Wednesday 7 July

Hey guys, I've been here a week already, awesome. The groundhog day routine of eat, work, drink, eat drink, work, eat, drink, shower, read, fall asleep.... means the time flies by although as you can see I'm picking up the local lingo.

Sunday gave me a bit of a chance to venture out of the compound to see more of Leogane, partly to avoid the enthusiastic Independence Day celebrations by the US contingent: "Star Spangled Banner at 7am, American "sports" all day, pig roasted in a pit (skipped that, but the potato salad was good) followed by a lively evening until the generator shut down (10pm every night).

The damage to houses, public buildings, roads, drainage etc still astounds me. The only public space, a small park in the centre has been ruined by emergency activity and one of HODR starting projects is to facilitate a clean up and replanting exercise. Most people are still living in temporary accommodation - tents, lean-tos, corrugated iron shacks, some still in the road. Those houses that are still safe to occupy have damage which leaves them vulnerable to the frequent heavy downpours.

But life goes on. It's always surprising to see schoolchildren and young women beautifully dressed in bright and clean clothes in poorer countries, but particularly here. I don't know how their mothers manage that. There are lots of small roadside businesses - clothes, food, tarpaulin "cinemas" (a DVD player and TV with a few chairs) and a popular lottery. And as always there are people making real money out of the situation. Anyone with a JCB is making a mint.

Every day I seem to hear about some new projects going on. There are 2 demonstration composting toilets on site and the Haitians are being shown how to build them and the benefits. There is also an English engineer volunteer who is training locals in assessing the state of houses and giving the owners advice on what to do next.

Monday to today I have stayed on the kindergarten project which we should finish tomorrow. This morning's team of 12 represented 8 different countries: US, Ireland, England, Israel, Haiti, Slovenia, Oz and NZ. Jack, our grizzled Vietnam vet ex- courtroom lawyer and regular leader had to miss this morning. He was bitten by a spider in his tent on Monday night and had a growing blister on his hand by the end of yesterday. They cut it off in the local hospital and he was back this afternoon. Moral: forget the tent option, take a top bunk (see above).



More tomorrow, internet access permitting. Frequent thunderstorms knock it out from time to time. Any questions? I'll be testing you when I get back.