The Orphanage

Building the wall

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7		June 2002
		"The wall" was to be over 1600 running feet, 8 feet high (including approx. 2 ft of protruding foundation). 15,000 6 x 8 x 16" block. It was designed to be built in panels each approx 12 feet long divided by reinforced concrete piers that were poured after the 12 ft panels were built. The local contractor who had done the foundation followed our brick crew around the wall, pouring the piers.
The "first wave" of volunteers for the wall project included the Elmer, Fullmer & Huss families plus Wes and three of his nephews and nieces. This gave us around 20 volunteers anticipating an early start Monday, 3 June. Unfortunately some of the building materials didn't arrive until that afternoon so come Tuesday, everyone was raring to go and looked to Dave Fullmer for instruction on laying block. It must be mentioned here that the total experience Dave had laying concrete block prior to this project was carrying hod for his father in law for several months 26 years ago. He had actually never laid a block in his life. But knowing how to spell "block" and mix mud was close enough for Wes, who immediately sat Dave in the driver seat! You'd think for one having been in the military, Dave would have known to keep his mouth shut! Anyway, in an effort to put on a good face of confidence and inspire the troops, Dave started out with a mud making and block laying class first thing Tuesday morning. For some reason, this turned out to be one of the more memorable parts of the experience for the early group. In addition to the volunteers, the "class" was attended, by a large number of curious locals. Unknown to Dave, this included several experienced local block masons. This made the demonstration all the more entertaining for everyone. It seems they don't do block in Haiti the way we do in America. The first thing we discovered is that their sand must be screened on site and they've never heard of powdered lime which we use in the US to make the mud sticky. After several embarrassing attempts by Dave to swipe some mud on the end of a block and have it stick, one of the local masons named Pierre came forward and patiently showed everyone how it's really done, including the fact that the holes on the block go down, not up! Dave & Wes immediately "saw the light" (it takes a while folks) and hired Pierre and several other experienced natives whereupon the volunteers fell in step hauling block, building scaffold and mixing mud. In a short time several American volunteers picked up the local block technique so we eventually had 6-8 people laying block at any one time. For the locals, we quickly settled on 5 masons including Pierre as the lead, 5 mason's helpers and 3 boys sifting sand plus two water girls that worked hard and steady bringing water, 5 gallons at a time to the mud making site. All but the sifters & water girls were paid at the end of each day through s Pierre which saved us the daily hiring hassle. Since 80% of the people in Haiti are unemployed and have nothing better to do than hang out, watch and hope they get a job, they are constantly jumping in to help. This may sound OK until you have 40 people at the end of the day standing with their hand out and you can never be sure who was really working. After Wes returned home, leaving Dave to be the "paymaster" Dave devised a method for keeping track of who was hire and who wasn't. Each day, name tags were made for each task to be hired out. The first, willing and able workers on the site in the morning received the nametags with the understanding that they needed to turn it in to be paid. This also helped Dave keep track during the day of who was hired and who should be politely asked to stay out of the way! The weather was actually quite cooperative. Only on the first couple of workdays was the temperature so hot that it was difficult for the Americans to work in the afternoon. Mercifully, we got some rain on the 3rd & 4th days and thereafter the temperatures moderated. The rain came mostly in the evenings, after work and fell in steady, hour long torrents, causing at times a solid sheet of water off the roof of the sleeping pavilion under which many of us cooled off from the heat of the day. Only once did the rain prevent us from working for a couple of hours in the afternoon, but it was a welcome break from the very hot and humid afternoons we had been suffering. After two days of nice rain, the air dried out and we experienced a lot of wind through the end of the project. This only proved to be a problem when we finally worked our way back to the starting corner and the wind whipped up blinding sand storms in the corner of the wall. The first day we made it about 2/3 of the way down the 304 ft back wall. The next day, Wednesday, we rounded the corner and made it about a third of the way up the long (512 ft) side. Having arrived late on Wednesday, a large group of volunteers from the Provo Canyon ward were ready to block on Thursday. Their group consisted of about 30 scouts and young women from ages 14 to approx 21 plus their leaders. The Canyon ward was very organized and motivated. Their numbers increased our productivity dramatically. Come Friday we were around the second corner and moving along the front wall. Saturday was the last work day for some of the first groups. The Whatcotts left us on Saturday, the Elmers family returned on Sunday and the Huss' on Monday. This was OK however because by Saturday night we were around the last corner and started down the last wall which promised to be easier than the other long wall because the foundation had fewer steps and the terrain was more level. Even though they had prior arraignments in the afternoons, the Provo Canyon ward kept up the momentum on Monday and Tuesday and put us within just a couple of hours of completion when they left, mid day on Tuesday. The last block went in the early afternoon on Tuesday. That made the job just over 7 days, 15,000 block. It's a credit to the dedication and cooperation of both the American volunteers, our Haitian hosts and the hard working local masons and labor. Dave Fullmer was heard to say that originally he doubted the wall would be half done in two weeks, boy was he wrong! Not enough can be said about the generous Christian attitude of the volunteers. Not only did they work hard for long hours in the hot sun, come evening, their spirits were high and their thoughts often centered on the spiritual aspects of our experience. Most nights we had an evening devotional with a thought, scripture and prayer. One of the last nights before the Provo Canyon group left we had a testimony meeting that everyone will remember for a long time. Actually, judging from the testimonies born everyone will be remembering the whole Haitian experience from blocks to hungry orphan babies, for a long, long time. A hearty thank you must also go to Madam Duncan, who's living accommodations were a much need respite for the weary volunteers each day. She is Christian we're glad to know.