new school buildings

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

During breakfast, I was invited to join Mike and a couple of the team members in their efforts to set-up a tent in the mountains for Pastor Duress who leads Silhoe school. He had obtained the tent the day before and asked Mike for some help in getting them up since the directions were all in English.

When we arrived at the site, Pastor Duress was not present yet. However there were a couple children who followed us up and were watching what we were doing. Once Pastor arrived, we were able to begin the process of gathering the supplies from a secure building and pulled them outside to get started. The children who had been watching us arrive with our tools and boards, quickly volunteered to help us by joining the relay line as we passed the tent stakes and poles out the door of the small building where we could better see what we had and where we were able to spread everything out to organize it all.

As you can see below the children congregated around us as we worked. Because we were erecting the tent on the remaining concrete slab, Mike had to determine a different way to secure the tent to the ground. Obviously we couldn't just push the stakes into the ground as intended. We placed the rope ends on a board (two to a short 2x4) and drilled into the concrete to then screw the boards tightly to the concrete.

As we worked, more and more people gathered to watch and help. Young, old, women, men, and children all observed the progress and assisted as they could. I particularly enjoyed being involved in manner labor for a change. Plus this task provided me a chance to see the day's accomplishments and efforts.

Once we secured all of the exterior ropes/stakes, Alexis and I ran around tying up the canvas walls to provide a small amount of relief from the heat. These tents are thick and intended to protect from some of the environmental elements, but without the sides being raised they quickly resembled ovens. Plus the rolled up sides offered some light inside the tent to help determine how to proceed in efforts to lift the ceiling.

Teamwork helped the task move more quickly, especially once everyone understood the details of what we were doing and when. After we finished getting the tent up, Pastor Duress served us coffee and finger-bread (named thus because of its shape). We enjoyed the offerings as we sat on benches under some tarps and discussed the morning's efforts. Once we finished with the break, Mike informed us that we had another tent exactly the same to construct. We helped the Haitians move the benches and tarps so that we could use the second concrete slab as the floor.

The second tent construction moved faster and more smoothly despite having to alter the lengths of some poles to make it possible to erect the tent where Pastor Duress desired. People knew the general plan and were able to anticipate the next step more easily. While waiting for the alterations to occur, I spent time talking with and taking pictures of the youth who had been helping and watching our efforts.

Once we finished raising the ridge pole, the children began playing games inside the second tent. Pastor Duress serves us diri blan and sous pwa (white rice and bean sauce) as well as cool drinks to express his appreciation for our help that morning.

According to the education meetings that Nicole has been attending, school is scheduled to re-commence on April 5th. Having a space to escape some of the elements is just one of the many needs to be addressed for this goal to be accomplish. However the children are excited for school starting again soon. You can see their celebration below as well as both tents that now stand where a concrete school structure once did.