Haitian normal

From Greg: We did not post last night so this is fresh this morning. Yesterday was a good day. Everyone here felt the same way and it may have been in part because of the rain that makes everything feel fresher and cooler. We had one minor flood and one major flood on both of the second stories of the two buildings we are in. The rain came off the roof  and down the outside stairs and was in part dammed up by a newer security gate that had been installed. The water that was diverted ran down the hall and into the apartment with 5 single beds and was quite deep. We spent a lot of time "sweeping" it to the stairs so it could continue down. We have made some corrections hoping there is less water in the apartment during the next rain. We are posting some photos of the maintenance shed for the hospital. I think that will give you an idea why all the projects take time down here. Tools are in five different places and are none here at the hospital. Apparently they have been borrowed and then there is a lengthy process to getting them back…..I am working with the maintenance man, Wilson, to see if we can't get him some control and a system of tool management in place. 

The tool shed at the hospital...

The project yesterday that went very well required at least 4-5 trips to the tool room at the apartments we are staying in. It is a round trip of about a half mile. So even to get one missing tool really slows down the project. Where we are working is right across the "street" or dirt road from the hospital and even with a locked house you really cannot leave any tools there and so the all have to be brought back to the tool storage area here.  I have been working with one of the great young men that is from here and have really enjoyed showing him how to do doors correctly. I think there are 12 doors in this little place that is being remodeled into an rotating Haitian intern docs apartment and most of the doors need work. The frames are 2x6 wood that has been chewed up by termites and is anchored to the walls with bolts that were put in during the block work, so we have to use tapcon screws to re-anchor the frames.  All the door blanks are hand made; that does not make them bad. It just means all the hinges are hand-chiseled in and all the door knobs have been drilled in with a hole saw and no jigs. It  is a lot of fun trying to explain, in the 11 words of Creole I know, to this young man - how to use a cordless  drill to drive screws with a cordless drill when he has never used an electric drill before. I need about 10 Megapro screw drivers so bad down here. I can hardly believe I didn't bring one. I worked on two doors that require us to pull nails, slotted screws, phillips screws and slotted screws out of the hinges.  AND IT WAS STILL A GOOD DAY!

The house across from the hospital - getting fixed up...