Last September

I took a trip with a small group of American volunteers to our ministry compound in Haiti. The purpose of this particular trip was to build the framework of one wing of the secondary school on the compound of the Mercy Children’s Home.

Sunday

After breakfast we went to Mercy Children’s Home, which is where we will build the Secondary School. Chuck, our project leader, wanted to take a look and see if we could lay out the locations for the posts that will hold the roof up. When we got to the orphanage, we discovered that the area we are building the school was pretty muddy due to the recent rains they have received. This presented a problem. In order to dig the holes to put the posts in, the ground needed to dry out a little. The challenge with this was the uncertainty of weather – would it hold rain or not. Chuck decided that the best thing to do would be to ask Poyis to bring some dirt in and to clear all of the vegetation. This meant that for the first part of the week, the team, plus a few Haitians would work on building the tresses while we waited for the field to dry or dirt to be filled in. We wouldn’t be able to set the posts until Wednesday at the earliest, maybe even Thursday. We leave early on Saturday, so we would be pressed for time, but Chuck felt this was a good plan.

Monday

We surveyed the area where we would build and it was still very muddy. We talked to Poyis, and it was decided that he would contact the company that brings dirt to see if we could get some dirt on the area where we would build. Hopefully, by the afternoon the Haitians could begin to dig holes after Chuck and Troy marked the spots.

The main focus for our team today was to begin to cut and assemble the tresses. We had a perfect place to stage this work, under the patio area of the Mercy Home. It was about 200 yards from the build site, but because of the shade and tiled surface it was an excellent place to assemble. We had 31 trusses to build and it was going to take at least 2.5-3 days to do this. Since this was all new for me, I asked where I could be of the most help. Chuck asked me to assist Allan and Dr J. I helped Allan cut plywood for gussets. Gussets are simply little pieces of plywood that are put on all of the junctions of the tresses where the boards meet to provide strength. Dr. J even had me use the saw and trained me on a few techniques. We had a great time together. He was often singing gospel hymns and teasing everyone. My favorite saying that he said many times over the week was, “It almost looks like we knew what  we were doing.” He said this a lot after we accomplished a certain feat. 

We took a break for lunch and after lunch Chuck and Troy started marking spots for holes and slogging through the mud. The rest of us hammered nails. I have never swung a hammer so much in my life, but I must say it was a rewarding experience to accomplish this.

Check back next week to see how the construction of the secondary school continues to unfold.

Wiley Kennedy serves as Director of International Ministries with Connect 2 Ministries. To learn more about Wiley, visit Who We Are, and to learn how you can make a difference, visit Join the Impact.