It was just what we had been hoping for: a way to help Haiti's long-delayed rebuilding efforts after the January 2010 earthquake. The opportunity came with an invitation from friends at the East King County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. The 28th annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project was going to Haiti in early November, and there were two available volunteer slots. We signed up and soon were deep into preparations: shots for typhoid, pills for malaria, breathable shirts for the heat. Habitat provided packing suggestions, travel arrangements and Haiti history briefings.
We learned that Haiti had the first successful slave revolution, overthrowing its French oppressors in 1804. The U.S. and France promptly imposed an embargo on Haitian exports, driving the new nation into poverty. France demanded costly reparations from the Haitians for their freedom - a debt that took a century to repay. During much of the 20th century, Haiti endured corrupt and brutal regimes that the U.S. often supported, fearing the spread of communism in the Caribbean. Years of thuggery and thievery had broken the country, leaving it poorly prepared for the earthquake. This year, Haiti elected a new president, Michel Martelly, and hopes are high that his government can restore Haiti.
Nervous with anticipation, we flew from Atlanta with the other volunteers, including Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. We arrived at the Port-au-Prince airport where charter buses took us through the devastated city to our camp in Léogâne, near the epicenter of the earthquake. The bus trip - 20 miles on roughly paved roads - took over two hours. Views from the bus were appalling: unrelenting vistas of damaged buildings, trash and rubble, people bathing in dirty streams, ragged, makeshift tents jammed in every available space. We wept silently as a half-naked boy standing on a pile of rubble waved and smiled at us. Crowds of people made their way to open-air markets with bundles on their heads. Tiny curbside businesses were everywhere, selling vegetables and used clothing, offering an air pump for flat tires, "tap-taps," Haiti's colorfully painted buses jam-packed with passengers.
Home for the week was a large camp, where the volunteers slept in mosquito-netted tents and lined up for slow-drip cold showers after a long day's work - but, unlike the citizens of Haiti, we found daily respite in our dining hall's luxuries - air conditioning, coffee, hearty meals and WiFi.
Monday brought an early wake-up call, and we wondered how 400 people like us would build 100 houses by Friday. Our team of nine was to build two of the simple, but rugged, houses.
First, we erected pre-fabricated walls above the sturdy foundations prepared by previous volunteers. By Friday, we had hoisted gables and trusses atop the walls, secured them with hurricane clips and added an insulation layer and sheet-metal roofing. We put up siding and trim and hung shutters and doors, sweating profusely, guzzling water, fighting exhaustion and banged-up thumbs. Working quietly alongside us in the 90-plus degree heat were Pasqualle and Rosamine, single mothers and soon-to-be neighbors, owners of their 200-square-foot, two-room houses, quite likely the nicest places either of them had ever lived in. Each morning enroute to the worksite, we passed a schoolyard, where carefully groomed boys and girls waved to us - they are the future of Haiti.
Our team was a mix of the skilled and not so skilled (like us). Soon, we all found how best to help one another - with a building task, but also by listening with compassion to a personal situation, controlling frustration when things went awry, leaning in and doing what was needed when it just got overwhelming. At the end of our work week, one of our teammates, a Haitian émigré living in Connecticut, generously gave his tools to a Haitian friend, who thanked him and said, "Now I can earn enough to feed my family."
We learned some invaluable life lessons in Haiti: When you feel your heart stirred, respond and do not be afraid; love people you do not know (advice by Garth Brooks, another Habitat volunteer); shelter is a family's most important asset and is pivotal to their post-disaster recovery.
Habitat for Humanity will continue its commitment to the Haitian people, fulfilling its goals of building 500 homes in Léogâne by the end of 2012 and serving 50,000 Haitian families with shelter solutions over the next 5 years.
ABOUT WINDOW ON MY WORLD
Window On My World is an occasional essay in Monday's Bellingham Herald that allows Whatcom County residents to share their passion for what they do, an idea or cause they support. Send your Window On My World, which must be no more than 700 words, to Julie.shirley@bellinghamherald.com.
