Toto we aren't in Kansas anymore

Ok, first off, I was in Africa and froze. Haiti is Africa hot. No joke, but they say it is a dry heat.
Arrived in Port au Prince in the middle of the afternoon and got my luggage with the other passengers (99% of them were white and on a mission trip and the bulk of them came from Michigan, Ohio, or Indiana). Weird. We walked out to where the taxis were and were instantly attacked by what I will call the ‘sharks’. These are locals that want to make a little money by ‘helping’ you with your bags. The mission people were big in the eyes and slow on the assertiveness. I left them to the feeding frenzy. My ride was a little late and by the time they arrived I was the only person of pale complexion left so it was easy to spot me.
We took a tour of Port au Prince and the devastation is far worse than the pictures display, mostly because it is everywhere. The rubble is stacked up in the streets along with the garbage. The streets are very narrow and driving is not for the faint of heart or unstable of neck. It can be very jarring. My partner’s head/elbow/shoulder/hip (ok I am joking about the hip) hit the side window several times because he was in the back and couldn’t see the rut coming.
From what I can tell the folks that used to live down town have moved out a bit where there is some open areas and have set up their tent cities; which are everywhere. It is a pretty sobering and humbling experience.
I worked the site today and we got some good stuff done. The house is coming together nicely, but you cannot leave tools around they will grow legs and walk away.
The supervisor of the job site makes sure that there are no neglected tools so you are constantly going back to the box to get a level/chalk box/blade whatever it is that you only need occasionally, but frequently. I constructed to partial roofs over a court yard and above the front door. That went well.
We are each assigned our own Haitian helper. My helper is named JeNelle (spelling) he is eager to learn carpentry and is learning not only carpentry, but my humor. He is my muscle, my getter, and my holder of the ladder. He also can swing a decent hammer. I am beginning my education in creole and my pronunciation is very bad……..the crew thinks it’s funny.
Today was a great day, even though it was really hot. We stay up the mountain so it is much cooler. The drive is insane!!!! The thunderstorms at this elevation rock!
The similarities to Africa are numerous although the abject poverty is worse here than what I saw in Tanzania.