Back With The Crew, Roofing In the Rain

For the first time it was a cloudy morning that greeted us as we headed to the job site. No eye care today. I was with the rest of the team on the construction site putting the roof on to the house before going to the Batay of Los Union for a food distribution program. It was a gentle rain the fell and it was actually a nice break from the burning sun. I know, my friends and family back home in -22C winter don't want to hear me complaining that it is too hot.
At the site, we divided into a few different groups to work on different houses in different stages of completion. Some worked on painting, some worked on re-bar, some worked on the roof

Geoff was excited to try and do some of the electrical installing

His first instinct was to do a really good job but realized for the local worker that took too long and he was just wasting time!

Karen painting doors

Arnie and Dennis getting as much done as possible before the rain came again.

Paul framing the roof.

Sheet metal goes on.

 

and I was with the group that was pouring cement to put the top header on a house.

Arie mixing the cement.

I thought that block felt heavier than the others! Yup, That was where my hand was.

Our skilled leader was Rudolpho, who worked at the top of the latter as our bucket brigade handed pail after pail of mecla(cement). It was a great system and the local men are always surprised to see a woman lifting the pails and blocks just as the men do. We kept a good pace until Rudolpho handed me the empty pail and I realised that I didn't have another full one to give him and no one to pass the bucket to. I excused myself to find out what had happened to the rest of the team only to discover them all distracted by a bunch of butterflies. Seriously. How was I going to explain this? Loco gringos! We worked until 1pm then headed to lunch at a local restaurant.

That's right we ate local today. Stopped in town at place that John & Jane, the Samaritan Foundation directors eat at regularly. We were treated to an amazing buffet.

Ishcar, our translator this week offered to tell us what everything was but I chose instead just to go with an open mind and not know what I was eating. It was great! Chicken, fried & grilled, yucca, sweet potato, beans with pumpkin, coleslaw all for about 100 pesos or $3 CND

and my first Coke of the week but only because it was in a glass bottle.

After lunch, we drove to the batay of Los Union. A batay is a Haitian swatter community. They don't own the land but over time they have built huts and houses there. However, at anytime, the government could come and just move them out and raze the buildings.

Main St in Los Union

Typical neighborhood street

Field across from the school

This does happen even to batays that have been there for generations. They are the poorest of the poor, farm animals grazing between the tightly packed shanties.

There is nothing that can describe the conditions of these communities. A truck arrived with 125lb bags of rice, beans, salt and sugar, packages of pasta and oil all paid for by the donations that our team had raised before leaving Canada and purchased locally. We then had to divide the bulk items into 200 individual shopping bags that would be a week's worth of staple food for 1 family.

Families in the community had been given tickets and would be lining up and trading tickets for the bags. Once we had the bags ready, we prepared for the distribution. Crowds had already started to gather and it was started to get a little crazy.

We had to have 4 people guard the entrance and hold back people pushing forward. People were shouting and butting in line. We had to ensure that only people who had tickets got a bag, only 1 bag per family and that it was fair and orderly. Amongst the chaos there was grace. It was sad that a few people tried to break the system and cheat but generally there was order. A lot were truly grateful and didn't just take the bag but offered a Gracias for the gift. Our team was available to help people carry their bags home and were invited in. The most unfortunate thing was that one of the local pastors had gotten married that week and in the excitement of the celebration had forgotten to give out some of the tickets. They were in his home and so some families were going to have to wait until tomorrow to get tickets and get their bags. I'm sure for those people a day will seem like forever and I hope this small mistake doesn't take away the joy of the Pastor's wedding celebration. We got back to the hotel a little early tonight and so Layn and I finally had a chance to relax down at the beach before dinner. We splashed in the waves.

She laughed as I worked on my perfect self portrait and it was nice just to have a few minutes to myself. Tomorrow is the second eye clinic and it will be at the AshFord school in Los Union. I am looking forward to seeing if it will very different from the first day. I will have 2 different team mates with me and we are taking local transportation both ways. Another day, another adventure.