COASTE | PERSONALITIES
After their first Haiti project (adding a second story to a school), the focus of the Budd team’s energy has been the Mary Austin School in St. Marc. Here, he and his various workers (from a group of men from his church to one year, to his entire family including four children and his father another) have focused on construction and completion of the school — from the ground up. Over the annual seven-day trips (taken the first week in October, which is the first week of school in Haiti), they’ve framed out classrooms, built bathrooms, roofed the structure, stuccoed inside and outside, wired lights and fans, installed a 5,000 watt generator, built out an irrigation system, dug a well, connected with city water and even remodeled a kindergarten building across the street. Recent years have seen the crews become more Haitian, as Dan and Bridgit try to assume more advisory roles. In addition, the Budds have helped the school acquire access to land, upon which rice and other vegetables are grown to assist the school’s self- sufficiency. Recently, Bridgit has concentrated
on negotiating the best purchase price (and safe weekly delivery) of enough food supplies from a preferred Port au Prince vendor to feed the 300- some students at the school daily for the entire year (with enough money left over to pay teacher salaries). “For many of the students,” she says, “it’s their only meal of the day.”
The money comes from the Sanibel Community Church, Sanibel Rotary, International Rotary and
private donors. “We’ve worked with budgets from $30,000 to $120,000,” Dan notes. “However, it’s zero overhead work. Anybody who travels, including us, pays his or her own airfare, lodging and food. Every dollar donated goes to the project’s many needs, and projects generally take three years.”
“It was like two steps forward, three steps back because of the vandalism. But now, I see progress and when I see one educated child, lifted up from the mess down there, that’s enough for me.”
It’s hard work, in tough conditions that at times can be dangerous. Everything they work on and complete has to be locked, because if it isn’t (including handles and door knobs) it’ll be stolen and sold at market. When the Budds travel, it’s typically to Port au Prince — at times with a translator-bodyguard- guide. “It’s a little scary when you’re sitting in
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