#aidwork

Home sweet home!

This blog was meant to get out on the last day of our time in Chile, however slow loading computers and generally way too many amazing things occurring it has come out now, four days after our return.

On one hand the two weeks in Chile flew by but on the other hand to look back on two weeks and see what has been achieved, it feels like a small lifetime has passed.

    We came over here with four main goals.

1. To build a home for local lady who lost hers in a fire and was lucky to escape with her life.

2. To learn and become skilled in aquaponics. A system that grows both fish and vegetables in one system

3. To build s team of Misfits that had an amazing experience both individually and as a team

4. To surf epic waves!

    Well, three of those four goals were reached, and lucky enough they were the most important ones.

    As always with bringing a group of people together from different backgrounds and even culture to work together day in and day out has challenges. But the crew of Misfits soon became a team of Misfits, and with the challenging moments that arose, they soon were gone because of the simple fact that this team in under two weeks built a new home for Señorita Blanca, a sweet old lady who may have been spending the rest of her days in a small, cold wooden shack.

Now instead Senorita Blanca looks out over the ocean, from her new window, positioned in her new bedroom, which is one of two in her new house.

    It is a massive achievement and together they have impacted that one life for the better.

    Being a part of the aquaponics workshop has been an amazing experience for Misfit Aid. To gain skills in a sustainable and extremely productive form of growing food we feel will give us a great opportunity in developing another way to assist countries who have been affected by disaster or being affected by poverty.

    We will be building an aquaponics system in the coming months and definitely documenting the process including all trial and errors. So keep an eye out on the blog for the developments!

    The only goal not completely reached were epic waves. Unfortunately the coast of Chile decided to have its longest flat spell in 25 years! We still got some small ones but it was nothing of what Chile usually puts on the table..

    To the team of Misfits who have come on the trip and given their time and worked probably harder and longer hours than they do at home to get the job done Misfit Aid thanks you from the very bottom of our heart.

    And finally to the people reading this. Thank you for your continued support. If it wasn't for your interest all of these things that are actually happening would only be getting talked about inside a room somewhere!

    Nos Vemos Chile!!!!!!!

I just got back from a really awesome weekend. On Saturday morning we headed off to Cocoyer, a beautiful white sandy beach with crystal blue water. It was quite the adventure just getting there though. We left at 10am to meet with our boat driver at 10:30. At first we thought we were driving to Petit Goave but then I guess some plans changed so we drove to Grand Goave instead (the town just before). We arrived at Mission of Hope where we thought we were taking the boat but as it turns out the boat was broken (we didnt really understand the whole situation...) We waited for a long time trying to figure out what our next move was gonna be. Thanks to nat and his great creole speaking skills we got a number for another boat driver in Petit Goave. So we all hopped back into our pimp mobile (a 15 passenger van painted gold. yes thats right, gold.. i have no idea who's idea it was to paint the van gold or the justification behind it but oh well) and then we were off again. Our kind driver Jake, who woke up early on a saturday to chauffeur us around dropped us off right in front of the ocean where we waited for our speed boat to take us to our final destination. We gathered quite an audience of locals just sitting around us watching. Its a past time of Haitians to watch white people. For some reason they find us quite entertaining. After a long wait we finally saw our boat arrive. We loaded our gear and we're off again. I was totally lying when I said speedboat... it was a small old aluminum fishing boat with a 15hpr motor strapped to it. The ride was fun but we were all eager to get to Cocoyer after about 3 hours of being delayed. But hey, this is Haiti and you have to be able to go with the flow and be flexible when things dont go as planned.

We knew we had arrived when we saw the change in color in the water. It went to typical ocean blue to light Caribbean blue. The ocean floor liked like the bottom of a pool. There were beautiful rock formations along the coast with great reefs for snorkeling. 

We set up camp, and watched a guy climb a coconut tree and toss them down, cut them up with a machete and hand them to us to drink. Theres nothing like fresh coconut milk and meat.  We spent all afternoon bobbing in the ocean and snorkeling around an island. The water was amazing... so refreshing.

That evening we feasted on hotdogs, followed by some delicious pasta cooked by my awesome brother on his dragonfly stove. While we were eating our pasta we watched a man head into the water with his dive mask in hand go fishing for our lambi (conch)... thats just one of the many perks to living on an island in the Caribbean. That night we walked the beach and met some other aid workers from France who worked for different NGOs in the area. One of the night's highlights was when a local Haitian man came to join us at our camp fire with his guitar. Nat and him jammed for a while singing creole songs. 

Weekends like this are so important to give us the chance to relax, forget about the crazy week we just had and recharge for the crazy week ahead of us. Its amazing that we get the opportunity to go out and explore this beautiful country. I got so much sun this weekend. My skin has turned about 5 shades darker. 

When we got back Heidi, Jake and I watched anther episode of The Walking Dead. Oh my word that show is so good. I scream so much... I feel like now that we are mid way through the second season I can confidently say that I am ready for the zombie apocalypse. 

Tomorrow we will have 40 new workers joining our crew at the worksite for a 'test week'. Hopefully they are skilled and hard working and can catch on quick to the rhythm of things. Everyone is working so hard to get this orphanage done as fast as it can so the children can have a clean, safe, loving home. Its been delayed so many times and there have been many, many obstacles to overcome.