As we were getting ready to head back home, Tim realized that we miscalculated and we only purchased half of the needed boards for our project. Thankfully he realized it while we were only five minutes away, as opposed to 45 minutes away. So we returned to “Home Depot” and picked up the additional boards we needed, then we were on our way. Another miscalculation on our drive home nearly forced us to return again. One of the boards came loose while driving through the valley and flew off the back of the truck. Luckily, no one was following too closely behind us, but when the board hit the road, a two foot section broke away. Joel quickly brought our truck to a stop and Franz, the owner of the truck, jumped out and ran after the board. Just before he got there, an on-coming vehicle ran it over instead of maneuvering around it. It broke the remaining 10’ board into two 5’ pieces. This created a new problem for us, seeing how the spans between the support beams on the house were 6’. But, instead of turning around and going back for a replacement, we decided to keep going and figure out a way to make it work when we got there.
We had plenty of time to figure it out because our trip was severely slowed by presence of multiple Ra-Ra bands. Ra-Ras take place for several weeks leading up to Easter. They are a makeshift band that marches down the middle of the road while a large crowd of young Haitians follow as they dance and celebrate. There is man with a whip at the front who will help guide traffic past the band by using his whip to keep people in line. This isn’t the first time we have run into Ra-Ra bands, but since it is the day before Easter, they were particularly prevalent. Historically, the Ra-Ra bands were used to help reduce inbreeding within the various slave groups. The bands were organized as social events and the man with the whip would prevent slaves from trying to run away. On one hand it was sad to think that the youth would continue a tradition that reflected the days of slavery here. But, on the other hand, they did look like they were having a lot of fun! Some of the crowds got so big that they clogged the street and created a human roadblock. Joel would turn us off the main road and we would find another way around. 8 bands later and we were home.
Saturday afternoon, on the 23rd, was spent doing the work on Lorencier’s (Joel’s mother’s) home. She was very excited and was expecting us. Joel and Franz drove all the materials up to her house so we didn’t have to carry them up the mountain. She lives probably 20 minutes away from the hospital, but is probably a third of the way up the foot of the mountain. It is not a very steep climb, but it certainly would not have been any fun having to carry all the supplies. Unfortunately, we still had to carry all the tools, including a 6’ ladder. But, we made the trek and didn’t waste anytime before we started working. Tim must have been sent from God because he had a lot of experience installing tin roofs and nearly put the entire thing up himself. It didn’t seem like long before we were out of sunlight, but we weren’t quite finished. We still had to install the peak of the roof, but that had to wait until another day.
