Skip to main content

We are three weeks into the construction in Haiti, and it has overall been going great. We are currently employing 42 men. Twenty are men that we brought and there are another 22 locals, including one strong woman and one hard-working, old mute guy.  We are moving quickly. We have completely finished two houses, are almost done with another two, and have started the foundations for another four. We have yet to take a day off in July. The first week was a real roller coaster, and we failed miserably in keeping a low profile.

On Thursday, July 2nd, I and 19 other guys piled into a 16 seat passenger van with shaky breaks, and 19 hours later we arrived in Jacmel. We broke ground early Friday morning. Within an hour of breaking ground, 40 or so local men had shown up in search of work. We told them we didn’t need any that day, but they could come back Monday once we had dug the foundations for a few houses. Most were respectful but a few hung around trying to start fights and threatening to shut down the work if I didn’t give them a job.

Maxine, a local worker, stops to snap a shot with Bernard

I had hired a local guy to do the iron work for the housing, but they scared him off. He was afraid they were gangsters and would stop at nothing. Things continued to escalate before I called a local police captain I had been put in touch with. He told me to take all of the workers and leave for the day, and that he would come by the next morning to help sort things out. He came by the next day, talked to a higher up in the local underworld, and said we were good with the “sharks.” The troublemakers from Friday came back on Sunday. They promised to shut down work, but by that point we were putting locals to work, so they didn’t have numbers or any real recourse.  They have since come by and apologized and hope to get a few days of work sometime in August.

Sunday afternoon the real gangsters came knocking. The mayor’s office came by to tell us we needed permission to build. We got the permission the next day and everything was looking good. Tuesday our lawyer got a call from the mayor revoking our permission and stopping work. When I told the guys on Wednesday, they and the locals that were getting work and business were adamant that we should march on the mayor’s office. I found this idea deeply appealing. I talked to the lawyer who said we didn’t have enough power to really scare them and that showing the mayor that I was that kind of trouble maker would not help. The men were adamant that the lawyer was a crook and we needed to march, but I nixed it.

We were not allowed to work Wednesday or Thursday. I thought the lawyer took care of the problem Thursday afternoon and began work again Friday. The mayor’s office came by once on Friday morning with just one guy, then later Friday morning they brought one cop and a handful of men employed by the mayor’s office. Our workers, locals and his guys were arguing and things were getting a bit heated when the leader of this group decided it was time for them to go. We continued to work, but that afternoon the mayor’s office came back again, this time with a truck full of cops and a truck full of his guys. The message was clear; they were not playing around.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning were filled with lies and political theater before the mayor finally gave his number: 2,000 USD and we could work again. I paid and we got back to it. We had such issues with this permission because the mayor’s brother is the guy who did the official measuring and plotting of the land we bought. He knew about the project and once we started construction he pressured his brother, the mayor, to stop us and obligate us to get some paperwork from him so that he could get paid.

David, happy and stronger than ever

Personally I am just about as tan as I have ever been. I still need sunscreen during the 11am-3pm hours of the work day, but besides those hours I am alright. My favorite tool is the pick axe and I spend most my time breaking ground and rocks.  I still need gloves if I am going to work more than an hour or 2, but I hope to get to the point soon where gloves and sunscreen are unnecessary.

I will leave you with one amusing voodoo story. Part of Haitian voodoo is people’s ability to turn into different animals, usually a cow or cat. One day I was walking by a cow and one of our smartest and best educated workers turns to me and says in all seriousness, “Careful, in Haiti cows are often people.” That afternoon we were eating lunch and I decided to have some fun. I told the guys that Catherine was an ant before I used magic to turn her into the perfect woman. They had doubts because “an ant is too small, a person cannot turn into an ant. A cow or cat, sure, but an ant, it’s just too small. Can you imagine being so small?” To which I asked, “Well how small of an animal can a person be?” After thinking hard for a few moments, one man replied, “A chicken,” to which the group generally agreed was reasonable, but no smaller than a chicken. One then asked very seriously, “How would you even turn yourself into such a small thing like an ant?” I responded, “I imagine it is a very similar process to that of turning yourself into a cow, cat, or chicken.”

As always thank you for your support. None of this would be possible without you.

A little taste of what our new homes will look like

Leave a Reply