The Church Project

The Church Project

And so it began.

Today was an early start. The rubble crew was supposed to leave base at 6:30 for Port au Prince.  We were starting the large church demo project up there.  Everything was loaded the night before and orders were given for this morning  so it was going to be a streamlined departure.  Too bad it didn’t turn out that way.

In the morning we found that the tractor that was hauling the excavator had dead batteries.  There is an apparent power drain in the circuit and I haven’t had time to find it; so we spent the first thirty minutes charging the batteries to the tractor off of the dump truck.  Once started, someone noticed a large slash in the front tire.  Good thing is, it was noticed, as it could have been bad had it blown out on the road.  The nationals jumped into action and did a warp speed replay of the ‘To Change a Tire’ routine.  It was like watching a sped up video of something you’ve already seen in normal speed; only louder, faster talk, and quicker moves … and done in under an hour. 

The drive to the church was relatively uneventful since I am used to the crazy driving, crazy drivers and crazy traffic.  Yes, I drove; to and from.  But it was okay.  I managed and only lost my cool a couple of times; the KIA has an anemic horn that sounds like the squeaker on a deflated rubber chicken so I really don’t think anyone noticed.  The guys in the back might have been a little green from my Haitian style driving, but we all survived.

Once we arrived near the church, the excavator was unloaded in the street and then driven, or should I say threaded, down a narrow, steep dead end road.  Vendors had to move their baskets of wares so Francois would fit, the boom had to be constantly monitored to avoid the many low wires and phone lines and informal measuring of the tracks had to watched to avoid additional racing stripes on the sides of the many vehicles parked on either side of the road.

Little windy Haitian dead end



As we finally grated the excavator to a halt in front of the church we were met by six or seven ‘dignitaries’ from America who had arranged, financed and pushed the church project though.  Hands were vigorously pumped in thanks, photos were taken and slaps on the back expressing the great appreciation to us was expressed.  It felt odd meeting these white collared, perfectly groomed business and political people who made this project happen. 

After the photo ops, the real work began.  We brought one excavator from base with the jackhammer attachment on the boom.  Francois began working his way into the debris field, knocking down the corner building and working his way into the church interior.  A couple of hours later the second excavator was brought in.  It is a new unit, identical to the first one, but it is new and was just released from the Port Authority just before Christmas.  I took over the hammer while Francois started arranging the piles with the new one. 



And so it begins ....

I was surprised how quick my skills re-emerged from their dormancy.  I was reticent, at first, to work the equipment because there were so many people watching and I had never used a jack hammer before.  But after ten minutes I could do about whatever I wanted with the tool.  It will take a little longer to be as versatile with moving the excavator around, but I’ll have time to work on that tomorrow.

Lunch break around 12:30 was the standard fare of MRE’s; meals ready to eat.  Mine was chicken something or other; at least I knew what the meat was, the rest of it was recognizable.  Also had crackers, cheese, a cookie and some M&M’s – peanut.  Those were the best!

After lunch we did another couple hours of work and then loaded up to return home.  It is a long commute and we got back to base at 4:30.

Crazy driving

I’m excited that I got to have some time on the excavator.  It feels good to know that I can remember how to run this stuff; even though I’ve not run this particular piece.  The knowledge seems quite similar, though, to what I’ve done before.  Tomorrow we start loading rubble into the trucks and continue our demolition. 

It will be fun.