who am I working with? Anxious to find out what I could from fellow travelers, I was sitting in the hotel check-in area ("lobby" is too grand a word for that room) at 6 in the morning when some Habitat volunteers checked in. And they weren't just any volunteers - they were Sherwood and Marsha Kirk. They've been doing these builds for years and always work on the President's house. Sherwood's brother Dale had even been build director for the prebuild in India. There was a meeting of house leaders at the site that day that they were going to crash - did I want to come along?

God usually works in mysterious ways, but this one was pretty blatant. Good one on ya, God.

We went to the build site - still not sure how we found it - and sat in the back of the meeting. The Kirks knew everyone there: "HE's been to our house, " "SHE's been to our house"... Sherwood even asked me why I had never been to their house: "Because I met you six hours ago, and we're in India?" (I have since been to their house - last time was to bring them a tree six weeks ago.)

I took pictures of a guy who looked exactly like my brother Bruce, so much it was surreal. I also took notes, notes on the different concerns for safety at the build site, of which the primary one was the heat. I found a list and found my House Leader's name. I was informed, and I was already part of the build. I calmed right down and just spent a joyful day laughing with my new friends.

The next day at the Opening Ceremonies, I felt like a pro. I was telling other people about the construction and the hazards, as though I'd been involved all along. I still hadn't found my House Leader, but I was starting to formulate a plan as to how I, who has no building skills and melts when it's 80 degrees out, was going to be useful on a build where the temperature was over 100 every day. I was talking to strangers, which I don't normally do, but mostly taking refuge with the people I'd met at our hotel, Velvett Country. When I started to leave my seat to go take some photos of the ceremony, I excused myself and looked down at the person I was squeezing by. It was the guy who looked exactly like my brother from the day before. Having no social skills at all, I blurted out, "I was taking pictures of you all day yesterday!" at which point he introduced me to his wife sitting next to him. I looked at his name tag: Dave Bullen. It was my House Leader. So, armed with what I'd learned at the House Leader meeting, I told him my plan. I would be his Safety Monitor and make sure he didn't lose any of the real hard workers to injury or heat. And you all know the rest of the story - its in an earlier blog posting. Suffice it to say, it worked and everybody fell for it.

So far, I've found out that the walls will already be halfway built when we get there, greatly increasing the chances that 400 people can finish 100 houses in 5 days. Yes, 400. yes, 100. Yes, 5. The rest of the house above the cinder block walls is prefab, so even I can't screw that up. Plus it's only supposed to get up to 80 degrees, which I find a lot more tolerable now that I've built in 100+ in India and 95+ in Thailand. Now I can relax. In my luxurious king-sized bed watching the Sabres game on NHL Centre Ice. Trying not to think about the next week when I'll be sleeping on a cot, in a tent with 5 other people, under a mosquito net for my own protection. Okay, I might not be totally calm now...

Big Haiti Send-Off!

I’m ready for the food.

Susannah Gray hosted a Big Haiti Send-Off party for me on Sunday, and served all sorts of Haitian Creole foods. Red beans and rice, sweet potato bread, crab cakes (more because I like them), coconut candy, chips with mango salsa, and my favourite — andouille sausage corn dogs with Creole mustard. And you know what goes well with an incredible spicy sausage eaten like a hot dog?

Haitian Cremasse.

Oh, baby.

It’s the new Egg Nog.

Sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, coconut rum, and more coconut rum… it’s de-damned-licious. And it’s the perfect complement to spicy food. Hell, it’s the perfect complement to ice.

Susannah made a donation box out of popsicle sticks for the occasion, and the donations received put us well over the $6000 mark! I decorated with paper houses – one for every donor to the cause. Yodel decorated with all of Murphy’s toys. It was a steady stream of friends of Haiti, the generous people who made my trip possible. I even “sold” a couple 14.5 Reason T-shirts!

Thanks to everyone who came or sent good wishes — the moral support is really important to me as the build gets closer — and very special thanks to the world’s best hostess, for getting me ready for Haitian food (and hopefully, drinks!).