Arising From the Dust of an Earthquake

Back to Haiti. For the first time as a team leader, I went to the same location on back-to-back project trips.  We even served the same ministry in Grand Goave, Haiti but this time it was to design vocational training facilities for another property owned by Haiti Arise to replace one that was damaged during the earthquake.  In addition to this, we served a second ministry, Heart to Heart Haiti, to design a new church on their orphanage property which was also damaged beyond repair during the earthquake.

Cleaned up but hardly rebuilt.  Presidential palace in the background.

Broken Walls. The cracked and broken walls of the Haiti Arise vocational training centre and the Heart to Heart Haiti church told a tale of powerful destruction.  The vocational training centre was deemed irreparable by an eMi disaster response, structural evaluation team and torn down within weeks of the earthquake but the church, located at the main gate of the orphanage remains, a reminder of brokeness in the midst of life that must move on.  (Part of our work was to provide a demolition plan to bring down this large structure in a safe manner.)

One of the two ministries we served.

The Quake. As an organization we at eMi are beginning to build up a body of knowledge about designing in post-earthquake Haiti.  The project I led there in 2009 incorporated structural detailing to address earthquakes but nobody, not even the typically conservative structural engineers, could have imagined the massive destructive power of the 2010 earthquake.  In fact, scientists didn't even know about the hidden fault-line at the base of the sea that caused the massive quake alongside the island that is home to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

A broken building that will be replaced with additional classrooms and added functions.

Repairer of Broken Walls. Our team came to Haiti to be a "...repairer of broken walls..." (Isaiah 58:12), addressing the need at both properties.  What will rise from the dust of the destruction will be new classrooms, dorms and workshops for a growing vocational, language and bible training centre and a new two-storey multi-use building that will host Sunday church services but also be a children's school during weekdays, a meeting centre for large group conferences and a community hall for all manner of events.

Dirk explains the new multi-use building to replace the broken church building.

Discovering Opportunities. The expanded usage of these facilities is an example that even in times of crisis one can discover opportunity.  For Haiti Arise the opportunity was to re-masterplan the property where they started their ministry to be a specialized training facility with classrooms, workshops, administration and dormitories.  For Heart to Heart Haiti the opportunity was to increase the usability of this large building by incorporating classrooms in addition to the main church function.

BBQ lobster on the beach with butter and a fork for $8 each!

A Little R&R. After days of working in the heat and humidity the team took a break to visit a local beach where we swam in the ocean and bargained for live lobsters that were then BBQ'd before our eyes right on the beach.  That $8 was very delicious!

Newly proposed replacement church/classroom building.

Project Photos. A new set of photos has been placed in my Photo Gallery and you have options to view it.  If you want to browse the set, click here.  If you wish to see a slideshow of the photos, click here.  If you want to see the titles and read the captions of each photo, click here.
Thank you to all those who have donated to this work through your financial support, encouragement and prayer; you have made this project a reality.

Newly re-master planned campus for the Haiti Arise Technical Training Centre

Vocational Training Centre and a New Church in Haiti

After a summer filled with many hours of travel by mini-van with the family, I'm stepping onto an airplane once again to fly to Haiti.  This will be a return trip to serve Haiti Arise, this time to provide a new master plan along with new building and infrastructure (water, sanitation, power) design for their existing vocational training centre which sustained some severe damage during the earthquake of 2010.

The bonus to this trip is that our team will also be there to provide a new design for a large church in the same city that was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake.  The facilities for Heart to Heart Children's Home were badly damaged, some beyond repair and they have rebuilt or repaired most of it.  But their large church/conference/training centre is a large, two storey structure that took years to build and minutes to render useless by the powerful quake.

It will be a little odd to return to the same location in Haiti without Caitlin with me.  I had an amazing time travelling with her (see her blog entry below this one) and know that it was a good way for her what I do on project trips and see the work of eMi first hand.  It also did wonders in expanding the borders of her world beyond what she knows in Canada.

We will once again visit the construction site for the new school that El Shaddai Baptist Church is building in Bon Repos.  This construction has received attention by Haitian building professionals and has been visited by Haiti's Ministry of Buildings and Works.  They have even declared it to be an example of good construction practice for the future of Haiti.  I'm so proud of the work of that team!

Please keep us in prayer as we travel in the air and on the ground and also remember my family and the families of each of our eleven team members as we are away for this project.

You can visit the following links to see the two projects:

http://www.emicanada.org/projects/projectprofile_10024.shtm

http://emicanada.org/projects/projectprofile_10026.shtm

Caitlin's Haiti Reflections

Caitlin's Haiti Reflections:

"My experience in Haiti was eye opening.  Going into the trip, I didn't really know what to expect.  I have heard of the devastation that had happened a year ago, and seen pictures, but nothing could prepare me for the reality of Haiti.  You could see every picture from every angle in the highest quality, and you would still miss out on the experience, the smells and sounds and the presence of the people.

The environment was completely different and the culture shock was strange, but what surprised me more were the people.  I was totally shell-shocked.  On the Sunday we were there, we went to a local church.  Their worship was amazing.  I could've taken an Ultra HD video, recorded the highest possible sound quality and played it on an HD 3D RGBY TV, and you still couldn't experience the passion that they had when they worshipped.


These people were in a mere skeleton of a building, nothing more than wooden sticks with a tin roof.  But these people were joyful and spirited!  Though the songs were in Creole, I could literally feel their elation in the praise and the Holy Spirit in that place.  It was truly amazing.

For most of the week, Aysha, Jen and I worked with the kids who attended a school nearby.  Everyday we would do crafts with them.  We had a blast planning and playing with the kids.  They were so sweet!  No matter what we did, no matter how confused we were with the language they always smiled as us.  My personal favourite was finger painting with the first year preschool kids (approx. 3 years old).


We gave them oversized t-shirts, and they looked so cute wearing them because the shirts went down to their ankles.  They were so grateful and happy, and wore those t-shirts with pride!  Some kids really got into the finger painting and we joined in too!

So my time in Haiti was extraordinary.  We saw not only poverty and hardship, but also a people who were joyful all the same.  Amidst all their loss and suffering, they could still sing Hallelujah!  It was inspiring!


Am I glad to be back?  Yes.  Even though I've got exams to study for and teachers to deal with, I'm glad to be back home.

Am I glad I went to Haiti?  Definitely.  It was an extraordinary experience."  - Caitlin Young

Serving with my Daughter:

What an amazing privilege it was to not only serve alongside an amazing team of professionals but to do it for the first time with my daughter made in very special indeed!  Caitlin and I had talked about it since she was three when I went on my first eMi trip that someday, when she was at least 13, I would take her on a trip with me. That was exactly ten years ago.

I was so proud of how mature she was throughout the trip in the hot, muggy conditions, dealing with mosquitos and strange, mysterious insects that you didn't know were friend or foe.  I think from her reflections she definitely gets what a big God we serve and how His ways are not our ways and that He can make good even out of the most devastating circumstances.

Project Photos and More:

To read more details about the group we served click the link for Haiti ARISE Children's Village to the right under Greg's eMi Project Archive.  A new set of annotated photos has been place my Photo Gallery and you have options to view it.  If you want to browse the set, click here.  If you wish to see a slideshow of the photos, click here.  If you want to see the titles and read the captions of each photo, click here.

Thank you to all who have donated to this work through your financial support, encouragement and prayer: you have made this project a reality and it could never have happened without you.  This is your investment as much as it is ours.

New Children's Village in Haiti - Greg and Caitlin's Haiti Adventure

From the months of January to May of 2010, after an earthquake devastated large parts of Haiti, almost a dozen eMi disaster response teams went there to conduct structural assessments of damaged buildings and work together with Samaritan's Purse and Food for the Hungry to design camps for displace people and set up emergency water purification stations.  By May we were ready to begin reconstruction assignments and so that month I went there with the first eMi redevelopment design team.  Today a new K-12 school is under construction (and to come a medical clinic and a church) as a result of the efforts of that team.  On June 4th, I will touch down with my next project team in Port au Prince. Our first stop after leaving the airport will be to visit the property of the new school (rendering below) in order to evaluate its progress.



Following the visit to a past project, the new project will take our team west of Port au Prince to the historic town of Grand-Goave, one of the oldest towns in Haiti.  Estimates of the damage caused to major buildings by the quake in Grand-Goave have been as high as 90%.  We will have a chance to see some of this damage as we arrive to serve the ministry of Haiti ARISE.  At Haiti ARISE we will also see an example of a well-constructed building, and stay in it, when we see their two storey dormitory building that survived the quake remarkably well.

Haiti ARISE Ministries began its work in Haiti in 2002.  Their first initiative was to establish a technical training school and related living facilities, constructed on a 2 acre parcel of land.  This was followed by a church which has grown from 45 members to over 400 members.  Over the years more land has been purchased and the work has included ESL training, monthly rice and clothing distributions, a half-acre community garden and Bible School classes.



The work of our eMi team will be to master plan an undeveloped 7 acre parcel of land (below) across the street from the main campus and design the buildings for a children's village (orphanage), a new permanent school and a church/multi-function conference centre.  The bottom photo is the current temporary plywood and tin roof school, built by Haiti ARISE on their property after many other local schools collapsed in the quake.

Our team will also take a little bit of time to investigate damage to buildings suffered at another orphanage nearby.  This orphanage, where the founder of Haiti ARISE grew up, will be the recipient of an eMi team in the fall term to turn our investigation into a full design project.



We always say that every project and every project team is unique.  This one will be particularly special for me because this time Caitlin will be joining my team.  Ten years ago I went on my first eMi mission as a volunteer to Belize where the eMi leader brought his 13 year old son Zach.  Now ten years later Caitlin, who is 13 (turning 14 in July), will be on my team.  This will be Caitlin's first journey outside of Canada and the United States.  I look forward to sharing this experience with my daughter as she explores and expands her world and sees the amazing things God is doing in even the most challenging places.

Caitlin will be joined by a good friend from school who's father will be the architect volunteer for our team.  A third teenager, the daughter of our civil engineer, will also join our team and round out the trio who will be volunteering at the elementary school operated by Haiti ARISE as well as helping with their other community service initiatives.



Please pray for our travel safety and good health throughout the trip and remember our families at home as they carry on busy schedules without the help of us who are on this project team.  We'll see if we have a chance to post an entry during our trip, perhaps along with some photos.  It will depend on a satellite internet link and some electrical power (never a sure thing in Haiti).  Besides being able to update our blog, we are hoping we will get some news or even see some high-lights of the Stanley Cup Finals.  Go Canucks!