I talked to Amber on skype tonight and she told that she has been forwarding this to everybody, so I will be a little more general this time.
We got the roof completed today by lunch and then we took the rest of the day off. We worked 8 1/2 days straight in the hot sun and one of the SP staff guys wanted to take us to a waterfall this afternoon. John and I overheard Kathy and one of the other girls talking about going to one of the sites where SP is building the temporary shelters and they were going to distribute clothes, toys, and candy to the kids. We decided that we could see a waterfall anytime back home and we would rather go with the girls. Bob, pavel and tonys brother ended up coming with us too. The homes they are building are not much, its basically 4 walls, a tin roof, a dirt floor, and they wrap the whole structure with tarps. They are meant to be temporary, 2 year homes, for people who were displaced in the earthquake. They actually go through an application process to decide who gets one and who doesn't, there goal is to have 10,000 done by August and then they aren't going to be building anymore.
It was nice to get a break from the work and actually get to see some of Haiti. The particular site we went to wasn't too far from the compound but driving there makes mexico look nice. It is sad to see how poor and dirty it actually is. At first we thought SP temporary homes were pretty sad but after seeing most of the shanty's that the rest of the people live in, you realize these aren't too bad. It was hard to see the kids, a lot of them had little to no clothing, some of them were probably 5-7 years old and only wearing a tshirt with no underwear or shorts, if they were lucky enough to have shoes, they didn't fit right. It was cool to be along, it gave me a glimpse of what it must be like when they distribute the christmas shoeboxes we do. Most of the toys the kids got were your typical dollar store junk, and they each only got 2-3 toys, but they acted like it was christmas morning. One of the staff guys, who happens to be a haitian national, played the guitar and led the kids in some worship songs, it was pretty cute, they all got really excited and started dancing, singing, and clapping. I think after we saw this, it helped us see the bigger picture. Even though we are building a house for an american family, we are helping an organization that is building shelters for 10000 families, and currently employing over 400 haitians. They are doing an incredible job here.
One of the things that was hard to understand was when we were done, most of them kept asking for more, if you pull out a bottle of water for yourself, 20 people start saying give me water, they all asked for more toys, one kid even came up to me and pavel and told pavel give me your shoes (john told me I wouldn't have to worry because there aren't any haitian kids that can fit into my shoes). We learned from others experience that it is there culture and everything has been so ingrained in them that the only way they are going to survive is by looking out for themselves, if they don't ask they they might not receive but if they push, they might stand a chance. On one hand you feel as if they are unappreciative but on the other hand, you can't blame them. It is a tough place, I was looking on the internet the other night reading some articles and I came across one that said the average life expectancy here is 53 because the life is so hard and it is basically survival of the fittest. Death is so common here that they don't regard life as we do. We have heard so many stories that would shock our culture but to them its just the normal. 2 weeks ago, one of the day workers here went home and refused to share his money with his family so they took machettes to him and killed him. They talk about death like we talk about going to work. When there are car accidents, there are always multiple deaths, its no surprise because when you see the buses going down the road, the inside is usually packed and then there are ususally 5-10 more people on the roof and I have even seen some hanging off the ladder on the rear. In the last 2 days, 4 people have died on the road within 1 mile of our front gate. I also found out on 1 of the internet sites that a lot of the mass gravesites from the earthquake are right around where we are staying because its out in the country more, we are about 30 minutes from port au prince.
We are all counting down the hours now, we only have to make the walk down to the jobsite one more time. Tomorrow we are only working until lunch time and then we are going to the hotel. We will eat lunch, pack up, and that will be it for us. The facility has been great, the food is way better than we expected, the staff has been a lot of fun and extremely hospitable, and there is a pool on the site. Even with all this, we are spent, we found out the hotel has AC so we are all looking forward to hanging out on Monday and doing nothing. If I had my way, I would head from lunch tomorrow straight to American Airlines. When I talked to Cole tonight, I asked him to give Chase a raspberry for me, as he went to do it, I heard amber saying Cole, you are showing everybody my underwear. I also asked him if brother is getting bigger and he answered yep daddio, mommys getting fatter now. I miss you guys more than I know how to tell you. I can't wait to talk to you in person and wrap my arms around you. I love you. Thank you for all of your prayers, I know everyone in our group is grateful.
Dustin
Safety 1st!
These are the completed project for the biggest and littlest campers!!
Ready Aim Fire! Hey! Aim inside the picture....not outside! Oh and looking at your shirt totally helps! Travis won target practice... The little ones were too busy giggling and talking to eachother ;) Too stinking cute. They wanted to wear their shirts as soon as they were dry. Be sure to wash them before you let you little loves wear them.
Prepped and ready for blasting!
Thanks Jenny for the Spiffy cartridge! We are totally putting it to use this week!
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