Deirdre Conroy Haven Blog Final Night - 31.10.09

The six bus convoy makes its way across the border and we leave all the tarantulas, cockroaches and some happier families behind as we head towards a shower and a bed for the night in Puerta Plata. I have come away with Builder’s Foot and Masonry Hair, those boots wont be going back on for a while and a hot shower wont go astray. It’s nearly a five hour journey and I am entertained for most of it by Ronan Plumber in Chief, until the Haiti fatigue takes over and I drop off into deep sleep. We are both agreed that Ireland’s recession is the reason we were able to make time to plan this trip. Fundraising wasn’t easy for anybody and some funded themselves to get here and came early to prepare the site for the rest of us. Those of us in the construction industry are not as busy as we used to be and long may it continue that we find the time and energy to give ourselves to those who need a hand up.

Three hundred Irish, a Scot and a Frenchman on their last night together – after dinner and speeches, it was off to the Hallowe’en party in the hotel night club. At last some real drinks! Prestige, our Haitian beer on site was grand, our lot must have drunk Haiti dry, but I’ll be glad not to see another can for a year........ which must mean that we are already considering coming back..

Dancing in coffins in the club ended at around 3am, the volunteers going back to Dublin had to be on their bus for 5am, so, clearly, the thing to do was go into town to the local night club. Our dedicated water girl Sarah volunteered to go and get them back, I can’t give you a first-hand report from there, we had been on the go for nearly 24 hours at that stage and it was the real bed that won out. But I’m happy to report by Sunday 1 November, 50 of our sturdiest party stalwarts made it from that club directly to the bus and airport...

What kept me going all week was the thought of a few days recovery in neighbouring Dominican Republic, where I and queen of the plumbers stuck a pin in the map and found a hotel in Cabarete, the kite surfing capital of the world. As luck would have it, two of the other volunteers were coming here as well (they’ll be the guys emptying the mountain of socks out of their surfboard bags on the video). Leslie’s son Paddy, Ed, Susan and I all piled into a taxi and headed along the Atlantic coast for another hour, the guys for the kitesurfing and us to collapse under a parasol.

Our jaws dropped when we got to our hotel, standing in the foyer, we could see the big blue ocean and coconut trees swaying a few metres away. We’d made it!

Susan and I had learned to live with two items of clothes a day, the most basic of washing and sleeping and non-stop work, we were now faced with options – eating, swimming, drinking, walks on beach, browsing in shops – after only one week, we realised how little we could do with and didn’t know where to start...... by the end of the day, having had a look around Cabarete, we were fascinated at how different the two cultures on the same island could be. In Haiti, there are a lot of questions to answer, hopefully, as Haven and Irish volunteers continue to go there, we will help them to help themselves.

I have to thank all my donors for sending me out on Build it Week for Haven and Haiti – Mick, Johnny, Stephen, Peter C, Peter F, Pete C, Manfredi, Liam, Tim, Hilary, Paul and Geoff

I dedicate these blogs to my two sons Cameron and Finlay, and hope they will be inspired to come out next year, as they are two strong, able-bodied party men themselves and I hope my own house is still standing when I get home.

END

Deirdre Conroy Haven Blog Final Day - 31.10.09

The generator blew up because of overload and 45 degree heat – but the volunteers haven’t dropped yet. Hard to believe we are still up at 5.30 after the very late and stupendously successful Haven’s Got Talent. It was full of surprises, not least for one woman whose boyfriend got up to play the Lonely Boatman on his tin whistle, and then proceeded to recite a poem. While we all thought, nice idea but not really appropriate for the kind of entertainment we need right now, the poem went on, me thinking it was a tribute to his mother, only to end with him taking something out of his pocket and making a very novel and public marriage proposal to the unsuspecting girlfriend. If you could capture the look of shock on all the girls in the room, and the resounding applause and cheers – it was the first OMG moment of the night. The finale, which apparently was on youtube within half an hour, was the FULL Full monty, with a cracking line up of Haven’s Finest. They were the Finishes Team and what a finish, they won of course, and gamely gave us an encore to remember.

Saturday morning and some of us are still working to get the houses ready for handover to the families, each team has prepared a house and we have left a variety of sleeping bags, tools, boots, torches, towels and goodies in them. All are painted and the doors festooned with ribbons, each family has arrived dressed in their finest, there is a mixture of bewilderment and relief, tears and many cheers, when each ribbon is cut. After hours of ceremony in the killing midday heat we move on to open the playground, and the rush of children in to try out the slides and swings for the first time, make the weeks toil so worth it. For these children, it is not the roof on the house that makes all the difference but the play space dedicated solely to them. I think I’m too hot and tired to get emotional about the handover, these are happy moments for the families and I need all my energy just to keep moving, it isn’t until we go down to the school and during Leslie’s speech to open the basketball court that I have to reach for the hem of my t-shirt. At 65, he tells us this is the second happiest day of his life, after his wedding day, and dedicates the basketball court to a brave sportsman, Stuart Mangan, in whose memory a plaque is erected. The overflowing goodness, untiring enthusiasm of the sticky, hot and smelly volunteers has come full circle. We make our way to our buses and one more long journey to the Dominican Republic.

During the week our teams had started their own initiatives to help many of the families and orphans and orphans we met. Declan, one of the head foremen, told us all about the condition of the toilet block in the school and proposed a small donation from each of us – to arrange to build 6 new cubicles, with running water. This plan got even more ambitious and cost effective, when Ronan Plumber in Chief got involved and devised a plan to link the pump and generator from the houses to the school. That day we raised double the amount required, over six thousand dollars, and that meant we could expand the power and water facilities to the houses as well. After one of our visits to a local family who could not afford to send their children to school, the Painting Team, spearheaded by my painting mate, Brendan, raised enough funds to send each of them to school for five years to ensure they all finish their education, the money is given over to Farah, the local community liaison, who will make all the arrangements and keep us up to date.

Monaghan Muriel of the infamous Plumbing and Electrical Team rounded up the lads for a few quick-fire sessions of Texas Hold-Em, with her inimitable scamming techniques she relieved them of 1,000 dollars which, with great pride and love, was given to Mauviette for her orphanage. Through other anonymous donations, Leslie announced that a house is now being bought for the orphanage to house 100 children. Change has come.

Just one more blog to go!