Cosmo returns to Haiti...

After a brief respite in NYC for treatment of malaria/dengue fever/hand laceration I returned to PaP today.

The One Truck focus is three-fold at this point;

-prepare our site for arrival of the GiveLove shipping containers
-continue to assist in the management of our two IDP camps; Tapis Verte and Droulliard fields in Citè Soleil
-facilitate in the implementation of the GiveLove humanure project

(there's lateral stuff- but writing/thinking about it will make my head explode)

Operating here in Haiti is akin to juggling... Juggling a chainsaw, a machete and an electric eel while walking a tightrope on freshly vaselined rollerblades. It's really hard and you slip alot.

Today I arrived (on time!!!) at the airport, met Franky (famous driver/translator to the stars) and headed to the Dollar rental to pick up our confirmed rental.

They had no cars.

Email confirmation in hand, we went elsewhere- eventually found a Daihatsu (think Korean diesel Smart Car with 4WD) but it killed our entire day. Expect the unexpected- rely on unreliability, go with the flow... Etc etc etc

So; Franky and I got our team together- he and I will manage the GiveLove housing solution as I said: pour the footers, escort the containers over the border, arrange the pre-fab and not-fabbed units on site, do the modifications (add doors, windows, weld on trusses and roofing) select the eligible families- aid them in their relocation, integrate sustainability solutions for water reclamation, composting, recycling and human waste composting... This will all take time- and it's Haiti time..so...

At the same time we will continue to help out at our two camps- we continue to act as a liason between the displaced persons in the camp, the camp manager, land owner and the various aid Orgs working here.

We have had good support from Doctors Without Borders with sanitation and water- Medicin Du Monde are operating a few clinics each week (more please!) and our UNICEF tent is occasionally occupied AVSI staffed entertainment and lessons for our kids..

With all the resources here it is amazing to see how difficult it is to get services.

All requests for services are dependent upon your (our) assessment- which makes sense; how many kids? How many adults? How many pregnant women? Nursing moms?elderly? Disabled? Living in a tent? Crappy tent?
Malnurished? Sick? Wet? Living in water? Malaria?

Unfortunately, our assessment had not been done - so we were kinda out of luck. We went to a cluster lead who was very helpful- he said he could go the red cross- they have trained staff who could assist us, our staff (3 of us, for a population of 3,000) with an assessment.

He went to red cross- and they refused- said we are in a dangerous area that requires guns to work in, and the Cruce Rouge doesn't do guns..

So, April 20 our assessment was finally done. Unfortunately, it's not in the books yet- or into the computer I should say... But that should be any day now... In fact we should be able to begin requesting some of these items for our population by May 12.... Just about four months after the quake.

We look forward to improving our camp drastically- our main goals are relocation; move wet families to dry ground, dry famies to better tents, and move anyone that can or wants to go home, home. Sean Penn and J/P HRO have helped us out with tents and logistics- we moved 35 families home last week- and hope to do way more of that upcoming.

Patricia and GiveLove have put together a pretty amazing group to help us with our Humanure (yes, poop. Turning poop into viable, safe compost and soil) project.

Our friends from Our Soil have been active in Haiti for 5-6 years and they make amazing soil. And badass toilets too.. So they are all visiting us next week and helping to implement our own Humanure project at Tapis Verte...

More to come...

PS we finished the well and washing area wirht he concrete slab- I will try and add pics tomorrow!!

Thank you,
Cosmo