Life at the HODR-base is like a cross-between summer-camp and housing cooperatives. Every night has a meeting, things are done by more or less consensus voting... and yet chocolate is traded for shampoo, and after curfew people have to whisper and sneak around with flashlights. Last night I slept like a baby under my bug-net (gifted to me) in one of the bunks downstairs.
I was originally signed up for Timber in the morning, and Saturday playtime with Kids in the afternoon, but I ended up being tasked to Timber all day. This was my second day working with Stephanie, and Gilbert, who the previous night taught me some more Creole while we cleaned dishes.
Our task was to pick up timber at the Canadian base, and bring it back to the HODR camp to use on various projects. Riding on the top of the 'tap taps' (sorta out-rigged pickups) is really nice because you get to see much of Leogane with a wonderful breeze while the kids shout 'Hey You'! (more about that later). The base was quite impressive- not in its infrastructure (of tents and shipping-container units), but for its amount and complex heavy-machinery.
The base really spoiled a few of us in the canteen with COLD pineapple+mango juice with FROZEN pieces of orange! I was like "Is this really happening right now?!?!?!" NOM NOM NOM. But yeah, myself and Mathew (pronounced in FR/CN "Matt-tew") talked about bass guitars (and he showed me his beater that he brought). Also we received a slightly torn, but 50ft sq., camo-net which I sewed back together to possibly provided more shade at our base. Steph, Brian, and I worked diligently and strategically for 1 hr on this project, but sadly the imitation p-cord snapped when pulling on the last of the four corners above the courtyard. Tomorrow perhaps.
Also, Mark (the head of Project Leogane) bought 8,400 bags of tea today, in addition to a $19k generator to hopefully improve our base (which will become a base to also be used by the WFP and other NGO's). So if you wanna donate, you can here. Saturday has snuck up on many of us, but I nonetheless took a more thorough bucket-shower than normal, and will go for a walk and a refreshment with a few volunteers soon.
3 comments:
Glad to see you are using your carpentry skills. Thanks for the great pictures and informative blog and of course fulfilling the Mandatory request! You make a Mother proud :-)
Super proud of you Andy. Keep the blog going. I am a follower.
Andy......you are an amazing young man. So many people talk about doing something, but you do. The world needs more of you. I'll be following along on your journey. I'm proud to know you.
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