This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti 1:40 PM, Tuesday, February 1, 2022 I am four-wheel driving on a muddy dirt road in the middle of a green tobacco field in the south of Haiti, near Les Cayes. It’s the middle of winter, but here it’s hot and humid, and my back is cramped and sore from the prolonged rocking motion. I am trying to rendezvous with Felipe, who is a country director of the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS). Our team and UNOPS have teamed up to assist and operate 520 Haitian engineers…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti Dec. 23, 2021, 5:05 p.m. PST Les Cayes, Haiti — I quickly jump from our old Mazda four-wheel-drive truck onto an old Chinese-made motorcycle in a jampacked, dusty, hot road. They call it a “moto.” There are thousands of them here in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Just a couple of dollars; they will take you anywhere without stopping in traffic. I must take a flight to the south, where the earthquake disaster is. But in the meantime, I need to get there by avoiding deadly traffic jams. They are, in fact,…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti I step into a dark, small bedroom. I hear my partner’s feet behind me. The room’s windows and doors are covered by thick drapes, hindering any light from entering the room. The bare concrete floor is wet, but the heat is edging towards unbearable. I feel it on my skin. The temperature must be somewhere close to 100 degrees (40 in Celsius) with 90% tropical humidity. Sweat runs down my back, drenching my shirt. Burning charcoal lingers in the air with an undertone of old sweat. The room is…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti Jon Buckley, a 32-year-old project engineer in our San Diego office, used his vacation and paid his own way to volunteer in Haiti for the firm’s nonprofit, Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief.  Read his guest journal about his adventures – like eating BBQ goat, learning a few phrases in French and Creole and seeing the damage from a major earthquake for the first time in person. The highlight, though, was working on Miyamoto Relief’s newest project, the retrofit of a dangerous, 4,000-student school in the heart of Port-au-Prince. February 2,…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti The community also had an interesting reaction to the Miyamoto banner that was installed at the entrance of the Lycee: normally, people in Cite Soleil do not appreciate signs and banners with donor logos because they are perceived as disempowering, as taking ownership away from the neighborhood. But the community appeared to appreciate this banner because instead of NGO logos on the banner, there were the logos of Haitian companies who were willing to put their name and brand on a project from Cite Soleil. There has been a…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti When Structural Engineering Students for Humanity (SESH) decided that Haiti was to be the destination of our summer 2014 trip, we were often given a warning: “You will either love Haiti or you will hate it.” I am happy to report that after spending two weeks in a country that I never thought I would visit, I cannot wait to plan my return.The love that Haitian people have for their county is truly contagious. Despite the hardships they have faced, they firmly believe that Haiti is capable of achieving…