Haiti Day 5- Construction Material Collection

   This morning we again split into two teams.  One team went to build another foundation.  Since I had worked on a foundation day one I elected to place myself  on the crew to collect rubble and river sand (for mixing concrete) in the dump truck.

Milton in the dump truck

Jeff in the dump truck

 Our team got in the dump truck and we went back to the same site the collection crew had gone to the first day.  A building is being repaired and we were collecting the broken cinder blocks that would not be reused as the "new" building went up.  It was very hot and heavy work as the sun continued to be relentless.  The rubble load went to the house the other team is working on.  After the dump truck returned empty we all got in it again and rode to the riverbed to collect the river sand.  We snaked our way through very narrow streets in order to get the dump truck down to the river.  Being that it is the dry season we drove right down into the riverbed and across the river.  On the other side of the river there was a gentleman working on a large sand pile.  It is much easier to get the sand into the truck with the buckets from a pile than just from digging.  We began moving that pile to the truck and he quickly began digging another pile.  We knew we had work to do.  It takes a lot of sand to fill a dump truck!  Once we filled the truck they drove off to take the sand went to yet another unfinished house located at the outskirts of a tent city not far from the compound.

loading the truck

   We all decided it was a good time to take a break so we walked up the river to sit underneath the bridge.  Not only was it about 10 degrees or more cooler in the shade, but the bridge created a natural wind tunnel to cool us off.  As we had been working we began to attract a crowd of kids.  Now that we had stopped working and were hanging out several within our group began to play with the kids.  It was a great break from the hard manual labor we had been doing.  The man who was digging our piles continued to dig piles even as we rested.
   We waited around for about 30-45  minutes as the lunch hour approached.  Finally, it was decided that we would head back for lunch.  The dump truck had not returned so we climbed out of the riverbed with only a couple casualties (Mike's ankle and Joanie's pants). We started walking along the edge of the river toward the ocean and back to the compound.  I must say I have never seen the ocean from this perspective before!

unique ocean view

   As we left the site for lunch we walked along the river and saw where the floods resulting from the earthquake had washed out several houses.  Many of those families are now in rubble houses a few feet back from where the old houses stood.  The Haitian government has built "levies" made of stone encased in chain-link fencing (very similar but on a different scale to the rubble house construction method).  We walked  along some of the river wall structure on our way back to the compound. By the time we got to these rubble houses I looked back and the dump truck was once again entering the river.  I thought to myself that by the time we get back the freshly dug piles would not be there.  As it turned out I was right.  While we were eating lunch they loaded another dump truck of sand and delivered it.  They came back to the compund as we were finishing to pick us up and carry us back to the river for one more load.  About walking: By this point I had made 8 trips to the first house going 8 different way.  Only one of those trips involved me riding in a truck.  The rest were walking about two miles each way.  The joke was that they never wanted us to know where we were or where we were going.

dump truck in the river with "levies"

   Both crews had a short workday today.  Hopefully, the foundation will be completed by the Haitians.  I would have liked to have seen completion on at least one house while we were there.  We were able to work on four different houses in various stages of completion.  Our team worked on foundation, wall construction/filling, stucco, rubble/sand collection and delivery, and a small group of us got to help with the beginnings of a roof, but not all on the same house.

sand dump at 3rd house

   That night those of us that wanted went out after supper to a local "restaurant."  Jeremy had told us that they make the best grilled chicken at this place.  We left the compound as it was starting to get dark (around 8:00).  Any time before that would have been too early and the cooking wouldn't have started yet.  A bunch of us walked up the streets of town to the HFC, Haitian Fried Chicken joint.  It really was great treat!  I'm glad for the experiences of being able to get out and support the local businesses as well.