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!

Sunday = Nice

Slept in 'til 9:30am, skyped with my mom to wish her a happy birthday and was the head hog cooker for our community breakfast. We had an hour long kitchen festival, cooking potatoes, eggs w/meat and cheese, bacon and sausage (my job), crepes, coffee, juice and bread. Really fun, good way to see everyone in casual clothes all enjoying each others company. After breakfast I had the most wonderful time reading outside during a thunderstorm (my wife would be jealous). We have a six foot awning from one floor to another with a couch, and I sat there for over an hour reading my "Design Like You Give a Damn" book as it rained with thunder cascading through the mountains. Too cool.

Took a nap, really nice day, just relaxing. Showered, dinner, then some of the group decided to go into town to get some ice cream. So I jumped in the car and we sat and socialized at a local restaurant/ice cream shop for about an hour and a half. I tried the coconut cone. We all just got home and I am planning on finishing this, chatting with Nicole, and then going to sleep to prep for tomorrow. My right hand keeps getting picked on. Mosquitos love to bite all my fingers, but only on the right side, strange. So that's a bit annoying. Other than that, no ailments whatsoever. No more pain from my extractions, my ankle seems to have recovered quite nicely from my soccer accident seven weeks ago. All good.
Once again, happy birthday mom! Love you much. Back to the semi-real world tomorrow, maybe with a site visit involved? We shall see.

The Weekend Has Come

Good evening all,
I am sitting in the house common area listening to some music while trying desperately to get an online stream of the Chargers game, to no prevail. No one wants to allow streaming outside the U.S., who knew? So I am just watching the game center updates on nfl.com. Not going to well so far...down 17-3 right now, but it is just preseason. When I was skyping last night with Nicole, I came to a realization: since our internet is so great here at the house, we are going to try to skype the game to me. Nic, being the wonderful wife she is, would position a laptop in front of the tv and voila, live streaming. Hope it works.
Traditionally here at AFH Haiti, Saturdays are half work days. So the mornings are roughly similar to the weekdays, but instead we get out around 1pm and it was a nice change of pace. We went to a local super market, and me being on my budget I am, I purchased bread, cheese, mustard, and locally made peanut butter and apricot jam (not as good as your jam, mom, but still yummy). That was all my Haitian money I had exchanged once getting here, 500 gourde (approx. $13 US). Need to exchange some more. Luckily Sven had picked up a fresh avocado and I got to add that to my mustard and cheese sandwich for lunch!
After lunch, took a nice nap after working on the computer for a bit, then got up and showered before dinner. A few people in the house are huddled around the projector watching a french movie, I don't know which.
Yesterday was a fine day. We worked until 3pm, still doing some background research on the Villa Rosa area we are doing schematics on a community housing project, to allow for a powerpoint presentation from Joe Jenkins. He specializes in human waste composting, which after hearing more about it is a pretty amazing and functional process. The idea has been around for decades but when not properly implemented, it does not work well. His team is here to show it works and to try to get into a school project we are working on right now. After that, we had our Friday team meeting showcasing the major projects being worked on currently and bringing up check lists to be done come next week.
After the meeting, there was a local meet-n-greet which happens the last Friday of each month. We had beer and appetizers as we listened to a local Haitian present 'Haiti Tec', a local business that trains Haitians to use computer software. It was entirely in Creole, the local language here, so it was a bit tough to follow. Little by little members of our group migrated to the front of the office where we began conversing about other projects, life, etc. Good for me to chat with more of the group considering I am still the new guy.
Once the meet-n-greet wrapped up, a few of us went next door to a restaurant and continued to talk about whatever. Considering our meals are paid for at the house AND we have a paid for shuttle service basically, I came back home to eat, change and went back to meet everyone back at the bar. This way I got to save and not spend money on dinner. We hung out there for about another hour, then came home. After chatting with Nicole, I went to bed and got ready for the new day.
Tomorrow is a free day, unsure what I want to do. They say Sunday brunch is something special here, where everyone helps making a meal together and we all socialize, differing from the other mornings where breakfast is left out and people trickle in at their leisure. Should be fun. After that, probably just lay low, do some reading, take it easy. I am really enjoying it here, very well organized and comfortable. Hope anyone I know leaving on the east coast stays safe and dry...good night.

First full day

Today I got up around 6:30am, got dressed and came upstairs to have breakfast which consisted of coffee, toast and watermelon. I met Darren and Rickie, two more members of the team I did not get to cross paths with yesterday. Here is who actually lives in the house:

-Eric (NY), Kate (NY), Darren (Ireland), Gerry (Ireland), and Rickie (NY/London) all work as design fellows or managers here and are long term.

-Ben (NY), Sven (my roommate who moved from NY and is 1/2 German-1/2 Haitian) and me are the only volunteers currently serving. Ben and Sven have each been here a couple of months.

-The rest of the group consists of employees of Inveneo who reside on the middle floor: Andrew, Matt, Sam, and Cybil. They are independantly here but rent rooms in the house. Each floor is pretty much three times the size of my apartment back home times four floors. Nuts.

We catch a ride at 7:30am sharp to the office where we spend 8-5 working w/a lunch break. Today I was told how to use the Open Architecture Network, which is this huge file sharing program and online storage space that allows anyone around the world to share files such as CAD, Revit, Sketch-up, PDFs and JPEGs. This is great because it benefits people who do not have the time nor the resources to produce architectural drawings from scratch and it gives them an opportunity to save all the effort and money to acquire them. I am going to be uploading images and files to this network eventually once I get a handle for what I am doing.

After meeting with Darren for a while and checking out the OAN, I was given the task to research a site that just began schematic design in a slum on the eastern side of PaP, called Villa Rosa. I was sent a group of links to investigate anything that might help prior to getting too involved in design, but there were internet problems throughout the day, which caused me to not have the resources I needed to do my work, which was a bit frustrating. I spent the down time just reading word and PDF files for other projects, then once the net was back up I got back into the research.

Next problem: it was damn impossible to find anything about the site. So, I spent all day in and out of being online without accomblishing much. Kind of an anti-climactic day, but not all days will be glamorous and fun. We have a weekly meeting tomorrow so I can learn more about the other projects going on now and hear from the rest of the group.

For lunch I went about half a block from the office to a little place with Rickie and three folks that work for EVE, a construction developement company whose offices are on the second floor of the office building. I had a typical dish: rice, plantains, avocado and chicken, very good. All for about 100 gourde ($2.50 in the states). After we got home, I went straight to sleep for a couple of hours until getting up for dinner: lasagne, rice, veggies and beef.

All and all, things are great here. Comfortable weather, just making sure to keep my bug spray close by. The mystery bites on my thumb have now swollen up reather substantially to the point I think a spider must have liked me a lot yesterday during my nap. Kate was nice and gave me some benadryl lotion and pills to try to tame that. There is a community dog living here name Chance, super sweet, helping me cope with not having my pets around. She's white and brown, built like a collie, but smaller.

Probably go to bed soon, get some more rest. No plans for the weekend, we shall see what presents itself.

Cheers,

First evening

I have gotten a chance to nap (a lot), get my first misquito bites (before installing my handy net over my bunk) and check out the place I will be living over the next eight and a half weeks. The house here is HUGE, four stories with living quarters mixed within. I am rooming with Sven, a German/Haitian guy about my age volunteering from New York, on the bottom floor. The hosue is placed on this picturesque hillside with vegetation surrounding it, beautiful. It gets dark around 6:30pm (2 hours ahead of San Diego) and there are sounds of frogs and crickets cascading all around, drowning out the noise of the vehicles passing by. It is impossible to get here without having 4 wheel drive since the road is on such a steep incline and it usually pretty damp and has it's share of giant pot holes. There is a substantial sized wall surrounding the house with an armed guard patrolling the gate 24/7, which is a nice comfort. The internet is extremely reliable, which is a major bonus. I was able to skype with Nicole for over a half an hour and only had one glitch, pretty cool. Just got to take my first cold shower and get changed for the evening, nice and comfortable temperatures. All the doors and windows stay open pretty much open, so we have to apply DEET all day to prevent getting eaten alive.
The meal that was served tonight mimicked the Mama Jamaicas catering dishes we had last week for my going away party: rice and beans, bbq chicken, sliced avocado, brocolli and salad. My breakfasts and dinners each day are prepped at the house, and lunch will be picked up in town during our work breaks. $25 a week for two meals a day, not too shabby!
So, I am going to be starting work tomorrow at the office, which is just a few miles away but is more than twenty minute drive with the congestion in town. We all leave together at 7:30am, private drivers escort us every where. I am excited to learn what projects I will be a part of and go over the standards they have here. Received my architecture for humanity email address, so am an official member of the team now.
This seems to be a really amazing situation. Everyone here is passionate about architecture and applying that trade toward helping others rebuild here responsibly and with sensibility to the needs of the Haitian people. I love it, can't wait to get started...

I have arrived

Greetings friends and family,

After a long duration of traveling, I have reached my destination of Port-au-Prince, Haiti! I stupidly did not write down the address of the house, knowing I was going to be picked up at the airport by a representative of AFH, figuring I did not need to know it. Once I realized there was a slot for me to write the address to where I was staying in Haiti, I had nothing to write down and customs did not let me pass. However, they let me go outside the airport to find Jimmy, the driver, to ask the address. That was a bit of a heart thumping moment every step I took away from the exit doors, being bombarded by “helpers” and cab drivers. They held onto my passport in the customs office, so I was a bit worried until I saw a man holding a sign “Brandon H. AFH”. Phew. I got the address, went back in and got stamped and left.

The drive from the airport was interesting, slow and steady, tents, trash, dilapidated buildings and people everywhere. It took about 45 minutes to reach the office and that is where I currently am right now. Just met the “team”, a hodgepodge of people from all over the world, and I am about to have my first orientation in about an hour. The weather is surprisingly cool but humid. No rain but clouds. Just fine. Probably going to grab a bite to eat after orientation and it sounds like it’s straight to work. After the past couple of days of prepping for the trip and traveling, I have only had a total of about eight hours of sleep the past 72 hours, so my eyes really want to seal shut for bit, but I understand if I have to wait until later today to do so.

Love you all, just wanted to give a quick update to let you all know I am fine here to start my two month adventure!