The Grand Marshal Blog

Thursday, 29.05.10.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…………. It’s tough getting up today, the body aches, muscles are torn where I didn’t realize I had any, it was always going to be the toughest day, more than half way through the week, but not enough to see the finish line.
The heat continues to sap the energy but the ‘village’ we are creating on what feels like mountainous waste land is taking shape, the paint on the houses is giving a country Irish town feel to it, like a galvanized roof version of Killarney.
Leslie Buckley summons the crowd to start talking about issues that seem a million miles away, and very far from our obsessions with bending steel bars, shoveling ‘sand’, and lugging blocks around the place. Icelandic eruptions, he tells us have disrupted our return plans, everyone raises their hopes we can stay another week and get even more houses built, or maybe it’s to do with how well fed we are by the catering staff, that we’ll need another week to burn off the excess. The last trip to Haiti in October was incredible, but the trip home via Dominican Republic, New York JFK, Dublin and then finally Brussels was almost unbearable, I feared the worst… Instead we are to be going home a day earlier as Air Italy have messed up the return plans and not even stiff stern dirty looks from olive will dissuade them from changing their plans, we will be back in Ireland about 12 hours earlier. Everything will still go ahead but instead of sleeping off after our last night listening to local heroes RAM, it will be off on a bus to the airport. The spirit of everyone is to applaud Leslie and his crew, nothing can dampen the spirits of the Haven March 2010 gang.

Friday, 30.05.10
Now that Friday has become the 2nd last morning we will wake up in Haiti, it has special significance. Not only did I watch my mum’s team, the catering team, whip up a frenzy with ‘Tonight’s going to be a good night’ and win the Haven’s Got Talent yesterday evening, but it was time to begin celebrating the week’s work, and it now makes yesterday morning seem like a breeze. Nothing for it, a nice cold shower, and off to lug some bricks around and throw up a few scaffolds for the brickies.
We visited a school in Gonaives as my mum had some GAA jerseys from local lads at home from Castlelyons, Bride Rovers and a Cork jersey from a neighbour’s son. The school visit was made legendary by Bobby, who was accurately described as a pied piper with a guitar, he had learnt some songs and creole and God did the kids love him? The people I have met both local Haitian and Haven volunteers is what is making this trip memorable.
Off to bed for an early night, there’s still work to be done, although Declan, the foreman of overalls tells us we are in rapid flow having thrown up 14 full houses today. Is there nothing to stop this Haven team?

Saturday, 01.05.10
Last morning, last breakfast, last working in the searing heat, today it has become too much, my body has given up and burst out in prickly heat burn rash or something very un-medical sounding from the doctor in the medical tent, I take a pill, but I feel the drowsiness from it, myself and Nick head for the air conditioned buses around 11h00, I don’t wake up until well after 12h30 thanks to a call from Nick. Ross is not impressed when he sees we’ve gone off and left him in the heat, he is less impressed when he hurts his ankle as he walks off site for the last time. The day is almost done, the week’s work almost complete. There are painters still furiously throwing paint on walls to get the last house or two finished, a plaque has gone up on the side of the wall where I’d been painting the day before. The playground is a playground, all cleaned up and ready for hand over. We head for lunch for the last time and then it starts to rain, glorious, glorious rain, but not for long enough to even moisten the ground.
House 51 is handed over to the local family we had visited earlier in the week, who had been evicted from their house for not being able to pay the rent and had been living in a tent since. There are tears, from all round, there are strong speeches and words of encouragement. There is no one here who won’t come back that can. It is a great moment. The community school is handed over to the local committee, it is truly wonderful, I think this will be where the real success of the village takes place, there will be educational classes here, markets, schooling, drama, entertainment. This is what turns buildings into a community. The kids are allowed into the their playground, a group of local Haitian kids are running around wearing Waterford GAA jerseys, no need to explain what a day out in Croke Park is about there, to the donor I mean.
The afternoon is planned for taking down the tents, but due to the rain it has been shelved, it’s time to catch up on blogs and other non building related stuff. The band, RAM, perform to a delighted crowd after the speeches are made by Leslie and Co. There’s a few drinks and dancing to celebrate a great week. Personally I can’t wait to get back. I’d love to get out here on the advance party next time, but that’s all for another day. Tonight it’s about a job well done and an arduous bus trip to the airport.

Sunday, 02.05.10
We arrive in plenty of time in the Port-au-Prince airport, a bit of a fracas getting the boarding cards and passports, but as everything on this trip it all just works out fine. We re-board the bus as there’s no fire truck on stand-by during the re fueling of the delayed plane. Leslie B is sitting across the seat from me on the bus, he’s not a happy camper. He has put a huge effort into the trip running smoothly and an Italian crew not sharing his ambitions aren’t tolerated lightly, as we later find out on the plane before we take off. The flight home is grand, bad news on the Munster front, and Liverpool have lost any hope of Champions League football next year, but it does mean Utd are less likey to win the league which is small compensation. We land in Dublin before midnight and a very merry band are bussed off to the Clarion Hotel where…. This blog ends….
Thank you for reading and hope to see you in Haiti in October
The Grand Marshal.

Kieran McGuinness, Delorento's

Day 3 Wednesday 28th

Around 5.15 I woke up to the sound of someone playing guitar in an adjoining tent, jumped into my filthy work shorts and a fresh t-shirt and headed down for a bowl of muesli and then on site. There were fires on the hills around us last night, it was both spectacular and a bit creepy to see. I was petty dehydrated when I woke, so when the water team came around i emptied their bottles.

I worked away til noon, trying not to itch my mosquito bites (on my neck) or the angry red patches (pretty much everywhere else). The sun is ruthless, if you forget to put cream anywhere it flares up in a short time and I’m beginning to break out everywhere.

After lunch a few of us went in to Gonaives, and we were shown around some of the beneficiaries’ houses. The place we visited was a settlement of corrugated iron and plank houses, built on a rubbish dump. As soon as we arrived we were surrounded by the happiest kids you ever saw, jumping and laughing and playing with my ear-rings and generally curious and excited at the big bus full of “Blancs” appearing. The houses are incredibly depressing, filthy and flimsy, build out of scraps for generally large families. We played around with kids as others had told us, took photos and danced about, but the fun and excitement of the kids hid the grim reality.

On the way home we had defeated discussions about the state of the country and some were emotional, and we were straight back onsite shovelling sand and mixing cement. My new cement mixing partner, Stephen Heffernan, (another first timer) said the thing that struck him wasn’t the houses or the poverty, it was the teenagers and young adults just standing around, with nothing to do but stand there.

Around 5pm I had to leave the site due to exhaustion and a sick stomach, and the walk back to my oven-like tent was a struggle. I couldn’t lie there with the heat, so I had a shower and found a shadey place to slump until I could function.

Eventually, after some pills, buckets of water and dinner I felt well enough to sit outside so we had a drink or two of some strong Haitian beer and played a few songs to start off the Open Mic for tonights entertainment. With the serious work being carried out onsite, and the depressing reality beyond the barbed wire fence, morale is so important for the group. My foreman, Aidan Walsh, a veteran of building projects in disadvantaged countries, summed it up pretty well; “We have a great nights, a great experience and hopefully do great work aswell.” On days like today, you’re reminded of how important that work really is.

Ró Yourell, Delorentos

Thurs 29/04/10
Big day today. Well they’re all big days, but it’s been eventful to say the least.

The playground has flown up over the week and we were particularly glad to be ahead of the posse when at an unscheduled special meeting, Haven founder , Leslie, told us that with the resumption of eruptions in Iceland we were going to have to leave Haiti a day early to be sure of getting home. This left everyone a bit concerned that we’d achieve our target of building 60 homes in the week, but the foremen are happy we’ll achieve it by Saturday lunchtime. We won’t have as much time for the handover of the homes and to see the local children enjoying the playground, but we won’t worry about that. We’ll be too exhausted to party anyway!

And so at six of clock in the evening the playground was completed. A couple of volunteers even kindly tested some of the equipment out, purely for safety reasons of courseJ

This evening also saw the big Haven’s got talent competition. We had Carpenters singing blur, masons in drag, riverdance by the special projects team and the clear winners, the caterers, who performed the Black Eyed Peas hit, I Gotta Feeling, headed by a giant Leprechaun with a pots and pans rhythm section.

The enthusiasm and sense of togetherness in the group is remarkable, when you think that you could go a whole day at home barely making eye contact with another human being. Clearly a common goal has brought us all together. We just need to find more common goals I guess.

So we’ll push on tomorrow as we hit the final stretch. Once volunteers complete their own task, they are transferred to another team, so I’m looking forward to trying something new tomorrow.

Ró

Ró Yourell, Delorentos

26/04/10
Hello , Ró here.

We woke at 5am, fairly knackered after travelling for about twenty hours on Sunday.

Ate a delicious breakfast, served up by the catering team who greeted all the sleepy heads with big smiles and lots of encouragement. After breakfast we met with our team leaders. I’m part of the special unit, assigned with building the playground for the children of the new village. Unfortunately this involves more than just testing out the equipment J We spent the morning digging trenches for fencing and positioning the playing equipment (equal parts hard work and creative fun). Everybody got stuck in straight away determined to make a good start. Without exception, every volunteer i’ve met has been incredibly friendly and the craic is great.

By 11am, the temperature had reached nearly 40 degrees, so we had to stop work for a few hours. This allowed everyone a much needed retreat to have lunch, lash on more sunscreen, etc.

We hit the site again and worked through til 6pm, when we had our first dinner, once again delicious. The chefs are incredible and there’s actually a proper menu with options and everything.

The surrounding mountains are really beautiful and the sun sets around seven. There’s entertainment each evening and tonight a Haitian girl who is Haiti’s X Factor winner performed which was cool.

We were absolutely shattered when we hit the sack around 10pm, but we’re so happy to be here and to have put in a good first days work. It’s on!

Ró

The Grand Marshal blog continues…

… Success!!!!!!!!!!!! We win the quiz night, we lead from the beginning, strict rules of 8 per team mean we have to have play it with 3 subs, we do exceedingly well on the music round and fall a bit flat on the Haven round, but a win is a win and needs to be celebrated, so we do...

Wednesday:

Far away hills are green…

Before I left Brussels an old friend of mine and I got chatting about how we always think that far away hills are greener, to which I agreed, that was until I arrived in Gonaives here in Haiti.

Gonaives is grey, with other various shades of grey that light the distant hills, there was a bush fire on one of the hills nearby last night, this morning it didn’t look any different. Years of exhausting the natural woods of Haiti have left the landscape barren. I now have an idea of what it must be like to walk on the moon and look around, the sorry difference here is that there are 300.000 people living here in the city, not far off the size of Cork, Gonaives. We head into the city on a tour to visit some of the beneficiaries, I nod off on the way due to tiredness from the heat of a morning’s work in the sun and the blandness of the landscape. Security, as always, is tight on our visit and everything as always on this April trip, it runs perfectly.

Farra, the local representative of Haven is on hand to answer questions and she explains that there are strict criteria on the families that get houses such as ability to pay the 2 dollars month (which is les than the families would normally pay if only renting) for 5 years that the new home owners are expected to pay, but she then explains that if the family can’t pay for whatever reason, the months are added to the end of the 5 years, so eviction is not a real threat for the new home owners. Maybe this is something that Leslie B can persuade the Irish banks to follow suit on in Ireland over the coming tough times ahead for families.

On the way in to town, we pass a few interesting places, a shack/bar showing the Barca v Inter champions league game at 2 this afternoon, a few US Aid centres, Canada Aid and other organizations with the aim of helping the Haitians in their hour of need.

The one question that is constantly present is what will happen to the the Haitians after the houses are built (and there are 1.3 million homeless or living in tents)? Without a real and viable economy these families can never survive, or survive but little more. I am intrigued, to say the least, by what can be done, is planned to be done and what will end up happening…. Haven is a small step in the right direction and deserve to be applauded for being the pebble that causes the ripple in the lake.

The Grand Marshal blog continues…

… the Haven trip is turning out to be one of those really rewarding, difficult, hard volunteer trips but also a bit of an adventure, Monday night was no less, after a few hours of dodgy electrics, bringing back fond memories of pub openings, and power failures, eventually, and full credit to everyone, the show got on the road, and instead of it being a Haiti Stars in Our Eyes night we were treated to the real deal, and had the actual winner of Haiti’s Stars in their Eyes competition, a girl called Winifred, who really has the most amazing voice ever singing Ave Maria.

No electricity for the fans in the camp site, so it was a great chance to experience what Haitian families have been living with since being given tents to replace their shattered homes since January. On a lighter note I also now know what a symphony of snorers sounds like, and all my ammunition for giving out was taken away by Declan Hilary ringing my phone (which should have been on silent) at 3h30 and me being singled out as the naughty tent-ant L

Tuesday:

A rare but welcome site greeted Tuesday, clouds threatening rain, can this be? So we got a light shower to get things going but barely enough to be considered a alight shower, then the hottest morning arrived and back to siving sand. Myself, Nick (a Cork man also known as a skilled labourer but at what we’re still not sure) and Ross (a Kildare lad who has played GAA for California so is good enough for me) have been developing tactics on how to get the best results, from the least effort, a few more concrete blocks here, a few less there, the gradient too high too low. Work is tough today, the heat is a killer, watch checking isn’t allowed by us except if badly needed, the clock is literally not moving this morning, what was meant to eb a 3 hour start to the day is going to be an eternity. Work resumes again after a a breakfast break and we get cracking again.

By the time we stop for lunch we are in full flow, but the heat is taking it’s toll, I feel weak, sick and head off for the air conditioned bus to hang out for an hour, Ross is getting head aches, Nick is at his limit too.

The break does it’s trick, and we are re invigorated by the news we no longer have to sive sand. Never were 3 grown men so happy to hear they had been ‘chosen’ for the steel bending, it’s just what the doctor ordered, still out in the sun, but the sun is now aided by a nice cool breeze, the blisters on the hands don’t seem as bad. We end with a couple of beers for the boys at 6, grab some dinner, head for the showers and get ready for the quiz night ahead, each pre empting excuses on being absolutely useless at quizzes, we agree to call ourselves the Steel Benders in recognition of our improved status amongst the masonry team…

Thomas Gabriel – The Blog Continues!

It’s day three on site and this is the first opportunity I’ve had to reflect on Haiti 2010. In comparison with what Leslie Buckley referred to as the pioneer group of 2009, everything has changed and everything has stayed the same! The journey here was tough; the final 90 minutes on the coaches being particularly challenging, travelling as we did on something loosely termed ‘roads’! The weather has been brutal: over 40oC (108oF) every day. By 11am work has to stop and the volunteers head for the shelter of their choice. Our tents are too hot to go into during the day and the coaches are made available for those in need of modest air conditioning. Others find the shelter of their choice in this fairly barren and remote location. A stillness settles on the site when the sun is at it’s highest.

It’s clear that feedback from our last adventure has been taken to heart. The toilet and shower facilities are a lot better; the organization of the catering has been streamlined (and special thanks has to be given to the catering team who are to working in temperatures even more extreme than those of us out on site). The layout of the site is much easier to navigate – the list of adopted suggestions goes on! No doubt the October trip will benefit from the suggestions coming out of this trip!

During the week, we are all given an opportunity to meet with some of the beneficiaries and yesterday was my turn to journey down to Gonaives. The coach was very quiet during the return journey. To see children existing in squalor, many with distended stomachs is heart-breaking. We were there for less than an hour and it was long enough – they are there for the duration of their lives. The roofs over their heads are just that – roofs and very little else. I think every single one of us who have made that journey is convinced that the beneficiaries will be moving to a relative paradise when they get to this new community under construction. The problems in Haiti are immense and perhaps all we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But to know that this project will immeasurably improve the lives of hundreds of very poor people makes our efforts worthwhile and important (and vital to continue).

Of the 297 volunteers, there are about forty people who also came in October. They include Brian the foreman for the playground project, Trish the team leader for the carpenters, Patrick Hand and Jerry O’Connor also on the playground or community project (led by John O’Connor), Sarah Fitzpatrick, Louise Glennon and Olive Cummins from HQ, Cillian, Niall and Laura Duggan from the medical team. My tent mates Ailish, Martin, Leo and Mike. I know I’ve missed a number of people (such as Ted Philpott, Mike Curran, Mike Hogan etc!) and I apologise that due to pressure of time, my mind has gone blank! And that’s before I even mention the new friends made in the past three days! What is very clear about all 297 volunteers is that none of them are strangers – they really are friends I’ve yet to meet!

Back to site now – and back to the debilitating sun.