Winding down

Today was my next to last work day. I’ll work a few hours tomorrow, then depart for home around midday on Monday. With my time here winding down, I’m trying to tie up loose ends and put things in place for the next carpenter. I began the day by building a second setup for cutting tarp. About three thousand rolls will arrive at the compound next week, and an additional seven thousand rolls will arrive by February 23. The goal is to get them cut, folded, packed, and delivered as quickly as possible. Based on yesterday’s effort, the feeling is that, with enough people, each of the setups can be used to cut 300 rolls per day. The truck holds 200 cut and folded tarps. Thus, with two setups, it will be possible to produce and deliver three truckloads each day. Ideally, the tarps will be out an in the hands of the people who need them no later than mid-March, which is about when rainy season begins.

I also put together a couple of prototypes for framing to be handed out with the tarp and used to build a temporary shelter. The goal is something that is easy to produce and deliver, and easy for the recipient to assemble. Here are two possibilities:

The one on the left requires five 10 ft 2 x 4s and the one on the right requires four. The one on the right is more stable, but it is harder to put together, so we decided against it. The one on the left has a couple of advantages. All angles are the same, and all pieces that have angles cut on them are the same length. All pieces that have square ends are the same length. So there are only two lengths and two angles. The disadvantage is that assembly will not be intuitive for many recipients. Tomorrow I will try a variation on this design, using lumber that has no angles at all. Once we have a roof design, we’ll put it on poles (as will the recipients) and attach a piece of the tarp. The plan is to distribute at least a thousand of these by rainy seasons.

Some very good news: We learned yesterday that the World Food Programme will continue the food distributions in the district where Samaritan’s Purse is distributing for seven more days. We also learned that Samaritan’s Purse has distributed substantially more food than NGOs at other districts–food for over 36,000 families. Samaritan’s Purse staff members who specialize in food distribution have arrived from various places in the world and are developing a plan for longer-term distribution that will be more supplementary than basic. The goal is a model that can be sustained for a least a year.

One continuing issue is rubble removal. At a meeting of relief groups yesterday, an official from the Ministry of Public Health indicated that rubble removal was their top priority. At this point, Samaritan’s Purse is the only organization doing rubble removal in Port-au-Prince. One reason for urgency is that many dead bodies are still buried in the rubble. For this reason, there’s more involved than just scooping and moving concrete, blocks, and wood. Human remains must be dealt with in some way and, as far as I can tell, too little of the work has been done to have an established protocol in place.

Yesterday and today were declared a national holiday in recognition of the one month anniversary of the earthquake. There were many church prayer services, and a number of funerals for family members now assumed dead. It seems to be a time of healing for many of the survivors who have been grieving the loss of family members and friends. Please keep them in your prayer.

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