Back to Haiti

Hello all, 


As most of you know, I'm back in Haiti. I'm with a new organization, called Build Change, who designs earthquake-resistant houses and then train and supervises homeowners, builders, and government officials to build them. I've been back almost two weeks but have been too busy/tired to start the blog, so this first post will be a copy/paste of an email some of you received, and the second will be new. Here goes! 

Well, I'm back to being Katie in Haiti and I am really, really enjoying it! It is so very different from Afghanistan, but also quite different from the last time I was here. It seems like I bring a unique perspective having been here before the earthquake, and then again shortly afterwards. So much has changed - there are way more restaurant/bars (to cater to expats but also Haitians), the price of food has gone up (expats and well-to-do Haitians are willing to pay, so they can charge), and a lot of the tent cities have been cleared out since I was here after the earthquake. Apparently many have been cleared as recently as a few weeks ago, but what a difference it makes. 

The job:

Is really good, I'm enjoying myself a lot so far. Build Change designs earthquake-resistant houses and then trains homeowners, builders, and government officials how to build them. We either do designs for new construction, or retrofits of houses that were deemed unsafe. We don't provide financing for homeowners to build, nor do we do the actual building, but we train people how to do it and provide onsite, on-the-job supervision so that the builders learn a skill they can carry away. I am doing fund development and grant writing, which is a combination of networking on the ground and writing proposals. For example, an NGO may win a contract to retrofit/build 300 new houses in Port-au-Prince. I'll write a proposal offering to sub-contract to them, having Build Change provide housing designs, train their builders how to build the designs, and provide onsite supervision throughout the process so it's done correctly. I've wrote three last week and there are another couple in the pipeline, so you can imagine how busy we are! I like it though, it's a good mix of getting out meeting people and the geeky, proposal writing stuff I like to do. I report to the Director of Programs, who is great and has been helping me a lot this past week. 

My coworkers:

Are all really nice. There are about 80 Haitians, the majority of who are engineers/trainers and are on building sites every day to make sure things run smoothly. The rest are admin/operations people, comms people, or architect/engineers who create house designs. There are 9 expats including me, two Haitian-Americans (one heads admin and the other comms), then the director of programs and 5 engineers/architects. All are men except the comms director, but it's not a problem at all. All are really, really nice and have been great at getting me up to speed and making me feel included in their after-work activities.

My apartment:

Is also quite nice, and a lot like the ones I stayed in with PDT. There are two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a shared bathroom, and all are big and spacious. I am sharing an apartment with Juan, a Honduran architect. He's fluent in English and French, but I'm practicing my Spanish with him as well. He's been great about making me feel welcome and it isn't weird sharing the living space. The apartment is about halfway in between the office and Petionville, the kind of hub of activity for extra-curricular stuff, it has lots of restaurants, gyms, bars, etc. Traffic is terrible here, so it's in a nice midway location. 

Haiti itself:

Is awesome! It is SUCH a change from Afghanistan, I can't get over it. We don't have any curfews or security restrictions except that we're supposed to take Build Change drivers. This means that if we want to go to the beach, we can go we just need to take one of our drivers. We're actually going to a beach about an hour outside of PAP today! My coworkers have taken day/weekend trips all around the country, so I'm getting excited to do the same. I feel completely safe in the city as well, there really aren't any security concerns. It would be totally possible to come down for a Haitian vacation, spend your days at nice cafes/restaurants and going to the beach. SUCH an upgrade from Kabul! I am really excited for my new lifestyle. 

For all of you that want to keep in touch in another way, we can BBM! Work gave me a Blackberry and I am slowly learning how to use it, so if you have one you can pass along your pin. That's it for now, post #2 coming up!