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| Children arriving in Christianville for school. |
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
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| Just off the bus, tool bags wait outside |
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.
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| I'm told it's best that I don't know what the grafitti says. |
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...
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.
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.
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