This morning after looking at potential venues in a camp in the Delmar neighborhood of Port au Prince, I went with Joseph Hillel a Haitian/ French Canadian volunteer with CECI to Ranches de Jeunesse. The Ranch used to be Ranch Duvalier – property of father and son dictators Papa and Baby Doc Duvlier, but now its become a  centre for youth projects. In his normal life Joseph is a documentary film maker, and he was doing an interview with Daniel Prudent a Haitian architect and educator who specialises in using sustainable materials. Under his supervision young people were doing the preparation for a monument to the children that died in the earthquake – which will
be constructed out of recycled plastic bottles filled with compacted earth.

Last week Eric of Sinema Anba Letwal, showed us where the hardware shops are to buy ropes and a 2kg hammer for the Kino. The conversation turned to a meeting Eric had just attended where some Canadians were proposing to import huge quantities of plastic panels for the reconstruction of basic housing. Eric was deeply angry about this – the idea of building plastic houses when there are huge amounts of local materials that can be used…”We might be poor in Haiti, but we’re not stupid, OK?”