Quick change of events

I've just come back from a wonderful week long vacation in Guadeloupe and I have five more weeks to go in Haiti.  I have to say that when I came out of the airport in Port-au-prince, it kind of felt like coming home.  It's amazing what you can get used to.

I've also come back to a new job.  I had always wanted to do more hands on work and the agreement that I had made with HI is that I would switch jobs if ever they found someone to replace me.  I was sort of convinced this would never happen but in a crazy turn of events they found someone, and at the same time a position opened up with the accessibility team, which is where I am now.

The team is lead by an OT and made up of an architect, an engineer, a logistician, an OT assistant, and myself.  Basically the team gets referrals either from within HI or from outside organizations for beneficiaries who have accessibility issues because of a disability.  Usually this means they can't get in and out of their house, they can't access certain parts of their house (such as the bathroom), or they can't be functional in their house (such as use the stove or wash the dishes).  My role is to assess the needs of the beneficiaries and figure out what they can't do vs. what they would like to be able to do, and then work together with the technical team to figure out what adaptations can be done to make this possible.
I've only done two evaluations, but so far I love it.  It is very hands on and very concrete, and I think that I will be able to see some nice results in the short time I have left.

I don't have any pictures to show yet of the adaptations, but here are two examples of houses that have been destroyed in the earthquake--one in the city and one in the country.

This is basically what you see all over, as the demolition phase is very very slow.  Apparently it was decided that rather than use foreign aid to bring in heavy machinery to clear out the rubble, they would create cash for work projects that would employ Haitians to do it by hand.  The other day I was stopped in traffic and I watched a man chip away at a large stone wall with a hammer. After 10 minutes he triumphantly held up a 2 ft. by 2 ft. block of stone, tossed it in a large dumpster, and proceeded with the next chunk.   While I'm all for supporting the local economy, I can't help but wonder if it would have been more efficient to clear out the rubble quickly, and then have cash for work projects for the rebuilding phase instead.