5Crawfords

Part picture, part rendering looking into the site with the model of the new building shown. Wednesday June 8th Another good night of sleep in the tent makes it official – I’m glad I bothered to pack the tent even though we were limited on baggage allowances. The water tank was overflowing when we woke up, so apparently they just let the pump run all night. What a difference a day makes – feast or famine! Mid-morning, the contractors Kiki and Don returned to pick us up as promised yesterday. Structural Volunteer Brent and Architect Jim joined me as we piled onto motorcycles (I can’t help but call them bodas) to head out to their site. We drove up the road, which climbs a good sized mountain just a half-mile up the road from the site. The house they are building is on the other side of the mountain about 10 minutes from our site. It was fun to see more of Haiti, and doing so did nothing to discourage my opinion that it is virtually indistinguishable from Uganda (other than the roadside...

From the air, Haiti is a lush Island in the Carribean Sea, some of the most beautiful water in the world. The small agricultural crops mixed in with the dense bush in the low lying areas are a hint of the potential of this once tropical paradise... On the ground, sadly, it's a much different story. This is the view our team was greeted with as we drove through the Cap Haitien harbor on our way out of town to the CEDAN site. Part I of III Sunday June 5th The interns and one of our volunteers who lives in Colorado Springs showed up at our house at 7am to leave for the airport. For the first time, Alisha and the boys drove me to the airport since Alisha’s mom was flying in later that afternoon. It was nice seeing them for a little longer this time. After dropping me off, they parked and then came in just in time to give me another hug and kiss goodbye before I headed into the security line. They watched from above as I got selected for the ‘special screening’, and then as me and the o...

Me and 11 other team members have landed safely in Fort Lauderdale for the night. We awake at 3am to go to the airport to fly out to Haiti at 6:30am. We'll be in Haiti until next Monday June 13th. Your prayers for a safe and successful trip are appreciated! Updates of the trip to follow after we return...