Day 3 - First Day of the Build

First off, my apologies for not posting on day 2. My phone browser, for some reason is no longer supported by blogspot... which is just as well since Christianville now has a cyber cafe! I did post an accunt of yesterday on facebook if anyone wants to check it out. But this is about today. It was an extraordinary day. I met my build team at the work site at about 7 am and we began building the first of two housesthat we will be responsible to complete this week. The walls were premade with doors and windows in place. All we had to do was slap them together... which was pretty easy, even though nothing was particularly square. The more challenging part was setting the gable ends and trusses. What you will see in my pictures on facebook is a progression throughout the day. Be sure and check them out. Everyone on my team is from the states. I was hoping to catch up with the South Bend folks who I thought were going to be part of my team, but that was not to be. Instead we have two guys from Hatford, CT; a guy from northern VA and a girl from NYC; and then Roger who I can't remember where he's from. I'll find out tomorrow. The team leader is a big guy named Russ. I'll get a picture of him tomorrow. Anyway, our crew is small but we're working well together. President and Mrs. Carter put in about half a day... they left after it got real hot. Pretty amazing that they're still out here working at age 87. I've not seen them yet, but apparently Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are on the site building with us too. I'll keep an eye skinned. Not long after we started this morning a media guy came to our spot and asked whether any of us had a story to tell. I almost didn't say anything, but then I pulled the guy aside and told him about Robert and how I ended up as part of the work project. He is apparently going to publish our talk as a special interest story on habitat's web site.... maybe you all can check it out. The thing that made today incredibly special, however, was when one of the Habitat staff sought me out near the end of the day and said "there's a young Haitian man asking for you up at the dining tent". Alix Blaise drove in from Port-au-Prince to meet me and talk to me about his relationship with Robert. He had been in Indiana staying with one of robert's colleagues named Wayne, and had begun a relationship with Robert. He had been looking forward to seeing him, and in response to his death, had a t-shirt made up with Robert's picture on it... and he wanted me to bring it back for Danielle. I took a short video of him addressing all of us (Dani in particular) and have posted it to facebook. It was a very moving experience for me, and though each day here in Haiti is a special blessing, I doubt that any of the rest of my days here will measure up to the experience I had here today. As for now, it's time to let the next person in line get on this computer. I'll be back tomorrow... good night.