Hike to Jacmel

This was a fantastic way to finish off my two month trip! Weeks earlier I heard of this
picturesque hike that you could do going from the small town of Furcy (basically where the road is no longer accessible via truck or car) all the way to the southern coast, eventually to city of Jacmel. Nancy and Sven had talked about
doing it for a while, all I needed was to prioritize it and start lighting a fire to get them going. Once the discussion really started to turn into a plan, our group of three then doubled as we added fellow volunteers Ben, Mike and Mari to the mix.

Mari, who just got to Haiti just a couple weeks prior to the hike, had spent a few months in Jacmel working last year, so she was familiar with the hotels and the area itself. The plan was to take Friday and Saturday off, hike both days and to return home late Sunday afternoon. Nancy and Mike planned on staying at a cute 120 year old hotel in Jacmel, Mari with some friends at a fellow NGO house on the beach, and Ben, Sven and I would share the "company" shack not too far away.

The owner of the school we were working on currently under construction in the area, Dignite, also owned the shack where some of the Haitian staff would stay the night if they were to work the following day. We found out the shack would not be occupied Saturday night and since it was free, the three of us jumped at the chance to save a bit.

Thursday night we had the Bati Bien cocktail hour, and by the time that let out and we made

our way home, the office was locked up and we couldn't get into the building to get our bags, etc. So, Friday morning we needed to go to the office, get our bags, go to the market and pick up all the items we needed for the hike (mainly food and water), go back to the house to pack, then hop in the truck and head up to Furcy.

This wound up taking a bit longer than planned, so the hike officially began just after noon. We initially thought we would start by 10am, so we had to pick up the pace a bit to avoid hitting sundown. Eileen, a new Inveneo employee, had done this same hike last year and referred a house to stay at the first night just outside of La Vista National Forest. We knew it was going to be roughly ten miles to get there, but none of us new the exact location of the house, so that was a bit of a mystery. The hike was AMAZING! It took me back to Peru with Nicole and the kids last year.

Beautiful rolling mountains of green vegetation, mystical stretches of fog, the path covered in mist, and a lot more people than I had expected to see. All locals. We were the only "blancs" on the path. Everywhere we went we heard "Blanc...Blanc," over and over. Little kids, adults, that was their favorite thing to say. Really funny, bit got a bit old after a while. I felt like saying "Noir...Noir," right back, but didn't want to upset anyone! We must have seen a few hundred locals, all making this same trek with the greatest of ease, rundown sandals and huge baskets filled with vegetables all balanced on their heads. They were lapping us, being so used to walk, just another day on the job...Our paces were all a bit different. Mari loved to take the lead and disappear a few hundred feet ahead, which at times got a bit annoying. Sven was the slow one, getting a pretty nasty blister on his big toe early on the hike which ailed him throughout both days.

The rest of us fit pretty well in the middle. I was not sure how well I was going to take all the walking since I had not tried to go more than just a couple miles since breaking my ankle, so I made sure to tape it up pretty well and wear two pairs of socks, all while being very careful where I placed each step. Was impressed, getting through it without any problems. So every half hour or so we would have a group pow-wow to make sure we were all doing ok. I packed a dozen small salami sandwiches, some cookies, and about five liters of water, along with swim trunks, a change of clothes, my strapped Tevas (which I intuitively turned into water bottle holders strapped to my bag), and some money. At first it was a bit heavy, but as we walked and I consumed some of my stash, it got a bit lighter.The hours went by rather quickly.

The terrain was continuously changing, passing small groups of wooden structures throughout the afternoon. Wet, dry, steep, flat...this hike had it all. I couldn't help but take a picture every five minutes, we were surrounded by such beauty the entire time. Eventually, we reached the beginning of the pine forest, which was so interesting to see considering I had not seen a single pine tree the entire time I had been in Haiti; and now there was thousands of them. Evidently the local government has a hard time protecting these trees from being cut down.

The whole country has a huge problem in regards to deforestation, and even though it is hard to get there, people still sneak a tree here and there. Once we got there, none of us really knew how much further it was to the house we were staying for the night, and no one got cell service, so it was a little bit of a worry since we only had an hour of light left. But we got our first glimpse of the Caribbean, which was really cool. After hiking through this gorgeous national forest, we FINALLY arrived at the house, with about ten minutes to spare before it was pitch black. It was a great feeling. To make the situation even more amazing, there was hot tea waiting for us, and dinner was one it's way. What a great feeling that was, after walking for almost six hours, getting to our destination, and having a nice cup of hot tea. And the icing on the cake, a hot shower! First one in two months...Dinner was great. The owner of the house is Lebanese, so we had roasted veggies, pot roast and rice...super good!

After dinner we just sat back, reminisced about the past few hours and looked ahead to the next day. Everyone was asleep by 9pm, super quiet and relaxing.

We woke up, had breakfast and started up nice and early. One of the young kids that helped around the house took us on a "off the beaten path" route to save us some time. The scenery was completely different than the day before. We hiked south, so the view of the Caribbean was visible the entire time.

Instead of mist, there were palm trees. At the highest point, we were at 6000 ft in the mountains and we had to get all the way back down to sea level. So throughout the entire hike Saturday, we had to traverse back and forth all the way down, which took SO long. Every time we hiked an additional hour, it seemed we were not at all closer to the water.

I joked that for every 100 feet we hiked, we only got 1 foot closer since we were zig-zagging our whole way down. We continued to hit pockets of people either living or working off the trail. A lot of vertical farming, absolutely green everywhere, beautiful. Dating back to the prior day, we noticed several motos pass us, some available for hire.

Once we got later and later into the day, hiking for over six hours and still not feeling we were even near where we needed to be, we decided as a group to hire three motorcycles (two of us to ride on each) to take us the remaining distance. So we sat and waited for about twenty minutes until we saw the next rider come by, then we got him to gather two others and we were off on our next portion of our journey.

The ride was rather bumpy, to say the least. As we zipped down the later portions of the trail, we came across a small river...and rode across it. Our bike (Sven and I) got stuck at the end and our driver needed to maneuver over the last five tough feet, losing his sandal in the process. Luckily there was another rider behind us that grabbed it and returned it to him. After we got through that we rode another ten minutes until we hit the BIG river. No crossing this one on the bike, so we all had to get off and hike through the thigh high water, which was a bit more rapid than expected, but fun in a way. An adventure needs these little details. The bikes magically were waiting for us on the other side, so we hopped back on and rode on an actual road for the first time since we got dropped after the day before.

We rode for another twenty minutes or so until we reached the spot we all said we would meet, right along the picture perfect shoreline we spent over a full day and 22 miles to get to. After meeting up with some of Mari's acquaintances that held a table at a restaurant right on the beach, we stripped down to our swimwear and jumped in one by one; the water felt amazing. Then add an ice cold beer to the mix, heaven. It was about 4pm when we were all there safe and sound, knowing this would have been impossible without hiring the motos to take us the final leg. Sven and I still had to go by the shack and get the key from the owner, but that was a quick jaunt up the road. The NGO house that Mari was staying with friends was just two houses from the restaurant, so as the sun set, we all ordered dinner and more beer, celebrating the fact that we made it. I had the lobster, of course, amazing!

Rick (our structural engineer at AFH) and his wife Theresa met us there and planned on staying in Jacmel for the night, so after dinner everyone going into town loaded into his SUV, including Sven who wanted to go back to the shack. Ben and I stuck around and hung out at the NGO house, occupied by a handful of Bulgarians working in Haiti. We sat, drank, conversed, listened to music and did some night swimming. The water was the perfect temperature, I was very happy...until my wedding band decided it wanted to go for a swim as well! It slipped off my finger as I sat in the waves, never to be found again. Luckily I have an amazing wife that was accepting of this stupid mistake and a new ring is being made as I type...

Ben and I decided to just crash on the porch at the house, just feet from the water break. I slept in a comfy hammock that went from one palm to another, waking just in time for a wonderful sunrise. I got up to take some pics and a video, then went right back to sleep for another couple hours. As the morning got later, everyone began to get up and start the day. We had fresh coffee and OJ, some fruit, and started to get packed up. I went out for a mid morning swim, subtly looking for my lost ring, to no prevail. Ben, Mari and I organized a time to get picked up by Rick and Theresa, then hopped in the SUV to go to the Dignite site to check out the school.

The school just had the roof installed the prior week and the openings were being prepped for the installation of the windows the next week. We spent about a half an hour there, then went to this cool beach restaurant for lunch, where I got my second lobster meal in less than a day! So nice, grilled on an open flame...only $12 for an entire one. Wow. The only down side was it took about two hours to get it. In the mean time, I played some frisbee on the beach with a couple of new friends. Funny thing happened too; two women approached me commenting about my Free Wheelchair shirt. Turned out they worked for Handicapped International and wanted to be put in contact with them. Be cool if it works out, traded info and will try to put them in touch.

After the awesome lunch, we headed into Jacmel to meet up with our driver, Patrick. He was a bit late getting to the hotel, so I had my last beer of the weekend at the bar. Rick took back half the group, leaving Nancy, Ben and I at the hotel.

The drive back was epic, the sun bursting through the clouds across the mountains. It takes just over two hours to get back to Petionville from Jacmel, and Ben and I sat in the back of the pickup, so it was a nice amount of time to just sit back and take in on the views. We got back to the house just before sunset, in time for dinner and to tell the rest of the house about the amazing time we just had. Back to normal showers again, but that would only last another couple of days before heading back to the U.S.

The hike was perfect, we all got along well and enjoyed the entire trip. Outside of a couple of blisters, I returned in perfect health, ready to work my last two days for AFH.

Work as normal, another fun weekend...

Wow, another week...just a flyin'! Seven weeks ago today is when I left San Diego to go up to LAX, amazing how quickly this trip has flipped in the other direction. I feel like it took so long to get to the half way point, then once that hit it has been just another week, not three.

This past week was just straight to working and staying busy, now working on schematics for some housing clusters in Villa Rosa. In the evenings I have listened or watched some baseball games, some unreal game 5's in the division series. It has been great being able to catch a lot of the content online, don't really feel like I am missing much. The way all the series ended were all one run games, exciting stuff. And to add to that, some crazy Chargers games. They almost let the Broncos squeak it out Sunday, got to fix that. At least they have a bye this week, and hey, tied for the best record in the AFC aint so bad!

Ireland gave up an early try, then kicked a goal, and gave up a goal themselves, so at half it was 10-3 Wales. Right after the start of the second half, Ireland got a great try, pulling even 10-10, but Wales was able to strike two tries next, taking an insurmountable lead, eventually winning 25-13. Everyone was bummed, but it was worth taking in on and now I know how to follow a new sport. Oh, and the game ended after 2am, so considering Saturdays we get up just as early as the weekdays, I was a but sleep deprived that day at work, but it was only a half day.This weekend was a fun one. After work on Friday, I was introduced (truly) to the sport of rugby. As you may know, there are a few Irish architects living and working with me and all of them are into their nation's rugby team.

The world cup of rugby is happening this month, and Ireland had made it to the quarterfinals against Wales. There was a big group of about a dozen others who showed up for the game here at the house close to midnight. We were able to find a live stream online and project it onto the wall and take in on the fun. Football and rugby aren't all that different, outside of the downs and clock stopping. A touchdown is a 'try' and is worth 5 instead of 6. The extra point is a conversion, worth 2 and not 1, so that evens out. A field goal and a 'goal' are both worth 3, so not all different. It is just football we throw it forward and rugby the ball needs to constantly be lateraled unless it is kicked. Pretty interesting...and there are two 40 minute halves, but there is constant movement, not stupid commercials and breaks that we all hate.After work, we went as a group and got lunch in town, then headed into downtown Port-au-Prince to got to the Haiti National Museum. It is this really unique shaped building, circular, built into the ground with a workable landscape (see pics). Not too much content, but us being a bunch of architectural geeks, loved the building itself, right across the street from the dilapidated Palace. After we got home, I put on "Coming to America" and followed with "Big Lebowski", potentially my two favorite movies and about eight of us gathered and enjoyed them both.

Sunday, I had planned to go to the metal market, this place outside of town with dozens of talented artists that sell and display their work, but there was not enough space in the car for everyone, so I volunteered to stay back. To take advantage of the day, nice one...overcast and cool, both Ben and I got dropped off in Petionville near the office and we had lunch, then leisurely walked back to the house (about 1.5 hrs). During the walk, something I have been wanting to do for a few weeks now, I took photos of things I have noticed these past few weeks while driving past, too quickly to snap shots in most cases. A lot of wall art, interesting structures, and fun views. We got back just in time to catch the start of the Chargers game and I was a happy camper. For those of you who don't know, every NFL game is streamed each week on thertv.eu for free. Check it out, kept me on top of my games the whole time I have been here, thank goodness! Once it got dark, the house put on the first two "Bourne" movies and then went to bed. Fun weekend.

The coolest part is yet to come, though. A group of six of us are going to hike to Jacmel, a beautiful southern

beach town about 95 km from Petionville. We are going to get dropped off at the end of this road that goes that direction early Friday morning. We will then hike about 12 miles or so to the La Visite National Park, then camp there for the night. Then on Saturday we will get up to hike southwest along the coast to Jacmel, getting there come afternoon. Half of us will stay (Nancy, Mari and Mike) at a hotel, and the other three (myself, Ben and Sven) are staying at this tiny shack right on the beach attached to the Dignite school we are working on down there. Supposed to be gorgeous, plus it is free. Sunday we will all hang down at the beach, then get picked up in the afternoon and brought back to Petionville (about 2.5 hr drive). The last pic is the road we live up and go down everyday...so strange to see it without bumper to bumper traffic like every morning and evening throughout the work week.

I am SO EXCITED for this, something that has been talked about for a long time here at the house. The trail is well established and is a common thing to do on the weekends, so we won't be the only ones. It is going to be my last weekend here, so I wanted to make the best of it.

So, don't expect too much from me until after I get back from the hike. Hope, as always, everyone back home is doing well. Wanted to congratulate my good friends Lisa and Alex who found out they are having a baby early next year. So awesome!! Proud of you both.
Love you all, see some of you next week when I get back. Crazy...

Chargers win, 'nother week done!

Wow, I think this has been the quickest week yet. I managed to get a good amount of work done each day, mainly working on the Santo project that we had a rough deadline for Friday to compile everything we have on it and submit it to Habitat for Humanity. For three days I had some rather boring, repetitious CAD work, where I drew dimension lines for every house on every block for the entire project. So, I just put on some tunes and went for it. Although it was a bit boring at times, it was also fun to just listen to good music and fly through the project. I also had to format pages for each block, so all in all there were 55 pages to plot, print and have ready for submission by Friday. I got it done, no problem. Outside of the CAD work, I got to do a few elevations and sections in photoshop, make them look nice and pretty, basically showing the houses, trees, vegetation, and people. That was fun, getting more commands down and learning to render better.

Thursday was Roudjina's birthday, the three year old Haitian girl that lives here with her mom, who does the cooking and cleaning here. Nancy collected some money from all of us and got her a pink Cinderella dress, which took her over 15 minutes to open, soaking up the attention. Quite a cute kid...

Friday we had our monthly 'meet and greet' at the office, where we host local people around the area that can present info on either their company or projects. It's hard to believe the first one I attended was just on my second full day here and I was still so fresh. That was over five weeks ago and now that I have gotten to know everyone and feel them all out, it was way more easy going and I felt so much more comfortable. There were beers and hor'dourves served and the presentation dealt with the expenses of building materials before and after the quake, which in many cases of doubled or tripled for no reason outside of because they can. It is really sad, there should be more support in rebuilding as opposed to ripping people off. After the meeting, we got home and I just went to sleep. Was tired from a long but nice week.

As far as working week went, no site visits or leaving the area to comment about Monday through Friday, but yesterday the entire staff went to the Ellie Dubois school site in downtown Port-au-Prince to do some outdoor work, which was so much fun. One of the buildings on the site was demolished a couple weeks ago, and knowing that the new construction has not been completed and school is set to begin tomorrow, we needed to come up with the place for the kids to have class until then. So, we got access to a large tent and we spent the morning into the afternoon assembling it as a group. The tent is about 12' wide by 100' long, but it has been stored in a really humid area so there are patches of mold that needed to be bleached and attended to before pitching it up. I was in charge of chiseling out spots in a concrete slab for rebar picks to hold down the tent, and without wearing my gloves, I blistered up my hands pretty nicely. Nice to just be outside doing some manual labor getting nice and dirty, sweating up a storm. It's just we get so used to being inside and working primarily on the computer, the change of pace is so necessary.

After we finished the tent, we went back to the office and everyone headed down to Muncheez, a cool little pizza/burger joint about a block away. Eric, the team leader here, bought us all dinner (which was initially thought to be lunch), which was really nice of him. We had a few drinks and pizzas, then headed home. One of the girls here, Rickie, had a birthday party later, so after getting home and taking much needed showers and changing do less soaked clothes, we went to that. A friend of hers hosted at her house and pretty much all of us went to socialize for the evening over drinks and snacks. Really nice time. Got home pretty late and slept in this morning, which was great!

I got up and did some much needed laundry (every single shirt I brought with me needed to be washed). After getting that done, I decided to go on a small hike up the hill from the house since I heard there was a pretty cool view from the upper area of the road. After a few minutes, the road narrows to just a walking path and you are then in the countryside, quite a change of pace. Chance (the house dog) decided she wanted to come with me and she kept me company the whole way, really cute. Makes me miss Charger and his companionship.

By the time I got back to the house, I was soaked again and needed another shower, and I then settled in on the couch for the rest of the day (where I am still currently planted 10 hours later!). I found a great website that lets me stream all the football games, so I came up with a cool system of hooking up my computer to the projector and some ipod speakers, and voila! Surround sound football. The internet today was about as flawless as can be, and I find it appalling how this whole wireless internet thing works, quite amazing...

Chargers won, which is nice. Starting 3-1 is a comfort, instead of getting such a slow start as they historically do. Be good if we can knock off Denver next week and be 4-1 going into the bye week. Then I will be home to see them play the Jets on Nicole and my anniversary. Wow, one year...that sure came quick.

Love you all, hope everyone has a nice start to October. Take care.

Sunday = Fun Day (part 2)

As for the rest of the week, I worked on the same two projects I have been on the whole time I have been here: both the Villa Rosa and Santo communities redevelopment projects. Santo had it's ground breaking last week and Villa Rosa is still in the research stage and will be going into schematic design really soon. Everyday I kind of jump back and forth between the two projects depending on what needs to be done whenever that is. The office is always busy, everyone is constantly working together, meeting, organizing site visits, it is quite impressive. It seems to go so fluidly I don't think of too much to discuss, like 'work as usual' now. But there were two exciting things to happen this week with getting out of the office:

Wednesday we went back to the Villa Rosa site, met with current residents to find out what kind of current living situations they are in and how to improve that; Thursday I went to another ground breaking, this one being a school site north of here by about 45 minutes, but only a few miles away. Long, 4 wheel drive road to get there.Going back to Villa Rosa is always cool for me.
The neighborhood is extremely dense and offers us endless amounts of design potential. Half the structures are completely gone or in such bad shape they need to be demo'd. What is so interesting about the area is that everyone still lives such normal lives, it seems. I mean, not compared to our 'white picket fence' prototype, but neighbors still hanging out gossiping on front steps, children running and playing with new, invented toys (lid of a 5 gallon bucket and a wire hanger pushing the lid around, etc.), running around and laughing. Darren and I mainly went to organize some major routes to incorporate into the design we come up with. Main walking paths tend to die off into structures that make it difficult to get through the area, and we are trying to make it so there are more direct ways to get around. After we gathered a lot of information, we met back up with Natalie (a local Haitian that is volunteering at AFH) and Nancy (design associate from DC), who had organized the group meeting and took good notes from the residents in the first zone set for construction. We met as a group later in the day and gathered info, then sent it out to Mari, a woman that currently works for AFH at the San Francisco office and is planning on coming out here in a couple weeks. We have been meeting villa Skype with her and she has been a big help.

Thursday morning, I got to go to a site currently set to start construction very soon by Haiti Partners, BAR Architecture (from SF) with funding by a church group from Michigan. Craziest part was, a lot of the church members are from Holland, Michigan...where Nicole went to see Lindsay and Alex tie the knot last week. Small world! The site was AMAZING. Overlooking the entire valley nestled in this green mountainous area where you can still see the ocean. Beautiful. It differed quite a bit from last weeks ground breaking in Santo. There were at least 100 people there, kids, adults, a cute choir, really fun. A festive, great group of people excited for this new school to be developed. There were dozens of photo friendly kids, priceless. The school design was done by BAR Architects in San Francisco, who used our offices to create the design. It is a really cool design, love the renderings, check it out.Friday, I got back to the grind with compiling graphics and construction pages for Santo, which we have a deadline of next week to turn in all the stuff we have to get the entire project going. We need to send out the info for the school and market plans to see who would like to fund that part of the project, since the homes are already being built by Habitat for Humanity. I have been working in CAD, Illustrator and Photoshop, having a bunch of fun with it.

After working all day on that, we finished off with our weekly meeting. It was a really constructive one this time, because normally we just run through all the projects and see where they are all atcurrently, but this time it was an open forum to have people suggest how we can improve our efforts and create a more productive working environment for the local economy.

We aren't here to take design work away from Haiti, we are here to provide advice and to show how to make buildings the right way, to change the terrible methods that have been used as common practice here for so long.

It was a gooddiscussion, I was suggesting the concept of design/build, where we work with local enthusiastic builders and contractors through the design process so they have a better understanding of how the buildings get put together. It is crazy to know that AFH has only been here for only 18 months and has done SO much to help this country get back on track. Amazing, so glad I can be a part of this.

Well, hope to watch the Chargers game later today. I subscribed to justin.tv for the month and I am able to see the Pats/Bills game pretty well to start the day, lets hope the same happens for my game and they can get over that bad loss last week to NE. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!! Here is a video from the ground breaking...

Sunday = Fun Day (part 1)

Hey y'all,

Well, another week has come and gone. Thursday actually marked the half way point of my trip, so everyday that ends from now on is one day closer in the direction of home. Nuts. Right now, I am sitting on a foldout chair in the kitchen of all places, jamming to some music helping out with today's 'Man's Breakfast'. For those that don't know or remember, this has become a Sunday tradition for everyone to provide an ingredient to have made into a big meal for brunch. I provided breakfast sausage and cheese.

So in about 30 minutes we'll all sit down to enjoy a nice meal together. Since I haven't posted this week, I need to back track a bit...last Sunday a group of us went to the beach. It is not as easy as we have grown to know in southern Cali, all the beaches are owned by resorts and we have to pay to get into them, and it is a two + hour drive to get there. And these trips are not planned frequently, and when talk began about getting a group together, I had to jump on it.

I knew this would most likely be the only time I go this trip and after we got a full car committed to the idea, we piled in the car and headed north.

The group was me, Michael (a new volunteer from North Carolina), Sven, Lisa, Dot, Burtland and his friend Sandra. Along the way we passed through nice country side and through several parts I hadn't seen yet. I made a point to try to read as much as I could, completing a whole chapter on the drive. We got to Kaliko Beach Resort about 11am, paid $30 to get it (incl. buffet and two drinks) and began our nice day. The resort was pretty nice and the view was beautiful. We got set up right on the water, joining another group of volunteers from other NGO's, friends of Gerry (works at my office) and his girlfriend Mor. It was a nice change of pace as we relaxed, drank some beer and eventually I a large portion of the group decided to take a boat out to the reef and go snorkeling. I stayed back and read my book on the beach, really good choice. When the group returned, we all went up to the buffet and had lunch.

I had a secret objective though when eating my meal. I intentionally didn't each much, knowing I had seen guys on the beach selling whole live lobster. They cook it on the grill right there, and I knew that was going to be my special treat. My mom told me before leaving that she wanted me to use some of her money she gave me to get something special, and that was it! Cooked with onions and peppers, I was as happy as a guy can be...We stayed until 4pm or so, then headed home, getting back just before sunset. I listened to my music and hung my head out the rear window as we drove back, a fun experience. I have actually created a game here called 'guess that jersey'. Since there are a lot of people here that wear old basketball and football jerseys, it has been fun to see them and see if I know the player. And most of them are all old players or teams they no longer are on, and I have not missed one yet. For instance, and old 76ers jersey with number 3 is Allen Iverson. Bengals #85 - Chad Johnson. And so on. It's been pretty fun so far, a game I kind of play on my own as we drive around the area.

When we got home, I logged onto to NFL Game Center, knowing the game Chargers game had just gone final. I was able to watch the archived game, and by avoiding the final score, I pretended it was live. Well, as most of you all know, the game did not end well and the Bolts lost another game to Tom Brady's Patriots. Damn!! I stayed up to watch the Eagles/Falcons game as well, since the free preview was ending the next day. Then I went off to bed.

The only bad part about the weekend is I could not talk to Nicole the whole time because she was at Lindsay and Alex's wedding in Michigan and was not able to log on to chat. Plus it really would have been a fun event to have attended. Looking at the photos is seemed to have been a pretty fun party. Congrats you two!

Time flies

Hey ya'll. First and foremost, congratulations to Lindsay and Alex Davidson for their marriage to one another today. I would have loved to have been there to celebrate with you both, but I think you understand why I couldn't make it...

This week went by rather quickly. Starting on Monday, my team and I went back to the Villa Rosa community to try again to have a charrette to find out the wants and needs of the area. Enough people showed, somewhere in the 50-60 number, so we split them up in five groups and gave them maps (which I drew myself), some stickers with icons on them to represent vital additions to the area (electrical posts, water locations, etc.), and surveys for them to fill out to help us configure some data on their living situation. It lasted about three hours in this stuffy church and when we left it was getting dark. I take every opportunity I can now to ride in the back of the TaTa pick up truck, one of the three vehicles we have here. It is just really nice to be able to see and hear everything around me and take it all in, like this soccer game being played off the road.
The next couple days I spent compiling the data, digitising the maps, and uploading photos and videos from the charrette. Meanwhile, a good group of everyone else worked diligently through the week to get graphics together for the Santo ground breaking set for Thursday in Leogane, an area about two hours from here. My roommate, Sven, was working two weeks solid on getting the site plan rendering together, adding texture, color, trees, and graphics to make it really pop. Since it looked as if he still was not going to be able to get it done in time, I was asked to step up and help him finish it. So, starting Tuesday night, I grabbed some of the files and started making all the roof lines nice and pretty, for both the schools and all 500 houses and latrines. It took awhile and but I had fun working in Photoshop learning some new tricks. The site plan includes community homes, two schools (primary and secondary), a market and sports complex. Habitat for Humanity is building and funding the homes, while the other portions are TBD in terms of funding and construction.

Everyone worked like madmen into the night Wednesday to plot and get everything together for Thursday morning. I threw my name in the hat, requesting to tag along to the ground breaking. Since there was space, I was able to squeeze in the back area of the 4Runner and go to Leogane. The President of Haiti, Michelle Martelly was supposed to attend, and both Clinton and Carter were invited, but all three didn't come. The drive to Leogane was a bit bumpy and long. It ran parallel to the water, so there were some nice views here and there, but for the most part the amount of trash, pollution and road work going on took away from that. Plus being in the back of the car, with no seat sitting next to Ben, it got a bit uncomfy at times. In the photo is Burtland from NY, Lisa from Ireland, Sven and Ben. There were a total of eleven of us that went to the event. When we got there, there were armed guards checking cars in, so it had the feel of an important event. The downside was there were a ton of community people lining the outskirts of the fences, not allowed to come in, which was a bit odd considering this was FOR the community. I found out later that these people were protesting, claiming the houses were too small for their needs (each home is only the size of most of our living rooms-for 5-6 people). Was a bit sad.

The speeches were in Creole and translated to English and were very 'pad on the back' style for Habitat for Humanity, a bit self absorbed, but they all deserved credit. It lasted about an hour and a half, then all the important people did the symbolic shovel dig and flipped the dirt to the side. Included in the group was Darren, the team leader (guy in blue with glasses). I also helped move some dirt, as you can see. We waited around after the event concluded so Darren and Nancy could number crunch and get a calendar together with some of the Habitat folks, so by the time we left, Ben and I were starving, as well as the others in the car. We stopped by a gas station on the way back and got a cold beverage and some chips (all they had) and finally got back to the office around 3:30pm. Tired and still hungry, I finished the report from the surveys a few days prior and the day was done. Most of us had mixed feelings about the event. It was kind just a show, and the crowd was only a few locals with just a bunch of organizations. It was not as 'community involved' as it should have been, but that is how these things go it seems.

Yesterday and today I did some preliminary sketches for the Villa Rosa site, so it has been pretty relaxing at the office. Last night the whole house went out for the first time, even some of us home bodies went out, which was rare. We went to a cool bar that had an outdoor patio and live music, so it was fun to see some of the people I live and work with in a different environment other than the house and the office. There really isn't anyone I don't get along with, which is key. Everyone is pretty cool, it really has worked out nicely. Had a couple beers and a couple rum sours (specialty here) and conversed over the music till about midnight. Was nice to finally go somewhere out and about, important to have these moments so I don't look like I do not want to socialize and hang out.

After half day today, went to the market, got some food for lunch, ate and napped. Ahhhhh. So nice to have mid day naps after a long week. I have also been reading a lot in the evenings, which is a habit I hope to bring back with me when I come home. We are trying to get a group to go to the beach tomorrow which is quite a trip, averaging two hours each way to most nice ones. And they all cost money since the resorts own the beaches, which is shitty, but I have to go once while here...I'm on and island on the damn Caribbean! Have to see it. So that should be fun. I also found out the NFL Game Pass is giving a free preview this weekend, so I am going to be able to watch the Chargers game archived from earlier when we get back. Nice.

Hope everyone is well. Can't believe it has now been 3 1/2 weeks! Almost half over, nuts.

Love - Brandon

Big Sunday

Greetings all,
Today, Sunday September 11, 2011, is a very significant date. As I woke and went upstairs this morning, I couldn't help but think of what happened ten years ago and just realize, "Wow. That was 10 YEARS ago!" Within the house, some of us shared stories of 'where where you when...' to put things a bit in perspective. I would like to share mine really quickly:
I woke to the radio, thinking it might be a skit, since that is what I woke to many mornings on 91X, some kind of phone skit or prank on someone. It was interesting because I had an 8am class that day and only twice a week did I get up this early. I remember hearing, "Oh my God, the second tower just got hit..." For some reason it just felt like I had to wake up and turn on the tv and that is when I saw the horrific scene. First thing I did was call my mom because she worked a naval base and I just wanted to see what was going on with her. Then I watched as both towers, one after another fell. I still managed to get ready and go to my literature class at SDSU, unknowing what would be the case. The buzz around the campus was all about the event and what was going to happen next. That's all people were talking about as I walked past them, it felt very strange. Sure enough, the professor showed up and talked to us for a couple minutes and excused the class. I drove back home and heard on the radio schools had been cancelled EVERYWHERE and all sporting events were to be put on hold until this was sorted out. All airports where to be closed, obviously, and the list continued, like a nation wide storm.
I got back to the house and all I could manage to do was turn on the television and stare. My mom got home about an hour later and remember giving her a big hug and we sat and watched together as we heard more about the Pentagon and the plane in Pennsylvania. I called my work to see if they wanted me to come in, then working at Sunglass and Optical Warehouse, and as expected, they declined and told me to stay home. For the rest of the day all I remember from that point on was watching the news, seeing as more and more angles of the planes hitting were revealed, as more leads and updates were shared, and just staying close to my mom. Crying at times, just feeling like this could not be happening...I will never forget that day.
So, 10 years later. We all have our stories. People say it is like our parents when they can recall when JFK was assassinated or when the moon landing happened. It was quite remarkable waking to the thought today that that much time has passed, it is unreal. I hope everyone that lost someone that day was able to get through today without too much pain, we will never forget...
On the next note, today was Sunday, and that meant no work and the first day of NFL football (excluding Thurs). I had planned to watch the Chargers game via skype on my home tv (clever, huh?-no slingbox needed), but that was not until 3pm locally. So I spent all morning just relaxing with a cup of coffee (many cups) and a new book I have not been able to put down called Shantaram, which is awesome and about 1,000 pages (thanks Jenny for letting us borrow it).
I joined a pick'em league this week, so I had my eyes glued to all the scores from the morning games until the Bolts game. With the spreads included, I was wrong on almost every single pick today...great! So many damn blow outs, what the hell?! After those concluded, I got online with Nicole and got to watch the Chargers game relatively well, a bit blotchy (?) at times, but pretty good. Game started a bit like OH SHIT, but the 2nd half they got their stuff together and pulled off the win. Sweet, (1-0). Bring on the Pats!
The last couple days working, I just read the entire Haitian Building Guidelines book, commissioned by Habitat for Humanity, to see what kind of info I could get to relate to our current project. That is pretty much what I did Friday and Saturday, then once we got home yesterday around 2pm, I tackled hand cleaning my laundry for the first time this trip. It was very necessary; completely out of socks, undershirts and my towels/underwear/everything needed some good smelling stuff. So, spent about an hour hand scrubbing all my stuff and hanging them out to dry. It was nice and quiet. Therapeutic in a way. Can't think of a time ever I have done an entire load of laundry by hand, has to be the first time. Good practice for the peace corps, I guess. After that, I began my book and after a day and a half I am about 200 pages into it. Nice weekend indeed. Football and reading.
Right now I am watching some of the Boys/Jets game before heading off to bed.
Final Note: Be thankful for all that you have, days like today should remind us that. Try to tell your loved ones as much as you can how much you appreciate them and always keep in mind we are all here until we are not any longer, and we will never know when that is...
Love you all, thanks so much to everyone who supported this trip, I am having a great time.
GO BOLTS!

Storm!

My first storm of the trip has touched down right before NFL kickoff! Wow, thunder, lightning, hard rain. Some of the house is leaking and letting in some water that is building up from outside. Luckily we got home about 15 minutes before it started. Nancy, Ben and I were standing on the front balcony and I point to the left where there was a nasty looking cloud coming our way. Five minutes later, we were the cloud. Super fun and exciting. Thank goodness we are not on the road right now as it is completely stopped. Some of the staff stayed at the office and I do not know when they will be home.

As for the rest of the day, I wrapped up a couple of projects I was given for the week. One was completing flash cards with images and words in Creole on them to help with a charrette tomorrow at the Santo Community Project. Attached is one example you all might get a kick out of. This is an example of what goes in a toilet, pretty straight forward, eh? We are explaining the difference between toilet options via the imagery, so that was fun. Plus more learning on Illustrator.

Then I had to trace multiple maps for the Villa Rosa charrette, which we were doing in the afternoon. Darren, Rickie, Clio and I went to this community church to do the meeting, being told there was going to be around 40-50 people. We got there and only a few people were there for it. We gave it about an hour and only a few more trickled in, so we had to reschedule it for next week. Bummer. So I just helped with little projects around the office until it was time to come home for the storm.


Yesterday was a bunch of the same. Just working on my laptop doing the projects I finished today. I went to print some of the cards at the end of the day and the damn printer was not liking the new cyan ink cartridge I put in it. So I spent twenty minutes trying to get it to work, hot, tired and sweaty. One of the Haitian girls that works in the office basically touched the printer and it decided to start working (of course), but not before me trying to back into my chair, missing it, and shooting the chair across the room and falling on my ass. Nice way to end the day, six people asking if you are all right...printer worked, day is done, and Darren comes over and hands me a beer. Maybe one of the best moments of my life. Ah! Came home and we all test piloted the charrette we are going to have tomorrow.
So, I have surpassed the two week mark now, which is pretty cool. Time is flying here, still no troubles regarding health or happiness, just miss all you guys back home. Oh, and I joined a last minute pick'em football league Phil Hansing invited me to, so I get to have some fun on Sundays with all the games that don't regard the Chargers.
More next time, enjoy the Packers/Saints game. Hope NBC streams it online. Can't wait.

Cheers!

Back to the grind

As I sit here covered head to toe to protect myself from the damn mosquitoes out tonight in 80 degree humid weather, I am reminded of all the places in the world that DON'T have a mosquito problem...such as sunny San Diego. Oh well, knew it before I got here.

Yesterday and today were good days, once again. Working on the Villa Rosa community urban planning project and starting to get involved in Santo's urban planning, I do not have a lack of things to be working on, which is great. The time goes by much quicker when there are a steady amount of things to keep one occupied.

Going back a bit, though...Saturday and Sunday were nice days here too. Nice to have had half a work day with the rest of the day off Saturday to go to the grocery store and get a few necessities, then I stayed in for the rest of the day for the house's "Bill Murry-thon" which included Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Lost in Translation. Caddyshack and Groundhog Day were on the back burner, but it got too late for those. Sunday I went with a few housemates to a local pool that is located on this outstanding vista that overlooks all of Port-au-Prince. Quite a site to see, but not before I buzzed off all my hair, just makes life so much easier here. My roommate, Sven, had clippers with him. We got to the pool around 11am, thinking we would got for a couple hours. Nope, more like six and a half. By 2:30 I was reading my book in the shaded area they had near the bar because I could not take the heat any longer. I was smart to bring a book, my ipod, a packed lunch, water bottle and sunscreen...I used them all! Saved a small fortune by providing my own drink and meal, so I got to hang out at a gorgeous pool overlooking half of Haiti for $4 (the pool 'admission' cost).

After we got home, thunderstorms hit and I just sat in and watch Netflix on my laptop for the rest of the night. Surprised it actually has been working, since it says it should not out of the U.S. every now in then, but my persistence has paid off. Plus a little added bonus: After hanging at the pool all day, I got to meet some friends of my housemates who work for the Clinton Foundation here, and a couple of them just got a satellite at their place and will be getting the NFL package starting this week! My quest for NFL football service has been conquered. Got an invite over there, so I might not have to jury-rig a skype/Charger game as I thought, although I do want the q-time with my wife...but I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Went on a site visit today, a tiny school on the second floor of a dilapidated urban structure. The contractor is about to pour the slab onto the rebar this week and we were doing a check up with Rick, a structural engineer who has been in Haiti for over a year, plus David and Clara, who work for JP, which is Sean Penn's organization. We found a couple of boo boos in the construction process where some of the walls were not properly tied together with the rebar, so they are going to have to come down and go back up, unfortunately. Thus delaying this project once again, which evidently is not the first time this problem has occurred. By the time we left there, really getting used to the heat and humidity surprisingly, we headed back to the office to wrap up the day.

So, keeping busy. Football starts this week. Everything is good. Want to give a little shout out to all the little tykes I know going back to school or starting it for real now this week. Micah and Nathan, my two nephews; Josh, Mason and Abby, my cousins out in Memphis; Connor, my best friend Jacob's son is starting kindergarten and his daughter, Kaley-preschool; Yasira and Atreju, Kaya and Leah's kids who are doing the same thing; and all the HTHI kids my wife, Nicole, and the whole awesome staff there get to handle this next year. Good luck!!

Last thing too, my friend Janine just gave birth to twin girls Thursday, so that makes three little daughters for her and her husband, James...proud of you as well!

The Weekend is Here!

After my first "official" week of work, I can say I am very satisfied with the amount I was able to get done while simultaneously calibrating myself to the change of scenery, surrounding people, and all the current projects in general. Now, I can relax, do some reading, and maybe venture out somewhere in town or along the coast if others plan to do so as well. I still have not seen too much outside of the office and the house, so that is my goal this weekend, even if it be for a few hours.
Yesterday I finalized a charrette compilation (document breaking down the initial feedback we got from the people living at the site and the work we've done to express those needs). It ending up being 11 pages filled with facts and maps of the site. I was happy because the staff here was pleased with my work, which made me feel good to get off on the right foot, so to speak. The only problem was I finished around 10am, and with nothing else to do (at least nothing I had been told to do), so I was stuck. But right when I came to the realization that I had completed the first bulk of work, Kate was walking outside to go somewhere. I was standing at the front door and asked, "Kate! Where are you going?" She replied, "To a school in downtown Port-au-Prince...want to come?" As soon as she finished the question I ran inside, grabbed my camera and sketchbook and met her at the car. She seemed happy to have someone come along for the ride as well.

We drove to the school, along the way seeing a whole part of the area I was not familiar with yet. She gave me a bit of background info explaining what I was seeing. There still is so much damage in the area, but not as many dilapidated buildings as I expected, just piles of rubble in it's place. We even drove by the Palace (Haitian white house) and there was still SO much damage left. You know a country is hurting if the most prestigious house here looks how it looks 20 months after the quake.

We got to the school, small all girls schools run by the Sisters of Mary. One of the buildings was to be taken down today, actually right now as I write. Workers were removing doors and furniture from the building in prep for the demo. Once again, so cool to go on site and see an area before construction begins, just to gain an understanding of it. Ecole Elie Debois is it's name, and there has been many problems throughout the design process, so during our weekly meeting, the whole staff was pleased to hear there was finally going to be something going on at the site.

After we returned back to the office, we grabbed some lunch and I asked what they needed me to do to finish out the day. Darren gave me the task to fool around with the site plan and come up with some potential ideas for the Villa Rosa project layout I had been working all week on. This was awesome! I got to put on my headphones and bust out some tracing paper and go at it. It brought me back to my studio days. I was able to make some cool decisions based on public walkways and open spaces for the site, and today I began formatting it in Illustrator. Fun stuff, even if it does not work out as I have it. We had our meeting, bringing all the current projects to light. It was great to see the current state of each one, taking notes in my sketchbook. After we touched base with them all, Clio, another volunteer I mentioned before earlier this week, presented where she is at with her thesis project and we all gave her some pointers and suggestions, which helped her out. Then we headed back to the house. Couldn't get online all night, so I just read, then went to bed pretty early to get up this morning.

Since Saturdays are half days, I just worked on where I left off last night until I was called in to create some images for a community charrette set for next Friday at the Santo community. We are currently doing a school and community living quarters (both with support from Ben Stiller's Foundation: Stillerstrong) and a sports complex supported by Nike. The charrette is regarding latrine (toilet) decisions for the people living there. I am going to be designing "playing cards" with imagery to help them decide what system to use. Each card has objects on them which describe a specific aspect of the system, which there are four to choose from: traditional septic or "pit" latrine (just going into the ground) or Happy Hearts (the one I described last week) and Compostera (both being composting systems which require more work but offer up SO many benefits for an environment of this type). We are so used to standard plumbing systems back home it would never work in major U.S. cities, but definitely in rural environments. So that is what I will be doing over the next few working days.

Hope everyone enjoys their Labor day weekend. Unfortunately I can't be BBQ'ing down at the beach or on my deck, rather I will be sweating it up here in the office, working. Which is why I am here, so I can't feel too bad.

Everything is great here! Have a fun time back home...

Villa Rosa

The past two days I have been working non stop on getting maps and imagery going for the Villa Rosa project. As I explained before, Villa Rosa is a neighborhood that is set in the hill side of Haiti a few miles from here and was hit hard by the earthquake last year. The infrastructure of the neighborhood is a disaster, the structures are in terrible shape, and there is no constant running water, electricity and plumbing...which are the basic needs we all have in our homes that these people have as a luxury if things work properly. Shared toilets, no employment, and barely a few square feet to house them. With the work my team and I did Monday, I was able to construct several maps that space out the general problem areas with regards to structural integrity, sanitation, flood zones, drainage, walkable paths, roads, garbage collection areas, public toilets, etc. We had a meeting today with representatives from Build Change (the workers who are doing the calcs and building) and Cordaid (funds) to show them what we did. It looks like this project might be the one I will be on the whole time I am here unless something else happens between now and my departure. There was a schedule/timeline set forward for 6-8 weeks from now, which is about the time I will be here. I will be able to implement the content I have helped collect and put it toward a useful design that can improve up to 10,000 people's lives...super cool! We have another site visit set for Monday to really look into the problem areas which will be the first to be worked on. Should be cool.
Other than that, nothing much new. Same old meals, routine. I must say, though...the little market next door to our office (and I mean little...only two refrigerators and a table) has the best Coca Cola bottles in the world. They come cold enough to have a bit of slushiness to them, but not too cold where they are icy. And no artificial sweeteners, just sugar. From the bottle of an original Coke bottle is just the best. So for everyone assuming there is a lack of resources here, think again...
Since I left the U.S., I have had a problem with the tip of my computer cord not wanting to power my laptop continuously. A couple weeks ago my computer slid off the couch and jammed the cord, thus creating the problem. After that it has been off and on working/not working, so I had to tape it in place to assure constant connection. After that didn't work all that great, I set out to ask anyone if they knew of a cord that was "lying around" that could work. No luck, but Kate, a licensed architect that is a design fellow here, suggested I go to the computer store across the street and ask, which I didn't even know existed. I brought the adapter and damned if they didn't have the proper cord connection I needed to replace for about $10. In Africa, that ain't gonna work...Europe probably not...but in Haiti, I had to walk about 100 feet. Pretty cool and lucky at that.
Glad to hear from many of you that are enjoying my updates and supporting my efforts. I really appreciate all the enthusiasm, it really helps me get through each day. Just having fun making a difference...that's all I am here to do.
Cheers.

First site visit

Yesterday I went to the neighborhood I have been doing research on called Villa Rosa. There are ten separate zones within the area that have been staggered in order of repair. We visited the first of the ten, on the outskirts of the area. I have to say, this was the Haiti I was expecting to see. It was really difficult at times. Trash, rubble, just poor, poor conditions and people all around. The information we took with us was a really helpful scaled map with three different types of structures on it: minor, moderate and severe structural damage dating back to the earthquake 20 months ago. All the structures were well marked, which made it really easy to calibrate where we were. Some of the area still looks like the earthquake just happened a couple days ago. The major items we were looking for dealt with walkable paths, flood zones, drainage direction, water sources, trash collection/compilation areas, basic sanitary stations/toilets (all shared, rare to find and all in alwful condition), schools, businesses, as well as the most strategic places to build certain types of buildings.
It was hot, but because I was expecting it to be, it wasn't that bad. We went around 10am, planning to stay for about an hour. I was to head back with Darren and Nancy, two design fellows, and Rickie and Clio, who both speak French/Creole, were to stay and do some interviews and investigating. Luckily it was decided that I should stay and see more of the site and take copious notes to help with compiling the data later. We ended up being there another four hours! But it was great being able to physically see the site, I always work better seeing things rather than just looking at a map and figuring it out. We collected a lot of info and took many photos. Clio was an interesting person to hang with for the day. She is an intern in her last year of architectural school in France. Her mom is Haitian, her father is French. She was raised in PaP and gave me a unique perspective into the life of someone who had a lot to say about the nation and it's current state all over a cold, 500 mL Coca Cola bottle, my first of the trip.
She told me how sad it is because Haiti is one of the poorest nations in the world, then once the quake hit, tons of foreign add came pouring in. All the people that fled PaP then returned with even more people strictly to benefit from the aid. So instead of just helping the people in need, others that were not affected by the disaster seeked the same as the ones who were. Sad. Over 75% of this country is unemployed, trying to make it off what we consider pocket change. And yet Michael Vick just signed his SECOND $100 million contract of his career to play for the Eagles...wow! So lopsided our world is.
The main sense I got out of this was "Boy, I am SO lucky...". The kids in the states are so spoiled, just wish they could fully comprehend how even the lowest classed households in the U.S. have so much more than these poor people here. But the coolest part to come out of all this? The children. Dozens and dozens of adorable, smiling Haitian kids who look at you with curiosity. Wearing my mirrored sunglasses and being white, I did stick out a bit. The smallest little grin, silly face, or hand gesture I sent their way sent waves of joy over their faces and it was gratifying that the smallest ones living here don't fully understand the situation and therefore can be the most honest and sweet. They can't say they don't have something if they don't know it exists.
After spending the whole day there, we got picked up, taken back to the office, got a very late lunch, and the day was done. I was exhausted from being on my feet all day, on a pretty steep incline mind you, and in the heat. I had enough time to shower (amazing feeling-plus it being rain water temperature), eat dinner, chat with Nicole and head to bed. Slept for ten hours. Glad to see my good sleeping habits have followed me here.
Today, I spent the whole day creating maps in Illustrator, an Adobe program luckily I have on my laptop. I compiled all the content from yesterday and had my first full day of office work, and it went by rather quickly. I finally got some more dollars exchanged to Haitian money. I had only spent $25 this week, but would have bought more at the store Saturday if I had it with me. We ate at Jouly Restaurant again, seems to be a once to twice a week thing. Had another really cold coke bottle, almost a slushy, and wrapped up another day. Another nice evening at the house. Really doing well here. First week is a wrap!