Off to Haiti in April

Well, kids, I'm starting this new blog with the announcement that I'm traveling to Haiti April 15, 2010, to do relief work for two months.*

I will be working with a group called HODR - Hands On Disater Relief. They have a base camp set up for 100 volunteers in a city named Leogane, which is 25 miles west of Port au Prince, and a scant 5 miles north of the epicenter of January's devastating earthquake.

I expect I'll start out with digging rubble, then maybe build some latrines. Eventually I'll transition to designing shelters and training people in ATC-20: Post Earthquake Structural Assessment of Buildings.

I've already made a good connection, even before traveling to Haiti. I spoke to a generous representative at a company that is a major cell phone supplier in Haiti, Trilogy-International, which happens to be based right here in Seattle. They have agreed to provide cell phones for the HODR relief effort. For free!!!

I'm meeting with the chairs of Architects Without Borders - Seattle, and AIA Seattle Disaster Response Task Force next week to see if there are opportunities for collaboration.
* For what it's worth, if foolish bad crazy people get the idea that my house will be sitting vacant, I will have a house-sitter.