Hope everyone had a Happy Easter. I haven't updated in a bit and thought I'd take advantage of a slow point at work to update. I posted new pictures in an album titled "around town" on http://picasaweb.google.com/109023387440893709524. There are pictures of my apartment and its surroundings, my roomates, the church I went to, where I work, and some more shots around PAP. My roomates were pretty lucky in the earthquake as our block had little damage whereas others nearby were not spared. I'm guessing the soil conditions under our block were much more solid and attenuated the ground motion from the quake. Work has been still keeping me busy. One of my goals is to improve efficiency of our department. Last week I worked on developing a macro (a code in excel) that will automatically generate contracts for the clients entered with a push of a button. It was a challenge that I didn't think I could complete but gave me a good deal of satisfaction to achieve. I was able to meet with the CEO on Thursday to get a better idea about what my goals are, which was nice. She encouraged me to get out into the field as much as possible and to meet with managers of other departments to get their views about what can improve about my department. My task is going to be to come up with suggestions to improve the performance of our loan portfolio (fewer defaults) while increasing efficiency. Overall, I was happy to hear this because as an engineer, I feel those goals are right up my alley.

Another thing that is exciting is a new product that we are going to help bring to market. The father of the family I stayed with my first week with Fonkoze is importing solar lamps that use solar panels to power a set of LED lights. The lights last 4-8 hrs depending on the setting on an 8 hr charge. An 8 hr charge can also charge 2 cell phones. The panel also has a hookup for cell phones. Since the system is expensive for Haitians ($70 US), he is teaming up with Fonkoze to allow Fonkoze clients to purchase the solar lamps on credit over a period of 4 or 5 months. He did a study where he found Haitians without electricity spend an average of $20 or so on candles/kerosene per month and $7 on charging their cell phones per month. One can see that purchasing this solar lamp can have a large impact on their budget as it will not take that long reach a break-even point. Cash that clients would be spending on candles and charging cell phones can now be diverted to paying for food, healthcare, or sending kids to school. My boss and I will be the ones running the program from our front, so that will be a learning experience.

Since Haiti is a very Christian country (~70% Catholic, 95% Christian), we had a half day off on Thursday and a full day off on Friday. On Friday there were many processions where Catholics would walk the stations of the cross over several hours of the day all over Port-au-Prince. I felt a little bad I skipped out on this because it might have been a great experience, but as I still don't speak a lot of Creole or French I was afraid I wouldn't get a lot out of it. On Sunday I did go to Mass though. In typical Haitian fashion, it lasted 2.5 hours and was packed with singing, praying, and dancing. I found it amusing that, just like the US, there were a lot more people there than the previous week. Many people watched from outside the church since the walls contained plenty of gaps in the bricks to facilitate airflow. In Haiti it is a tradition that kids fly kites around Easter. I posted a picture of this on Picassa but it did not come out well. Unfortunately, since my roomates are Adventists, we did not have a Easter Party but that was alright. It was really tough to be away from my family. I was a little homesick but I think things will get better as I build more relationships. I spent a lot of time over the weekend talking with my roomates and their friends. I have been helping them with their English and they have been helping me with my Creole. It is still difficult for me to understand when someone talks quickly, but I can see some improvement which is comforting.

Monday was the first day school started since the earthquake. Supposedly the reasoning behind this was that the government wanted to wait until all schools were open before letting any begin. In my opinion this doesn't make sense as some schools were undamaged. However, when I asked some kids if they were going to school, I found out many were not. Their families are still worried that there might be another earthquake nearly 3 months after the first. The hardest thing for me, especially when I was inspecting structures the first week was for me to understand the psychologic state of the Haitians since I did not experience the earthquake. Even though you tell someone a building is safe, it seems very difficult for them to regain a feeling of safety. Even my roomates waited a month before moving in to our apartment after the quake despite the fact that there were no cracks.

I am already observing the affect living in such a polluted city has on people's health. Frequently when I am talking to my roomates and their friends, one of them has some sort of a sinus attack lasting up to 20 seconds. My one roomate has been having throat problems for the last 3 weeks (maybe an infection). Combine living in a polluted city with not eating enough and one can imagine how fragile the immune system is. I am lucky that I am only experiencing this for a few months and not a lifetime. I am thankful I have not gotten sick yet.