In 2011, three folks from the Jackson crew flew to Haiti for a two week volunteer project in partnership with the non-profit organization, Hands Together.
While in Haiti, the team erected two steel buildings. One was 60’ x 80’ with 12’ sidewalls to be used for classrooms and offices. The other was 60’ x 80’ with 22’ sidewalls to be used as the school gym.
More importantly, they were part of the team that taught local residents skills needed to complete the structures. Give a man a building, he’ll have a shelter. Teach a man to build, and he can rebuild a country.
The daily temperatures were in the mid to upper 90’s with extremely high humidity. Paul’s favorite was the banana soup and rice every day for lunch. Chilly loved doing laundry by hand with Haitian soap and Darren was thankful for the cold showers.
On more than one occasion there were shots fired just outside the gate to the school and traffic laws are non-existent. Many Haitians live in conditions much different than our part of the world.
Paul, Darren, Chilly (all still a part of our teams) fought heat, “froggy” water, limited food variety and poor working conditions and equipment.
They all would go back tomorrow!
