(Editorial Comment: This post continues the coverage of my Dominican adventures during the week of March 17th. Still, I promise to catch you up to current at some point, both because hearing about our Passover Seder on March 30th is something you truly don’t want to miss, and I am also planning to share photographic evidence of our first day off in a month, (Saturday, March 31st), via a picture of my feet relaxing on a lounge chair overlooking a pool and sweeping sea vista, whilst pretending to be on a tropical island vacation.

But, first back to mid-March. As I mentioned in my last post, we learned critical lessons this week about the need to show up in person and the power it contributes to building vital community relationships. In the first instance it introduced us to an amazing contractor, and in the second, we may have found a solution to working with beneficiaries whose homes are destroyed – which up to now has been totally negating our offer of roofing to those beneficiaries.

The LaPlaine Police station in rural Dominica may be the only law enforcement office in the world to where one comes to meet and source construction contractors, nonetheless it is a compelling lesson on the power of being on the ground and building local relationships. Here on the rural eastside, the LaPlaine Police Station is the single place within 50 miles that has Wi-Fi. As such, it’s a gathering place for the community, (with the requisite sign posted outside the station admonishing Wi-Fi surfers to be considerate and avoid downloading YouTube videos during times of peak internet usage).

I am a frequent flyer – and the police staff regularly and graciously offers me precious space in their janitorial closet, (which doubles as the IT center,) to both power my PC and send critical (and usually late – sorry IsraAID) reports. Sending attachments is completely dicey, but, it is a godsend regardless. When our Israeli engineers come to collect me, they joke with the Sergeant on duty that they’ve come to post my bail. (But, hey, with its access to Wi-Fi and electricity, it’s a safe bet I’d request to just be left there…..).

Mid-week, and thoroughly frustrated that we had no usable leads on a local General Contractor, I looked around and then just approached a man and asked him if he knew any builders. In fact, he did! The introduction took place 10 minutes later – and now we’ve got a well-connected Community Mobilizer, (the gentleman who made the contractor introduction), plus a local builder. And roofing in the community of LaPlaine starts on Monday, March 23rd!

Which brings me to the next step in our re-roofing process, surveying our beneficiary home owners. But, as in everything we do here in Dominica, surveying our beneficiaries comes with time consuming complexities. First – the Beneficiary list. It comes to us from the Primary Schools – and lists each family with a primary school child, using the Mother’s name. Easy, right? Ha! Not. Rural Dominica has NO addresses, and while I have always been a fan of finding my way using landmarks (being famously, directionally clueless), the unpaved roads, dead-ends, lanes with sheer drop-offs on which the families reside, and over which we must navigate, even presuming we could find our way there, (which we cannot without constant local assistance), is beyond daunting.

Oh, and back to that list. Two more complexities: First, it goes by the Mother’s given name – which in Dominica often bears no similarity to the name by which she is known. Famous for “pet” names, even several for the same person, Dominica’s naming culture creates chaos and confusion for us as we try to locate a family.

Secord, we are obligated to cross check our beneficiary list with other relief organizations and local government councils – all to ensure we are not duplicating benefits. This is probably the most frustrating process of all – since our lists are exclusively in the mothers’ names, while other lists may use husbands/boyfriends/partners instead, and matching the lists requires extensive consultation with the local community, who often even disagree amongst themselves. (That is one interesting conversation to try and follow!)

And finally – we have been told, (and given our experience have no reason to doubt!), that there are ultimately only 10-12 distinct families on the entire island, and so everyone is both related and share a handful of surnames. When you add that to the mix, the process of locating a beneficiary family, (assuming they are residing in the same location after the hurricane – which they are often not!), risks taking as long as re-roofing a home.

And so, I once again return to the importance of building community partnerships, without which we would simply drive around in circles. But, no description of finding our beneficiary families would be complete without a graphic description of the amount of time we spend “backing up”, or as our expert Israeli driver calls it: “reversing”. Homes are nearly always on long narrow roads that end abruptly, turn down, (or up), steep dirt tracks at 90-degree angles, and when there are roads, a deep drainage ditch on both sides is a standard hazard, which in my Microsoft days we would call a “feature”. I stand in awe of the expertise which delivers us to each home and then safely back to the main road where we exchange our reversing for dodging the ubiquitous downed power lines and power poles.

Of course, this post has gone on far too long, so I will close. In my next post, I will cover a wonderful partnership opportunity we’re developing to help beneficiaries whose homes must be repaired before they are suitable for re-roofing. It also details the saga of my flight to Guadalupe and back to purchase power tools and safety equipment for our Beneficiary workforce. In the spirit of continuing spoiler alerts, the next installment reveals that springing Relief Supplies from Dominican Airport Customs required the offer of my First Born, who, (I assured the stony-faced official), could not cook, but, could deliver babies. (Sorry, Hannah, I *know* you can cook, but, I was afraid if he knew that, he might expect me to hand you over….)