Accountability

Dave Pierce and I have agreed to support each other in getting healthier and losing weight.
We agreed to set reasonable goals and established incentives/disincentives for loosing weight in the next 3 and 6 months starting April 2,2018.
Craig's goal is to loose 4% & 7% in 3 & 6 months, respectively.
Craig weighed in on 4/2/18 @ 207#, 3 month goal is 199 lbs. 6 Month goal is 193 lbs.
Incentive/ disincentive:   lunch and dinner at 3 & 6 months.

Lunch will be Craig and Dave.  If goal met by both bill is split. If one makes and one doesn't.the one not making it pays bill. If both don't make it we each must pay for two others meals at the restoraunt.

Dinner:  We each agreed to put in a kitty (held by Dave) $15 / month. In 6 months the kitty should have $180.  If both make goal we use kitty and take wives out to nice meal. If one does and one does not make goal. We still do nice meal with wives but one not making goal must add $90 to kitty to carry forward. If both dont make it money stays in kitty and Craig and Dave must prepare and serve a gormet meal for our wives.

Good News & Bad News

I am continuing to split my time between assessing structures and homes through a local church and assessing structures for a UN organization here. Both organizations try to organize trips to buildings located in a particular area because travel time can be long. The main streets that are wide and are in relatively good shape are jammed with traffic. One can try to go around the main streets, but the streets are in such poor shape that 4 wheel vehicles are required to travel on them. The photo at right shows a common street. Not only is the road rough but people are clearing rubble out of their homes and pushing it into the streets. There is not enough labor and equipment to move this debris from the streets. I will occasionally see a backhoe or a front loader, but they are few and far between.

I assessed the buildings at the Asscotiated Christian Women in Action (AFCA) campus in Port-au-Prince. Thier Chapel was under construction and did well. Their three-story building looked quite good. However, the basement of the building had only wall (severely damaged) that would resist earthquake forces. I told them to fix the wall and add several new walls before they allow anyone one in the school for any length of time.

Girls were digging trenches next to their tents as I walked to the other side of the compound. The night before had been the first significant rain since the earthquake. The water runoff became a huge problem to the hundreds of thousands of people living in tents.

At the other side of the campus young orphan girls were sleeping in tents and trying to walk around the mud outside. I evaluated their building and found it quite safe. I was given the opportunity to tell the girls, via a Kreyol translator, that they could move back into their home, if they would help clean things up.

Safe in Bed

Although I have not posted a blog for quite a number of days, I am still alive and doing well. I have been busy since people found out that I am one who can give them wise council regarding the safety of their homes. Many many people are sleeping outside their homes. This is true for all classes of people, from the very poor to the foreigners living in nice homes. Nearly all homes have cracks and if you had experienced what those in Haiti did on January 12, you would have wonder if those cracks indicate that the next shake will bring the house down on your head.
Many of the homes I have been visiting are very good structures that will do well in earthquakes bigger than the 1/12/10 event (see note below). People are so thankful when they have someone know is qualified, review their home, and tell them, yes, your home is safe and you have nothing to fear; or yes, the damage is such that it is not safe to stay inside. The problem is that there are millions of structures to assess and it is highly unlikely that there will be enough resources to review these structures before the rainy and hurricane seasons arrive.

1. Note: You know how we call 911 in case of an emergency - then the World Trade Center tragedy occurred - and 911 had a whole new meaning? In France the number to call in an emergency is 112. In Haiti, a former French colony, who’s native language, Creole, is based on French, the emergency call number has a whole new meaning as well.

Inspections R US

Saturday I met with members of various missionary and church groups serving a local community in Port-au-Prince. They were seeking to coordinate across denominational lines to more effectively help the Haitians in their community. I offered to inspect people’s homes, as I heard many people were still afraid living in them. This offer was well received. Tomorrow, the pastor of one church will inform the worshipers of my offer. They will have a sign-up sheet. One of the ministry interns will then meet with me and we will set out a schedule for doing the inspections. I believe I will be putting my qualifications to work.
I am also trying to learn what others are doing in regards to housing. I wrote my observations in this regard and sent them to the various organizations that I have contacted. A copy of these observations can be found at this link (if I can figure out how to add a link)

A Connection

The Caribe Tours bus was scheduled to arrive in Petion Ville a neighborhood in Puerto Prince at 5:00 p.m. this evening. Corrigan knowing that bus schedules In Haiti are not reliable went to the station with reading material. I arrived after 8:00 p.m. He drove me to his home where several Haitian boys two younger kids and one young Haitian woman hanging out. Actually, Christiana, the young women was working in the kitchen. Corrigan tells me that she and her two children are now living with Corrigan and Shelley as their house had fallen down in the earthquake. The little girl’s leg was in a full cast having had it broken when the house fell down.

Corrigan proceeded to make us a large plate of taco fixings which we ate and then left on the table. He said the rest will be eaten. Shelley, Corrigan’s wife, and their children just left to return to the states yesterday as an opportunity opened up allowing them to expedite the adoption of two Haitian children.

Last Saturday, sitting on my coach, safe and comfortable in the “Man Room”, I watched a WSU basketball game being played on Friel Court in Pullman. The students in the stands were all wearing white T-shirts with “509” written across the front. Being raised in Pullman I knew that was the area code for Pullman as well as all of Eastern Washington. I mentioned this to Linda and asked the rhetorical question - why would a college routing section decide to wear their area code emblazoned on their chests. Today I might have found the reason.

The country code for Haiti is “509.” I believe that the WSU students found this fact connected them to this earthquake ravaged country. The world is mourning for the Haitian people.

Caribe Tours

Tomorrow morning I will go early to the Caribe Bus Tour station in Santo Domingo and begin a 6-8 hour trip to Port-au-Prince Haiti. After spending several weeks communicating with engineers, engineering organizations, and volunteer organizations around the world trying to connect with an organization that could utilize an experienced structural/seismic engineer in an earthquake ravished country, it is through the body of believers that a path has opened for me to get into Haiti.

A couple of days after the earthquake, Kevin Morgan knowing I intended to go to Haiti put me in touch with Corrigan Clay and his wife Sherry who run an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. This couple is a friend of Shea and Sandy Morgan. They worked in German with Shea and Sandy prior to going to Port-au-Prince. They survived the earthquake and have been taking care of far more than the orphans.

Last night I wrote an email to Corrigan letting him know that I had not connected with any organization. Corrigan wrote back that he sees little getting done by the large organizations. But volunteers who just show up and volunteer are making a difference. He stated that every morning there are cluster meetings sponsored by the UN. Each different cluster has a focus. One may be medical, one housing, one children, etc. Cluster leader organize volunteers into work groups, give them assignments and send them off.

On receiving this input I thought that I could be of use to the Haitians. However, I did not want to show up without a place to stay and no idea where I would eat and be another body that needed taking care of. I passed this reservation on to Corrigan. He responded to my email quickly stating he would welcome me into their home and one more mouth to feed was not a problem. I will find out tomorrow how many mouths Corrigan and Sherry are already feeding.

As I wrote in an earlier blog, God’s body of believers are a power in this world. Love can work miracles, where our so-called 1^st world society tries to get their act together.

Post script:

Last night after posting my second ever blog I glanced at the first blog I posted. It is full of errors. I was typing a stream of consciousness and then I clicked on post instead of save. I couldn't see how to edit it once it had been posted. It was only tonight that I found that one can edit past posts. Which I did. My apologies.

Send money to Haiti?

It is Tuesday night February 9th. I returned to my hotel room to check my email hoping to find one that puts me in contact with someone who could use my services in Haiti. There were none.

One email I received from the Diablo Valley Woodworkers Association had the subject line "Haiti." I opened this email and found that this like many other organization were seeing how they could help the Haitians. It was a note that their members could not find a place where their skills were particularly needed, but noting that they knew of organizations that had gathered used medical equipment and supplies but needed funds for shipping this to Haiti.

I decided to provide my perspective on this suggestion.

Following is my responding email to Bill, the caretaker of correspondence with the DVWA members:

"Dear Bill:

The Diablo Valley Woodworkers might be interested in a perspective on charitable giving to Haiti. I am a DVWW member and infrequent meeting attender. I am currently in the Dominican Republic trying to get into Haiti to provide my expertise as a volunteer. I am a structural and earthquake engineering consultant who finished up a meeting today in Santo Domingo. Knowing I was going to be next door to Haiti, I have been trying to volunteer to any organization that would like to use my volunteer services. One would think that a structural engineering volunteer could be put to good use. No one has indicated to me they could use my help.

I think this demonstrates the chaotic reality of what is happening in Haiti. Last night I attended a meeting of DR structural and earthquake engineers hoping they could provide me with a connection into Haiti. They could only see how things can't get done in Haiti. They could not see a way that things could get done. They call Haiti a "psuedo" country. The reason for this term is due to the fact that the UN sent a peace keeping military force to Haiti to stem and control the tremendous violence that had been occurring there. Now without military power, the government has been stripped of any real power. Yet they understandably want to review and approve what is going on in their country. However, all this does is muddy the water as they have adequate manpower, knowledge, respect, or resources to review, comment and make good decisions.

From my current perspective, I would recommend that if one wants to help out the Haitian's financially, that money be given to an organization that would invest the money wisely and look for opportunities in the future to disperse that money. I would not want to waste the emotional urgency of giving, as this will fade away. I would recommend to give and to give generously, but not just to send it to Haiti now. There is more money flowing in now than people and infrastructure to see that the supplies it purchases get to where it is needed. It is down the road when the world starts forgetting Haiti, that these funds can be put to good use to help these people rebuild their families, their homes, their cities, and their hopes and dreams.

A perspective from someone trying to do the right thing.

Craig"