As I have seemed to pick up more and more roles here in Haiti, I grow ever more grateful to my staff here that I work with on a daily basis. I think we have become a very tight knit small group and work as a team to accomplish the vast amount of work placed before us. Since I have been here, I have picked up roles as the Team Coordinator, the Project Coordinator, minor accounting, guest house assistance, civil and structural engineering assistance for our VIM program, for our Housing Assistance Program (including three separate projects), and for an UMCOR funded project rebuilding a Methodist school that collapsed in the earthquake. Additionally, I’ve somehow become the IT department for our small office here; setting up computers for our staff, installing software, solving hardware issues, and answering general computer questions. My staff has taken on tasks from many of these roles as well. My staff includes; me – the Team/Project Coordinator, Carine Odilus – the Assistant Team Coordinator, Oge Celin – the On-Site Liaison, and Spana Mix – our Drive (he is a DJ in his spare time). Additionally, we have assistance from Derly Charles – the Head Engineer for the Methodist Church of Haiti, and Nicolas who helps us out with car cleaning and general lifting around the Methodist Guest House, where we are stationed and where I work and live. They are all Haitian. We also have one other American with us for a couple of months. He is a Methodist ordained missionary specializing in finance and is working to close out our books at the end of October since we will be switching to a new program run through the Methodist Church of Haiti. His name is Teri, and it has been great working with him as well and hearing of his years in service in Nigeria, Russia, Lithuania and now Alaska.
The VIM Staff from Left to Right: Spana Mix (Our Driver), Carine Odilus (Asst Team Coordinator), myself (Team Coordinator), Oge Celin (On-Site Liaison)
I couldn’t be more proud and grateful for my staff. Carine is so on top of everything. Anytime I ask her to do something, she has already finished the task at least 10 minutes ago. I’m really not sure how she does this. This morning, she had already arranged with our missionary doctor to go out and buy medicines for a team that is coming in two weeks and will be holding a clinic. Oge keeps me on track and makes sure I don’t forget any important tasks and also makes sure that our project sites are ready for our teams. This morning, he reminded me what we needed to do for a team going out to one of our worksites next week that will be serving hot lunch everyday to the children. He reminded me that we needed to exchange half the full payment from US dollars to Haitian Gourdes and he arranged for the fellow to come from the worksite to pick up the payment and get the food ready for when the team arrives. Spana gets us to where we need to go in a safe manner. The way that everyone drives out here, it is important to have a driver that knows the system well. Spana is certainly one of those persons. The other day on our way to our jobsite, Spana drove full speed between large rocks that a couple of guys had put in the road. I think my exact words were “Holy Crap!” I was wondering why we didn’t slow down at all and then Oge informed me the next day that these were bad guys. They were trying to get money from people, and the police tied them tight like a chicken (an expression he uses to describe how tight the police held them, since all the chickens have their feet tied together around here to sell in the market.) It was a good thing we didn’t slow down! I am amazed at the good and dedicated work that each of these persons does for our volunteer program and look forward to many more months working with them. I know that I can count on them for anything. We are small, but we are mighty!
Spana and Teri – Our Finance Missionary
A year in Haiti 