Day 2 to the Present: Quakes and Pains

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Like that title? See what I did there? yep...

On Tuesday I ran around PAP again with the SOIL crew and got to see Route de Freres and Tabarre, which I know well from last summer. The damage was minimal compared to other areas of the city. I also got through to my friend Nathalie, who is now homeless as well.

Marcorel dropped me at the airport where I jumped into a "shuttle" with two other people and the driver. The word "shuttle" brings to mind a van or truck. We got a mid-90's Toyota Camry or something similar. Remember that I alone have 200 lbs of luggage in 5 bags. It was a sweaty ride out to Leogane. I couldn't believe Carrefour. It was more like what I expected PAP to be. By the time we made it to Leogane it was getting pretty dark.

We wandered in during a group meeting, which follows dinner every night. I met a few people, grabbed a bunk, set up my mosquito net, and went to sleep. I got to sleep quickly, despite the standard (in Haiti) roosters crowing and dogs barking/fighting. Some time in the middle of the night I heard a loud noise and crashing things and, still asleep, I thought to myself "What idiot is knocking stuff over." That's when people started yelling "EARTHQUAKE, EARTHQUAKE, EARTHQUAKE!" I'm furthest from the open air part of the building we're staying in so I threw my net over my body and ran to the center. The sound of the train rolling in seemed to stop by the time I made it to the middle.

We all stood in silence under the stars as the dogs began to bark again. After pausing we all headed back to our bunks. That's when I noticed that I slammed my leg into the bunk's ladder, leaving a good scratch on my right leg. The sooner I can get into open air with my tent, the better. These earthquakes are not very strong and not the 37 seconds of the original, but it will be good for peace of mind.

In the morning I was up for my first day of work. We headed down the street to a three story building which collapsed. Rebar juts out at every angle imaginable and the progress looks slow. The 10 of us started working, rotating the shovels, sledge hammers, pick axes, and wheelbarrows of rubble...so basically it's just like my job at Northwestern Mutual.

We dump the rubble on the road outside and are hoping the Canadian military picks it up soon. Children causes problems since they want to get into everything you're doing, but it's quite dangerous for them. Besides the work, we spent a lot of time moving kids out of the way.

One child approached us and told us that two people had been crushed in this building's collapse and that she very nearly had been as well. People were on the third floor and leapt to avoid being crushed, while the two who died were running between buildings toward the road. This will not be the last story like this, but I'm just glad we're not digging anyone out on my first project.

The heat and exhaustion is extraordinary. We discussed medical issues yesterday and today they came into good use. I spotted someone who clearly was not feeling well. At lunch I talked to him, suggested he rest for the afternoon, and then told another (more experienced) person to watch him.

In the post-lunch shift I found the sun to be exhausting and I started taking longer breaks. Joe, a former MP in the Army, had just sat things out for a while and then made me sit down at one point when he saw how red my face was. Once I was sitting I started going through my symptoms. It's great that so many people here have medical experience and are watching out for each other.

Beyond all of that I've been running little errands that require me to slaughter the Haitian language. Hopefully I can work on that. I'm going to go relax and try to upload more photos. Will update soon.

Labels: Haiti, Leogane