On Monday morning we met with our Haitian construction crew hopped in the truck and headed for the construction site. On the way we first stopped for some tools located at a proposed site for a health clinic. The project is on hold because of a money-laundering Haitian baptist priest in New York who owns the open land and is trying to wheel and deal. Sad, really. Our second stop was for some sugar cane sticks. The vendor took his machete to shave off the bark, and soon we were all chewing on the pulpy sweet waters of the cane. What pulp was let after chewing we just spit on the ground. This is one delicacy that I wish we had in the states (but instead we have subsidized corn that we make into high fructose corn syrup). The last leg of our journey took us down the ridge of a mountain along a winding and rocky dirt road. The odds of falling out of the truck were high, but we kept it together and made it to our stop.
The road stopped at a church where we unloaded all our tools and bags. Throughout the mountains hiking trails could be seen winding all over. Many Haitians lived in the mountains in small communities of 2 to 4 families. We needed to hike about 45 minutes to one of these communities. The trail dropped down into a valley where we crossed a river and headed up a trail to the village.
The construction site was cut into a rocky hillside, and we were amazed by the amount of earth that was moved. We asked how long the digging lasted. The locals said they completed the digging in one night under a full moon. They believe the earth loosens up during a full moon, and they noted they could not have been done without the moon. As soon as bags were dropped the Haitians jumped at the project. The building was quickly surveyed and shovels and picks were flying. The post holes were incredibly difficult to dig because the earth was so rocky.
As we took turns digging holes we also settled into the village. There was a vacant shelter where we set up tents. We didn't need our rain covers, but we still needed tents to keep bug bites to an absolute minimum. Malaria and dengue fever were a big concern. Lucky for us the bugs were scarce at our elevation.
The next post will have project progression pictures. Below are a few pics of today's journey.
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