Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might...Eccl. 9:10
FOUNDER, Nick Troutt
The earthquake of Jan. 12, 2010 near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, that killed so many thousands of people, got the world’s attention. It got my attention, too. I was checked in at Good Shepherd Community Church in Boring, Oregon to get urgent care for my screwed up life. There I saw a presentation by a group that had just returned from Haiti. I saw images of the devastation on the big screen; I learned that poor masonry construction was one of the primary causes of so many deaths; I felt an all consuming desire to go to Haiti–maybe I could do something useful since I was a bricklayer with 35 years experience. And I wanted to do something redemptive. That was in the spring of 2010.
I was still working at the time, in Montana for Montana Masonry, a small operation (most of the time, just Rick the owner, and me) with a reputation for quality work. I would travel back and forth on my motorcycle like an urgent care outpatient at GSCC, working in Montana and attending Celebrate Recovery meetings in Oregon. All the while, learning about Haiti, watching Youtube videos showing the effects of the earthquake, where I learned about Architects Without Borders and became a member, and where I learned about buildOn, an organization building schools in Haiti. I started attending a Haitian church in Portland, began learning Haitian Creole, anything I could do to prepare for going to Haiti. Finally, after more than 2 years of this, beginning to wonder if my desire was misplaced, I made my first trip to Haiti in February of 2013.
I made four trips to Haiti that year, two with buildOn to help their masons improve their block laying skills. After seeing how masonry is done in Haiti, I realized the masons had no apprenticeship time to learn the basics of the masonry trade and the skills required to lay block properly. Another handicap was the lack of good quality block, aggregate, and sand. This all added up to the disaster of the 2010 earthquake. Seeing that there was no apprenticeship structure for Haitian masons, I figured a good way to help would be to have a skilled mason spend time on a jobsite, day after day like Mother Hen, teaching the basics of the trade. That was the birth of the Haitian Mason Project–a call to skilled masons, retired or near retired, who have a desire to share their knowledge in a place where it would have value and impact.
FOUNDER, Nick Troutt
