that's what mees said.

day two

The build today felt a lot harder than yesterday. It was hotter, and the tasks we needed to complete were more tedious. We spent most of the morning moving scaffolding in and out and around the houses, and trying to pound nails into brackets with holes that were too small. Someone told me to just focus on moving the nail just a little bit with every swing instead of expecting to do it all in a few strokes. That helped a lot. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to get some nails into the damn hurricane clips (and a few bruised fingers).

The afternoon picked up, after we ate our lunch in our bus to cool down. Alice, Fontaine, and I took over the roofing tasks for one side of the house. This was my favorite part of the Thailand build too — it requires more communication and measurement than brute force (thank god).

The president of Haiti came by the site today. We saw a lot of men in suits and a big entourage of black SUVs. Unfortunately we weren’t VIP enough to meet him in person haha.

Fontaine and I are also getting quite good at spotting the secret service. They’re always so conspicuously inconspicuous.

After dinner we got to attend an impromptu concert with Garth Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood. We’ve seen them around since the first day, and we did hear rumors that he said he’d play if someone found a guitar.

He sang a few songs and invited his wife up. He was completely sunburned, and both of them were dressed down. I’m not a huge country fan, but I really liked how informal and private it was. Just Garth, a guitar, and his wife.

He messed up while playing the intro to one of her songs, and she stopped him and said, “Honey, I don’t think that’s my key.” And he replied, “I swear I’m not thinking of anyone else.”

I also want to remember how sweet it was to see Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter bopping their heads ever so slightly two rows ahead of us while Garth was playing.

Arms tired, iPhone autocomplete is starting to be a hindrance. Good night!

creature discomforts

I had always thought that tarantulas are slow and amble along, but yesterday I found out that they are freaking FAST. There was one waiting for us under a wooden truss, and it shot out of there like it was on speed.

The only other slightly abnormal creature we’ve seen so far is a lizard. I prefer him by far. He’s tiny, and I haven’t actually seen him move from the metal bar he poses on for about a day.

haiti

I’m typing out some thoughts so I can remember parts of my experience here. I’m currently on my iPhone, lying on my cot, in the cocoon of my pink mosquito net. It’s sticky hot, and thankfully there’s a fan rotating in our tent pushing some of the warm breeze around.

Day zero

I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised, but it took a whole day to get here. There are 400 volunteers that were shuttled from a hotel in Atlanta to the airport, flown on two planes for three hours, then driven on busses for two hours from Port au Prince to Leogane. It’s a logistical nightmare, and H4H did an amazing job.

On the plane ride over, I sat next to an elderly lady who is by far the most optimistic person I’ve ever met. It’s just a given that everyone on these builds are friendly, gracious, and optimistic, but this woman totally put me in my place mentally. When we got our lunch on the Delta flight, she thought it was “cute” that her salad dressing was half frozen and she was downright giddy that her meal came with packaged breadsticks. This was while I was glaring at my tray, wondering accusingly about where the chicken must have come from.

They had prepped us a bit the night before about what we would see once we got to Haiti (they actually showed us slides with the words “shocked” and “saddened” on them), but it was unbelievable what we saw when we were on busses from the airport to our camp site. Here are a few things I was thinking…

• The living situations reminded me of the shanty towns we saw in South Africa, but they were just everywhere with so many more people on the streets.
• I kept thinking that it looked post apocalyptic like in the movies, and I can’t believe this is everyday life for most people here.
• I couldn’t tell if the Haitians were happy or angry that we were there. The kids were waving, but we got some middle fingers from adults. It’s hard to understand the history of what’s brought these people to this point — are they just jaded from all the “help” that has come here over the past few years?
• My very first thought was that we are SO very much not the 99%. No where near.
• There is trash everywhere. Every. Where. Some of it was on fire.
• There were people bathing in the streets, just in water in puddles that had pooled in the muddy streets.
• All of the “businesses” looked exactly the same on the outside. Whether it was a bank, barber shop, or grocery store, they were small shacks with the same brightly colored painted names. 

When we got to our camp, we saw very quickly that we had better accommodations this week than most of the Haitians have right now. Tents with cots, showers, and a steady supply of water. I was most surprised by the fact that we have wifi for some reason, and actual toilets (quite thankful for the latter).

Day one

One thing that is really great about this year’s Carter project is that it feels more intimate. There are 400 of us (there were about 1K in the Thailand build I think), so we’re already getting to know everyone’s faces.

We woke up at 5am to get ready, ate breakfast, and got on busses to our build site. This first day of building was much harder than I had anticipated. Hot, humid, lots of lifting.

Now that we’re back at our campsite after the build today, I’m thinking about how thankful l am to be safe, fed, hydrated, and relatively clean. Safety is something I’ve always taken for granted. Even in Berkeley, as long as you were smart about it and walked around in groups, you were fine. This is the first time I feel that safety is completely out of our control. The houses we got assigned to are on the very edges of the build site, next to the barbed wire fences and right across the street from locals. There are security men walking around in bulletproof vests with AK47s and shotguns — it took me most of the morning to just put that out of my mind. The constant unease is new.

Food! Not amazing, but I have been scarfing down anything they give us. After the build today, we found out they had Pringles, and it was the best news we’d heard all day. Sour cream and onion, so good. I’m not sure what exactly it was that made it so amazing - the fact that it was packaged so we didn’t have to worry about it, the fact that it was familiar, or maybe all of the above?

I felt like I was drinking water all day. When I’d finish a bottle, someone would hand me another one. But by mid afternoon, I had a headache that wouldn’t go away. Not complaining so much as noting that it was just scary. People were dropping like flies even in our build group due to the heat. When we got back to the campsite, I was so out of it when I was walking around that I was dizzy and didn’t see our friend waving me down. Thankfully he immediately gave me some Advil. Crazy.

During the day, a lot of locals would come up to the fence to ask for things. It was tough not being able to hand them water. There were a few kids that came by who asked us to take their photos. They insisted that we show them the photos right after, and they seemed so tickled :) It was so cute.

One thing that is kind of funny that I’ve noticed is how important yet unconscious it’s been to get a routine down, even in just two days. We have a core group of friends that we eat meals with, we wash up then head to the bench area to have a beer and wind down, all of my stuff has its own place in my tent including the towels I hang up with rope that someone gave me, I listen to Jack’s Mannequin on my iPhone to sleep and drown out the hum of the generators, and I tuck myself in with mosquito netting in my cot.

The best part was seeing how much we’ve done collectively in one day. I looked out the window while we drove home today, and I was so proud to see that we’ve gotten the framing up for 100 houses (even though I’m only working with my group directly on two of them). It’s a community we’re building, and it’s coming together. :)

Okay, getting sleepy. What a long two days so far. But I am so thankful that I have the chance to be here.

new lease on cooking

It’s been about two weeks since I’ve started my non-processed food kick, and it’s been interesting to see how it’s affected my cooking and eating habits.  It’s obviously slightly impossible to keep up when going out for food, but I’ve been pretty good about it otherwise.  I spent my last two Sundays cooking lunch and dinner for the week, and I’m mostly excited that I’m learning to cook with ingredients I’ve never used before.  Par example:

• Lentils: This was a giant fail, but at least I tried!  I learned from some uber vegetarian co-workers that you should steep them the night before to keep them moist.
• Beets: I’ve discovered that I love beets (especially the yellow ones), but they sure are high maintenance to make.  Sure it’s easy to cover them in foil and stick them in an oven for an hour, but it makes EVERYTHING they touch purple (e.g. your fingers).
• Arugula: My new favorite base for salads.  Arugula, fruit, goat cheese, vinaigrette, done.
• Goat cheese: And my new favorite cheese.  See above.
• Red wine vinegar: This is really basic, but I finally realized how easy it is to make your own vinaigrettes.  No more store bought bottles going forward.
• Couscous: Did you know this only takes 5 minutes??  Cover couscous with boiling water, cover, then fluff with a fork after 5 minutes.  Not sure if it’s as flavorful as lentils or quinoa, but I can’t get over how fast it is.
• Kale: Just bought this today, and will try this out in a few salads this week.  My initial thoughts are that it’s pretty bitter and overpowering, but it’s supposedly so good for you!
• Steel cut oats: I found this article on the kitchn, and it makes my mornings a breeze.  I just mix in some dried cranberries and bring it with me on the Caltrain.
• Frozen grapes: These really help stave off my cravings for sweets or ice cream.  I may try frozen (Bluth) bananas next.
• Spices: This may sound sad, but we really only have salt, pepper, and a few other spices in our cabinet.  My co-worker introduced me to cumin, turmeric, coriander, and Garam Masala this week (hint, she’s a pro Indian cook), and I’m hooked.
• Fresh herbs: One of my biggest lessons from these past two weeks is to pre-wash all of your greens before hand.  It helps because I’m really lazy on weeknights, and you can brighten up your leftovers with some quick snips of basil or parsley.
• Portobello mushrooms: I gave these a good try, but the gills still freak me out.  I may admit defeat on these guys.

And that was just in two weeks!  If you guys have any suggestions for good grains or veggies to try, let me know.  :)