me

We have been in Haiti for three days. Already too much has happened to write about. I will try to write a little bit when I have caught up on my sleep. For now, some photos will have to suffice

I will say, that I have visited 2 orphanages and chosen my first site for a dome. A woman named Judy is creating a quiet revolution with the children in her orphanage. Her approach is imbued with a deep sense of meaning and commitment to the rights of children in Haiti.
The kids you see in these fotos are from her home. I didnt count how many kids she has in her care I did connect with her articulate and passionate love for them.

She is operating a food for school program as well out of her home.

The tents she has for the kids
ok well thats all folks the inverter is going off so I cant finish anything i was going to write

Grass Roots United

We are in Port Au Prince!
Will write more about the gorgeously insane chaos that is the port au prince airport later
Started today at 5:45 am at the Grass Roots Base aka GRUB
This place is awesome, the staff is irreverent, funny, smart and on point.
There is a good mixture of Haitians and an International vibe, Americans,, French, Aussie and English........
They have a 60 ft dome! And a 20 ft. A composting outhouse and an earth ship
they are currently building a great container house with two containers that will be connected with a roof between.
The food is rather......... well never mind about that. The cook is a sweetheart. I am the only vegetarian staying here.
There is literally a hole in the cinder block wall in the back of the compound where you can buy beer, soda and cold water. It's sort of a mystery to me, I haven't bought anything from the hole yet. Kara came back with a 7-up last night, smiling saying there is a little girl on the other side.
Today we are taking a trip over to customs to suss it out.
Then I am going to the first orphanage to do a site survey. Kara is cutting rebar in the back with our awesome angle grinder. oh yea.

on personal note, I took my second malaria pill this morning on an empty stomach. Not a good idea. I almost lost my cookies. I hate when that happens. :)

I feel GREAT and totally excited and happy to be here I dont think I will ever come back to Brooklyn.

I'll try to write more this evening

peace out
brooklyn represent

thunder

Arrived Miami today and made our way to the Amerijet warehouse. It was brutally hot outside and I ended up climbing over a chain link fence because the entrance was on the other side of it and this city is damn inhospitable to pedestrians!
But it is an amazingly diverse city culturally. Dominican, Cuban, Haitian were the most prevalent that I encountered today.

I tried to take some photos of the warehouse, but the security guard didnt take too kindly to it.

Note the dude in the fork lift behind him. He seemed particularly unpleased with the photo action. What's the big secret? Are they hiding alien airships in there?

We got the air bill and got out of there and entered back out into the inferno to take a city bus to Kara's friend's house.

It was like an oasis inside. Her friend Hugo is a total sweetheart.
I am currently Super Tired.
Fly to Port Au Prince in the morning. ................
Been feeling an increasing anxiety as we get closer to entering the country. Interesting to witness my own reaction to this stress. The prospect of entering a devastated country has brought up feelings of insecurity within myself, giving me an increasing awareness to all the material objects I have become accustomed to "needing" This surprises myself because I believe myself to be a person pretty comfortable living without alot of material comforts.
I can only imagine how much greater this would be with people who are accustomed to a more extravagant lifestyle. It's a matter of relativity, Einstein.
For example, right now I am kicking myself because I left my trusty canon rebel behind in favor of this little tiny canon elf to document the trip with. It's ridiculous and coming from such a privileged mentality. Yet there it is. My artistic self wants my beautiful digital SLR.
Good thing this is not the only trip i will be taking to Haiti.

There is a wicked thunder storm happening outside. I am enjoying the air conditioned room.

dom pou ayiti

The Dome Project is on the road, thanks to Atelier 4. They came to 3rd Ward around 2:25pm to pick up the shipment. I had been putting the last minute touches on the crates, labeling them, adding the packing list. Writing on them in Creole. "Ed Imanite" is not a dude's name, it's Haitian Creole for "Humanitarian Aid"

The guys had a pretty big truck and they came around to the loading dock on the side street and started to work to get it lined up right to wheel the stuff on. Suddenly a cop appeared. I never see cops on this street. Why today? It was a little irritating. He was threatening to ticket us with a hefty fine if we didn't "move it, now" I tried to reason with the dude, told him it would only be a matter of minutes, but he wasn't haven it. He was not at all interested in why we were doing what we were doing. He was forcefully enforcing a law that you cant block a street. Apparently people should spend however long it takes and however much money it requires to get a permit to back a truck up to a loading dock for five minutes on a side street in Brooklyn. This seems quite unreasonable to me. So I went to the corner business, a marble business and asked to borrow their fork lift. The dude was sitting behind the desk in an air conditioned office, smoking a cigar and looking like the godfather. "What is the shipment for?" he asked me. I said "shelter for orphans in Haiti" he said, "Shelter?" I said "Shelter" He said "Go in the back and look for Juan" and took a long pull on his cigar, looking tough as hell. I went into the warehouse and was surrounded by row after row of marble slabs. All was quiet. The fork lift was sitting there like a pet dog. I called out "Juan? Juan?" and someone answered "Juan? Juan?" I told him his boss said he could help us with the fork lift and he smiled revealing a few gold teeth. I really ought to get a gold tooth. That is a hot look. here is the mafia dude, i asked him his name but promptly forgot it. oh, how I long for my short term memory! So Juan drove the fork lift down a half block to 3rd Ward's loading dock. Where Winston and I had a conversation over a stack of dome skins about Buckminster Fuller. I asked him if he was a fan of Bucky and he said, not really but he likes him and recently heard a story about him. He told me that Buckminster Fuller wanted to write a book about the theory of relativity but the "authorities" told him that he was not allowed to. That only Einstein and some other dude, "you know, that other dude" were allowed to write about that topic. So Bucky contacted Einstein and asked permission and Einstein was like, "sure, go ahead, dude" and so Bucky wrote a really fantastic book about it. I need to read that book. Everything seems so relative to me lately. I mean it, everything is turning out to be connected in obscure ways. Anyway, Juan helped Winston, Mike and the other guy who I forgot his name, load up the truck down on the corner of Morgan and Stagg and I gave Juan a hefty tip and he went back to the marble slab warehouse riding on the fork lift with his gold teeth bouncing around in his mouth. A fork lift is a damn handy thing to have! The dudes from Atelier 4 loaded it all up and gave me high fives ( yes, I still do that. I'm a dork) and wished me luck in Haiti and drove off to bring them to Miami!

I walked away feeling like I just had two tons of weight lifted off of my shoulders. I was kind of in a daze, laughing and crying. Thanks for reading!!

Donayson pou Orfelina

Today was a landmark day. No, I am not talking about the forum.

Today was a milestone in this project. More accurately, today was a stepping stone to a mile marker. Tomorrow is the Real Milestone. The shipment is being picked up between 1pm and 3pm by Atelier 4's truck to bring it to Miami! This local art handling company is doing this completely gratis. That is spanish for free, folks. They usually handle Sotheby's. We aint no Sotheby's darlin' but they will be carrying precious cargo. Precious in the sense that so many people have had a hand in making this project a reality!

and it is clearly a reality. unless i am hallucinating.

Today was magic. It all came together so well. No stress today. Just people showing up and doing what they had time and energy for and as soon as they were leaving to continue their days, another person with just the right skill set would show up and finish another puzzle piece. David was there to borrow a fork lift from the neighbors to get the newly arrived DOME COVERS all packed up on a palette, up onto the loading dock and he brought it upstairs on the much coveted (today) freight elevator.

The people at Sperry Sails really kicked some serious ass on getting these ten dome skins made in record time. Not only did Matt Sperry prioritize this project to get it done in time, but he and his crew worked over time to get it done AND he gave us a very significant discount on the labor. They are outstanding and I am so lucky to have found them. Thanks Matt!!

We grabbed lunch at our new favorite spot, Yummus Hummus and both had their homemade falefel sandwhich with feta cheese. Really was Yum, although the name I feel on the fence about, the food and atmosphere is top of the line. GO eat there if you are in Bushwick! They are around the corner from Stagg on Waterbury

Evan came and met up with us for lunch and perfectly had a truck with him so we could pick up from the Bushwick Trailer Park some of the vinyl I had left over from the beginning of the project. There was a film crew shooting a film at their space today..If you are a film maker they rent their totally unique space out for just under 5 a day. Contact Hayden at bushwick.trailerpark@gmail.com if you are interested.

Evan powered out 15 bundles of struts in just over an hour. Good work! Nice guy, gets it.
We talked about how much energy and money people spend on Burningman Projects, just for 7 days of getting stoned. Imagine how much could be accomplished for good in the world if even ten crews of those die hard burningman people did relief work or environmental clean up. That's where Burners Without Borders got their start. You may remember them from the relief efforts after hurricane Katrina. Or the devastating hurricane years ago in Peru. Pisco Sin Fronteras. They've done some truly incredible work. They supported us early on in this project with an $800 grant. One of their spin off organizations, Grass Roots United, is our partner in Haiti. They are an official Haitian Organization now. If you want to volunteer with either organization and have your mind blown in all sorts of essential ways, go to their website and fill out their volunteer questionnaire here.

Before Evan left, Greg Henderson showed up to build a proper palette/crate to hold all 2500lbs of struts! He rocked it out and then tagged that shit. Good work Jersey Hammer approved Thanks Greg. The struts fit perfectly, which I took as something akin to a miracle. Like a sighting of the virgin mary in the sidewalk cracks.Totally inexplicable!

Then Evan left and he wasn't gone but five minutes when Hayden showed up. He began powering out the bundles of struts and then suddenly Liam was there with a whole posse of Bushwick Trailer Park kids with enthusiastic energy .

We got that shit packed, stacked, ratchet strapped and shrinkwrapped! We got it stenciled and penciled and ready to fly.



yes i am totally sweaty and grimy.

Liam, Chad and I discuss the best way to pack the tools and matts. We decided to give them a palette of their own.

David showed up a little later, a bit miffed at the freight elevator shenanigans at 3rd Ward. He put the finishing touches on the travel case, adding a latch for the lock and closure.

In the meantime I was going a bit stencil happy. I stenciled Joe on some crates. You'll see photos of it tomorro. Joe is my cat.

I didn't take enough photos today, so I have none of Greg or Hayden or Evan. But they really exist,

Check back tomorrow for more, better photos of the 5 piece shipment.

Thanks Y'all. No, I'm not southern, just like to talk fancy sometimes.

Wizard's Beard

After some thought, Kara and I have decided that to liven up the dome covers a bit, we will have the kids paint bright flowers on them. That way, they will be engaged in the creating of the space that they will live in. I think the best way to get them inspired to want to paint the flowers is to just start painting them on ourselves and act as though it's the grown ups job to do it. They will probably be shy and if we come on too strong and say, "you kids are going to paint flowers on the domes" they might begrudgingly agree to do what the american ladies want them to do. But if we just start painting awesome huge bright flowers on them, they will probably shyly ask if they can paint too. The ones that want to paint will come and ask.
We will let them paint their own flowers! They will be crooked and imperfect and beautiful. The domes will become more theirs when they are done.

This is the last week coming up for us to gather all our materials for Haiti. I am scrambling like a bunch of eggs getting ready for a fryin' pan.

My to do list is as long as a wizards beard. Seen any wizards lately? No? That's because Baby Gramps left town already and we aint in Vermont or Washington anymore Toto.

I'm excited but filled with anxiety that we will forget to bring some essential item.

I've consulted with the dome experts at the Dome Guys again and he has instructed me in the best methodology of packing struts for international shipments. We have to re-pack all of the struts we packed up months ago because they have to be packed into smaller, more manageable bundles. We will be packing them in sets of 10's and 5's with shrink wrap, then going over that with some sturdy strapping tape. and then ratchet strapping them en masse upon a sturdy palette. We will reinforce the palette because all together, those struts, 370 of them, weigh 2500lbs! That's more than a ton, folks.

I know this is fascinating to read about. Just imagine all the stuff I am not writing on this blog and you'll be way more entertained.

thanks for reading, y'all. If y'all are reading between the lines, good job.

Dome Covers!

We finally have photos of the domes with the covers on them!! Thanks to Sperry Sails!
This has been a long time coming. We are almost done with the first phase of the project!
We will be receiving the dome covers by monday or tues of next week and instantly turning around and shipping them to Miami to put them on acargo plane to Haiti.
The colors are terra cotta and khaki. We got the fabric at a huge discount, more than 2/3 off the regular price because they were "aged inventory" meaning no one was buying certain colors. I think they will blend in better than white would have. White looks so new. These are the color of bricks.



Here are a couple shots of the people working on them up in Massachusetts....


Another shot of the Sperry Sail Factory:


Last night Kara and I took some struts for a walk around bushwick. It was like walking a dog. We had to make some replacement struts because of damaged struts from some over enthusiastic party goers who bent the hell out of one of the domes. They were large, drunken guys doing pull ups and various calisthenic exercises upon them. We brought the struts to Jay's metal shop up the street from 3rd Ward. He is the co-owner of Yummus Hummus which is a great new cafe on Waterbury Street. You should all go there and enjoy some of their wonderful home made food! They make ice cream! Thanks Jay, you are awesome.


we took turns, why should one person have all the fun with fido?


this is the hydraulic press at Jay's shop: