Judy is a retired teacher, and an American. Her husband Ron ran a factory in Haiti for 15 years before retiring himself and moving with Judy to the seaside village of Montrouis. They've lived there now for 25 years. One day a couple years ago Judy's passion for teaching reemerged and she decided to sponsor a local school. A contractor was hired and a building went up that was pretty standard as Haitian schools go. Two years later there an earthquake shook the region and the couple sought the help of Archiecture for Humanity to make repairs to the school–if any were needed.

Going LEED in Haiti may be easier than you think. Last Friday, at the Rebuilding Center's second Meet n Greet (official name still pending), our LEED Design Fellow Stacey McMahan hosted a conversation among Haitian professionals about the applicability of sustainable building techniques to Haitian construction and culture. The concensus was: Haitians are effortlessly energy efficient.

Typically you can describe a simple, two-room school house in maybe two dozen "sheets." These sheets would include drawings and specifications of: site, floor and ceiling plans; interior and exterior elevations; electrical, plumbing and material specs; window and door schedules; SECTIONS; and a suite of details cataloging every material connection in the–achem–joint, and every possible measurement is labeled. These sheets become the explicit instructions so someone can build the whole school.