Haiti Blog

Alternative spring break in Haiti

April 11
Lindsay Long, Fuller Center volunteer

In March, a group of ten University of Cincinnati students took part in an Alternative Spring Break service trip to Haiti. A first for all of us, this trip was organized through an on campus organization that provides alternative winter and spring break trips, Serve Beyond Cincinnati (SBC).

Our group arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday March 19th and got settled in for our stay at a secured compound in the city ran by the Jesuit ministry Foi et Joie, translated as "Faith and Joy". After having dinner, the team spent the evening getting to know more about the country and the upcoming presidential election. We rode in the "tap tap" everywhere each day and that was an adventure in itself! On Sunday, election day, we went to a beach called Paradise Island; afterwards, we drove through the city and saw the devastation the 2010 January earthquake caused the city, including the collapsed Presidential palace. It was clear to all of us already that there was a great amount of uncertainty in the country and we had to be flexible throughout the trip.

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Serving in Haiti

April 11
Lane Hart, Fuller Center volunteer

We made it back to the US Saturday evening and headed downtown in NYC for dinner and to hang out since we had a 12-hour layover at JFK. Some of our team members hadn’t seen Times Square, so we stopped in and had dessert at Planet Hollywood (tourist, I know, but a cool way to wrap up the trip). Ended up getting a hotel room and squeezing all 10 of us inside…despite crammed quarters, it beat sleeping on the airport floor again!

This trip was an eye-opening experience from two aspects: being a trip leader and the poverty in Haiti. After planning the trip since last year, it was cool to see everything in motion and all of the team members enjoying themselves. After the earthquake last year, I read about the issues with infrastructure and homelessness in Haiti, but it couldn’t hit home until all of my senses were bombarded with the reality of the dusty streets. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, so there were a lot of issues even before the earthquake. As I mentioned before, everyone still marches on and is working toward making their country a better place for future generations.

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New construction and partnerships

Feb. 28

It's been a while since our last update from Haiti. Things have moved slowly over the past few months, due to the issues surrounding the tumultuous presidential elections here. We are excited to report that things are back in full swing now though, and this week marks the beginning of construction on a new community project near Leogane in Gressier! This development is being built in partnership with an organization called Grace International, and the site will include 75 houses.

Construction on the very first house began this week, and we look forward to filling the site with Fuller Center homes over the coming months. The families receiving these homes have been living in a tent camp since the earthquake, and they look forward to getting out of their tents and tarps and into real houses.

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Finding hope in Haiti

Feb. 24
Bill Dowling, Fuller Center volunteer

Yesterday we poured the footer so there is an actual outline of a building.  Today, the walls will start going up.  It should be a good day.

We live in a protected world here. The Grace International facility where we are staying is surrounded by a high wall with security guards who keep us in and the natives out, although we can look out into the tent camp.  We travel to the work site in the Blue Cage, feeling safe but a bit isolated. However, we see the broad range of Haitian life. The trip is short, maybe 15 minutes, but each drive we see new things. We are reminded that Haiti has many problems:

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"God is in our midst"

Feb. 23
Maureen Webber, Fuller Center volunteer

Three more nights and we’ll be on our way home.  The roosters have been in a competition over who has the best wakeup call for over an hour.  And soon after they start, the city below our window begins to stir. I hear the hum of 15,000 voices waking up to a new day: men, women, children, and babies.  I also hear the horns of the “tap taps” (brightly colored trucks that people ride to get around), motorcycles, small cars and big trucks in the distance on the highway. 

Today’s goals are to drop the cages into the trenches, secure them together, set up the 4′ “L” shaped ribar and secure them to the cages, so the long arm of the ribar sticks up.  Then, we’ll start mixing the concrete, and using a bucket brigade, pour the footer. 

Half of us worked at the trench this a.m. while the other half finished the cages that will sit on top of the walls and offer support for the roof– this in the shade of a stand of trees.  The cages are in place in the trenches and the “L” shaped ribar secured as hoped.  Plywood pieces had to be placed in the trenches as spacers and to help hold the cement in place when it is poured.  You see, we had to do quite a bit of digging yesterday to make the corners square and adjust the dimensions pretty significantly.  Garison hired some extra help for the trench work today, and 3 masons arrived to give a hand with pouring the footer, too, two of whom were women! 

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