My Trip to Haiti from Peter Garriott on Vimeo.

Yesterday the women joined us at the construction site and did a great job at working with the kids and doing some basic first aid. Today they stayed back at the compound and continued to sort through the medical supplies and do some valuable cleaning around the facility. They also replaced several of our doorknobs with new ones.

While driving out to purchase some gravel for the slab, which will be worked on next week we saw some houses being built…out of lumber. We took a lot of pictures and should be contacted by the organization doing the work soon.

Speaking the same language

Bonswa…

After our day at the work site Guercy and I went to the school we visited last week to meet with some engineers from Engineering Ministries International. It was fun spending some time with a missions team that understood my background and that could talk the same language.

At the site we continued to work with the local contractor and laborers to get everything ready to pour the footings. It was a really long day because we kept having to explain the method of construction that we are going to use on this house. The Haitians were in constant disagreement with us because they do not believe that our methods will work. It was an uphill battle but I believe after today they are finally agreeing to do it our way.

Here are some of pictures of our progress.

Collaboration

Bonswa…

Today we split our team and the guys (Chris, Jamin, Britt, Guercy, Bookson, and me) went out to the construction site and the women (Lillie, Lauren, Val, Judy and Tamara) stayed back at the compound to sort through the medical supplies and inventory them. The cleaned up one of the rooms at the compound and set up the shelves they could find around the compound to use.

I checked the weather for tomorrow and it is expected to be 97 with a heat index of 110. This is probably what we have had the last two days and why it has felt so hot. As I am typing this email we are watching the lightening in the distance, but as of yet we have only gotten some sprinkles.

While out at the construction site we have gotten to the point where we are hiring two of the local contractors to help with the house. Our two contractors are teaching them what we know about construction in earthquake and hurricane prone areas and they are teach our guys what works down here. It looks like we are coming up with a good middle of the road approach that should help us develop a process going forward for building homes. We are not abandoning the stick frame approach yet, but definitely need to find a more economical way to do it than buy wood supplies here.

After dinner we went out into the alley behind our compound to give the team a first hand taste of normal life in downtown Carrefour. Unfortunately a picture will not give you the sounds and smells, but here are a few of our neighborhood.

As you can see the alley is pretty busy. It is like this all the time.

Tomorrow we should be able to start pouring the footings for the walls.

Thanks...

Bonswa…

Wow, what a day! Today we went out to the site where we are constructing a home for Pastor Pierre Paul. Two of the team members are builders (Britt Dahlin and Jamin Wight) so last night we spent a couple of hours working over the plans and strategy for building stick frame homes here. Today we sent Chris and Jamin with Guercy to the “hardware” store to get the supplies we need for the concrete and to price out the supplies to build the home. As is usual in these kinds of countries we have ended up switching to Plan “B”. The cost for a sheet of plywood (1/2”) down here is $31.50 and 16’ 2”x4”’s cost $13.85 each. Plan “B” will be to construct the home out of concrete block instead of wood.

For those of you that offered your engineering/construction expertise, please feel free to give your advice. We are going to stay with a 12’ x 20’ home. We will start by pouring 6” footings to put the walls on and still do the same type of structure with a door and window in the front on the tall wall and windows on each end. We will still do a shed roof. So far our design is to put rebar coming up out of the footing every four feet and 2-3 feet tall. We will then build the wall by slipping the CMU’s over these rebar and when we get toward the end of them attach an extension by tying them together and continue this until we get to the top of the wall. On the top of the wall we will put anchor bolts out to tie a 2”x6” top plate to. This will be used to anchor the rafters (2”x6”) notched on each wall and then tie the rafters together with 1”x6” stringers to attach the corrugated roofing to.

I know this is quite a rough description, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

Today was very hot and we still have not had any rain. We did get the lot leveled and the framing in as if we were going to pour a slab. Tomorrow we will adapt it to pour the footings.

The women spent a lot of time throughout the day hanging out with the kids and women in the area, which was really cool. Please pray for the health of the team. The weather is pretty hot and the worksite is all in the sun. Tomorrow the women will be working at the Oasis compound doing an inventory of our medical supplies and getting them organized.

Thanks...

Sunday

Bonswa…

Today we had another opportunity to participate in a church service. Today we went to a Baptist church in Port-au-Prince. Guercy has been there several times before and even preached there a few times. He prepared me by letting me know that I might be asked to share something. I was, and had the opportunity to share a short message. As with the other services it was quite an enjoyable experience.

During the church service they had a special ceremony where they recognized all of the helpers in the church with a gift. After the church service we were invited to join in a potluck for these helpers. What we found out was that the pastor’s birthday is May 15^th so the pastor has had the church set aside the third Saturday of each May to recognize all of the helpers in the church. The potluck was wonderful and the team did a great job just becoming a part of the church community.

While we were fellowshipping with the church members two girls came up to Britt and me and shared with us that they were in charge of the children’s church that meets every Sunday. Their last time to meet is June 13^th and they plan on having a celebration for their children. They want to give each of the children a small gift. I had the pastor clarify what they needed as far as funds and it turned out to be $1000, which would be a small gift for each of their 200 students. If you would like to donate to this let me know and I will tell you where the funds can be donated. I will back down here June 5-12 and will be able to bring the funds with me.

Tomorrow we head out to our site and start working on our first home.

Thanks...

Bonswa…

Another quick message. We started the day off trying to get the air conditioner fixed on the car on our way to the airport, but were not successful. So we had the mechanic throw everything back together so that we could scramble to the airport to start picking up our team. Our first team member came in at 7:30 and the last one at 12:50. We lost one team member due to some kind of passport problem and two of them got delayed until tomorrow. Our total team size will be 9 after tomorrow. Traffic today through PaP was the worst that I have seen yet and it basically took about 3 hours to get from the airport back to the compound. Tomorrow we will do church, head out to the construction site so the team can get a look at it and spend the day laying out our plans for the week. We have the approval on the design and the funding to get started. We are still waiting on the generator. Apparently the port won’t release it without some government paperwork, which we are waiting for.

Thanks...

David Short

Samaritan's Purse's work at Leveque

At a local school

Bonswa…

We had a looooong day today. We visited a school in Bolos, which is a suburb (if you could call it that) of Port au Prince. The school has 850 students that are in classes from preschool to high school. Dony St. Germain, the head of El Shaddai Ministries International and his brother Louis went to this school. The basic campus is comprised of five main buildings, two of which have sustained some damage. The director of the school has an engineering background and he has already started buttressing some of the two-story buildings and reinforcing the ceilings of some of the lower floors. We were able to give some suggestions on how to do more quality concrete work.

A great thing that happened yesterday was that I received a call from a structural engineering ministry that happens to be in the area this week and next. They were wondering if we had any buildings for them to assess. Yesterday we didn’t…today we do. Hopefully we will be able to get them to the school next week. What a great example of God setting things up for us.

The director also asked if we could help by building 3 to 4 semi-permanent classrooms. After looking at the existing tent structures that they are using we determined that the house design that we are working on could be modified slightly and turned into a classroom. We will be discussing this with our leadership and see if this would be an appropriate project for future teams to work on.

From here we went out to a new community being built by Samaritan’s Purse…Leveque. We wanted to take a look at the transitional shelters that they are building and assess their technigues. The buildings .look pretty sound, but they are design to last for two to three years. This particular community is slated to have 250 homes built at a rate of 40 per day.

To top the day off our van broke down on the way back to the Oasis compound. And guess what, it broke down right in front of a mechanics shop. The alternator burned out. It took 4 hours to get it fixed, but at least we weren’t out at the Leveque site, which was about 20 miles from the compound.

Thanks,

David Short

Progress...

Bonswa…

Today we focused on getting the septic tank and drainage lines completed. We started by capping off all of the open areas where the lines feed into the tank with concrete and then moved on to filling in all of the holes. The final activity was to form in the hole on the top of the septic tank, which will be used for pumping it out in the future and pouring a concrete collar on it. The final, big task will be to fill in everything and level off the area.

After dinner we drove out to Pastor Pierre Paul’s site to assess how far along it is. The pad for the house has been cleared fairly well. We asked them to make it a little more level. We were also able to assess what the prevalent sun, storm and breeze directions would be for the placement of the house.

Now we are waiting to hear back from the leadership of ESMI and MNA as to whether or not the design of the house is acceptable and how the home is going to be funded. If that information comes in by this weekend we should be able to start construction next week. If you are praying for us please pray that decisions will be made quickly and effectively.

Thanks...

Day Six of May trip

Bonswa…

We got off to a fairly early start today. The sky starts to light up around 4:30, not to mention the neighborhood also starts coming alive. Today Chris and I, with the help of Julian and Guercy finished the main drain lines to the new septic tank. Tomorrow we will cover them all in and can call this project completed.

We were also able to do some odds and ends kind of jobs around the compound getting it ready for the next team. Tonight we went back to downtown Port au Prince for dinner and drove through some areas that I haven’t seen yet. Still more devastation and mayhem.

Arrival of backup

Today was more of a run around and planning day. We started the day off picking up Chris Kerslake at the airport. Chris will be my back up for those trips that I cannot lead here. He is from Chicago. As is usual in a country like Haiti today had its unplanned events. On the way to the airport we got a flat on the van. Fortunately (by God’s grace) the tire went flat right in front of the pick up gate at the airport so we were not late picking up Chris.

From the airport we went to a lumber supply house (I will never complain about Lowes or Home Depot again) to get some prices on materials so that I can do a rough estimate for the home that we have been asked to build. We also picked up the supplies needed to finish the septic tank lines that we will be working on today (Wednesday).

Back at the Oasis compound Chris and Guercy went to work putting in some new light fixtures and I took on the task of cleaning our supply room so that it is better organized for when the teams arrive.

In the afternoon the contingency that was doing the Disaster Response training out at Calico came to the compound and we gave them a tour of the facility. We then loaded up in the van and drove out to Mirebalais, which is about a two hour drive. The Great Commission Alliance and Mission to North America are working with the mayor of Mirebalais to build a new city to house the people that have left Port au Prince and moved out there. The mayor has donated the property and the GCA/MNA teams are almost done building a guest house there to host construction teams. The next plans are to put in some roads, a church, an orphanage/school and a medical clinic.

On the way up to Mirebalais is snapped a picture of one of the tent cities that has sprung up on the outskirts of Port au Prince. The current desire of the government here is to relocate about half of the population of Port au Prince out to places like this. As you can tell there is a lot of work to do to make these places sustainable.

Experienced in Construction?

The home will be built on a hillside overlooking the bay. I have been reviewing the materials at www.shelterhaiti.org and am leaning toward a stick and frame structure.

SPECIAL NOTE: for those of you reading this that have some construction background please take a look at the above files, which is a quick work up of what I am considering. We would like to target a 12’ x 20’, single room structure. I would like your thoughts and ideas.

David Short's Sunday

Last night we had a thunderstorm roll through at about 2:00 AM. It rained so hard that our patio on the second story got flooded. I would guess that we had 3-4 inches of rain. As we drove out to the property that we are going to build on we could see standing water all over the place and a lot of areas where mud has starting washing onto the roads. The people of Haiti definitely need your thoughts and prayers as they enter into the rainy season. In another month the hurricane season starts and it will get even worse.

We started today off with church. As always the service was vibrant and joyful. Today they included a baby dedication ceremony. After speaking for a while about the dedication each of the babies were handed to a leader in the church as they were prayed over.

After church we headed out to the property where we will build our first house. The church is pastured by Pastor Pierre Paul and it is located in Merger, which is about another 15 miles out of town. The church has about 500 people in it.

We stopped by the area where they are holding their temporary church services. This is the same compound that the medical team used on the last trip for their clinic. The rain last night was so bad last night out here that it nocked down the tent that they were using for their church service. I gave them some recommendations for bracing the structure in the future that might help it stand up better. There are about 60 people staying in this compound.

We also spent about 2 hours in a meeting this afternoon with a local church leader (Pastor Mani) who is over 10 churches in the area and 4 of those pastors. They were asking us to help them with their churches and we directed them to begin the process by starting to work with Dony St. Germain who is the head of El Shaddai Ministries International and who I am working with here in Haiti.

Tomorrow we meet up with Arklie Hooten (MNA) and Pastor Dony as they prepare for a 2 day workshop with about 50 pastors and 50 deacons from the area to teach them about disaster response in preparation for the upcoming hurricane season.

Thanks...

David Short's first account of the 4th trip

Bonswa (Good Evening)…

Yesterday (Friday) I flew down to Miami and spent the night on the floor of the airport. I met up with our new host/translator Pastor Guercy Meme. He and I will be working together on all of the trips going forward.

On our way out to the Oasis compound I noticed that there seems to be a lot more debris showing up on the streets. I have been reading through the recovery materials being prepared by the government and NGO’s and it has been determined that one of the significant issues of the recovery will be the management of the debris.

We also saw quite a few fuel trucks lined up at the port waiting for fuel to be made available. We needed some diesel and stopped at six service stations before we found some in bottles at a roadside vendor.

Guercy and I spent some time after dinner planning our approach. Apparently we have about 137 churches that we will be helping to rebuild. Over 75% of these have pastors whose homes were damaged or destroyed. We will start with a pastor’s home so that he can serve his church better, then we will do the church, then the members. I have been tasked with coming up with the basic design and build plans. This should be a fun opportunity to use my construction and project management backgrounds. Tomorrow we go to church and then start assessing the first property to work on.

Thanks...

Arrived at Disaster Response Workshop in Cabere, Haiti

Have been here for several hours. Chuck Garriot is giving a presentation. Chuck was a pastor in Oklahoma City when the bombing took place. He currently ministers to PCA members who are in congress. Chuck traveled seperately from our group. The members from our team begin presenting after lunch. Topics include; Preparing for hurricanes, Overview of effective communication systems, setting up a warning system and evacuating, assembling after a hurricane, how God uses suffering for redemptive purposes. There are approximately 100 pastors and deacons present. They are very gracious, grateful for our coming to help them. Language barrier with most. Some speak English. Dony St. Germaine of El Shaddai Ministry (our partner) is the organizer and translator for the event. Tomorrow afternoon we will tour Haiti visiting our volunteer relief camps in Carrefour and Mirebalais.

Arrived in Atlanta 30 mins early. Trouble finding vacant gate for deboarding. Meet up with the rest of the team at the gate at Ft. Lauderdale @730. HUGE layover

MNA Team flies to Haiti for Disaster Response Workshop

By invitation MNA and El Shaddai Ministries will host a disaster response workshop for nearly 100 Haitian church leaders; pastors and deacons. The MNA team will arrive in Ft. Lauderdale Sunday evening. Flying into Port au Prince early Monday we will have two FULL days of training as we seek to equip churches in ways to respond to natural disaster through early warning systems, mobilizing churches, addressing the spiritual implications of suffering, and providing basic medical training as it is related to natural disasters. I will attempt to post to this site regularly so please check out what's happening. Thanks for your prayers-for the people of Haiti, for our families, and for our presentations and teaching. Grateful for the opportunity and know we will learn from our brothers in Haiti so that together God would be glorified in our efforts to provide response to those in need.
Thanks for your prayers.
Curt

Haiti Trip #4: May 7 through 23, Pre-trip

Hello again...

I have the opportunity to lead another team to Haiti to continue doing Disaster Response work for Mission to North America (MNA). I leave tonight and will be arriving in Haiti tomorrow morning. The first week will be meeting with some of the leaders from El Shaddai Ministries International (ESMI) and MNA to do some basic planning for future trips and ongoing recovery activities, participate in a disaster response seminar being given to some pastors, travel out to Mirebilais where MNA is working with the Great Commission Alliance to build a new community, and hopefullyeet with some of the NGO's working in the area to build our relationship with them.

We will also be getting the Oasis compound in Carrefour ready for the team that will be arriving on the 15th. This team will be the first one to start working in the community. We will be rebuilding one of the churches that was damaged in the earthquake.

As usual I will try to send out daily emails with some pictures. If you would rather not receive these emails let me know and I will take you off of my list.

David Short