Haiti Hope
"NGO worker Monique builds schools in Haiti's mountains, and when volunteer contractor James joins her team, they build something far more personal among the foundations and fresh starts."
The mountain road was impossible. The school site was unreachable. Monique had been told this a hundred times.
She built it anyway.
James watched her coordinate chaos—thick body everywhere at once, dark skin dusty with construction work, Creole and English and French flowing as needed.
"Yuh just going to watch?" she called. "Or yuh going to help?"
He helped. For six weeks straight.
Nights were for planning. Also for talking.
"Why this work?" he asked.
"Because someone built me a school once." She touched the foundation they'd laid. "Now I pay forward."
"You're amazing."
"I'm tired. I'm stubborn. I'm too old for this."
"You're amazing."
The school took shape. So did something else.
"Mi can't have distractions," she warned.
"Is it distraction or motivation?"
"Both." She pulled him into her tent. "Both is the problem."
But she kissed him anyway.
Construction site romance was dirty in every way. That thick body covered in honest sweat, her moans mixing with the mountain wind.
"Yes! James! Right there!"
Building something together—the school, themselves, a future.
"Don't stop! We too close to finish line!"
The school opened. Children's voices filled the valley.
Monique cried. James held her.
"Next project?" he asked.
"Five more schools. Three years."
"I'm in."
"Yuh sure?"
"Where else would I be?"
James and Monique Baptiste run the foundation together now.
Thirty schools built. Thousands educated.
But their greatest construction?
Each other.
Haiti hope.
Built to last.