Haitian mason to the rescue

By Billy Ponko

Today we started laying block for the base of the latrines. It was a restless night of sleep to get to this point and it started with a commitment to take a step back and realized rushing forward nothing gets done right. So we have changed our plans a bit and gone back to the solid structure we developed from the beginning.     

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So a quick stop by the hardware store and we picked up a few more trowels. Gerson ordered some more blocks. We finished most of the first course, before someone realized one of the Haitians was a mason. So we walked around the site with him saying ‘bon‘ or ‘pas bon‘ (good or bad). My communication is a bit limited thus far, but it’s coming along and every word helps. Luckily, I can still understand when someone is pointing at something that is clearly not right–ha. So we removed one stretch of wall and he helped us fix it.

So the day moved on a bit better and we finished two complete courses including some horizontal vertical rebar. The sun was intense and the day seemed to fly by, but as we went we got better. Tomorrow we finish.

Learn more about The Fuller Center’s initiative in Haiti here.