Marvine in Haiti: Intro week. Day

(VIEW MY BLOG) http://marvineinhaiti.blogspot.com/

(VIEW AFH SITE) http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/haiti_reconstruction

(MY FIRST FIELD REPORT) http://ww.openarchitecturenetwork.org/node/7913/report/month/10/2011

It is the following morning. I’ve been awake since 5 am, lying in bed, staring up at my mosquito net. My phone keeps vibrating every 30 minutes. By now, it must be 6. I reach underneath my pillow for my phone and switch the alarm off. It is Saturday and I’ve got to get ready for work. I groan at the thought and groan again when my head hits the ceiling as I sit upright. Next time, I’ll ask for the bottom bunk.

Cold. The water is ice cold and I’ve got to get in the shower. I turn the knob and the water stops coming out of the showerhead. Maybe if I wet my toes first…the rest of my body will be able to adjust. I turn the water back on and step in. Right foot first then left. When the ice water reaches my feet I take a giant step towards the back wall. Maybe if I soak my hands first for over a minute. I extend my hands, fingers outstretched and let the beads beat against my palms and splash up my arms. Shivers run up my spine. Maybe I should skip this part of my morning altogether. I look over to check my phone which is sitting on top of the toilet seat. In less than 30 minutes, I have to shower, eat breakfast, and pack my bag…Shit.

Dripping wet, I run across the hall and back towards my room I share with 7 other volunteers. I get dressed in jeans, a long sleeve shirt (for the mosquitos) and sneakers. Stuff my laptop, studio pencils, trace paper, a camera, a few granola bars into my bag, and hurry up the stairs to the kitchen. People are already outside loading into the SUV. I spot a bag of bread on the Kitchen counter and help myself to two slices. In the car, I exhale and eat my slices of bread. Thinking of the day and what it might bring.

“Get back into the car” says my boss Deric as he wizzes past my desk. “We are going on site. Grab your things, we leave in 10.” My boss maybe 5ft 5, is wearing construction boots, jeans and a button down. Buzz cut and a beard. Not your typical New York City corporate look. I grab my bag off the floor and walk out of the office towards the cars parked and waiting outside. “Let’s go.” He wizzes by again, this time carrying his own book bag and opens the door of the nearest SUV. “Uh. Where are we going?” I ask. But his attention is somewhere else. We pull off and start our drive through Petionville. “Driver! Wait!” Deric taps the driver on the shoulder and only after a few blocks of driving we slow down to a stop. “Right here driver. Can you get that guy’s attention across the street?” The driver with his arm out of the windows signals for a tall man sitting by a table to come over. I watch as Deric reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handful of wrinkled blue, red, and orange Haitian bills. “I’m going to buy some sugar cane.” Deric rolls down his window and motions for the sugar cane seller to bring two bags of sugar cane to the car. “You want any?” he asks me. “No thank you” I remember from past visits to Haiti, how messy eating sugar cane can get. “I’m still full from breakfast.” I lie. Deric pays for his two bags of sugarcane and we continue on driving. “Oh today we go to a construction site.” Deric says as he bites into his snack. “I’ve got to check the progress of a few projects being built down in Delmas, which is south of here. Our role, AFH, is to make sure the foundation gets laid the right way.” He rolls the window down even further and spits out the now juiceless sugar cane. “When in Rome right?” he says to me. “I hope this doesn’t gross you out.” “No not at all.” I reply, wishing now that I had gotten some myself. “When in Haiti…we do as the Haitians do.”

These are a few photos of sites I have visited since Staurday: Villa Rosa (planning project), Home of Knowledge ( school in construction )

Driving by "tap-tap" Haitian taxis

Villa Rosa (planning project)--Villa Rosa site. Reading map.

This building has a Green MTPTC number (the the left). Means it withstood the earthquake and can be lived in again. The cordaid CVR/CVM number refers to the house #as it corresponds to the mapping system being used to locate houses on these sites post Jan. 12th earthquake.

We visited a town call St. Marie/Villa Rosa. The hardest hit town in Petionville Port Au Prince. Haitian mapper showing us the way through the site.

Rubble is still being cleared two years later. St. Marie school in the background

AFH OFFICE---
Steel art used in our office. Steel is recycled from steel drums.

Home of Knowledge---
Looking at materials (rebar)at the Home of Knowledge site in Delmas. Haitian engineer, Stanely(AFH) talks materials with foreman.