{Mari Builds} Carter Work Project - Part 1

{Reflections on a week Haiti, from the perspective of a Habitat for Humanity volunteer partnering with the Santo community of Léogâne to build 100 homes in less than a week.}

               2,000,000. Families devastated by the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath.

               1,000,000. People resettled due to damages related to the earthquake.

               400,000. Survivors that remain homeless or displaced in Haiti today.

               600. Determined Habitat for Humanity & Haven volunteers.

               100. Beautiful new homes for happy Haitian families.

Building Hope.  Of the many overwhelming feelings experience while in Haiti, the prevailing one is hope.  Beyond the pain, the loss, the tents, the trash, the rubble, the living conditions, the devastation, there is a sliver of opportunity.  Upon arrival to the Santo community, where Habitat for Humanity has now built over 250 homes, a new energy appears, a sense of new beginnings... and an aura of hope.

With AARPCVs Marie Pearson 

Shockley & Willie Wilkerson.

Armed with a tool bag, helmet, &

other Carter Work Project gear, 

I set out to meet 600 volunteers 

for a week of intense construction.

The preparations for this project began long before the journey.  In the spring of this year, fellow Atlanta Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (AARPCV) Willie Wilkerson (spoke to our membership about his efforts in Haiti with Habitat for Humanity in 2011.  Willie has participated in 27 Carter Work Projects, remaining dedicated to the mission.  I was so inspired by Habitat's efforts in Haiti, I returned home to submit my volunteer application for the build!  Over the next 5 months, I raised $5,000 to support construction efforts and build hope... this is the story of the resulting impact.

Deplaning the charter... first steps in Haiti.

At the airport, we had our first view of the countryside before boarding the buses for Léogâne, a two-hour affair though only 20 miles outside of the capital.  The journey to the campsite was our only first-hand glimpse into life in Port-au-Prince, home to nearly 2 million residents.  Destruction sneers from every corner.  Buildings remaining demonstrate every level of damages: some are leveled to nothing but piles of rubble, while others show recognizable pieces of walls and roofs that resemble a shadow of the original structure.  Still others are left standing – a term I use loosely – though clearly unsafe, uninhabitable, and abandoned. 

Common sights... piles of rubble and broken buildings.

The Haitian capital remains a busy, populated city.  Vendors are everywhere selling anything they can, from sugarcane to second-hand clothes to used car parts, though no one seems to be buying.  The streets are littered with debris, as are the waterways.  People search through large mounds of burning trash, hoping to find…?  Then come the shelter slums, stretches of tents and temporary structures, built with tree branches, tarps, tin roofing, plastic bags, or anything else on hand, that stand amid the make-shift markets and piles of trash.  They seem endless, disjointed row after row of housing, all running together in a sobering public display of poverty.

Though much improved, thousands still remain in desolate tent camps that dominate the city.

While this journey exhibited the worst of the housing crisis in Haiti, it also provided the impulse to strike back and make the situation better.  After this impactful ride, we arrived in Léogâne more determined than ever.