Bahamas: AHAH hiatus

I’m not ready to be home right now. I’m writing this post from my bedroom in NYC, but I’m not ready to be here. I arrived yesterday a little before midnight, one week earlier than planned. The reason, of course, is COVID-19.

On Thursday, March 12th, five of us AHAH volunteers were scrubbing the mold out of a house in Marsh Harbour. We paused at noon for our lunch break and Aileen, one of the program managers, stopped by with bad news. As of that morning, All Hands and Hearts was suspending all operations worldwide for two months. Volunteers at all 14 AHAH sites worldwide had 48-72 hours to change flights, pack up, and head out.

AHAH released a statement about the decision. At its core:

The communities we work within are affected by disasters and are oftentimes lacking the infrastructure necessary to address a public health crisis like the coronavirus. We must take caution to not potentially expose these vulnerable communities to the virus through accidental transmission from our teams. 

Full statement here: https://stories.allhandsandhearts.org/urgent-covid19-update

After Aileen left we sat there in shock. Volunteers had been working on this house for over a week, but we were only at the scrubbing stage. Without vacuuming and spraying, and with no volunteers working for two months, there was a high chance mold would grow back. We wanted to finish, but scrubbing was pointless on that day, so we packed up the equipment and waited for a truck to bring us to base.

The house

Meanwhile, AHAH teams at other sites made similar decisions; those who were mucking and gutting and those who were spraying went into overdrive and worked well past the end of our work hours to get the jobs done. The rest of us returned to base and joined the chaos of searching for new flights, cancelling old ones, and moving a huge amount of lumber into the Sprung for storage. The staff wanted to get volunteers out within 24 hours if possible, which meant endless goodbyes and a lot of packing up the entire base very quickly.

Over 1100 pieces of wood

I’m not sure what else to say right now. I’m bummed to not be there. There were no Coronavirus cases in the Bahamas and I wish there was a way that AHAH could have stopped accepting new volunteers but let those of us who were already there stay. I understand the logic behind the decision they made but I wish it didn’t have to be this way, not just for the Bahamas site but all AHAH locations. In Puerto Rico, the scheduled end date of the program is two weeks from now, so they’d been working from the start with the plan to finish everything by the end of March. Now they are scrambling to get as much done as possible by Monday, knowing they will not complete some of their intended work and will not be returning to finish. It’s a tough situation, and I imagine that the AHAH board spent a long time thinking about this decision.

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Thursday night was my last night on base, so I stood up and presented a rap I was going to share as my leaving speech next week. I felt like a superstar with all the cheers and applause and hugs I got after I finished. Music is truly powerful and I think I helped lift everyone’s spirits that evening. I’ll post the lyrics here and update this entry with an mp3 link when I record it (update: Here’s the audio).

Just stand (All Hands) and start (and Hearts)
and take the time to make a mark (your mark)
With hands (All Hands) and hearts (and Hearts)
break the mold and do your part (your part)

One day at a time we get the job done
With your hands and mine we work hard and have fun
Grab your safety glasses, gloves and a hat
Purple shirts by the masses, we step up to bat

Sleep beneath a mosquito net
Rise before dawn, yawn, and get set
Make breakfast and lunch, maybe PB&J
Take it to the trucks, muck and gut, start the day

Just stand…

Roll off to site, pass a bunch of destruction
To make the world right we gotta work on reconstruction
of houses and schools, and global attitudes as well
Global warming isn’t cool and it’s getting hot as

Hello folks, let’s begin the daily meeting
New face at the base, come up and give us a greeting
Let’s check out the board and talk about sites
Big ups before sup, and events for the night

Just stand…

Now it’s time for dinner made by hard-working cooks
Every meal’s a winner, tastes as good as it looks
There’s a line but it’s fine, one for veggie, one for meat
Fill a plate and dine, it’s a meet and greet

Check out the board to find your new location
Scrub, vacuum, spray, lord, I need a vacation
But really I’m kidding cuz I’m proud to be here
Living life to the fullest as an All Hands volunteer

Just stand…

Big ups to the crew, that’s you, for what we do
Even with Coronavirus our commitment is true
Now we may be leaving but we know it’s not the end
So keep on believing that we’ll meet up again

Soon we’ll write another chapter and I’ll see you in the rafters
Giving residents hope so they live happily ever after
Everybody in this place is smashing houses in the face
Keep on living life right, and you have a safe flight.

Carolyn Stallard, March 12, 2020

I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, I wasn’t ready to come back to NYC, but here I am, and I’m grateful that I get to have this roof over my head and a healthcare system that is functional enough to help out those who do become symptomatic with this virus. It’s ironic in a way; in the Bahamas there is ample hand sanitizer and TP and almost no talk of the virus, but lots of people are living in shelters or in mold-infested houses with broken roofs. Here in NY, stores are out of hand sanitizer and TP and there is endless talk of the virus, but people have houses with working roofs that they can self-quarantine in. Which reality would you choose?

Speaking of reality, as a volunteer said in his exit speech, “the future is here, just not evenly distributed.” I’d love to believe that what I was responding to in the Bahamas was an abnormal disaster, but I know better. I am already conscientious about my carbon footprint, but seeing the intense level of destruction in Marsh Harbour even six months post-Dorian makes me want to be even more conscientious about my environmental impact. One day that level of destruction will be even more routine than it’s already becoming, and I want to be able to say I did my part to keep the climate in check. Are you doing yours?

When I volunteer for things like this people tell me I’m amazing, but as a volunteer reminded us in her exit speech, what we are doing shouldn’t be considered amazing; it should be normal. Instead of telling me I do amazing things, find a way to do similar things, even if on a smaller scale. We all make an impact.

I’ll conclude with photos I haven’t shared in previous posts. Thanks for reading.

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  Bunks and mosquito nets

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  The house we didn’t finish

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  Me

This is an area in Marsh Harbour that was known as The Mud, where many Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Bahamians lived in shanty houses. After the storm, the area was bulldozed and fenced off so that the shantytown would not be rebuilt. Read more about the area and its history here.

Boats *in* the water at Hope Town. Very different than Marsh Harbour.

The Hope Town lighthouse we swam to on our day off.

My Sunday adventure buddies: Maeve, Kiley, and Tyler.

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  Team Egg.
  We cleared the fridges and made eggs for everyone.

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  Team Table.
  They worked hard moving tables and ended with a dance party.

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  Hard to see, but there is a half-sunken boat floating in this photo on the right.

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  The last sunset.

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Destruction and hope (that is a working gas pump on the right).

Reality.

Interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas? Contribute to my fundraiser for All Hands and Hearts here. Thank you!

Bahamas: Workin’ Hard!

Monday evening! Time is flying! I’ve been balancing volunteering, grading, and socializing pretty well, but time is passing incredibly quickly. Two of the closer friends I’ve made here are leaving tomorrow, and some others are leaving later this week. When I met them it seemed like we had ages left. How is this possible???

Here are some highlights from the past few days: 

I went to actual houses three times! The rest of the time has been at CAPS, mostly in the rafters, but one day I was the queen of the sledgehammer and the sawsall (a saw) and destroyed the cabinets of a classroom closet. I felt like a badass that day. 

Last week when I was at a house I got to do the “gut” portion of a “muck and gut” followed by “QC,” which stands for “quality control.” “Mucking” is when you go through the contents of a house and start cleaning it out, get rid of personal stuff, etc. “Gutting” is when you essentially deconstruct the house, pulling out all the debris, taking down drywall, etc. “Quality control” is when you finish pulling out debris and take out the screws and nails sticking out of the wood, sweep up, and get the place ready for scrubbing (the first stage of mold control). Since AHAH is working on the response stage of disaster management here in the Bahamas, we do a lot of mucking and gutting, scrubbing, vacuuming, and spraying. There is also a roofing team, but the majority of us are gutting and scrubbing. 

Before and after breaking apart a moldy wall.

Today (Monday) was the coolest day. I was on a team of just five, all women, ages 19, 21, 31, 31, and 68. This was truly the most badass team I’ve been on yet; we were breaking apart the drywall, wood paneling, ceiling, and tiling of a house and we were seriously all on fire. The 21-year-old and 19-year-old were the Team Leader and Assistant Team Leader, respectively, and I was impressed with how much they knew about this construction (or deconstruction) work. Likewise, the 68-year-old, Merelise, worked with the same energy as the rest of us. My fellow 31-year-old, Val, took apart an entire bathroom in record time, and I took apart all the walls and trim of an entire room. We were seriously a rockstar team and it was super cool to be in a group so effectively breaking gender stereotyping. 

Stories

I have heard so many stories about the lives of local people during and after the storm. Here are a few: 

• CAPS served as an emergency shelter, and one volunteer told me a story she’d heard from a homeowner who had been at CAPS during the storm. She was in a room with a bunch of mostly elderly people, and her husband and one other man were holding the door shut as the water surged outside. When she looked out the window, all she saw was the sea, complete with sharks swimming by and people getting washed away. What she was seeing as the sea should have been the schoolground, but it was all under water. Somehow her husband had a huge burst of strength and was able to hold the door shut, saving everyone in the room, while others outside were washed away. 
• Another homeowner, Donna Lee, sheltered in a room of her home with the rest of the family. Then the roof blew off that section and they moved to a closet…until the roof blew off there. Then they moved to the bathroom, which soon had the same fate. They spent the next three hours (I may have this detail wrong) attempting to crawl to their car while winds whipped around them at 183 miles per hour. Finally, somehow they got there, and one of her daughters was almost blown away by the force of the winds as they tried to get into the car. They eventually all got inside, thinking they were safe, and then a roof from another house blew by and took off the sunroof of the car. They survived though. 
• There was a vigil this weekend and one man told the story of being in the house with his 7- and 11-year-old daughters. As the waters rose he came to a point where he accepted that it was his time to go, and he was swept under the water. Then somehow, miraculously, he reemerged in a tiny spot that was not underwater and survived, but his daughters did not. 
• One of our AHAH cooks, Rosie, lost her entire house in the storm, right down to the foundation. She has been renting an apartment since. 
• Another local, Richard, slept on a bench for two weeks after the storm, before getting to move into a halfway house. As he put it, there is nothing right in the Bahamas after the storm. Richard said that it takes the government around three days to shut down a school after they discover mold, and that no progress would be happening at CAPS if not for us. He said that locals had been doing quick jobs to get the schools up and running, but then mold would come back and kids would get sick again. 
• At one of the houses as we were working a man came walking by, and I caught the following words of his song: “I’m a true believer when things are down and out.” 

Some other observations: 

• Driving to CAPS one day we passed a truck on fire after it had exploded. Many of these cars had been sitting there for months after the storm, so it’s not surprising!
• The ground keeps getting on fire, because people are trying to get electrical lines back in the ground but then will sometimes activate the wrong ones. Today we passed a fire truck putting out a ground fire. 
• There are so many frogs living in these houses! We regularly have to rescue frogs as we’re working. 
• There are also tons of cockroaches. Today one fell on my head and scurried under my hardhat! 
• At one house we found a flare gun in the attack, probably left there from someone sheltering there. 
• These darn dogs! Because they were domesticated there are so many who whine and look at you like they want to be petted, but then sometimes they snap at you, or they are carrying lots of ticks and fleas. We have to be careful around the dogs even if they seem super nice. 

Ok, that’s all for now. I had an AMAZING adventure on my day off yesterday. More on that in another post!

Interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas? Contribute to my fundraiser for All Hands and Hearts here. Thank you!

Six-Month Anniversary of Hurricane Dorian

It’s Tuesday night and there is hardly any wind – finally a non-chilly evening! The nights have been getting slightly warmer and I’ve gone down to sleeping in just one jacket instead of two! X-D

Party Time

Sunday night I joined 45 AHAH staff and volunteers and headed to Little Harbor, where Lisa – the local who was hosting a party for us – lived. Lisa has an interesting story. She employs around 180 Haitian and Bahamian workers on her property, and after the storm she made sure that every one of them was well off before beginning work on her own home. I don’t remember the number, but she spent a very large amount of money making sure they could get their lives back to at least a bit of normalcy before she worked on herself. 

While we were waiting to go I started chatting with two other volunteers, Kiley and Tyler, who live in Seattle. They are also not huge party people and we’re all around the same age, and Kiley recently traded a full-time teaching life for subbing so that she could have some freedom to do things like this. Sounds familiar 😉 

Eventually we were able to get into a car and, after a half hour drive, dropped our jaws as we arrived at Lisa’s property, The Abaco Estate (or something like that…I forgot the name). It was HUGE and pristine, with a giant pool and lots of beach to explore (complete with a giant flamingo float in the water), plus unlimited beers, a bbq, and beach games. I didn’t know many people yet so the party was a great opportunity to get to know volunteers as we hung out on the beach. The most interesting people I got to know that day were Karin and Sid, who are both in their 50s and left their home and jobs to roam the world, volunteering as they go. They plan to do this for ten years or until they get their first grandchild, whichever comes first (they are hoping ten years comes first!). They are living out of backpacks and having a great time. They’ve volunteered on four AHAH projects (including three times in Puerto Rico), done Workaway stints, etc. The fact that they’ve been doing this successfully and loving it makes me feel great about my decision to just be an adjunct rather than pursuing a full time faculty position and fill the rest of the time with volunteering, travel, music, and other creative pursuits. Life is good! 

That was basically it…Tyler, Kiley, and I went for a long walk along the entire coastline, I got burnt despite lots of sunscreen, we collected shells, hung out in the flamingo floatie, and of course I made sure to speak French to one of the Haitians working the party. His name was Jean-Claude and he was so happy I could speak French with him! 

Bahamian Culture and Slang

On the drive back I asked our driver about Bahamian music culture. She was excited that I knew about rake and scrape (the official music of the Bahamas) and recommended some rake and scrape artists: Ronnie Butler, KB, and D Mac. Rake and scrape is called this because the instruments used are: A saw with a screwdriver, a board, harmonica, a goatskin drum, and occasionally cowbell. She recommended a song called “Broach On Your Bread” which is Bahamian slang for stealing your lover.

I also learned the term “hot cake,” which refers to the stray dogs around the island. It’s a sad term and is Bahamian slang for the burnt stuff you scrape out of the bottom of a pot and, post-storm, refers to the strays as well. Most of those dogs probably had owners before the storm but have been left to roam wild. Our AHAH base is a special needs school so we need to make sure to shoo the dogs away all the time so that they don’t try to come around when the students are back. Most of these dogs had domesticated lives and want to be petted, but we need to ignore them. 

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Since Sunday, I’ve done more or less the same work I wrote about last time (up in the rafters) so I’ll skip that part of this blog update. However, because Sunday marked the six month anniversary of the storm, we had some very special guests at base: The majority of the AHAH board and the founder of All Hands, David Campbell. 

David Campbell and the History of All Hands and Hearts

On Monday evening during dinner David spoke to everyone about his work, then bought ice cream and had a Q&A session with anyone who was interested. The journey to AHAH started after the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. David is passionate about poverty alleviation and wanted to help those in need, so he gathered donations from friends and made his way there in 2005. He thought his experience there would be a one-off experience, but when he was there he realized there was a huge need for help, so he decided to start a small program to give volunteers a chance to serve. He thought he was done, but then when Hurricane Katrina hit the US he knew he had to do more, and All Hands was born (under a different name at that time). As time went on the organization grew and he found a team to help him run the organization. Meanwhile, the supermodel Petra Nemcova was started her own organization because of the Thailand tsunami. She had been living there at the time and lost her fiancee in the tsunami. Then, when she returned to visit Thailand months later, she was surprised to see that children were still not in school; no one was rebuilding. She determined that a generation would essentially be lost if those children missed out on too much school, so she started the NGO “Happy Hearts” to focus on post-disaster school construction. Like David, she wanted to create a program that did not charge people to volunteer, so that anyone could come and help. 

David and Petra met years later, saw how similar their interests were, and decided to merge their organizations, reestablishing themselves as All Hands and Hearts in 2017. To learn more, check out the backstory here: https://www.allhandsandhearts.org/our-story/

Fun side note: Another board member I met was Adam Haber, who started the All Hands Superstorm Sandy program on Long Island. He looked very familiar and we determined that we may have been in some Long Term Recovery Group meetings together. I also met Chief Operating Officer Jorge Abreu, who told me about his mission to bring musical instruments to the bandrooms of the Bahamas once the schools are open again. A great mission indeed!

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So…that’s all the updates for now. Tomorrow I head out to a local Bahamian’s house, my first one! The work at CAPS is not complete but we finished vacuuming and scrubbing, and AHAH changes up teams so that volunteers have a range of experiences. I will miss the opportunity to spray CAPS tomorrow (the last step in mold removal/prevention is spraying), but I’m excited for the experience to meet some locals and work on a house.

Found a keyboard at CAPS!

Interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas? Contribute to my fundraiser for All Hands and Hearts here. Thank you!

Bahamas AHAH: A Day in the Rafters

First of all, holy moly…it is an incredible jolt to your entire body and soul when you take a cold shower in a shower stall made of tarp while the wind makes the temperature feel like it’s the middle of winter. Goodness gracious, that was an experience. 

It’s Saturday night and it is freezing outside. The winds of the Bahamas are no joke and I was not at all prepared for the resulting cold temperatures. Note to anyone traveling here: Bring a sweatshirt. I am very grateful to two volunteers who went home today and left me two blankets. Hopefully I won’t be so cold tonight! 

Because it’s so cold out, the Saturday night AHAH party people were all here in the main building playing beer pong for awhile. They’ve since gone outside and a few of us made a little tabletop game area to play cards, Scrabble, and Scrabble Slam!, which is a lighter version of Scrabble. Much more my speed than beer pong. X-D

Fun side note: I’ve got a sticker on my laptop that says “Sloop” from volunteering on the Clearwater and people keep asking about it. Tonight I learned that the tiling guy with the great music (John) has been to the Clearwater festival every year since it started in 1974, and he and his wife own the ice cream shop that all the Clearwater Sloop crew go to when we dock in Croton-on-Hudson (The Blue Pig. The ice cream is homemade and delicious; highly recommend)). I’ll have to say hi next time I’m on the Clearwater! He has actually been to Pete and Toshi Seeger’s house in Beacon to bring chairs down to the festival during it’s early years, and they used to bring Pete vanilla ice cream. Apparently he loved vanilla ice cream! 😀 The other tiling guy (Peter)’s brother worked on the Clearwater 20 years ago. Small world! 😀

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A Day In the Rafters

Today was a really cool day. I was assigned to the crew at Central Abaco Primary School (CAPS) for a day of scrubbing and vacuuming. This is a very important job; if a building is not properly de-molded, mold will likely grow back and make the inhabitants sick. Naturally, since this is a primary school, scrubbing and vacuuming are serious tasks. It’s also a job you can do without much training, so it’s one of the primary tasks AHAH volunteers do during the response phase of disaster management. 

Upon arrival at CAPS (a short drive from base), crew leader Halle led us through a stretching routine as we introduced ourselves (crews change regularly, and not everyone knows each other). Halle explained what we’d be doing and asked: Who would feel comfortable working in the rafters? I felt like I could do it so I volunteered along with five other people. This is one great part of AHAH work: You can always say you’re not comfortable with something and there will be another task for you to do; no pressure to ever do anything you don’t want to. 

Central Abaco Primary School

Although the initial mold removal phase of the work had been finished on a previous day, we were required to wear sanitation masks at CAPS because mold and other particles could be present as we scrubbed and vacuumed the wood. Figuring out how to make my mask fit properly was a little more challenging than I thought, but once I found a good one to use it was very easy to wear all day, and surprisingly comfortable! 

Next, I learned how to do the two tasks of the day. I was vacuuming, so the people scrubbing would thoroughly scrub each beam of wood, make a chalk mark, then I would follow them, vacuum each beam three times, and make another chalk mark to show that it had been scrubbed and vacuumed. Pretty straightforward.

When I climbed into the rafters, it took me some time to figure out the best way to move around. At first there were spots I thought I’d never reach, but as I got more comfortable I found that I could reach those spots and furt ones too! Soon the rafters felt like a playground, and I began to enjoy the task very much. I was also glad I’ve been regularly practicing yoga for the past half year; balance and flexibility really helped me succeed up there! And don’t worry mom, the beams were sturdy and I never felt in danger of falling. 🙂

During lunch I learned more about the project through the United Nations that is getting shut down. It’s called “Better Shelter” and is built on a local church’s property, led by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). AHAH lended volunteers to help with the project for two weeks, but the latest update is that the government might tear down the shelters, since the locals are unhappy that illegal Haitian immigrants will most likely use the shelters (right now they are living in tents near the shelters even now, six months after the storm). Everyone here is very unhappy that the project is most likely not only going to be canceled but also that their work will be undone. One volunteer here was saying that although he has his own opinions about illegal immigrants, none of that should matter in a situation like this one. Although I most likely don’t agree with his overall standpoint on immigration, I absolutely agree with him; in a disaster zone all those opinions should not take precedence over at least meeting basic human needs.  

We were at CAPS from around 7 AM-3 PM, and I vacuumed for around 6 of those hours. I hope I get to go into the rafters again – that was a fun way to spend the day! After the scrubbing and vacuuming, another crew will come in to spray the building to make sure mold can’t grow back.

Tomorrow we have the day off and are all headed to a beachside party hosted by one of the locals. Should be fun! It also marks the six month anniversary of the storm, so some of the executives for AHAH will be on base. Apparently both the party with the locals and seeing the executives are rare occurrences, so I definitely chose a good time to join the program! 😀

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Interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas? Contribute to my fundraiser for All Hands and Hearts here. Thank you!

Mold doesn’t stand a chance!

Bahamas: 24 Hrs in Nassau, Abaco History, & AHAH Day 1

It’s Friday evening and I’m sitting in a beach chair on the porch of the AHAH base in Marsh Harbour. Just finished dinner after a busy but laid-back day of base duty. Good way to get acquainted with the site, but before I catch you up on my first day with AHAH, let’s back up a bit. 

24 Hours In Nassau: Captain Ron & Abaco History

I left off on this blog two nights ago, when I was writing and grading from my host Ronale’s guest room. Ronale returned earlier than planned, so we talked a bit while eating Bahamian food from his restaurant (he has a great motto he uses for couchsurfers regarding food: “If it’s in the house, it’s on the house!”). He said he instantly knew I was a New Yorker because I’d locked the front door; only one other couchsurfer he’s hosted has ever done that, and she was also from the US. Apparently we have a reputation! 

Ronale has three jobs in Nassau: Working with tour groups, running a gelato shop, and running a restaurant. He made sure to stress that although it sounds like he has a lot of work, it’s a laid-back life; he worked seven hours the day we met and did all three jobs in that time. He used to live in Florida (for 28 years) and said that the lifestyle difference between the US and the Bahamas is pretty extreme; we work too hard in the US! 😉 

Ronale, or “Captain Ron” as he is locally known, has quite a backstory. He and his sisters were born on the island of Abaco (where I am writing from now). His parents are Haitian immigrants who worked on a sugar cane plantation run by white Bahamians, then became some of the first Haitians to move to Marsh Harbour when there was demand for low-class labor there (similar to patterns in the US, Haitians were willing to do lower-class work that Bahamians did not want. His parents essentially founded one of the two major Haitian communities in Marsh Harbour, Pigeon Peas (the other is called The Mud). 

As I learned from Ronale, there are four main groups of people who make up the majority of inhabitants in the Bahamas: white Bahamians, black Bahamians, Haitian-Bahamians, and Haitian immigrants. As in many parts of the world, the Bahamas has levels of racism; Haitians have historically been considered more or less second-class citizens. Ronale experienced this firsthand while growing up on Abaco; he tried to befriend the black Bahamian kids in his class but was rejected because he was Haitian, so his earliest school friends were white Bahamians (later on, when he enrolled in another school nearby, the white kids from his old school would throw rocks at all the black kids except him, since they had already accepted him as a friend). 

Historically racism has perhaps been most prevalent on Abaco, which has a different history than other Bahamian islands. Many Loyalists from England immigrated to Abaco and built communities there, inheriting money from the commonwealth that allowed them to live comfortably.  When the Bahamas wanted to become independent, Abaco was the only island that resisted, since many residents benefited from their commonwealth connection (reminds me of the way Quebec has wanted to separate from Canada on various occasions, although of course that is a different situation). 

Haitians built up a culture inside white Bahamian culture on Marsh Harbour through the establishment of Pigeon Peas and The Mud, and post-Dorian they have been the main group remaining there; many white Bahamians left because, as Ronale put it, they never had to work hard for what they had because of their commonwealth connection and could return to family in other countries. Ronale also opened my eyes to some governmental racism; governmental support for Abaco post-Dorian has been minimal because the Haitian communities were hardest hit and therefore are not a priority. I witnessed this a bit today; there was a man on the AHAH who was very frustrated. He was supposed to be out building through a United Nations connection, but he was sent away so the leadership could have a closed door meeting regarding whether their program would continue. The government was concerned that the program was constructing buildings for the Haitian immigrants, which they don’t want to be the priority. 

Facts I learned from Ronale: 

• The Bahamas is not part of Caribbean (perhaps you already knew this, but I was ignorant). 
• There are five standard Bahamian side dishes (“the fantastic five”): Peas and rice, baked mac and cheese, potato salad, coleslaw, and sweet plantains. 
• Cricket is the national sport of the Bahamas, but most people don’t play or even watch it (they prefer basketball). 
• Some Bahamian people don’t know that the Baha Men are from the Bahamas. I added my own fun fact to this part of the convo: Did you know that “Who Let the Dogs Out?” was not written by the Baha Men? It was written by Trinidadian artist Anslem Douglas under the title “Doggie” (1998) as a women’s empowerment anthem after he was frustrated seeing so many men treat women crudely. Read more here.
• Rake and scrape is the name of the music of the Bahamas, originating on Cat Island. Most Bahamians listen to American music though. 
• Sydney Poitier is said to be the most famous Bahamian (he was born on Cat Island). 
• Tourism has not been affected by the storm on other Bahamian islands; similar to the way that Americans stop paying attention to storms that land in other parts of the US, Bahamians have moved on from the storm. 
• In the Bahamas you drive on the left side of the street. 
• The buses in the Bahamas are super similar to the “dollar vans” that drive up and down Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn; you hop on, yell out when you want to get off, then pay. Guess that makes sense; the Flatbush vans are run mainly by the Caribbean community and although the Bahamas are not part of the Caribbean, there are some cultural similarities. 

The Next Day

When I woke up the next day, I drove into “downtown” with Ronale. Turns out he’s a bit of a local celebrity; everywhere we went, people smiled and waved, “Good morning Captain Ron!” He has built himself into a recognizable character, always wearing a captain’s hat. 

Downtown Nassau was small and colorful, with lots of little touristy shops (and lots of tourists). After many hellos we stopped at Sunshine’s, a breakfast spot, for some traditional Bahamian breakfast fare: Eggs and grits. Captain Ron insisted that I have a Bahamian soda and bought me a Bahamian cake (very traditional) and two other little cakes: Pumpkin and pound cake. Then he showed me where I could get on a bus, we parted ways, and I made my way to the airport. Thanks Captain Ron!

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  “Captain Ron”

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  Bahamian breakfast: Grits and eggs

Flying to Marsh Harbour 

Flying on BahamasAir to Marsh Harbour was an interesting experience; the flight was packed, mostly of locals going back to visit. I was surprised to see a lot of them with big boxes of Dunkin Donuts, but as I later learned, there is no Dunkin Donuts available yet on Abaco, so it’s kind of a big deal. The flight was short – just 30 minutes – and as we approached Abaco I looked out the window and saw the remains of battered houses on a nearby island. I literally said “wow” because it was such a scene!

A picture is worth a thousand words.

After landing, I caught a taxi to the AHAH base, located at a school called Every Child Counts. I met Ollie, the volunteer coordinator, and got a quick tour of the base before being left to settle in before the daily 5 PM meeting. I’d arrived just around 4 PM, so I didn’t have to kill too much time before the meeting, at which I had to stand up and introduce myself (including answering a random question of the day. If you’re wondering, if I could choose any celebrity to have frozen yogurt with, I chose Louis Armstrong). 

After the meeting was dinner, at which I met some more volunteers. There are around 70 on base currently, so I have not yet met everyone. Those I have met all seem to enjoy the work; many have been on other projects with AHAH and/or have tried to extend their time because they want to stay longer. I met one volunteer from Italy who is trying to extend her stay, both because she really likes it here and because her home town and airport have been quaratined because of the coronavirus! 

Then, I spent the evening catching up the rest of the way on grading before settling in to a cold (not typical) and windy (very typical) night that I did not bring enough layers for! There is a box of free stuff that other volunteers have left behind…I might need to explore that if we have another cold night. 

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Inside and outside the Sprung, a building that will house volunteers and staff once we’ve done enough work at Every Child Counts to make it into an active school again.

First Day of Work: Base Duty

This morning I woke around 6 AM and ate breakfast with the rest of the team before everyone left for their worksites of the day. Since I was new, I was assigned to stay on base doing chores so I could get to know the site. Duties included scrubbing old names off of construction helmets, doing laundry, cleaning up after breakfast, sweeping, etc. Throughout the day I got to know some of the people who were on base for the day. In particular, I bonded with two tilers working on one of the rooms; their taste in music was really great and I was able to keep popping in to share some fun facts about the various kinds of music they were listening to (”Ah cool, the Buena Vista Social Club is a great band!”; “Oh, you’re not sure the names of the instruments in this music? That rhythmic sound you’re hearing is the tabla. It’s a set of two drums that have to be tuned very carefully and can produce quite a lot of tones. Yes you’re right, that other instrument is a sitar. It’s made out of a pumpkin!”; “Oh, you’re listening to ‘So What’ by Miles Davis! That’s very fitting, because the mode that jazz musicians sometimes play over these chords is called Dorian, just like the storm.”; “Yes, I love Stomp! That’s great that you’ve seen it. I’m jealous!” etc.). That same day, when I was playing some music, one of the staff came in and said “Is that someone’s phone, or is that…music? Is someone listening to this? It sounds like elevator music.” And that, of course, was some vibraphone music. So far I fit in better with the older folks. X-D

So…this first day was very straightforward and simple. Tomorrow I’ll be going out to a site to do some more in-depth work, so I’ll have another update whenever I have time. Then on Sunday we have off and everyone has been invited to a local woman’s property for a big party along the beach. Hope it’s cool!

A successful day of base duty.

While on base duty today I watched some staff and volunteers film a tiny safety video. The guy on the ground just got hit with a rake he stepped on. X-D

Interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas? Contribute to my fundraiser for All Hands and Hearts here. Thank you!

Bahamas Part I: Arrival

I began writing this post earlier today in JFK airport before flying to Nassau, Bahamas. The JFK internet wasn’t working on my Chromebook, so I decided to type up my first blog entry for this trip since I couldn’t get any grading done. Now I’m at my couchsurfing host’s home with the background noise of a bunch of kids playing outside. Figured I might as well finish the entry I started earlier and and post it!

Airport Thoughts

I don’t like JFK. It’s the most difficult of the major NY airports to get to from my apartment and I usually don’t fly from there if I can help it. Maybe next time I’ll avoid airports altogether and cut down my carbon footprint by sailing on a ship somewhere (eventually, I’ll put up a long-overdue post about my wonderful experience volunteering on the sloop Clearwater this past summer…definitely put the sailing bug in me!).

The sloop Clearwater, docked at Cold Spring.

Fun Fact: Do you know which part of an airport is the germiest? I listened to an episode of the NPR podcast Short Wave on the plane and learned that, according to a small study conducted by Niina Ikonen and Carita Savolainen-Kopra of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the germiest spot is…those plastic bins you put your things in to go through security! Of course the study is small so more research needs to be done, but that’s surprising! Always wash your hands with soap and water after touching those bins. 

So what’s this about the Bahamas? 

I’ve never been to the Bahamas and it has never been on my bucket list of places to travel to, so why am I here? To explain, I need to backtrack a bit. 

AmeriCoprs*VISTA and Superstorm Sandy

In August 2013 I began a year of service as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader. VISTA stands for Volunteers In Service To America and is a branch of AmeriCorps (an organization similar to the Peace Corps, but in the US) that focuses on building capacity and sustainability of initiatives designed to work with/for impoverished communities. In most branches of AmeriCorps, members perform “boots on the ground,” direct volunteer work, but VISTA is different. While they do get to directly volunteer a bit, VISTA members spend most of their time behind the scenes, working at the organizational level to spearhead initiatives, run workshops, recruit volunteers for programs, etc. From 2011-2013 I served as a VISTA member in Albany supporting refugee and immigrant assistance programs there, and it was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life. Afterward, I moved back to Long Island and was recommended for a position as a VISTA Leader in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. 

If VISTAs work at the organizational level, VISTA Leaders are a step above, mentoring multiple VISTAs in one region or who are associated with a certain kind of service program (for instance, when I was a VISTA, my VL was in charge of mentoring a dozen VISTAs across New York State, all of whom were working in partnership with an organization called New York Campus Compact). As a VL, I supported a regional team of VISTAs working with disaster recovery organizations across Long Island. At the time, there was still a great need for assistance in the wake of Superstorm Sandy (which hit in October 2012), and over the span of that year I witnessed the long-lasting effects that a storm of that magnitude has on an area; much work goes on behind the scenes to make sure residents are aware of grants, support programs, resources, volunteer opportunities, etc. available to them. 

As a VISTA Leader, one of my roles was to attend meetings of the Long Term Recovery Group, a committe of representatives from hurricane support groups working acoss the island. I learned how each individual organization functions, the services they offered, their backstories, their managerial methods, etc. I also had occasional opportunities to visit disaster recovery zones and observe and/or participate in direct service with volunteers and staff members from some of these organizations, giving me a sense of not only the managerial but also the direct service levels of each organization. 

All Hands and Hearts (AHAH)

One of the organizations involved in recovery work on Long Island was All Hands, which has since merged with another organization to become All Hands and Hearts. I personally did not do any direct service with All Hands as a VL, but I did interact with their leadership team, and my VISTAs were in regular contact with All Hands, always speaking highly of the organization. I knew that All Hands provided room and board for volunteers, so back then I made a note to look into volunteering with them in the future.

Fast forward to 2020: It is the spring semester and I am adjuncting entirely online, leaving me a great deal of freedom to teach remotely (as long as I have wifi, grr JFK!). So, with nowhere specific to be and knowing I have income from the courses I’m teaching, I found a subletter for my apartment and decided to travel. I’d been wanting to volunteer somewhere and decided to look into two organizations from my VL days: NECHAMA and AHAH. NECHAMA is a non-profit I volunteered with for a few days during my VL service, but they are not currently accepting volunteers. AHAH however, had applications open for a many disaster sites. I applied to four, not knowing how likely it would be to get accepted, and found myself having to make a decision; three of the four programs offered me a spot! I could spend time building a kindergarten in Peru (they are still recovering from the 2007 earthquakes and many children are attending school in makeshift buildings), assist with hurricane relief work in Texas (still recovering from Hurricane Harvey), or head to the Bahamas for a slightly different kind of volunteerism, disaster response. 

Disaster Response vs. Recovery 

There are four stages of disaster management: 1) mitigation; 2) preparedness; 3) response; and 4) recovery. The first two stages happen before a disaster, while the last two happen after. Most of what we hear about is disaster recovery, which involves tasks such as rebuilding homes. However, before an area is ready for recovery it must go through an initial response phase. This involves a wide breadth of tasks that may change at the drop of the hat. Perhaps the most pressing need one day is debris removal, then it might be mold sanitation, repair, restoration of shelters for volunteers or residents, etc. Even though Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas five months ago, the island of Abaco is still in the response phase of disaster management, so tasks are not as structured as when an area is in the recovery phase, such as the case of building a kindergarten in Peru. 

Which To Choose? 

After receiving my three acceptance letters (the fourth program, in Puerto Rico, had a surplus of volunteers and didn’t need more) I weighed the pros and cons. Texas was most sensible; AHAH was paying for flights to and from site, I wouldn’t need to renew my passport (which was on the verge of expiring), there was reliable WiFi on base, and I’d have two days off each week to explore and catch up on grading. I also had a sense of what the work would be like, since the description of the recovery work being done was very similar to what I’d experienced on Long Island. Peru was the closest to “voluntourism,” with lots of opportunities to explore the area, and I could camp on site. However, there was no WiFi at the base, so I’d have to either get a SIM card or spend my off-time at an internet cafe to grade. The Bahamas seemed to be the location with the most pressing need, both of volunteer service and of tourist dollars. Plus, I’d never experienced the response phase of disaster recovery, and my course syllabus had a week scheduled on Caribbean music that happened to line up with my travel dates (I’m hoping to post a video from my travels as part of the lesson when it comes up). I felt a little connected to Hurricane Dorian since it easily could have moved north and hit my parents’ area in Florida, so this was also the disaster I’d followed closest. The only downside was that there was no WiFi on base, but as I went back on to the volunteer info. Google doc to double-check, I watched in real time as the volunteer coordinator changed the section on WiFi and added a new sentence: “We now have WiFi on base!” Decision made. 

Hurricane Dorian in full effect (image courtesy of Pierre Markuse)

Welcome to the Bahamas

Tonight I am in Nassau, at the home of my couchsurfing host Ronale. Ronale is from Abaco originally and was happy to host me after learning that I am coming to work with AHAH to aid in his island’s recovery. He is out working as a tour guide right now so I haven’t actually met him yet, but he was nice enough to open his home to me and arrange for a specific taxi driver to bring me to his home (there is WiFi at the NAS airport, so that was pretty easy thanks to WhatsApp). I am staying here for one night because I landed too late to catch a domestic flight to Marsh Harbour, so I will fly there tomorrow afternoon. Then, I’ll spend the next 21 days on base at Every Child Counts, volunteering six days/week for three weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!  

Interested in supporting hurricane relief efforts in the Bahamas? Contribute to my fundraiser for All Hands and Hearts here. Thank you!