Sorry for the long delay in update. The last 3 weeks have seen a whirlwind of activity: materials got purchased, construction got underway and actually finished (I'll send pictures soon), and an unexpected opportunity for my career in medical physics surfaced which I returned to the states to pursue.
I purchased materials for the project. Almost everything went smoothly. We went to the bank and I pulled out $3000 US in Haitian goudes around 110,000 goudes. Now, imagine holding a $1000 US in quarters, 1's, 5's, and 10's and that should give you an idea of what I looked like carrying a wad that could simultaneously pass as a blunt weapon. Oh, and did I mention these bills look like they were printed around the time of Gutenberg's bible? They are covered in dirt, torn, and shaggy making the 250's look like 50's from time to time.
The only problems I had with purchasing the materials were with the doors and windows. When I got an estimate on the price for the windows, the man showed me 1 window. I asked him to measure it and then asked if he had a total of 4 the same size. He said he had them in the back. So, I asked him to show me another. He immediately returned with a second window and we measured it and it was identical to the first. I took him at face value that he had 2 more. Turns out he only had 2! Fortunately, we were able to find 2 other windows nearby for the same price BUT they had slightly different dimensions than the first.
As for the doors, the man had agreed to sell them at $200 Haitian dollars each. Note everything is in Haitian dollars and 1 US dollar = 8 Haitian dollars. He also said he had siding for the doors for $20 each. However, when I arrived on the day to purchase he changed the price to $800 each. I was in a huge bind because I had already rented the truck for all of the other materials and it would be expensive to rent it again just for 2 doors. In the end, after a lot of arguing we settled on $650 for each door and then I found out he did not even have siding! Again, siding was found but I know I overpaid for it.
However, all the other materials went well and I even saved money as my original estimate had been on thicker pieces of tin and metal than the construction crew asked for because I wanted to build a buffer in my budget.
The next day the construction team I hired arrived and there was an argument about the contract and the amount to be paid for the labor. There was a lot more negotiating and they eventually agreed to do the job at $3500 Haitian dollars - about 3 times what I had originally worked out. This was irritating but I have been told this is unfortunately how business works.
Okay, now for the fun part.
The first window was cut about 3 feet from where I had drawn it on the plans. I take full blame for this because I was not present when he started cutting (they were working on the roof so I went to lunch thinking I'd be back before they came off the roof). Oops. But of all the places they could have cut wrong they went in the right wrong direction so it just puts a little more space between the windows.
Miss number 1
Remember, I purchased windows that were slightly different sizes. I made sure I told everyone in the crew that they were different. I even stacked them next to each other so everyone could see they were different. Flash forward and they have cut out 2 windows. The guy was about to cut out the third. Call it a hunch or gut feeling but I stopped everything and made everyone re-measure everything! At first, they were annoyed... turns out I was right one of the other workers had moved one of the windows and so the guy with the torch was about to cut the wrong size hole.
Save number 1
A short time later, I wanted the doors to swing out. I realize it is custom for doors to houses to swing in but since the containers are only 8 feet wide having a door 2 1/2 feet wide sweeping an arc into the living space is quite a problem. Before they installed the hinges we checked again.
Save number 2
Now for a little insight into Haitian construction
The whole time during construction, every day they worked they tried to hassle more money out of me. After my initial defeat on opening day I dug my heels in the ground and fought them everyday. And it was battle after battle. For example, I purchased doors without holes cut for the locks. They told me it would be a little extra to install those. I told them a swinging wall was not a door.
In a separate encounter worth noting, Madame Cameau told me not to purchase nails, screws, bolts because no matter which ones I bought she said the construction crew would tell me there was a problem. Instead, we agreed on a price and the man went and bought screws. When he returned he told me they were a little more and asked for $119 US dollars. I cracked a smile and said no. We argued for a while I asked for a receipt which he had 'left at home'. And then we did a quick calculation on a piece of paper and then I paid him the $210 Haitian (about $26 US) we had originally agreed on.
Still, yet another wonderful illustration. They asked me for $500 H for transport of their machines (welding equipment and torch). I denied them. This brought on a long drawn out discussion that bordered yelling but not quite. I held firm but I was really upset after the discussion. Madame Cameau, my hero, walked outside and talked to a tap-tap driver. She pretended like the equipment was hers and asked how much he would like for the transport. The response $30 H. So, if we account for round-trip transport the cost to them was $60... and they wanted $500!
Time and time again things came up. All day long! Some of the tries were comical, "We are hungry can you help us?" (this said while one of the other guys has his back turned to hide the piece of bread he is munching on) or "We haven't seen our wives in a couple days can you give us a little extra so we don't feel so guilty for being away". But still, I can't help but think that for each time that I caught them trying to scam me, there's probably a scam that slipped under the radar.
At one point, I was really feeling drained from the barrage of tricks and games and I asked Madame Cameau if this was typical or because I am white. By the way, she also had a separate project underway with her own construction crew. As she was telling me, "Don't worry. They are all the same. This is just how it goes in Haiti." Her chief construction worker came in asking her for money for some minor problem. All we could do was laugh until our sides hurt!
The good news, however, is the men I hired did sensational work. I met them at 5 in the morning and they would work until sunset. They did a fantastic job and everyone I mean everyone has come to admire the project. I wish I could take the lion's share of the credit for the success but the truth is without Madame Cameau I would have been completely lost. She was with me at every turn, helping translate for me, showing me where different stores were, helping me negotiate prices, arguing at length for people to give me a fair price. She helped me tremendously and I owe her an enormous debt of gratitude! She is an incredible woman and I am very thankful that she gave me such generous support!
The other great news is even though they will not tell me how much the other container cost, I have been told that I spent significantly less to accomplish a lot more.
So, to summarize:
Things that I would do differently:
1) When purchasing materials I would make sure to see every material (i.e. all 4 windows) and require a signed invoice so the price cannot change on purchase day.
2) I realized that working with the construction crew they had zero incentive to help me with costs. In the future, I would restructure the contract such that there was a cushion of money for extra materials and/or little problems that come up. I would explain that should they not dip into this reserve it could be theirs. (this was a tactic that I switched to 2 days before the project finished and helped dramatically reduce the requests... it was amazing to see how resourceful they suddenly became)!
3) Never assume that just because they are working on the roof they won't send one guy down to start cutting windows!
4) I would try to organize the purchase of materials and construction with other projects that the organization would like to complete. I realize that renting the torch you could cut all the containers in one day rather than just mine and significantly cut costs - but this is more a UNIF suggestion.
------------------------------
After exploring my budget, I spent a total of $3517 US dollars. The goal was to spend $3500 but they would not let me remove 10 dollars from the account (3 month waiting period until you can close an account with Fonkoze). The other 7 dollars because I lost about $55 Haitian dollars somewhere along the way. I have gone over all my receipts and have no idea where the $55 slipped off to (I included this amount in one of the transportation entries as these tended to be miscellaneous costs as tap-taps vary in price and sometimes you have to pay someone a few goudes to tie things to the roof or whatnot) but I still have no idea where it went.
Attached is a copy of the budget and how I spent the money. I estimate that if I were to do it again I could probably do it for around 3000 - 3200 by avoiding some unnecessary costs (like labor for loading and unloading that was not needed) or negotiating a better price on materials/labor.
------------------------------
Nonetheless, everyone at UNIF is very happy with the results of the project and I am happy with it as well. The container has been converted according to the requests Father Joseph made and so my project is successfully complete!
The only problems I had with purchasing the materials were with the doors and windows. When I got an estimate on the price for the windows, the man showed me 1 window. I asked him to measure it and then asked if he had a total of 4 the same size. He said he had them in the back. So, I asked him to show me another. He immediately returned with a second window and we measured it and it was identical to the first. I took him at face value that he had 2 more. Turns out he only had 2! Fortunately, we were able to find 2 other windows nearby for the same price BUT they had slightly different dimensions than the first.
As for the doors, the man had agreed to sell them at $200 Haitian dollars each. Note everything is in Haitian dollars and 1 US dollar = 8 Haitian dollars. He also said he had siding for the doors for $20 each. However, when I arrived on the day to purchase he changed the price to $800 each. I was in a huge bind because I had already rented the truck for all of the other materials and it would be expensive to rent it again just for 2 doors. In the end, after a lot of arguing we settled on $650 for each door and then I found out he did not even have siding! Again, siding was found but I know I overpaid for it.
However, all the other materials went well and I even saved money as my original estimate had been on thicker pieces of tin and metal than the construction crew asked for because I wanted to build a buffer in my budget.
The next day the construction team I hired arrived and there was an argument about the contract and the amount to be paid for the labor. There was a lot more negotiating and they eventually agreed to do the job at $3500 Haitian dollars - about 3 times what I had originally worked out. This was irritating but I have been told this is unfortunately how business works.
Okay, now for the fun part.
The first window was cut about 3 feet from where I had drawn it on the plans. I take full blame for this because I was not present when he started cutting (they were working on the roof so I went to lunch thinking I'd be back before they came off the roof). Oops. But of all the places they could have cut wrong they went in the right wrong direction so it just puts a little more space between the windows.
Miss number 1
Remember, I purchased windows that were slightly different sizes. I made sure I told everyone in the crew that they were different. I even stacked them next to each other so everyone could see they were different. Flash forward and they have cut out 2 windows. The guy was about to cut out the third. Call it a hunch or gut feeling but I stopped everything and made everyone re-measure everything! At first, they were annoyed... turns out I was right one of the other workers had moved one of the windows and so the guy with the torch was about to cut the wrong size hole.
Save number 1
A short time later, I wanted the doors to swing out. I realize it is custom for doors to houses to swing in but since the containers are only 8 feet wide having a door 2 1/2 feet wide sweeping an arc into the living space is quite a problem. Before they installed the hinges we checked again.
Save number 2
Now for a little insight into Haitian construction
The whole time during construction, every day they worked they tried to hassle more money out of me. After my initial defeat on opening day I dug my heels in the ground and fought them everyday. And it was battle after battle. For example, I purchased doors without holes cut for the locks. They told me it would be a little extra to install those. I told them a swinging wall was not a door.
In a separate encounter worth noting, Madame Cameau told me not to purchase nails, screws, bolts because no matter which ones I bought she said the construction crew would tell me there was a problem. Instead, we agreed on a price and the man went and bought screws. When he returned he told me they were a little more and asked for $119 US dollars. I cracked a smile and said no. We argued for a while I asked for a receipt which he had 'left at home'. And then we did a quick calculation on a piece of paper and then I paid him the $210 Haitian (about $26 US) we had originally agreed on.
Still, yet another wonderful illustration. They asked me for $500 H for transport of their machines (welding equipment and torch). I denied them. This brought on a long drawn out discussion that bordered yelling but not quite. I held firm but I was really upset after the discussion. Madame Cameau, my hero, walked outside and talked to a tap-tap driver. She pretended like the equipment was hers and asked how much he would like for the transport. The response $30 H. So, if we account for round-trip transport the cost to them was $60... and they wanted $500!
Time and time again things came up. All day long! Some of the tries were comical, "We are hungry can you help us?" (this said while one of the other guys has his back turned to hide the piece of bread he is munching on) or "We haven't seen our wives in a couple days can you give us a little extra so we don't feel so guilty for being away". But still, I can't help but think that for each time that I caught them trying to scam me, there's probably a scam that slipped under the radar.
At one point, I was really feeling drained from the barrage of tricks and games and I asked Madame Cameau if this was typical or because I am white. By the way, she also had a separate project underway with her own construction crew. As she was telling me, "Don't worry. They are all the same. This is just how it goes in Haiti." Her chief construction worker came in asking her for money for some minor problem. All we could do was laugh until our sides hurt!
The good news, however, is the men I hired did sensational work. I met them at 5 in the morning and they would work until sunset. They did a fantastic job and everyone I mean everyone has come to admire the project. I wish I could take the lion's share of the credit for the success but the truth is without Madame Cameau I would have been completely lost. She was with me at every turn, helping translate for me, showing me where different stores were, helping me negotiate prices, arguing at length for people to give me a fair price. She helped me tremendously and I owe her an enormous debt of gratitude! She is an incredible woman and I am very thankful that she gave me such generous support!
The other great news is even though they will not tell me how much the other container cost, I have been told that I spent significantly less to accomplish a lot more.
So, to summarize:
Things that I would do differently:
1) When purchasing materials I would make sure to see every material (i.e. all 4 windows) and require a signed invoice so the price cannot change on purchase day.
2) I realized that working with the construction crew they had zero incentive to help me with costs. In the future, I would restructure the contract such that there was a cushion of money for extra materials and/or little problems that come up. I would explain that should they not dip into this reserve it could be theirs. (this was a tactic that I switched to 2 days before the project finished and helped dramatically reduce the requests... it was amazing to see how resourceful they suddenly became)!
3) Never assume that just because they are working on the roof they won't send one guy down to start cutting windows!
4) I would try to organize the purchase of materials and construction with other projects that the organization would like to complete. I realize that renting the torch you could cut all the containers in one day rather than just mine and significantly cut costs - but this is more a UNIF suggestion.
------------------------------
After exploring my budget, I spent a total of $3517 US dollars. The goal was to spend $3500 but they would not let me remove 10 dollars from the account (3 month waiting period until you can close an account with Fonkoze). The other 7 dollars because I lost about $55 Haitian dollars somewhere along the way. I have gone over all my receipts and have no idea where the $55 slipped off to (I included this amount in one of the transportation entries as these tended to be miscellaneous costs as tap-taps vary in price and sometimes you have to pay someone a few goudes to tie things to the roof or whatnot) but I still have no idea where it went.
Attached is a copy of the budget and how I spent the money. I estimate that if I were to do it again I could probably do it for around 3000 - 3200 by avoiding some unnecessary costs (like labor for loading and unloading that was not needed) or negotiating a better price on materials/labor.
------------------------------
Nonetheless, everyone at UNIF is very happy with the results of the project and I am happy with it as well. The container has been converted according to the requests Father Joseph made and so my project is successfully complete!
