On January 12th, the Haitian people “celebrated” the two-year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake which took the lives of some 360,000 men, women, and children. What they celebrated was not the tragedy itself, but the progress which has been made since that fateful day.
With the exception of the downtown area, referred to as “Le Ville,” which may never the rubble has been largely removed, erasing the superficial physical traces, but not the profound emotional scars. Families separated, faculties stolen, children orphaned – this was a tragedy on a unimaginable scale for people who already endure a grinding poverty with little hope for much more than incremental progress generation after generation.
Yet, you’d never know it from looking at them. These are a people who are too proud to wallow in defeat. Huge factories and entrepreneurial individuals alike churn out grey cinder blocks – the staple to Haitian construction – without regard for demand – a metaphorical declaration of resilience.
Meanwhile, our team of masons is busy transforming those blocks into a home for one of those widowed by the tragedy. Reluctantly, though, they work only under the condition of a full day’s wages for a half day’s labor. They may be diligent, but they’re not oblivious.
In a few short days, walls have risen from a cobbled foundation to form a home that hardly seems humble until you consider that it will house at least six people. Plumbing, electricity, and ventilation are all afterthoughts if not neverthoughts.
Realizing that we can’t do something for everyone, the benefit of home building is that it involves a lot of labor and provides a source of revenue for people that just doesn’t come around all that often. We’ve hired 10 laborers, all of whom will make more in the 8 days they work for us than in 2 or 3 months to come.
