Haitian Earthquake Memorial

On January 12, 2010 a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the small town of Leogane, Haiti, leaving the town without a church, whose bell towers also collapsed.  

The bells from the church would ring every morning,

 calling the predominately Catholic town to mass each day.

This poster depicts the vision for the rebuilding of the church, along with sponsor logos, one of which is Haiti Engineering,  A group of Structural Engineering students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, partnered with Haiti Engineering for a summer project to build a memorial bell tower in honor of the more than 300,000 people who lost their lives in the earthquake, as well as raise a bell so the town could hear the ringing for the daily call to mass once again.

Our son, Alex, was one of the students who fund raised, in order to be part of the team to build the memorial bell tower.  He said the week he spent in Haiti was one he would never forget.  In order to thank some of his donors and tell them about the project, we held an appreciation  "Beachy Blue Buffet", where we served the Bacon Bomb, and Alex showed a power point presentation of his trip.  Which brings me to this third and final post - the construction of the memorial bell tower!

Arriving in Port du Prince, the students saw the living conditions of the Haitians.  There was no organized trash disposal system so trash was just everywhere until the next tropical storm, which would wash it down the closest stream to the ocean.

They took a tap-tap (taxi) to the small town of Leogane,

 the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake.

They decided to try to assimilate into the Haitian culture by paying a Haitian girl to give them corn rows - Alex's turned out to be corn "shocks" instead!

 

The next day they starting working on the memorial.  After laying out the site, they dug trenches for footings - quite a challenge in the hard earthquake rubble.  They needed to mix concrete for the footers but had no wheelbarrow, so they mixed it right on top of the dirt!  One of the Haitian workers they hired to help ($1.50 a day - and people were lined up unemployment is rampant there!) saw them mixing and showed them how to do it - Alex said it was a lot easier after that, and even easier the next day when someone brought them a wheelbarrow - but not before they had already mixed five yards of concrete the hard way!

With the footings poured and set, they worked together to measure and mark the site. 

 The hundred plus degree weather and high humidity made them all wish

they were back home again . . .

 

 . . . a water break was enough time to get this photo of the students.

Back at work, they frequently found themselves short of needed tools. Here they bend rebar by using a old hinge and lots of muscle!

The memorial starting to take shape - they stacked and filled cmu's to make the walls of the memorial. It was hard work on a hot day!  With a four day work schedule, it was important to finish what was planned each day - even if it meant working into the night!

After two days of century mark heat with matching humidity, 

Tropical Storm Ernesto brought welcome relief!  

They took out some bars of soap and took advantage of the warm rain!!

No work was allowed on Sunday, the day of rest.  Each Cal poly student brought over 25 lbs of rice in their carry on luggage to donate to the villagers. 

 Here Alex is measuring portions to be handed out.

A Haitian girl helps Alex with the portions, and then helps pass them out to the kids at her church.  Each child got 2 lbs to take back to his or her family.  The Pastor explained that food donations were many right after the earthquake, but this rice was the first donation they had received in six months!

The students worked hard to get the frame constructed that was to hold the 300 lb bronze bell.  When it came time to hang the bell, a miscommunication problem left them without a way to lift the bell up to the frame which was to hold it.  Alex had thrown a roll of string in his backpack at the last minute when he was packing 'just in case we needed it'.  It came in handy when he wrapped it many times to make a sling to hang the bell from a back hoe in order to lift the bell into place!

With the bell in place, the students then reinforced the frame they had made from lumber they had treated with a solution to prevent insect infestation and sealant. 

After some hard labor, lots of redesign and creativity, the project came together.

 In the top part of this you can see the site, with the concrete wall behind it.  The students paid a local mural artist to paint a mural as part of the memorial.  The words spell out in Haitian Creole "In memory of those who died on January 12, 2010. We wish you, eternal peace in the hands of God."

A dedication ceremony was held for the memorial.  Alex got the honor of ringing the bell for 38 seconds - the length of time the earthquake shook the city leaving so many dead, 

and the town in rubble.  

Many were in tears and the students say they will never forget the reaction of the Haitians when they heard the bell ring for the first time since the earthquake hit 2.5 years ago.

With the project complete, the students were asked to be guests at the Nuncio's home.  The Nuncio is the Chief Financial Office of the Catholic church for a given country.  Here Alex talks with the Nuncio at his home overlooking the town of Leogane.

The students were treated to a lavish meal which included Lobster Spaghetti - they had seen the lobsters walking around the lawn as they arrived!

The last day, they got to spend some time at a beach house owned by Herby Lissade's uncle. Herby Lissade is an engineer for Cal Trans, and the man who started Haiti Engineering to help after the earthquake.  His family lives in Leogane, and their home survived, while many neighbors lost their homes when the earthquake hit.

 The whole SESH (Structural Engineering Students for Haiti) group with their completed memorial!  Funds are still needed to rebuild the church and raise all the bells in the church's towers.  Information about making a donation can be found here.  The bell in this memorial, will be put in the church tower once it is built, and another bell will be hung in the memorial to be rung on the anniversary of the earthquake each year, 
as well as a call to mass each morning.  Alex reflected back on his trip, "I'll never forget our team- it was a bunch of us who barely knew each other who came together to make this happen - and I'll be friends with them forever".

Bacon Bomb!

The food star of our Beachy Blues Buffet event, was our son's infamous Bacon Bomb! We didn't have a pit dug to roast a pig, which would have been a lot of fun, so we asked Alex if he would make his "Bacon Bomb"!  A few of the neighbors who were attending had heard about this concoction and always wanted to try it.  Alex wouldn't tell me all of his secret ingredients but he agreed to let me photograph the steps involved!

First, Alex wove a mat of bacon using strips that are similar in length, width and thickness.  Then he spread ground pork over the woven mat of bacon.

 He sprinkled spices which included dry mustard, onion powder, garlic salt, steak seasoning, 

and other secret spices over the pork mat.

Alex cut long chunks of sharp cheddar cheese and lay them in the middle. He topped the chunks of cheese with his secret cranberry/ bacon bit reduction sauce and was ready to roll!

 

Carefully, he pulled the far side toward him . . . 

 . . . and rolled  and rolled until it was all tight.

He secured the ends with toothpicks

He prepared four bacon bombs for our buffet, 

using the sharp cheddar cheese in two, and crumbled blue cheese in two.

 Next, the top chef in the making deglazed the pan from the cranberry/bacon bits, 

using apple juice . . .

. . . to make a sauce to spread over the bombs.

The 'bacon bombs' cook with indirect heat in a smoker.

After six hours in the smoker, the 'Bacon Bombs" are done!

Just slice and serve - succulent!

How could they be anything but good with all those ingredients?!

We served some rolls in case some guests wanted to make a sandwich out of the pork creation, with tropical fruit and mixed greens salads.

We figured we needed to round out the meal with something light and healthy! 

Everyone agreed the "bacon bombs" were 'the bomb'!!

"Beachy Blues Buffet" Tabletop

Sometimes a piece of fabric can inspire a table top!

In this case, a piece of Hawaiian print fabric in a variety of blues just happened to be what I needed to set the tone for a casual beachy buffet I hosted recently.

The yardage was one of the last things left in my mother-in-law's house when we were moving her to her new home.  I loved the various hues of blue and I thought the batik type print gave a Carribbean vibe.  The beachy buffet was held to thank those who had donated to my son's recent humanitarian trip to Haiti!

The colors in the fabric matched a lot of my depression glass that I had been collecting over the years so I gathered some pieces and put them to use.  The dark blue apothecary jar was my most recent find!

 I chose yellow and white daisies to contrast with all the blues!

The napkins were rolled up and encircled with jute napkin rings and placed in my cherished vintage sand bucket found at the Sacramento Antique Fair.

The light blue milk glass pedestal bowl was a gift from my husband - filled with lemon heads to carry the yellow through the table scape.  The vintage paper fish coasters were thrift store find, as was the blue cut glass handled bowl they are nestled in.

Here's a close up of the milk glass - I just love the curves in the pattern! 

They remind me of the ocean waves!

The tiny seahorse slat and peppers had to be included!

After adding the little starfish and some silver glass glitter to the edges of this sign found at Marshalls, it was ready to welcome the guests!

I placed the blue vase filled with daisies atop a vintage soda crate to create some height, added a couple of blue and yellow candles in a pair of milk glass candlesticks, a few seashells, and the "Beachy Blues Buffet" table top was complete!

I'm linking up to Tabletop Tuesday!

9.11 - A Memoir

 

About fifteen years ago we took our three sons on a trip to see the historical landmarks of our country.  We traveled to Washington DC and toured the capital building and the White House, pre-9-11, which was wonderful!  We were one of the last groups that ever got to see the Federal FBI building and the infamous 'gun room' which truly impressed the boys. We were fascinated as we walked the same tunnels all our past and present Presidents walked through, as they traveled between federal buildings. We saw Ted Kennedy talking to reporters on the Supreme Court stairs just 20 feet from us!  We were actually in the Capital building cafeteria, watching on closed circuit TV, the roll call vote on whether to impeach Clinton or not! It was amazing to witness the democratic process!

We headed up the interstate to Philadelphia and saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  Next we headed up to New York.  With three young sons we were on a budget and had to make a decision about which building we would go up to get a bird's eye view of NY - the Empire State Building or The World Trade Center. 

 The boys wanted to go up the Twin Towers, but at $14.00 a person, you guessed it - 
we went up the iconic Empire State Building instead 
which saved us enough money to buy dinner!

 Little did we know we would never get the chance to ride to the top of the World Trade Center to take in the view of the city, and our sons never will let us forget!

 We decided to buy a snow globe as a souvenir of our visit to New York that day.  
The snow globe has both the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center Twin Towers inside.  My husband packed in carefully in his luggage for the flight home.

 Watching the snow fall over the city inside was always so magical!  

None of us will ever forget that unbelievable morning or 
where we were when we first heard the tragic news.  

 I cherish my souvenir snow globe, in which the Twin Towers are still standing. 
How ironic is it that since 9-11, snow globes are not allowed on planes - we wouldn't even be able to get the snow globe home now! I'll always regret skipping the ride up to the top, but our boys got to walk through the tunnels in Washington DC 
that are no longer accessible to the public since the attack. 

 Since 9-11, I can not bear to shake the globe and see the snow falling around the towers.  All of us saw those images on TV that morning, and it wasn't snow that was falling.  

Let us celebrate our freedom today, and remember all who lost their lives on 9-11 and pray for those who fight so we can continue to be free.