Post by vajramukti on Oct 5, 2008 21:57:31 GMT -5
I left town the day the hurricane hit. A client of ALTEC's and a friend of mine called at 8 am, standing hip deep in water in a school he had to take a boat to get to.
Me and my assistant and a team we assembled arrived early the next morning (Sunday) for an emergency school board meeting, had 3 contractors on site, walked thru and did damage assessments on 6 schools, put together bid packages, accepted the bids, hired contractors, then fired one the next day, and managed to put 6 schools back together with a minimum amount of lost material in 8 days. I stayed an extra few days checking on other clients in the area.
All in all, I was gone for 14 days straight. Worked a little over 200 hours in two weeks.
I have to say, those people that live down there, the arcadians (cajuns) and the creoles (french-canadian and african american mix) are a different breed of people. Tough, tenacious, compassionate, easygoing, and generous to a fault.
It is really an awesome thing to be able to make a living helping real people in real, tangible ways.
I got to open 6 schools, meet with teachers and explain what we had done, collect hugs of gratitude, and watch as little children, some now homeless, walk into a school that looked like it had never been damaged.
Here is what made me cry. All of our workers were brazilian, very little english spoken. I was standing with one of the american supervisors and the principal at the school, when the cafeteria supervisor came up and mentioned that she did not know how they would do lunch with so many students and teachers being "out of pocket." The principal told her to put everyone, staff included, on free lunch until further notice. She said she couldn't do it, budgetary constraints.
Meanwhile, the contractor supervisor was handing out cash per diems to the workers. One who could speak some english understood what was happening, and handed his $20 to the cafeteria supervisor. He turned and explained the issue in portugese to his crew, who, with no hesitation, each handed her their own $20 bill. We had 42 crew members that day, so she very quickly had nearly $1,000.
It gets better. Word got from me to my boss, to the owner of the contracting company. He showed up the next day, found out how much money it costs to feed the school (students and staff) for a month, and wrote a check, then turned around and doubled the per diem for his guys that had given the day before.
That was just a great thing to be a part of.
Me and my assistant and a team we assembled arrived early the next morning (Sunday) for an emergency school board meeting, had 3 contractors on site, walked thru and did damage assessments on 6 schools, put together bid packages, accepted the bids, hired contractors, then fired one the next day, and managed to put 6 schools back together with a minimum amount of lost material in 8 days. I stayed an extra few days checking on other clients in the area.
All in all, I was gone for 14 days straight. Worked a little over 200 hours in two weeks.
I have to say, those people that live down there, the arcadians (cajuns) and the creoles (french-canadian and african american mix) are a different breed of people. Tough, tenacious, compassionate, easygoing, and generous to a fault.
It is really an awesome thing to be able to make a living helping real people in real, tangible ways.
I got to open 6 schools, meet with teachers and explain what we had done, collect hugs of gratitude, and watch as little children, some now homeless, walk into a school that looked like it had never been damaged.
Here is what made me cry. All of our workers were brazilian, very little english spoken. I was standing with one of the american supervisors and the principal at the school, when the cafeteria supervisor came up and mentioned that she did not know how they would do lunch with so many students and teachers being "out of pocket." The principal told her to put everyone, staff included, on free lunch until further notice. She said she couldn't do it, budgetary constraints.
Meanwhile, the contractor supervisor was handing out cash per diems to the workers. One who could speak some english understood what was happening, and handed his $20 to the cafeteria supervisor. He turned and explained the issue in portugese to his crew, who, with no hesitation, each handed her their own $20 bill. We had 42 crew members that day, so she very quickly had nearly $1,000.
It gets better. Word got from me to my boss, to the owner of the contracting company. He showed up the next day, found out how much money it costs to feed the school (students and staff) for a month, and wrote a check, then turned around and doubled the per diem for his guys that had given the day before.
That was just a great thing to be a part of.
That's right up there with rusting mufflers. 