Haiti Day 5: Monday

Let’s see: more rubbling today! Today I did a full day of rubble removal at the same site that I was at on Saturday. Most people like to rotate around removal sites so they can get a feel for everything, but I honestly feel attached to this one property. I want to see it done! It’s one of the largest projects we have, so it’s taken a lot longer to accomplish than some of the other sites. Highlights of the day: removing about 7 or 8 stuffed animals (including a giant dog that had been suffocated by the dining room table) and salvaging some of the wooden furniture that we removed. I’ll have to admit that I have a love and hate relationship with the wheelbarrows. See, they’re really difficult. Once the pile of rubble that we’re dropping stuff at starts getting really high, a couple of guys start pounding a little path into it so we can get the wheelbarrow all the way to the top and unload it there. Well, these spaghetti arms of mine are ok hauling a wheelbarrow across tiny wooden ramps across trash infested canals, thinking everytime that this is the time I’m going to drop one of our precious wheelbarrows into it. What I’m not ok with: looking at a giant mountain of rubble and thinking I have to push this wheelbarrow all the way up. And I can’t. I made it half way, then about three fourths of the way, but never to the top. My hope is that by Friday I’ll have enough muscle built up that I can make it ;) So where does the love of the wheelbarrow come in? I’ve always thought bruises are kind of cool, the more colorful the better. And boy, these wheelbarrows sure know how to make some good bruises! My right knee is pretty much a black and blue mess. And I’m quite proud of it.

We went to Joe’s again, but this time I actually had a purpose other than having a beer. When we were getting a ride back home on Sunday from the UN folk, one of the Haitian guides was talking to me about his immigration issues, and how he hasn’t seen his kids in three years and all this other stuff. So I offered to take a look at the paperwork that he has, and he promised to come today after 7 pm. I never specified a time, other than after 7, so that was my bad. But he never showed. Today he found me right as we were loading onto our tap-tap, and he told me he had come to look for me but we were in a meeting. Yes, we were. I’m in a meeting every night from 6pm up to about 645. Hence why I told him to come after 7. But alas, he has promised to come today. This time I was more specific and told him to come between 7 and 8. He told me he’d be here at 8. We’ll see if I get stood up again :)