Done!

wow, what a week. totally exhausted, but all houses are up! some are done, some need finishing (i.e. windows/doors installed, etc.), but they are up!

probably some of the hardest physical labor i have ever done, but very gratifying. the carters came to each house at the end of the day, and we turned over the houses to the new owners. an emotional day. here is a pic of president carter at our house.

we are all enjoying a (well deserved) beer with our irish friends from haven partnership. they did a super job of keeping us well fed all week. my hat is off to them.

we are getting up to "good morning vietnam" at 3:00 am for the journey home, four hours from now. i will end tonight with that, but will gather my thoughts and photos when home for a final post.

this is an amazing country with wonderful people. i probably got more from this than the the hatians did, and i hope you all take a minute to learn about the country, and the many ways to help. thanks again for following, and see you all soon!

One more day!

another scorcher today, but more progress. most houses now have a roof on them. one of today's pics shows the progress. busy last day friday. we leav e for the site at 5:45 am. we need to finished by 3:30 for the photos with the carters and new owners. then back to camp for a short sleep. 3:00 am wake up call on saturday for the trip home.

pics above show what the finished homes will look like (when painted), end of the day progress, and a couple of the guys (luc and mark) from a canadian-american contingent that helped with some roofing (thanks guys).

Thursday begins!

a "fairly" quiet evening back at the camp. i think yesterday really drained a lot of people (me included). unfortunately, one of our team had to head back to the usa early. hopefully, we will pick up a few extra bodies today.

attached is a picture of my friends linda and rob. linda is our build leader. she has been great to work with. i wish i had half of her energy......

also pics of our team member karen working on the house, and another of the river we pass every day on the bus ride. you can always see people bathing, doing laundry, etc. more to come!

Another day done!

and a wicked hot one it was. not a cloud in the sky, and basically no breeze. to "top" things off (wait for it....) i was up on the roof most of the day. things are moving along pretty well, but the heat continues to bring people down. the pace was definitely slower today. they say day three is typically the worst. i hope so....

today's pics are just some random photos. school children in their impecable clothes, which in and of itself is amazing. a house detroyed in the quake, abandoned. new haitian president martelly at the build site. i will post more tonight or tomorrow. thanks for reading!

Good progress today

so we were a little behind the 8 ball today. down two people with some health issues. better safe than sorry; it has been really hot! end of day, we caught up to most of the houses.

great night back at camp. a private garth brooks/trisha yearwood concert. i am not the biggest country fan in the world, but the show was great. i have a huge amount of respect for both. no showbiz; they both pound nails with the rest of us. and they served food for dinner! not your typical "a" listers.

off to sleep, but i will try and upload pics in the morning.

lunchtime!

never did i think ham and cheese on bread would taste this good. houses are coming along nicely! third pic is of claudette and willy. he will be the owner of our second house. a family of 5 in a 180 sq ft home.

Start of Day 2!!!

so i have to say, i feel better than expected this morning. slept well, and i don't hurt as much as i thought. good breakfast this morning; bacon and eggs!

lots of heatstroke yesterday. we lost one of our team members to the heat by 9:30am. so we were shorthanded pretty much all day. but we managed.

got to party with garth brooks and trisha yearwood for a bit last night. wonderful people.

attached are a few new "friend" pics from last night. the second is a lovely tarrantula (sp?) that was on the shower wall. only about the size of a softball. yay. off to the work site now. more to follow!