Hello All,
We are thrilled to announce that we have officially arrived in Jacmel, Haiti! On Monday, August 31st our 25 families got into two buses and made the 18 hour trip from Esperanza to Jacmel. Construction is not quite finished yet. We are working on our last two houses and a wall for the perimeter of the land, but it’s nearly complete. Our families and kids were great on the bus ride and have been very patient with the lack of finished houses. Several are living together temporarily and they are making do with few complaints.
The newly built homes for our famillies.
Working on the Finishing Touches
Catherine went with the families on the buses while I went with the two trucks full of their household items. My time spent as a mover at Palmer Moving and Storage was invaluable in packing the trucks. Haitians are a mover’s dream in that things like dings and scratches don’t seem to bother them at all. We actually did not have enough room in the two trucks, so some things had to be left behind. Ornamental chairs, as in the type that look pretty but nobody sits in and are generally put in unused rooms with white carpets in America, were the first to get cut. We will be hiring another truck in a few weeks to bring the remaining items.
The trucks left Sunday night at 11pm. Overall the border crossing went very well, with the exception of one Haitian official, who was the type that believes his job’s sole purpose is to enrich himself. I had seven of our parents who were already in Jacmel meet me at the border to deal with the Haitian officials. As we just had household items, they could not legally charge us. This official at first said he did not believe we were bringing just household items and wanted the truck unpacked and then repacked, a hell of a task. I began this process until he had another idea. He would go to Jacmel the next morning and watch us unpack the trucks in order to verify there was nothing for which we needed to pay taxes. Jacmel is about 4.5 hours from this border crossing. He was willing to do this so we could get through that day BUT he would need his expenses paid to go to Jacmel. He originally wanted 400 dollars to go to Jacmel (his expenses should have been like 50 bucks tops). I was able to negotiate him to 200 USD, any lower and he said he would keep us trapped in customs for 4-5 days. He wanted half upfront, but I said I only had 30 bucks and assured him he would get the other 170 in Jacmel. He made us buy 2 locks for the trailers and kept the keys to make sure we wouldn’t begin unpacking until he arrived. He kept a supposedly important piece of paperwork and very seriously told me to make sure to wait for him or else there’d be trouble.
We arrived to Jacmel, and after consulting with some community members, we decided to break the locks at 7am and start unpacking. We were finishing up around 10am when the guy showed up, alone. He saw the two trucks unpacked and was aghast. He kept going on about me not listening and mentioned a consequence of prison. I smiled at him, told him I didn’t believe that would happen and walked away while a group of 50 or so workers and parents of our families crowded around him angrily. They started yelling at him about the scope of his power and their rights. I was positively giddy, and Catherine and I smiled at each other as we watched the whole thing unfold. One of our women came up to Catherine and said “Don’t you worry about this at all. This is our problem. We’ll take care of this.”
After he escaped the crowd, he came to me again asking for his money. I told him I knew that what he was doing was not legal, that he just wanted to pocket the money and that I would not be paying him the sum we had agreed to or any other sum. In the end he was a good sport and told everybody that at least they had not beaten him or killed him. Needless to say the next truckload will not be going through the same border crossing.
A group of sisters standing outside of their new home.
After the chaos of travel and Haitian customs, everyone has been able to start settling in bit by bit. We’ve been really impressed with the patience and resilience our families have shown with this move and are grateful for their efforts. We know that these next few weeks of adjustment will bring us even closer together. They are happy with their homes, and one kid even called the houses “luxurious.” The kids are having a blast as the community is located in a rural area just outside of the main city. They have a ton of open space in which to run around, and we explored a nearby beach this week where the kids found great treasures such as cool rocks, crabs, and sea urchins.
At the top of our to-do list is finishing the remaining houses and getting the kids in school. We have a ton to do over the next few weeks, and, as always, we know that progress happens one step at a time. As always, thank you all for your generosity and continued support. We are so excited to finally be here!
Sisters, Crisleidy and Fernanda, with their Mother, Gladice
