Today marks our fourth day up in the beautiful mountains of Marbial. Coming into this trip I can honestly admit I wasn’t sure what to expect, but am incredibly happy that I followed through with it. The experiences to get to this point have been incredibly humbling and have put into perspective the things that can be taken for granted back at home. Every morning the teachers and children of Marbial will traverse through the mountainsides just to get to school and they look as clean and well put together as if they were airlifted in. Meanwhile I had difficulty not starting my day without mud covered legs and dripping with sweat.

As of this morning the walls of the classroom are mostly completed and are nearing being ready for the trusses and roofing. As last night there was a heavy rain and class was not in session today we began assembling the trusses in an empty classroom. Dan and Doug began by pre-cutting all the materials and marking out a jig on the concrete floor. As we started nailing them together a group of students who had been watching from a distance began to get interested and with happy faces wanted to help.

Even with my botched French we were able to get things moving and began to look like a true assembly line from Dan, Doug, the boys and myself. Damien (in the green) ended up proving he had great hand eye coordination and was a true contractor at heart by sending every nail through effortlessly. All in all we built as many trusses as the materials allowed and we were able to get everyone involved as well. This trip has been an experience like no other with an amazing group of people, I am ecstatic I was given the opportunity to volunteer on this trip and would do it again without question.

Until next time Haiti!

This Update by Kyle Herd.