Last Monday, David got word from Peace Corps that a truck full of supplies for Haiti would be unloading at a church in Santo Domingo. Plan International, an NGO from Britain, had bought food and basic goods to put together kits to send to Port Au Prince. David went to help oversee the process. As the week went on, he ended up being one of three people managing the operation.
At the Parroquia Jesus Maestro in the capital, about 80 volunteers a day came to unload boxes, unpack things like cans of sardines and beans, toothpaste, cups and plates and matches. They sorted out the materials and formed assembly lines to pack the kits. By this Sunday, the collaboration had sent 6,000 kits, each for a family of four, to Haiti. Watch a video and read about it here.
This weekend I went to help as well. It was exhausting, and frustrating for the coordinators. The people making the purchases didn´t always tell the people at the church what was coming in and when, so trying to make a complete kit with everything portioned out was a mess. Trucks with supplies didn´t show up when they were needed and then trucks to transport the stuff to Haiti did when the volunteers were still working. But I was amazed at the spirit of the group, everyone from three-year-old kids to 70-year old women working 12 hours without questioning the need. As one woman put it, dismissing David´s thank-you for her work, ¨Es por la Gloria de Dios,¨ for the glory of God. The volunteers´ collaboration was inspiring, too. David and the other directors told people what needed to be done and gave them jobs, but once a group was assigned to a task, they found the best way to do it and formed systems to help each other out without hardly saying a thing. Almost all Saturday, I and a couple other Peace Corps volunteers joined the church folks to cut sacks of rope into 14-meter sections and tie it off, one piece designated for each sack. With about ten of us winding rope around our arms to portion it out, kids fell into the job of cortador, or cutter. One of the rope-winders would call out ´´Cortador!´´ and a kid with one of two pairs of scissors would come to help. David called it his soga (rope) sweatshop.
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| From Haiti |
Volunteers formed a cadena (chain) to pass sacks filled with food to where the truck would pick them up.
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| From Haiti |
The pile of sacks after volunteers carried them outside the church.
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| From Haiti |
David made a list of everything that would be shipping out on Sunday after we decided to call it in early for an earlier obligation (er, Vikings football game).
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| From Haiti |
These little boys were pretty happy with themselves for finding a hat in the trash and then putting it in the toilet.
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| From Haiti |
A pile of towels to be included in the kits.
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| From Haiti |
David on Thursday night, when I showed up to see the operation and help the next day.
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| From Haiti |
Chilling on the porch waiting for them to open the Peace Corps office at 8 a.m.
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| From Haiti |
The tarps arrived a little late, but much needed.
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| From Haiti |
A sea of sacos!
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| From Haiti |
David and Mateo, who works for Plan International, and helped all week to coordinate until he realized he was going to be in big trouble with his wife if he didn´t get back to Pedernales real quick.
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| From Haiti |
The soga sweatshop.
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| From Haiti |
The boss man does manual labor too.
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| From Haiti |
Many, many sardines.
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| From Haiti |
More sacos todavia!
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| From Haiti |
The line of ladies closing sacks with zip-ties as we finished to ship them out Sunday.
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| From Haiti |
On Sunday morning I was the salt lady – passing out a bag of salt to each of 1,000 food bags, carried in assembly line style by other volunteers. Why do Haitians need salt? Somewhat unclear.
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| From Haiti |
This little kid insisted on helping, carrying a saco as big as himself from each of the stations to get sardines, salt, cooking oil, crackers and batteries.
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| From Haiti |
A sweaty couple.
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| From Haiti |
Happy volunteers.
It is so interesting to learm about this from your eyes, ears and perspective. Love you bunches.
Good luck! I’ll keep you folks in my thoughts!
[...] up working with Plan International, which was coordinating a huge shipment of emergency supplies, and he coordinated hundreds of volunteers for a week to send kits with food and other necessities li…. Peace Corps finally sent waves of volunteers with Creole training to translate and handle [...]