Hello

So I've decided to start a blog, to fill people in on my adventures in Haiti and report on the progress of my plans to travel back there for a longer period of time.

It's difficult to explain my time in Haiti, because while being incredibly difficult at times, it was the most exhilarating and amazing experience. It was nice to be surrounded by people who have the same goals and motivations as me. The culture within the camp (with a few annoying acceptions) was a very selfless one and therefore fairly different from the British culture. Although there was a huge variety of people there (skilled and unskilled; extroverted and introverted; American to Australian to Dutch), everyone had one goal in mind and just wanted to do something, however big or small, to help the Haitians. I love that feeling of everyone working towards something great for those around them, not something you come across much of over here.

The main focus of the organisation's work is to clear rubble and demolish buildings. While I was there, a group of structural engineers visited many families around the city of Leogane (where we were based) to perform structural assessments on their homes and give them a professional opinion on whether or not they can move back inside their house. Many Haitians are terrified to sleep in their own homes, even if they are safe, so it is essential to the regrowth of the country that we find a way to encourage them to go back inside. It is also helpful to know for sure if their are houses that need demolishing so that they can be cleared rebuilt as soon as possible.

Another important job we were doing was assisting in the local hospital, this was a strange job, because at times it was saddening and at others it was rewarding, while the majority of the time it was incredibly boring. On one day while I worked there: I bandaged up a woman's legs, helped her find new shoes and sent her home happy; then an 18 month old baby died which was very sad throughout the whole hospital; and then we sat in a store room without any patients in the hospital whatsoever for about 5 or 6 hours.

There was also a project called Shelter Quest where volunteers helped to put together frame work for temporary shelters and then eventually erect all the shelters in order to provide new schools for those that can't be used at the moment. While the overall outcome of this was exciting and positive, it was also one of the most boring ways to spend your day while out there and I found myself pining for rubble by lunchtime whenever I worked at Shelter Quest.

Possibly the most exciting project we worked on was building a school. I only worked on this project for one day as my carpentry skills proved next to nothing, but it was so much more enjoyable to put something together for once rather than tear it down. There was also a team of people building the children's furniture to go inside the finished school. Unfortunately I left Haiti before they finished putting up the first school, but, having seen photographs of the site, I would be interested in seeing the finished product one day.

There were also opportunities a few times a week to play with the local children and teach English at a nearby Orphanage. This was a fun way to spend the afternoon, but also possibly more tiring than rubbling! The kids were insane but so adorable. They loved us, purely because we were spending time with them and being kind to them. It was really rewarding but so mental that not many people could bare to do it very often!

This has been such a long post, I'm sorry! And I've hardly scratched the surface of my time away, but I can add in stories where relevant another time. I just thought I'd explain some of what I was doing there as a lot of people have been asking.
Cheers for reading if you managed it :)