Deirdre Conroy Haven Blog Day 4 - 28.10.09

In the great white tented village where 300 hundred of us are fed and watered four times a day – all at the same time, the catering crew perform minor miracles with full Irish breakfasts and at least a choice of four dishes for dinner. Our Haitian co-workers seem to relish the bacon, egg, beans and sausage as much as our burly labourers. If we think it’s hot and sweaty out on site, the kitchen is even more gruelling in the heat. Ably patrolled by Sgt Alan McKenna on loan from the army aided by gregarious George Hook who doubles up as MC a lot of the time and the kitchen is given a splash of 4-star from John Brennan. We all started off with our own set of plastic bowl, plate, cup and cutlery, to be brought up every day and washed outside. By day 3 most of us are down to a paper cup and spoon. Way too many things to remember – I now realise why so many of my sons lunch boxes go astray. This trip may make me more understanding in many ways.....

In the evening when we think we will collapse from heat and lack of sleep, though I am managing to sleep through the cockerel now, or maybe the stock has depleted......it is in the big white tent that the table quiz, karaoke and general party pieces take place and, yes, the standard and content is diverse to say the least, but as I wouldn’t get up on stage in a month of Sundays, nor would my friend be persuaded to duet, I take my hat off to any who do. On Wednesday night our local workers were stunned in silence at the breadth of singing talent from their visitors – or maybe bewildered at our facility to sing everything from Elvis and sean nós, or maybe just thought we were all nuts.

I spent the morning painting at the back of the site alongside our UN patrol from Uruguay, who manfully watched over us making sure we didn’t miss a patch. Julio Iglesias is their local commander, I might add. This part of the site boundary overlooks tropical palms and we suddenly remember that we are in the Caribbean, other than the relentless sun beating down on our boot camp, there is little to remind one of the glamour and exoticism of Caribbean holiday life. If anybody came out here thinking it was a mini-break with some good works thrown in they will have been instantly disabused of the idea. Our outside loo broke yesterday, a truck ran over the pipe, even though my room-mate is (all names have been changed) Sheba, queen of the plumbers, it’s taking two days to fix, trenches have to be hand dug as we don’t have a mini-digger. But such is the democracy on this site, it’s pick a loo, any loo.

We have co-founder Carmel Buckley on our painting team, who is here along with her daughter, son and nephew. There are many family groups of father and daughter or son, husband and wife and various in-laws. All of whom will pack up – a lot more lightly – and fly straight back to Dublin on Sunday after 7 days of this marathon build. My room-mate and I hope to travel more lightly as well, although one huge mistake we made coming out sits taunting us every time we get back to our room, not one, but two copies of the biggest novel published recently, Wolf Hall, the Booker prize winner. We thought we’d be smart and read ahead for our book club (Double Dee Book Club has a facebook page). This book is not just a door stop it’s a door step and may well serve as a foundation stone out here.

We hear we are on target as of yesterday which is very motivating. As work gets finished in other areas, we have labourers from other teams joining the painters, the spirit of help and goodwill is endless. At our press conference yesterday, local and national Haitian politicians and NGO’s joined in embracing Haven’s initiative and it is not only the Irish who are working with this community, Jean Maurice from Port au Prince, a mango plantation owner, has donated hundreds of mango trees to create a sustainable income-generating business here. The Haitian speakers certainly make us feel welcome and we are reminded that the manner in which Lesley Buckley has handled the State structure in such a short time is all part of this success story. The plan is still to complete 200 before Christmas and double this for next year.