- Joined
- Mar 15, 2010
- Messages
- 903
hey everyone, if you noticed i haven't posted for a week, it's because i just got back from port a prince, haiti, building 24 bunk beds and other things. i had intended to get on and post pictures just now, but my camera is not in my bag... it went home with my dad. so anyways, i decided to heads-up you for some pictures of my experience!! it was humbling, and sad, but it was good for me to be there. i will go back --as soon as i can-- hopefully before december to build a house around a cement block making machiene, to shield the workers from the sun. i don't watch the news because it is always just sad, so this experience was like another world for me. for those of you like me who don't know haiti's condition, there are problems upon problems in haiti, beginning with the government and working your way down. you cannot get a contract for anything anywhere, but if you can, the contract holder can do anything he/she wants at any time of his/her choosing... basically making a contract a worthless piece of paper. an orphanage that we worked at had paid someone to put in a well, and the workers put a well in. however, they neglected to ever show up halfway through and left out about 20ft of pvc piping and a submersible pump to make the well actually bring water anywhere! so we went to echo depot (home depot) and spent $2,500 US DOLLARS on some electrical wire, pvc pipe, some elbows and joints, and a very very small submersible pump.
and got the well working. the plumbing in haiti (if you have it) works on gravity, so the orphanage that housed 72 children had a cistern on the top of the house and they hauled up water from a two story building every day in 5 gallon buckets because there was nothing else they could do.
people are afraid to re build, because almost no one owns the house in which the reside, and they are afraid if they even had the money to rebuild (which i believe it is safe to say that less than 10% of them actually do) then the owner of the house will simply oust them out to someone who will pay more for a secure house. tent cities are still thriving with people, where they were supposed to only last weeks.
the government is still inspecting housing, green paint means you're good to go, yellow there are some concerns, and red means don't move back in.
haitian money is called groud (pronounced gooood) and there are about 40 groud in 1 us dollar. most haitians make 1 us dollar a day. the minimum wage is supposed to be 5 us dollars, but the government does nothing to enforce this. can you imagine trying to support your family and your children on one us dollar a day? it is impossible, even for the haitians. i met a man named anthony who actually graduated their college (basically it is13th grade there, called fine, pronounced fy-nye) and he barely was able to get a job. he graduated with agriculture, because the people in haiti do not even know that cow poop makes your crops grow. the soil is depleted and no one can afford to rotate fields and no one knows how to replentish their soil.
the biggest problem that i saw in haiti is ignorance. the people there don't know the most basic things. i was with a man named harry who is a doctor, who went down a week before i did and had the honor of being invited to teach the last week of schooling for 24 nurses who graduated on september 5th. these 24 nurses honestly believed that if you drink a glass of very very cold water after you have sex then you will not get pregnant because the water will freeze the sperm. they also believed that pressing on your stomach when the man ejaculates will prevent the sperm from reaching the egg. they also believe that if you sit in a bowl of crushed lavender leaves and warm water the lavender leaves will kill the sperm. i find it hard to understand that they cannot figure out that these methods are not working.... however, most families in haiti are upwards of 6 children, i met one man who had 8 brothers and sisters, and another man who had 9 children. this is obviously where one reason that overpopulation and lack of jobs, and poverty and inability to feed your family comes in. most educated people understand the need for small families however, and the need to be able to support your family before you have one, so i did meet some people who only had two children, or who only wanted to have three children... &etc.
however there is something worse than knowing that there is a need somewhere, because we as americans like to send money that way and say we helped. money won't help the haitians. most of it just ends up going to the richer while the poor are worse off than they were before... haiti needs action! i went with hope for haiti's children, an organization that has been in port a prince for 15 years, and they have plans that have been in motion since before i came down there that actually involves action... they're getting a concrete block making machiene to provide jobs for unemployed haitians, and allowing them to build houses for their families with the blocks they are making, on the land that hope for haiti's children owns, so they cannot just get kicked out. they're informing the haitians they work with about basic knowledge and skills to help them out of poverty.
haiti was a terrable place before the earth quake, and it is worse now, but it is easy for us to forget what happened less than a year ago. there are people who will go hungry tonight, all over the world. i am trying not to make this sound like i'm scolding anyone or making anyone feel sad, but it is just simply the truth, and before this week it was so easy for me personally to know that fact and move on. but there is a need, if you have a heart for haiti or somewhere besides haiti, please just remember, someone somewhere could use a little something! pics coming soon!
and got the well working. the plumbing in haiti (if you have it) works on gravity, so the orphanage that housed 72 children had a cistern on the top of the house and they hauled up water from a two story building every day in 5 gallon buckets because there was nothing else they could do.people are afraid to re build, because almost no one owns the house in which the reside, and they are afraid if they even had the money to rebuild (which i believe it is safe to say that less than 10% of them actually do) then the owner of the house will simply oust them out to someone who will pay more for a secure house. tent cities are still thriving with people, where they were supposed to only last weeks.
the government is still inspecting housing, green paint means you're good to go, yellow there are some concerns, and red means don't move back in.
haitian money is called groud (pronounced gooood) and there are about 40 groud in 1 us dollar. most haitians make 1 us dollar a day. the minimum wage is supposed to be 5 us dollars, but the government does nothing to enforce this. can you imagine trying to support your family and your children on one us dollar a day? it is impossible, even for the haitians. i met a man named anthony who actually graduated their college (basically it is13th grade there, called fine, pronounced fy-nye) and he barely was able to get a job. he graduated with agriculture, because the people in haiti do not even know that cow poop makes your crops grow. the soil is depleted and no one can afford to rotate fields and no one knows how to replentish their soil.
the biggest problem that i saw in haiti is ignorance. the people there don't know the most basic things. i was with a man named harry who is a doctor, who went down a week before i did and had the honor of being invited to teach the last week of schooling for 24 nurses who graduated on september 5th. these 24 nurses honestly believed that if you drink a glass of very very cold water after you have sex then you will not get pregnant because the water will freeze the sperm. they also believed that pressing on your stomach when the man ejaculates will prevent the sperm from reaching the egg. they also believe that if you sit in a bowl of crushed lavender leaves and warm water the lavender leaves will kill the sperm. i find it hard to understand that they cannot figure out that these methods are not working.... however, most families in haiti are upwards of 6 children, i met one man who had 8 brothers and sisters, and another man who had 9 children. this is obviously where one reason that overpopulation and lack of jobs, and poverty and inability to feed your family comes in. most educated people understand the need for small families however, and the need to be able to support your family before you have one, so i did meet some people who only had two children, or who only wanted to have three children... &etc.
however there is something worse than knowing that there is a need somewhere, because we as americans like to send money that way and say we helped. money won't help the haitians. most of it just ends up going to the richer while the poor are worse off than they were before... haiti needs action! i went with hope for haiti's children, an organization that has been in port a prince for 15 years, and they have plans that have been in motion since before i came down there that actually involves action... they're getting a concrete block making machiene to provide jobs for unemployed haitians, and allowing them to build houses for their families with the blocks they are making, on the land that hope for haiti's children owns, so they cannot just get kicked out. they're informing the haitians they work with about basic knowledge and skills to help them out of poverty.
haiti was a terrable place before the earth quake, and it is worse now, but it is easy for us to forget what happened less than a year ago. there are people who will go hungry tonight, all over the world. i am trying not to make this sound like i'm scolding anyone or making anyone feel sad, but it is just simply the truth, and before this week it was so easy for me personally to know that fact and move on. but there is a need, if you have a heart for haiti or somewhere besides haiti, please just remember, someone somewhere could use a little something! pics coming soon!
