The Rest of the Story

Finally --- some time to reflect!

The trip home was relatively uneventful; we landed in Philly about 10:15 Sunday night, but by the time we claimed most of our baggage it was after 11:00. Ten of our 12 checked bags arrived with us; the other 2 were delayed an additional 13 hours but have been reunited with their owners.

By all accounts the trip was extremely worthwhile and rewarding. I'm not sure that "successful" is an appropriate description of our journey given that there is always more to be done and true progress on so many fronts comes so slowly in Haiti. Nevertheless, despite its diversity this team had a focus, unity of purpose, will to work and camaraderie that I have seldom experienced. We returned very tired and sore, mostly intact, and extremely thankful that we were able to have a significant positive impact on the congregation in Place L'or.

Six different churches were represented by the team members. For the most part we had never met prior to the one pre-trip meeting in September. Ages spanned 6 decades; construction skills and experience ranged from novice to professional; culture and lifestyle ranged from rural Pennsylvania Dutch to urban Haitian immigrant.

Place L'or is a small community just to the east of Leogane. (You may recall that Leogane is the large city near the epicenter of the earthquake; it sustained severe damage to 90% of its buildings and lost about 25,000 of its 150,000 population.) Another team had erected a 40' x 64' pole-barn structure on the site of the Place L'or church. Our project was to extend each side by about 9' and extend the front by about 11'.

Our home away from home for the week was the Wesleyan Campground in Petit Goave. (You may recall that this campground was one of the first medical treatment sites in the days and weeks immediately following the earthquake.) The bunkhouse had 4 rooms filled with 20 or so bunks; since there were 13 of us, space was not an issue. The team consisted of us 9 from the Penn-Jersey District, the project manager from Easly, SC, and 3 Haitian men who were being trained to lead construction projects such as this one. Next door was the kitchen / dining hall where breakfast and dinner were served. Next to that was the bath house with toilets and showers having water supplied from a tank on the roof. The campground borders the bay with a wonderful view of the water and the island of La Gonave. But stop short of jumping in for a swim; the way the nationals use the water is one of the major health concerns and a primary contributor to the diseases that plague the country.

For the most part sufficient water for personal hygiene was not a problem. But one night we returned all dirty, sweaty and stinky to find that the tank had run dry and no one had bothered to turn on the pump to refill it --- showers that night were delayed for a while.

Surprisingly, electricity was supplied by the city from about 6 pm to 6 am. The generator on site was usually run for a couple hours in the early evening before the city power came on --- unless the generator ran out of fuel. Having electricity throughout the night was a blessing since that meant fans would run all night.

Common breakfast items were scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, spaghetti, bananas, peanut butter, juice and coffee (strong enough to walk, and served with hot water for diluting). Dinner always included generous helpings of rice (mostly with beans), sauce, fried plantains, chicken or other meat, salad, soda (Coke, Sprite) and coffee. Lunch was often peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; the ladies of the Place L'or church provided lunch one day and soup another.

The one-way commute from Petit Goave to Place L'or took about 1 hour 45 minutes on roads that are typically Haitian --- stretches of paved road (average travel speed 60), areas of irregularly spaced large pot holes in the dirt (average travel speed 2), frequent "speed bumps", vehicles 3 across on 2-lane road, busses and 18-wheelers barreling along with horns blaring, an irregularly shaped "crater" in the asphalt road surface 12" wide in places and 10' or 20' long, and a ford through a river because the bridge across it had been rendered unusable by the earthquake.

Monday
Dug 26 post holes 3' deep 12" diameter. Removed steel roofing from area used for school room to make room for church extension.

Tuesday
Set all poles. Local hired labor mixed and poured concrete around poles. 2x4 pieces for side trusses all cut; some assembly begun.

Wednesday
Ledger boards and trusses all set on right side. Start purlin boards on right; start ledger boards on left. Start work on trusses and corners for front.

Thursday
Finish purlins on right. Finish ledger boards and set all trusses on left. Fasten ledger boards on front and begin setting left front corner truss. All front trusses cut; most assembled. Temperature has been in mid-90s all week. Today the humidity was noticably higher; everyone is exhausted.

Friday
Put steel roof on right side. Set front trusses including 2 corner trusses. Drill and bolt ledger boards to main posts.

Our time in Place L'or concluded with a short service with the local congregation. Many times throughout the week and again in the service people expressed wonder and ask why would we leave our comfortable homes in North America, take time off from work, leave our families, and even pay our own way to come to a small, dusty community that had been devastated by an earthquake to labor and sweat in 90 degree, 90% RH to enlarge a church for people we had never met (and might never see again here on earth)?

Why indeed? Is it altruism; is it lunacy; is it a frail attempt at beneficence; is it a feeble attempt to ease our conscience?

Or is it our desire to intertwine our lives with a cause greater than all of us driven by the conviction that a community of believers in the midst of natural devastation can know love and hope that transcends the current circumstances and can grasp the Truth that has lasting value beyond this life.

What Next?
Rebuilding teams from across North America have filled the schedule through May 2011, and scheduling is continuing into Fall 2011. Chi United is on the schedule for a team on La Gonave the first week in March 2011. We'll see how it all unfolds and hang on tight for the ride.