In Transit...

Visit Me Here:

2010-11-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

http://mattruple.theworldrace.org/

The Transition

2009-04-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

So, as many of you know, I am going to be leaving for a year long mission trip starting in June of 2009. We have to keep a blog during our journey and instead of writing the same thing twice, I will be posting a link to the updated blog. Currently I am at training camp for the trip and here is the first link:

http://mattruple.theworldrace.org/?filename=training-camp

Here We Go

2009-03-19T14:23:00.001-07:00

Wow. It has been a long time since I posted anything. I'm trying to think why...is it because I am too busy being back in the hustle and bustle of America? I don't really think so. I think it has more to do with the fact that something crazy doesn't happen everyday here and there are a lot more distractions here that I entertain before I think about writing on the blog.

Anyway, things are going well and moving right along. I spent the month of February working. Not you typical job, but that's why I liked it. I traveled along the eastern United States with a buddy and we inspected cash registers and Walmart and Sam's Club stores. Basically we just made sure the cleaning person was doing there job and we reported whatever we found with pictures and a write up. The work wasn't bad and the perks of the job were great. Would you pass up a road trip with a buddy, travel the coast, and head south to enjoy warm weather and the beach?? I didn't think so. We met up with friends and family along the way and did everything from four-wheeling, to shooting, to go-kart racing, to bocce ball, and a lot of frisbee on the beach.

On our travels we stopped by Savannah to see the city. My buddy Aaron was super excited to go to some restaurant named, The Lady and Sons. He said we had to go because it was Paula Deen's restaurant...so I asked who Paula Deen was. Apparently most people know who she is, but not me. Anyway, after some persuading we went to check it out and somehow got in. The food was great....a little expensive...but good. I guess I can check this one off my list of things to do before I die....eat at The Lady and Sons.

Now I'm back in Ohio and trying to get everything ready for the next year of my life. Here is the plan: This weekend I am goin backpacking with some friends. After getting back from that I'm heading to Cincinnati to spend a day there on my way to Georgia for training for The World Race. Immediatly after that ends I am going to be meeting up with a friend in Georgia or Tenessee and we'll be heading out West on a cross-country motorcycle trip. I've always wanted to do this, and I still need to make it out to California to see friends before I leave on the missions trip....so this will work out great. A week or so after I get back from that journey it will be off for a year long mission trip with Adventure In Missions (The World Race). It's all starting to come together and I am super excited about everything. Alright, that's it for the quick update. Till next time...

The World Race

2009-01-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

I put together a short video that gives an overview for the upcoming mission trip I will be going on. Take a look...

The World Race from Matt Ruple on Vimeo.

To find out more about The World Race, read my blog posts, or donate to me and this ministry, click: mattruple.theworldrace.org

Dependence

2009-01-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

Proverbs 30: 7-9

"Two things I ask of you, LORD;
       do not refuse me before I die:
  Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
       give me neither poverty nor riches,
       but give me only my daily bread.
  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
       and say, 'Who is the LORD?'
  Or I may become poor and steal,
       and so dishonor the name of my God."

Hmmm....can I honestly pray that? Can I say that I want only enough to sustain me? Only enough so I 'm constantly relying on God? That's not what I hear in America. It doesn't seem like we need God...or at least we don't act like we do. Is it any wonder why? We're conditioned to become independent, save for the future, become stable...and these things aren't bad, but let's not forget what part God plays in everything. When these things cause us to disown or dishonor God, we've got a problem.

On another note, I put together some pictures of my time from Haiti....it may be a little long, but you can always watch it in segments. Hope you enjoy.

My Time In Haiti from Matt Ruple on Vimeo.

That's Life

2009-01-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

The holidays have come and gone and now everyone I know is back to their routines while I am left to decide what my future will look like until I depart for the World Race. I knew that returning from Haiti would present challenges, especially coming back to America during the Christmas season. Had it only been for the reverse culture shock, I think I would have done reasonably well. However, a lot of other things happened very quickly and I got to a point where I felt like I couldn't take anymore.

Talking things out with a friend I remember saying how excited I was to be going on the World Race...how I felt like this was the direction I needed to be heading....how I think God is going to teach me so much through it....and how I almost expected things to be a challenge since the roller coaster of life seems to take the largest fall after we're on top of the world. I remember thinking, "Ok, I can see things happening that are going to challenge my attitude and my decision to go on this mission trip." Looking back, I realize that I had put things into two categories....things that were ok to be challenged, and things that I relied on to heavily for them to be messed with. Well, if you want to render someone ineffective, you challenge the latter of those two options....and that's what happened.

Relationships fell through, other changed considerably, things I relied on and put hope in have proved only to be temporary. And while all this was happening I knew God was saying, "You still have a choice. Will you let this take you out of the game, or will you rely on me and continue to move forward?" To be honest, I felt like I didn't want to continue. I wanted to get mad at people, to say that life had dealt me a raw deal, that God didn't care what I was going through. But the more I thought about this option, the more I realized I'd regret it in the future. I knew that swallowing my pride and trusting God may not be the easiest choice, but it would be the only decision to bring joy back into my life. It has been hard and a continual struggle to trust God, but I am so grateful God gave me the insight to see what was going on. If this life lesson had to come, I'm thankful it came when it did. To have my family and close friends near-by, for them to be patient and let me work through my emotions, and to have their support, has been an amazing gift.

On another note, I'm currently in Cincinnati trying to catch up with old friends and raise support for the World Race. Raising support has proven to be quite the challenge and a humbling experience. I know God will provide everything, but He also doesn't mind making me a little uncomfortable in the process. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and for giving to the ministry I'm a part of. It has been great to see college friends and the hospitality I've encountered reminds me why I love the people here. I'm still trying to determine what I'm doing for the next few months, but I'm enjoying time with friends while I figure everything out.

Food for Thought

2008-12-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

The other day I came across the following information on The World Race website:

Take a good look at the food that is eaten in one week and how much is spent...

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily

Food for one week:214.36 Euros or $260.11

United States: The Revis Family of North Carolina
Food for one week $341.98

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp

Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

If the family in Germany didn't eat for ONE week, the family in Chad could eat for 6 years....

Greetings from Ohio

2008-12-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

I guess this brings the blog full-circle. I started writing when I left for Haiti and now I am back. However, I don't plan to stop writing, but simply switch gears into the next adventure. I flew into Chicago on Saturday night where Nick and I met up with another roommate from college. We stayed the night there and then I met my parents in Dayton on Sunday night and headed for home.

The past few days have been quite interesting trying to adjust to life here. I know I spent most of my life in this society, but coming back after spending six months in Haiti makes me feel like a foreigner here as well. I've become accustomed to life without hot water, without good roads, with unreliable electricity, and always being starred at wherever you go. Parts of being back are great...but there are things I really miss from Haiti. I miss the simplicity of life there, the lack a pressure to be busy to appear important. I miss my friends and the family I became a part of. I miss the challenges of everyday life and seeing God work in so many people there.

I love the question, "So, how was Haiti?" I get it all the time. Sometimes I want to brush it off and say, "It was good and I'm glad I went, next question." Sometimes I want to open the can of worms and say, "Honestly, it changed my life and I've had to reevaluate everything in my life and my walk with Christ." I went to Haiti with so many questions, hoping to find some answers and more clarity, but what I've found is that I returned from Haiti with more questions than when I left. There is so much that I have had to deal with and think through and wrestle with....part of me wants to say to people, "You will never understand what it was like, there is no way I can explain it, and if you really want to know, you need to buy a plane ticket and find out for yourself." But then I think, that probably isn't the most productive thing to say and could be considered too coarse. So, instead, I try to tell about the transformation of what happened to me there....I try to let God speak to them, to challenge them, to give them insight into how their life fits into His plan.

Alright, I'll stop ranting and get on with this post. I've been putting off telling about what my next step is, mainly because I wanted to tell the people that it affected before I broadcast it on the Internet. Now that I've been home I have been able to tell everyone, figured I might as well share it here. I won't go into a lot of detail, but in June of 2009 I am going to be embarking on The World Race. It is a year long mission trip that I'm very excited about and know it will provide some amazing opportunities. If you want to learn more they have a great website: http://www.theworldrace.org/

I am going to be sending out a letter to friends and family telling more about this opportunity. I would love to send this to anyone interested and if you would like to receive the news/support letter just let me know. You can post a comment on the blog or send me an email at: mattruple@gmail.com

Ready or Not...

2008-12-11T13:49:00.000-08:00

In my previous post I mentioned how I've been waking up and not feeling rested. Well, last week my body started to ache pretty badly and I also had a small fever. It worked out pretty well because we needed to modify our filter design, so I was able to do a lot of work at the computer and take it easier than normal. However, even while I was sitting at the computer I would get tired and have to take breaks and lie down for a while. We didn't think it was malaria due to the symptoms, but I was keeping a close eye on it to make sure nothing got worse.

On Saturday, Bobi and I headed to Port to pick up our friends that were coming to visit. Nick was the first to arrive. Nick is one of my roommates from college and the guy I backpacked Europe with. After getting Nick we ran a few errands and then ate a nice long leisurely lunch. Afterwards, we headed back to the airport to get Bobi's two visitors and then headed home. Their flight came in later in the day and we had to drive part of the way back in the dark. If we have the option we don't like to drive too much after dark, but everything went fine and we all arrived safely.

Nick and I have been keeping busy with the usual activities here. Church at Canaan, missionary meeting, hiking, snorkeling, a full day of filter deliveries and installations, and a checkup at the local hospital.....let me explain this last one. I've been starting to feel better lately but still notice I just don't have the energy I usually do. The conversation had come up before that I could go see a local doctor, but I figured I would just get over it eventually and I was willing to wait it out. Someone mentioned waiting to go to a doctor when I get home and have a few test run to make sure nothing is wrong. After thinking for a few seconds, I decided that there was no way I was going to a doctor when I back to the States. I don't have health insurance and if I was going to get tests done it would be here in Haiti where I can pay out of pocket for most things. So, Nick and I spent most of Monday morning in the Pierre Payen hospital, where I had some blood drawn and tests run. The verdict: no malaria....that's good....mild typhoid....that's not so good. Long story short, I have some medicine that I'm hoping takes care of the typhoid and I should be good as new in a few days.

On another subject, I'm getting ready to leave Haiti for the first time in over six months and come home for the holidays. The departure is better sweet. I'm excited to see friends and family but will miss the friends and the life I've built here. There is so much to write about this and about what is going to be happening in the future, but I'll have to save that for another time.

I don't like to leave a post without any pictures, so I put together the following photos. They are of people that I've met in Haiti and each picture carries a story that reminds me a friends I've made here, friends that have come visit, and the lives that have been changed in the process.

What Is Normal?

2008-12-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I tried to sleep in a little since lately I've been feeling more unrested than normal. I made it until just after 7:00am....not to bad considering I went to bed around 10:00pm. I started the day off by reading for a couple hours and finishing off the book Adam and Reneé had brought me. Later in the day I took the dirt bike to Canaan and then walked to the ocean with some friends to go swimming. By the time we got back the sun was setting and I had to ride home without my sunglasses on...which isn't a great idea because of all the dust and other foreign objects that try to make their way into your eyes. It took a little longer than normal, but I made it home. When I got back we had two visitors from CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) that were going to be staying with us overnight. CAWST does work not only in Haiti, but also all over the world and we try to communicate with each other to share information and ideas.

On Sunday I went to church at Canaan like normal and then stuck around to hang out with Bobi, Elsie, and Elsie's parents who are visiting from Costa Rice. Elsie wanted to show her parents the Artibonite valley that is north of Saint-marc, so we all hopped in one of Canaan's vehicles and headed out. To get to the valley we had to pass Clean Water for Haiti and as we were approaching it we noticed a large amount of people and vehicles close to the mission's driveway. A bus had somehow gone off the national highway and was stuck on the side of the road. A truck mounted crane was parked across the highway, trying to lift the bus back onto the road. After a while, people started to get restless and were driving up into a field off the highway to get around the incident. We followed suit and got past everything without too much trouble.

On our way back to Canaan we passed this location again and the bus had been removed. However, the mobile crane was still hard at work because another bus had managed to get itself stuck in the field where people were trying to get past. I just laughed to myself and thought that the crane owner must have been pretty happy about all the business he was getting. We then went to Montrouis and walked across the bad bridge and through the market that is on the other side.

I had driven the VW to church in the morning because we were having trouble getting the blue truck started. It was dark by the time I was ready to head back home from Canaan and as I started the vehicle I quickly noticed that the headlights didn't work. I tried fidgeting with a few things and after I couldn't make them work, I gave Chris a call. He gave a few suggestions, but nothing helped so I said I would just drive really slowly and try to make it home without them. After we hung up I remembered the flashlight I carried in my backpack...just for emergency situations like this when you have to drive a vehicle using a flashlight for headlights. So I took off and had to learn quickly that when another vehicle was passing, I couldn't see anything. And you can't just assume that if you continue in a straight line on the roads you will be fine. Here, you never know when you'll come across a large rock, pole, machine swallowing pothole, goat, or something else. When a car would pass I would stick my head out the window to get a better view and then pump the brakes to start the slowing process (the brakes are still a bit fidgety and slow to respond). I made it about half way home before the next adventure started. As I was going through one of the bigger water-filled gulleys in the highway, the VW stalled. I tried to get it started again, but to no avail. Cars were starting to line up behind and in front of me...and patients ran thin fast. With all the people standing around looking at me, I was able to have them help push the vehicle out of the water and out of the way so traffic could pass. I gave Chris a call and he brought the red truck with a rope so we could tow it back. Before long we were back home and eating dinner. I later thought to myself....if something like this had happened when I first got to Haiti, I would have thought it was a crazy day. But, now that I've been here a while, it honestly didn't hit me that this was an interesting story until later that night. It is funny what becomes normal after time.

Alright, that's all I have for now. Since I didn't have any pictures with this story, I will leave you with one of the many beautiful sunsets we get to enjoy this time of the year.

The Gift Of Friendship

2008-11-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday Chris' Mom and Sister came to Haiti and Chris picked them up from the airport. I stayed back and did random jobs around the mission like working on the VW brakes and the solar panel installation. When they returned, they had brought quite a few bags containing gifts for Christmas and a bunch of things for the mission. One of those things was the compressor for our mobile air compressor. A while back we had the piston seize in our compressor and had to make due with a single piston replacement that was too small to keep up with the demand of the plasma cutter. You could cut for a little while, but then you would have to wait for the compressor to catch back up so the plasma cutter wouldn't get damaged. Well, on Friday morning Jean and I looked to see how we could make the new compressor fit. After moving a few things around, we noticed that the old hydraulic hose was pretty worn out and we needed one end to have a female connection.

I was heading to Port-au-Prince to pick up my friends Reneé and Adam from the airport anyway, so Chris asked me have a new one made while I was in town. Reneé and Adam's flight was one of the first of the day and when I arrived at the airport, there wasn't the usual mob waiting to see who was going to be coming into Haiti. I was talking with some of the taxi drivers trying to practice some Kreyol when I noticed Adam and Reneé coming out the doors. They were the first ones out of the airport and we only had one guy try to help us with the bags....that was the easiest arrival I have been a part of. I keep thinking back, wow, that went so smoothly. After picking them up we headed to get the hydraulic hose made and then we were off on the drive home. The first half of their time here, we stayed in a hotel close to Clean Water for Haiti called Le Xaragua. After that we moved into the dorms with Chris' family. It was so great to have Reneé and Adam come visit and finally have friends come and see first-hand what I have been writing about in this blog. We did so many things and had such a great time that I don't think I can take time to write everything down. Here are a few highlights with pictures:

Had a late birthday celebration. Reneé and Adam brought a bunch of snacks and a few gifts from friends and family back home. Thanks for all the cards...Dad & Mom, Amanda, Jordyn, Ilona, Bree, and Katie.

Got more familiar with everyone's favorite baby...Olivia.

Shot a few rats.

Took the mopeds out for a ride.

Enjoyed the local catch of the day.

Went to church at Canaan.

Took part in the missionary meeting.

Tried out the new ping pong table at the orphanage.

Hung out on the roof of the hotel to enjoy the cool weather and stars.

Visited Barb's school in Saint-marc.

Picked a few coconuts.

Worked on the solar array.

Went to the lighthouse beach.

Hiked to a waterfall...it was so cold!

Played some games.

Along with all the fun we had, there is always the reality of the surroundings when you live in a third-world country like Haiti. Through a blog you don't get to interact with local people, you don't get the smells and tastes of the culture, you aren't overwhelmed everyday by the poverty that is all around, you aren't forced to evaluate your current lifestyle while you're starring starving kids in the face. I am so thankful that Adam and Reneé were able to come and see what I've been seeing, to wrestle with the same questions I ask God all the time...I am grateful for the kind of community that embraces chewing on hard things together.

Yesterday I took Adam and Reneé to the airport for their flight. It was one of the last flights of the day which greatly increases the chances that it will get canceled. There weren't any problems though and they arrived in Miami safe and sound. When I got back home, we had Thanksgiving dinner with Chris' family and I tried to get to bed at a decent time. Today Chris took his family in to Port to catch their flight back to the States. Leslie joined them, so my task for the day is looking after Olivia. I guess they are not going to be getting back until late tonight so I'm on baby duty all day...no problem though...if you've ever met Olivia, you know what I mean. Well, she is currently still taking her nap, but I better get ready to play the rest of the night once she gets up. Thanks for checking in.

A Trip With Friends

2008-11-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

Last week finished up with our vision trip visitors (Earl and Ron) heading back home after spending a week seeing the work we are doing here in Haiti. Wednesday we took them to visit Barb's school in Saint-marc and see her ministry there. On Thursday they went to the Artibonite valley to do filter deliveries and installations with our workers. Friday, we stayed at Clean Water for Haiti and did work around the base before we headed out to Club Indigo for their farewell dinner. They seemed to really enjoy their time here and were very inquisitive and engaged with the things going on. When I wasn't working with them, I was trying to finish up the skid plate for the new van. After drilling some new holes, welding a front plat on, and rust proofing the sheet, Chris and I finally got it installed on Friday afternoon. This was good timing because Saturday was going to be the first road trip for the van.

On Saturday morning, we all got in the van at 6:00 am to get our visitors to the airport. On the way we picked up Bobi and Elsie from Canaan. After dropping off Ron and Earl at the airport, we continued to Jacmel. Jacmel is on the southern peninsula of Haiti, about two hours Southwest of Port-au-Prince.

We had been planning to take this little vacation for a couple weeks and it was a great time to get away with some friends and relax from our typical work environment. After getting to Jacmel and seeing our two lodging options, we headed to the beach before checking in anywhere. It was a public beach and was pretty busy compared to what we've become accustomed to.

Some kids on the beach playing soccer....they were good.

Jacmel may be one of the few places in Haiti that still has a little tourism going on...I don't think people come from outside Haiti to visit, but it seems like people that are already in the country come to relax there. While we were swimming, we had random people ask if they could take pictures with us. One UN soldier from Nepal asked me if I would be in a picture with him. I'm not sure why he wanted a picture with a complete stranger, but I agreed and became a little uncomfortable when he wrapped his arm around my waist and started smiling. I went along with it, but I wasn't about to let the situation escalate any further.

My new friend...notice the hand behind my right arm?

One of the coolest things we did on the weekend was an excursion to Bassin-Bleu. Leslie, Elsie, Bobi, and I rented motorcycles (they came with drivers) and headed up into the mountains. On our journey we had to cross a river that in parts completely submerged the engine on the motorcycle we were riding. We also had multiple spots where the train was too steep, muddy, or unstable that we had to walk up and let our drivers try to navigate the path on their own. After we took the bikes as far as we could, we hopped off and walked the rest of the way with a guide. There are three different basins that make up Bassin-Blue and in order to get to the highest one with the waterfall, we had to tie off a rope, use it to navigate past some rocks, and then swim into a cove. The water in the top basin was over 70 feet deep and was perfect rock jumping.

We jumped in here and swam to the left to get to the waterfall and rock jumping spots.

Leslie, Me, Bobi, and Elsie at the mouth of the first basin.

The rest of the weekend we walked around the town, did some body surfing in some pretty big waves, and ate at local restaurants in the area. We got back on Monday afternoon after running some errands in Port during the morning. On Monday night, Bobi, Elsie, and Mark stopped by to surprise me with a little birthday celebration. We had cake and I even got some gifts....it was fun to hang out and completely unexpected. That night we also found out that Tuesday was a Haitian holiday, which meant that our workers wouldn't be coming in the next day. I haven't found a calendar here that has all the holidays on it yet....everyone seems to just know when they are, and we usually don't hear about them until a few days before one is coming up.

Yesterday, I spent a good deal of the morning trying to get caught up on emails and other things on the computer. After that I worked on a project I had been planning since coming to Haiti. I put new hand grips on Chris' dirt bike and then spent a few hours getting brake fluid and fixing the brakes. I finally took the bike out for a ride and I must say it was liberating. The thing is a beast and with the throttle being a little sticky, it can be a tricky bike to get used to. I posted a picture of the bike a long time ago, but to recap, the bike is a 600cc dirt bike that swallows the potholes of Haitian roads like they don't even exist. In the couple weeks I have left here, I hope to use this to run errands whenever possible.

Shipping Container = Early Christmas

2008-11-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Since coming back from the excursion to Milot, there has been no shortage of activity back in Pierre Payen. Last Monday, Owen and I tried to take a day off since we had gotten worn out from everything that had been going on the last couple of weeks. However, Chris had other plans for us. He learned that the container we had been waiting for had finally cleared customs and that we were about to be receiving a lot of things. One of those things is 64 solar panels. So, instead of taking the day off, Owen and I tried to figure out what remaining beams needed to be cut to make the support structure for the solar array complete. Later on Monday, Chris took the red truck into Port and picked up the stuff we ordered. It was supposed to be a simple process: drive to Port, load the truck, drive back. However, when Chris arrived he noticed that we were missing items and that other items had been broken....three solar panels to be exact. Apparently the shipping company does not have a fork lift, and since the solar panels come in a crate of 32, they removed all the panels, relocated the crate, and then put the solar panels back in. In the process, three solar panels broke and no one seems to want to take responsibility for them. Also, one of the missing items are the controllers for the solar panels...without these we can't complete the installation and start generating power. We are still trying to work out everything, but hopefully we can get it figured out soon.

So, when Chris got back, we unloaded the truck that was full of everything from welding wire to diffusion plates to a concrete mixer. We also unloaded the 64 solar panels, one by one and relocated them where they will not be disturbed until we are ready to install them. On Tuesday, everyone headed to Port to take Owen to the airport and run errands....everyone but me that is. I stayed back and made sure work continued as normal. My job for the day was to install a couple of the new items that had arrived. First, I put together the electric concrete mixer that will replace the gasoline one we are currently borrowing. We don't actually use it to make concrete though, we use it to wash the sand that goes in the filters when we install them. We have found that it is just as fast to mix concrete on the ground, and it is a lot faster to wash sand in the mixer instead of in buckets. The only problem is that the mixer has one speed and it is rotating so fast that water and sand spills out. Currently we are trying to remedy this and we are looking into a separate controller to reduce the speed. The second task, was to install the new bench grinder. We have an old, small bench grinder, but it just wasn't powerful enough to do some of the things we needed it to. Well, after installing the one we just purchased, I think we are going to be fine. Lastly, I installed the probes on the concrete vibrators. Because the old vibrator heads broke, we have had to use a rubber mallet to hit the outside of the filter to remove any air in the concrete mix. However, we now have the smallest probes they make for our vibrators and now we are spending less time hitting the mold and the filters are coming out a lot better.

The rest of the week was spent trying to modify the concrete mixer to get it to work, recalculating beam lengths and angles for the solar array, and cutting the steal beams. One of our missionary friends had a sister visiting, so on Thursday we took a hike to a location I had never been before. It was the first time Chris had done the trail since the hurricanes hit and he commented on how much the landscape had changed. There were some pretty difficult parts and boulders to get past, but we made it to where we wanted....a small 30 foot waterfall.

This is the river we hiked along for a little while...it didn't use to be this wide.

Chris starting us out on our journey. We hiked between the two mountains you see in the distance.

On Saturday, Chris drove into Port to pick up our vision trip guests, Earl and Ron. They are here to visit Clean Water for Haiti and see our operations. While Chris was gone, we had some of the local fisherman stop by the house to see if we were interested in their newest catch. Well, they had a nice big sailfish and since Chris loves fish, Leslie went ahead and bought it.

Chris and our new guests came home to this on the porch....a 40 pound sailfish.

Later in the day I went with some friends from Canaan to visit someone in Saint-marc. After a couple hours there we headed back, ate dinner, and then played games until it was time to go to bed. On Sunday we took Earl and Ron to church at Canaan. After, we had the missionary meeting at our house and then relaxed the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I finished up all the beams that need to be welded to the solar array. Climbing up and down 30 feet in the air multiple times to take measurements in full sun can get tiring fast. I don't like it when things break, but I was happy for the rest when I had to fix the plasma cutter. During the day, one of our workers, Manes, had an accident. I was trying to get the air compressor to start and sometime I have to give it a little kick to get it moving. Well I have it a kick and nothing happened. Manes saw that I was trying to get it to work and came over along side me. He stuck if hand behind the guard and tried to pull on the belt that connect the electric motor to the compressor motor. Well, the belt jumped and threw his finger into one of the gears. He quickly pulled it out and I saw that it had to decently sized gashes in it and I motioned for him to follow me so I could get him something to wrap it in. He followed for a couple yards and then crouched down and started moaning from the pain. I ran and got Leslie and she grabbed the medical kit. After looking at it closer, you could see the imprint the gears/belt had made in his finger. Jean took Manes to the hospital and got it x-rayed. He found out that is wasn't broken, but they had to immobilize and he will need to let it rest for a few days before he can use it again. Right now he is doing work that only requires on hand. I'm glad the situation didn't turn out any worse than it did and that Manes will be back to normal in a couple of days.

Today we took our vision trip guest on a quick morning hike. We took the VW and when we got a couple miles down the road Chris noticed that the brakes had gone out. We pulled over and after an inspection found that one of the callipers had broke. We turned around and decided to go slow and use the emergency brake to get us back. Great idea, except we found that the e-brake wasn't working either. Well, we ended up making it back without any more complications and then simply switched vehicles. We had to take the large red work truck. On the way up to the hiking trail you have to drive through a busy market. We had a lot of angry market ladies wondering why we would bring such a large truck through their business area...we made it though.

Milot, EWB, and A Filter Project

2008-11-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

The following is an attempt to summarize what took place during one on the busiest, most stressful, most exhausting, and most exciting weeks since I arrived in Haiti. This will not be an all encompassing review of what happened, since that would take forever to write and explain, but it should be adequate to tell what I've been up to lately. I already wrote a little about the time Owen and I spent in Gonaives and Sou Chod, but I thought I would post a few pictures to recap.

Many of the streets in Gonaives are still impassable because people remove the dirt and mud from their homes and then dispose of it in the street. Construction crews are scooping up the debris and taking it just outside the city to dump it. We drove through this dumping wasteland on our way to Sou Chod. It was so dusty that we couldn't see anything a few feet in front of our vehicle.

We stopped by the UN base in Gonaives to meet up with our friends from AMURT. Apparently if you work for the UN they won't let you off the base without an armed escort. Well, Owen and I don't work for the UN so we just came and went with no guns to protect us. If you ask me I think the UN can be a little overprotective at times.

This is the location in Sou Chod where AMURT will be helping the local people start a successful salt farming project. Some of the work has already started, but there is still a lot to be done.

This was the start of the Haitian town meeting to discuss who was doing what work on the salt project. Did I say meeting? Well, it turned into more of a brawl with a lot of drama.

At this point, the guy picking up the rock tried to break the shovel a couple different ways, but in the end using the machete to chop the handle proved to be the most successful. However, about five minutes after all this took place, we noticed that everyone was laughing and smiling...I guess they worked everything in the end....meeting adjourned.

Ok, picking up from there....On Sunday night, Owen and I slept on the roof of AMURT's rental home in Gonaives. It was cooler up there and we thought it would allow us to make an early departure without disturbing too many people. However, when we woke up at 5:00 am, we noticed that we had a tire that was pretty low and needed to be pumped up. We spent the next hour trying to find someone who had a pump and after we got that taken care of, we were off for a four hour journey to Milot.

Oh, here is some background information in case you are wondering what we are going to Milot for. Owen just graduated from NJIT in May. During his last year at school he was involved with the group, Engineers Without Borders (EWB)...as an aside I was also involved with EWB at the University of Cincinnati, but that has no relevance in this story. Anyway, he and a couple other students came to Haiti because a group of doctors near NJIT were coming to volunteer for a week with a hospital in Milot and had recommended EWB do a project on providing clean water to people. After that trip they came to the conclusion that the biosand filter would be the best solution. Owen got in contact with Clean Water for Haiti and had been using them as a resource to learn more about the biosand filter technology and what might be a good plan to implement in Milot. After graduating, Owen decided to visit Clean Water for Haiti to check out the organization and see if this type of work is something he may be interested in doing long-term. It turned out that the NJIT EWB team's return trip was very close to when Owen was already planning to come visit us, so he extended his trip and we both traveled to Milot to provide support and help get the project running. Alright, now back to the story....

We arrived at the Crudem compound in Milot a couple hours before lunch. Crudem is the local hospital run by nuns where the doctors volunteer. The doctors, EWB people, Owen, and I, all ended up all staying in the dorms that Crudem has for the volunteers that come. The EWB people that came were two students, Bryce and Melissa, and the EWB advisor, Dr. Meegota. After arriving we met everyone and helped them find a few sources of water that people use for drinking water. They took the samples back to one of the labs at Crudem to test and Owen and I got our bags from the truck and put them in an empty room in the dorms.

We brought two filter molds, lids, tubes, diffusion plates, and one filter with us from Pierre Payen. We packed the filter between two banana mats and it surprisingly arrived in one piece.

The rest of Monday was spent trying to find the tools necessary to build filters, looking for a location to begin filter construction, and having a meeting to get everyone on the same page. Owen and I spent all of Tuesday morning in meetings with head people from the hospital and the local community trying to secure a site so we would have a base to keep our molds and any completed filters we built. Everyone really liked the idea of the biosand filter and within a couple of hours we had procured the hospital's old generator room as our production area. Another thing we were not expecting was that the local trade school wanted to participate and learn how to build filters. So, as a way of learning how to work with steel molds, learning to make concrete, and giving back to their community, they agreed to build the filters. While the rest of our group worked on cleaning the new area up, Owen and I went on a trip to find get some buckets, cement, and find a local supplier of sand and gravel.

Here we have the closest supplier of sand and gravel. It was about a 20 minute drive to get there from where we were staying.

When we got back from gravel we were surprised to see that they had finished cleaning the area. It may not look like much, but you have to understand what we had to work with...it looked a lot better than it had a few hours before.

On Wednesday we met the students from the trade school and started teaching them how to build filters. Everyone picked the steps up relatively fast and they seemed excited to be learning the new skill. Some other members of the EWB group went to the closest major city, Cap Haitien, and picked up supplies we couldn't get in Milot like: a sieve screen for sand, wheel barrow, tarp, etc... I made a trip to get some gravel so we could build more filters for the next day only to find out the price had doubled from the day before. Well, I didn't buy the truck load I had wanted and only got enough gravel to make a few filters.

Teaching the students proved to be a little difficult with the language barrier, but it worked out.

On Thursday we again trained the students on how to build filters and then had them make a step-by-step list for a reference. We had a lot of people in and out during the day. The mayor stopped by, two people from an NGO in Cap Haitien, and three people from a local orphanage. Later in the day we went to another sand and gravel pit that was about 35 minutes away only to find that they didn't have the type of gravel that we needed. We ended up going back to the old pit and trying to work out a compromise on the price. We put in an order and told them we would be back the next day to pick it up. That night our group met with the "Water Committee" to discuss the biosand filter. The Water Committee is a group of respected Haitians from Milot. The committee includes people like the mayor, school principles, pastors, and doctors. We presented the findings from the water testing and told them they needed to be treating the water they were drinking. Our proposed solution was to filter the water in homes using the biosand filter technology. They gave us their support in wanting to be involved and wanting to move forward with the project. We agreed that we would install three filters before leaving in the homes the committee selected and that the students at the school would construct 25 filters to be installed when EWB does a return trip in January.

These are some of the petri dishes that were incubated with the collected water samples. Would you drink water that contained this?? I wouldn't....but many of the people in Milot have no choice.

On Friday we let the students do everything by themselves to make sure they were self sufficient and could do it without any input from us.

Here are the students after finishing up the construction of the filters for the day. They were all pretty happy about what they had accomplished.

We spent a decent amount of time going to get the gravel we had ordered the day before because the price we had agreed on had changed once again and Owen and I were not about to compromise on this. We played the waiting game and eventually they gave in and gave us the truck load for the price we had previously discussed. After lunch we installed one of the filters the committee had decided on. Later in the day a group of people who were unable to attend the Water Committee meeting stopped by and we had to go over everything again to get them up to speed about what was happening.

On Saturday the doctors and EWB people left, but Owen and I stayed behind because there was still work to be done. We ended up installing the two other filters that the committee wanted and met with the president of the water committee to make sure everything was in order since we were leaving.

Owen and I after installing one of our newly made filters....I hope that thing works.

After all of our work was completed, we hiked up to the Citadelle which was built by Henri Christophe in the early 1800's. It was constructed to defend Haiti from French attacks and it is the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere. On the way up to the Citadelle we passed Sans Souci which was Christophe's palace.

On the road to the Citadelle.

There is something like 365 cannons that defend the Citadelle, but I had never seen anything like the short little fat ones in this picture...pretty interesting.

Hanging out on the inside of the fortress.

Sans Souci

After our hike we headed back to Crudem just as the rain started to roll in. By the time we had packed up everything and tied up all loose ends, it was pretty dark and we decided not to try and make it all the way home. Instead, we drove to Cap Haitien and met up with some friends that we met during the week. We got something to eat, talked for a while, and then went to sleep since we were all pretty exhausted. The next morning Owen and I were up just after 6:00 am because our biological clocks wouldn't allow us to sleep in. Once our friends woke up two hours later, we had some breakfast and then headed out on our long drive back to Pierre Payen.

This was the view from the home we stayed at in Cap Haitien.

The drive home seemed a little bumpier than the trip there. That may have been due to the fact that we had no filter or molds to help weigh the truck down or it could have been that we were both sore from all the driving we had been doing in the previous week.

The roads are still pretty bad from the hurricane damage, but they are passable for most vehicles. This road had washed away and one side of the bridge had fallen down, but we still drove up it....it was just steeper than normal.

Did I mention that the roads were rough? Well, this was the first and only flat we got on our journey and it happened about two hours out from home. We thought that was pretty good with all things considered. We threw on the spare and headed for the closest repair station.

Well, that sums up some of what happened during our adventure north. It is hard to start a successful filter project in Haiti....it is really hard to start a successful project in one week. I feel like we did the best we could with the time we had and am hopeful that the project will continue to move forward, but only time will tell. It is hard to spend so much time and energy getting something started and then leave, putting everything into someone else's hands.

Some Call It Lazy, I Call It Resourceful

2008-10-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at the UN base in Gonaives after a long couple of days. Next to me is Owen, typing away at his blog, updating everyone about what is going on. This made me feel bad about not wanting to write an update. So, instead of actually writing one that sounds exactly the same, I figured I would give a few highlights and then pass you on to Owen's post.

Before going all the way to Milot, we decided to visit some friends in Gonaives for a couple days and see the work they're doing. Our friends are from and organization called AMURT.
Left Pierre Payen and spent 2.5 hours driving to Gonaives.
Took a tour of the Gonaives area and saw the AMURT's facilities.
Drove another 2.5 hours to Sou Chod where the AMURT headquarters are.
Sou Chod is known for its mineral hot springs.
We did get to enjoy the hot water....first hot bath I've had in about 5 months.
Got to see the salt farming project that AMURT is helping the locals tackle.
Witnessed the Haitian town meeting...complete with yelling, fist throwing, machete threatening, shovel destroying, discussions.
Drove 2.25 hours back to Gonaives...that's a 15 minute faster return trip and half of it was in the dark.

Ok, I'll let Owen fill in the gaps: http://owenfitz.blogspot.com/2008/10/wild-wild-west.html

Motorcycle Diaries?

2008-10-24T17:51:00.000-07:00

Well, Owen and I are leaving early tomorrow morning to head north and we'll be coming back next Saturday. A lot has happened this past week so I'll try and do a quick recap since this will be my last chance for at least a week.

This past weekend was the long weekend due to a Haitian holiday. Owen and I made tried to make the most of it and have as many adventures as we could....I think we did pretty well. On Friday, we went drove about 20 minutes south to a spot just of highway one near a mining site. We grabbed our snorkeling gear and headed out into the water for a couple of hours. Chris said the spot was pretty good since the coral reefs were close to the shore and people tended not to bother you there. Well, not too long into our adventure, a guy named John swam out to us and introduced himself. He asked our names and even made sure he could spell them correctly. After he left I remember hearing about a guy that runs a scam in the area that starts out a lot like our interaction did with John. I told Owen that he may be coming back soon with some bracelets that had our names on them. Sure enough, 15 minutes later he swam back out to us and wanted to show what he had made for us. I told him we didn't ask for him to make anything for us and that we were not there to shop but to swim. He kept trying to put the bracelets on us and I told him that if he wanted to talk we would talk to him when we were finished snorkeling. After we finished he showed up at the truck as we were putting our things away. Long story short, he became upset that we didn't want his bracelets and that we wouldn't give him money. I can't express how many times things like this have happened before. Maybe not the same exact situation, but the premise is the same...try to manipulate a person into buying something or giving out money...when they don't do it, make them feel bad....if that doesn't work, start to get angry. Word travels surprisingly fast in Haiti considering the nonexistent mailing system and no electricity. If you give into one of these situations, everyone hears about it and next time you will have more than one person trying to work their plan on you.

Anyway, after all that was over we came back home and headed out with the entire Clean Water for Haiti crew to go to the Hopps. We ended up going swimming for another couple of hours. After dinner, Owen and I were completely wiped out, but we decided to watch Ghosts of Cité Soleil because it had been mentioned during the day. It was interesting because it dealt with what was going on in Haiti just a few years ago.

On Saturday we decided to take out the mopeds and go to Canaan. This was the first time wither of us had ridden mopeds here in Haiti, so it took us a little while to find everything we needed and get out on the road. Once we finally did get on the road, we found out that one of the bike didn't like to run for very long. Whoever was riding it could get about 50 to 100 yards and then the bike would stall. We made it about half way and decided we should get it fixed so we headed back home. Along the way it became very comical because every so often I would get the bike running and fly by Owen telling him to catch up. After 100 yards, I would stall out and Owen would ride up next to me as I was trying to kick start the bike. Imagine this scenario repeating about 20 times during our journey. Oh, and did I mention all the locals love to looks at the two white kids riding the scooters that don't work, and seeing us pass by multiple times.

This is one of the many instances where I was trying to get the bike restarted as all the locals were wondering what the two white people were up to.

Once we got back, Chris adjusted the air-fuel mix on the carburetor and we were off again. We made it to Canaan and ended up getting a tour of the grounds. This was nice because although I have been there multiple time I have never seen everything that is there. Later in the day we came back to Canaan in the new van and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks with the kids in the cafeteria. After that, Mark, Bobi, Owen and I played cards until it was well past our bedtime and then we headed back home.

We had so much fun riding the mopeds we decided that we needed to take them out again on Sunday. The church service at Canaan starts at 10am and we decided this gave us enough time to hike up to Kapiat (The Source) and go for a swim before it. We took the mopeds as far as we could up the hill and then chained them to a tree and walked the rest of the way. It was pretty early in the morning and overcast, so it was a perfect time to hike.

Owen and I stopping to get a photo on our journey.

After the excursion we rode back down the hill, changed clothes in the restroom at Canaan and went to church. We had heard rumors before, but they were confirmed when we arrived that we would be joining the other missionaries there in singing a song for the congregation and then leading the service. We sang part of the song in Creole and part in English. I think we did pretty well for only having a couple minutes to practice with the group. Later in the day I ended up filling about eight, 50 gallon drums of water from our well and delivering them to Canaan so they could have water to drink.

The rest of this week has been filled with the training class we were putting on. We had eight people from three different organizations in Haiti that came to out Biosand filter training.

The newest graduates from Clean Water for Haiti's training class.

On Wednesday I headed to Port with Israel to get the steal that we had cut for our molds. This was very exciting since it meant that we wouldn't have to plasma cut or grind any of the pieces. It was supposed to be a quick trip to Port and back, but as we all know by now, that is just wishful thinking. As I got closer to the road that goes to the new bridge in Montroius, I noticed that there were vehicles line up on the side of the road. It wasn't as bad as when the new bridge had yet to be opened, but it was reminiscent of that time. Once we could see the road that led to the new bridge we noticed a lowboy trailer, the ones that transport large construction equipment, was stuck across the road. The trailer had gotten high-sided and the from and rear wheels were a little off the ground and the truck couldn't move. There is another way to get to the bridge, so we turned around and headed for that route. This alternate road however, is very narrow and at one point I was pinned against a gate as four buses, two dump truck, and other small vehicles maneuvered past us with Israel directing them. I had to pull in the side view mirrors, and I am not joking when I say that the buses were coming within a centimeter of the truck. As I was sitting in the cab, I kept thinking about how the conversation would go when I had to tell Chris that the truck had been smashed into by a bus. We ended up making it out without any damage and the rest of the drive seemed to be a piece of cake after that.

At night as I was heading to bed, I noticed the yellow light was lit in the work yard. It took a few seconds for it to register, but once it did I yelled for Chris. The yellow light indicates that EDH was on. That means that city power was actually working....that is the first time in almost three months. It was only on for a few hours, but to see any power being supplied at all was a complete shock.

Thursday after work, Owen, Ricardo, Evens and I went on a hike near Ricardo's house. Owen and I have been practicing Creole with Ricardo and Evens after work some days. Evens works for Clean Water for Haiti and Ricardo is Even's good friend and I also met him one time at Kapiat. It was good to get out and see where Ricardo lives and actually do something outside of work and outside our mission with local people. It was a fun hike and we got a lot of good practice in language wise.

Evens, Me, and Ricardo

Alright, I think that sums up most of what happened this week...at least the exciting parts. I'm off to bed to get a good nights rest before another adventure starts tomorrow. Take care.

Did I Mention...?

2008-10-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

A lot has been happening lately and I have been a little lazy and not updating the blog...but we have a three day weekend now since Friday is a holiday and I'm going to take some time and try to write down some of the things going on here.

Last Tuesday (Oct 7th), I went with the workers as we delivered 34 filters to the Artibonite Valley, north of Pierre Payen. It always ends up being a long day when we do filter deliveries or installations, but when we go to the Artibonite area we do both the deliveries and installations on the same day since it takes around two hours to get to the filter recipients. We headed out at 5:30 am and ended up getting home around 5:00 pm. We really like to get our filters in this area since people are so poor there and drink the very dirty canal water. We took a cooler that Chris had packed with bread, peanut butter, jelly, and pop. He forgot to put in the bottle opener though and Thony ended up opening everyone's bottle with his teach. It made me cringe thinking that part of his tooth might chipping off as he bit down on every bottle cap. I tried to discretely open mine with a knife, but Thony saw me,grabbed the bottle and tore the cap off with his teeth. Apparently some of the workers had never seen a cold pack before, because after we were done eating they noticed the blue cold packs in the bottom of the cooler and asked if they could drink the juice. I explained what they were for and said that was probably not a good idea to drink them.

While I was out for the day doing filters, Chris headed to Port-au-Prince to pick up Owen. Owen is another volunteer that is checking Clean Water for Haiti out will be here for about a month. While he is here, him and I are planning to drive up to Milot (near Cap Hatitan) and meet up with the Engineers Without Borders chapter from his alma mater, NJIT. They are doing a water project and using the biosand filter so we are hoping to be a good resource for them. Owen is staying out in my side of the dorm and it has been great having him here to get to know and work with. He has been keeping a record of life in Haiti since his arrival and you can check it out at: http://owenfitz.blogspot.com/

So the rest of the week after Owen arrived was spent getting him acclimated to the work we do here at the mission. We introduced him to all the workers, gave the typical property tour, and then started making filters. Another project we worked on was trying to optimize the steal cut-outs for the filter molds. We used to cut the pieces we needed for the mold and then make one mold. However, we end up with a lot of scrap metal and Owen and I determined that there should be a better way. We ended up make some drawings in AutoCAD and finding a good layout to help reduce the waste (when I say "we" I mean Owen did the work and I just offered support whenever I could). Chris also wanted to get a layout that would work if we ever ended up getting the engineering company in Port to stamp the parts for us.

Over the weekend we had Canadian Thanksgiving. My U.S. readers may be asking, "What is Canadian Thanksgiving?" Well, I had never heard of it either until a few weeks ago. It is exactly like normal Thanksgiving, except that Canada wanted to be different so they decided to celebrate it in October (I hope America started celebrating first or I am going to get some angry comments from Canadians). It was fun though and I was able to meet a lot of the Canadian missionaries in Haiti. You may also be saying, "Matt, why did you go? You aren't Canadian." Well, that is true, but Owen and I got to go since we live with Canadians and they would have felt bad leaving us out....see, Canadians are nice people too.

Everyone enjoying the meal.

On Monday Leslie's new computer had coffee spilled on it and ended up having quite a few problems with the keyboard and the mouse pad. I don't like to take computers apart, especially when they are only a month old, but we ended up dismantling the whole thing and trying to clean it out. It ended up not doing a whole lot and now she has to always use an external keyboard and mouse until some new parts come in. The other big event on Monday was this:

The VW doesn't look so pretty anymore.

After work, Jean was driving the truck to get the filter lids we needed for Tuesday's filter deliveries and on the way the brakes went out. He was in first gear trying to crawl home when a large truck turned in front of him and he ended up hitting the truck's tire. He injured is wrist a little and Thony smacked his head against the window....hence the broken window on the passengers side. Everyone was alright, but it was a little scary for everyone involved.

This past Tuesday we went out to do filter deliveries and installations in the Artibonite Valley again, except this time we had 36 filters and Owen came along. It was another great experience and we ended up getting orders for two more truck loads while we were out.

Getting ready to unload some more filter.

On Wednesday, Chris and I went to Port. On the way we delivered a filter to a family running an orphanage that we met at Canadian Thanksgiving. From there we dropped off five more filters at another missionaries home and then headed to the engineering place to discuss getting our steel molds cut for us...this is probably the fourth of fifth time we have stopped by and talked to them....however, this time we met with the owner and showed him the drawings we made for how he could cut out the pieces on the sheet of steel. This helped a lot and he said he could make it work. Having the pieces cut for us will save us money, time, and help us have a more precise mold. We are pretty excited to see if this first batch of pieces is going to work. After that stop we headed to Top Tires to get new rear tires on the blue truck. They were pretty worn down and you tend to get more flats when your are like that. A couple stops later we ended up at the Toyota dealer near Port. Chris and Leslie ordered a van back in February and have been waiting for it to get to Haiti ever since. We received a call that it was ready to be picked up so our last and most exciting stop of the day was to pick up the new van. It is a Toyota Hiace, seats 15, and has air-conditioning. To celebrate, Owen took us all out to dinner and we all got to experience the comfort of the new vehicle.

Chris getting introduced to the van before we took it on the maiden voyage.

Today we woke up and realized that we had a flat tire. One of the new tires on the back of the blue truck had deflated overnight because the tube had a leak. That is exactly why we saved the tubes from the old tires we just replaced. So, you probably thought I was going to say the flat tire happened on the new van...didn't you. Well, you are half right. While none of the tires on the van had gone flat, we did find nail inside one of the back tires and if we pulled it out the tire would have gone flat. Chris took the tire from the truck and the van and went to get them repaired while Owen and I worked on making an underplate for the front of the van to protect all the important components. We cut it out of steal, but we haven't put it on yet, so I guess Chris will just have to drive extra slow and careful until we can put it on....yeah, right.

What Does Your Church Look Like?

2008-10-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I meant to write about the excursion to La Gonâve a while ago....closer to when it happened. Now that I am sitting down and starting to think through what happened and what to write, I'm realizing that I don't remember everything. Sure I remember the main things and I have the pictures to remind me, but some of the details have become fuzzy in the last month and a half. Due to my memory, or lack there of, it is probably best to document things as close to their happening as possible. But, since I didn't do that this time, I'll have to rely on what I can piece together in my head.

At the end of August Chris, Leslie, Olivia, and I went to visit the Hopps. We stayed the night and in the morning Ben and I got dropped of at the wharf nearby. We walked down the broken concrete road to the end of the pier where people were selling food and drinks and bought our tickets for the boat ride over. We had two options for what to board.....the first one:

The second one:

We chose the second since it was only five Haitian dollars more ($0.65 US) and the trip would be faster. Instead of trying to cram ourselves below, we decided to sit on top where there was more room but also no shade. Instead of the boat leaving at a specific time, it usually just leaves when it's full. That could be 10 minutes after you arrive or an hour and a half like it was in our case. Instead of having your ticket taken prior to getting on the boat, they collected tickets during the journey. However, some people hadn't bought tickets and somehow the ticket collector got really confused and ended up not collecting enough tickets and money for the number of people on board. So he proceeded to yell at everyone. Apparently he had to pay for the missing money and wanted us to know how upset he was that someone had cheated him.

As we approached La Gonâve, everyone noticed that we had caught up with the "sail boat" that left before us. Well, there was no way our captain was going to let the other ship beat him to the dock, so we ended up in a race. The outcome: our boat had to swing out wide and we ended up hitting the dock...not too hard, but hard enough that it jolted everyone on board and everyone on the shore started cheering...I guess we won?? After we unloaded our bags, we were swamped by everyone who wanted to give us a ride to wherever we were going. We grabbed two mopeds, loaded ourselves and belongings on board, and took off for their mission's house. I wanted to take a picture during our ride, but I figured it wasn't worth falling off since I was trying to keep my balance and hold onto anything I could find on the bike.

After that we unpacked some things and I met one of the pastors that we would be traveling with the next day. Before dinner we went for a walk so I could see the neighborhood. The mission's home is huge...I think over 3,000 square feet. There is almost no furniture and the wall around the property does not allow any breeze to flow through the building. Instead of trying to sleep inside and sweating uncontrollably, we decided to haul two bed mats onto the roof and try out our luck there.

Roof Access Point

Our Bedroom

It ended up being nice and cool with the breeze that swept over the roof. It was also relaxing to lie down and see the thousands of stars overhead since the sky was so clear. At one point Ben and I both saw an extremely close shooting star that burnt green. It was the first time I had seen one...I was impressed. The next morning we woke up and started what would be one of the most painful drives I have experienced in Haiti.

Our Transportation

As you can see this is a tap-tap lacking the enclosure over the bed. We rented it for the day and I estimate we were riding in it for over six hours during the day. The roads are even worse on La Gonâve and to get to the two churches we wanted to visit, it was necessary to have a vehicle with 4-wheel drive. In the bed there are wooden benches to sit on...being thrown around on a wooden plank in the back of a truck is fun for about the first 5 minutes, but after that things start to get soar. After a two and a half our drive we got to the first church. Ben was going to be preaching and then checking up with the pastor and congregation to make sure everything was going ok. I wasn't sure what the churches would look like on La Gonâve. On the main island most churches are typically made of cinder blocks and never look completely finished since they leave the walls unfinished and rebar sticking out of everything. However, since everything on La Gonâve usually comes over from the mainland on boats like the ones we took, there is never really an abundance of materials. That coupled with the fact that we were up in the mountains where materials are hard to get, meant that buildings were made out of whatever was close by. Hence:

The Church

Ben talking with the community leaders

I was pretty surprised to see this, but to everyone there, it was normal. They didn't know that they were "supposed" to have something different. It was a reminder to me about how often we think we need a large building, a huge band, or something else for the building/activity to be called church. The people here didn't have a single instrument. I will admit that it is harder to hide your voice when you don't have any instruments to drown it out....but no one seemed to mind around me. After visiting for a while we headed off to the next church that was similar to this one. On the drive back to the mission's house, we were stopped every so often by people that new the pastor we were with. They wanted to say hello and give us some fruit for our drive.

The next day we woke up pretty early and boarded the boat to get back to the mainland. The distance between the two islands is about 14 miles and it seemed like the trip took forever, but that could have been because we got stuck below and had five people in a three person row. After arriving everyone bolted for the door and we made our way back up to the national highway to meet Ben's wife. We got back to their house and had a pancake breakfast...that was nice since Ben and I had been eating bachelor style the past few days.

The Usual

2008-10-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Chris, Leslie, Olivia, Erik, Susie and I went to church at Canaan. It is unique there because the service is in Creole but one of the children will translate to English. It was kinda warm though since the service doesn't start until about 10 am. There are no fans and no wind passes through the building so it is typical to be drenched in sweat very quickly. EDH (Haiti's electricity company) has not given power for a couple months now and Canaan only runs their generator a few hours at night. We have heard rumors, which are the common way information is passed here, that EDH won't be turning on power until the national highway is finished. That looks to be around another five or six months. Kinda inconvenient, but there isn't a whole lot you can do. After church we went back home, changed into shorts, and everyone came over for the missionary meeting.

On Monday we went for an early morning hike to the fort in Saint-marc with Erik and Susie. On the way back we stopped to buy more cinder blocks so work could continue on the apartment construction. After work we headed to the light house beach. This is the one Mark and I tried to get to a few weeks ago and had a terrible time with the road. There are two ways to get there and we tried the route that Mark and I hadn't. It was passable but there was one spot where a 40 foot section of the road had been washed away and dropped 10 feet until solid ground. We found a path that had been made to get around, but it was amazing to see what the water had done. Once we made it to the beach we noticed how far the water had come up and how much sand had been washed away during the hurricanes. Erik and I ventured out into the water and did some snorkeling since the water is so clear in this area. It was the first time I had gone snorkeling and I really enjoyed it. There were some small reefs off the coast that we could see fish and conk near.

This is a picture from our hike to the fort.

There were a lot of goats roaming around there.

This one seemed a little mischievous and was starring me down.

On Tuesday Erik and Susie left to go back home. That night, Pastor Henry, Sister Gladys, Mark, Bobi, and Elsie stopped by after they ate at Club Indigo. It was Elsie's birthday and they had taken here out for a special dinner. They came over to have cake and ice cream...since we are one of the only places to get ice cream. Chris has an ice cream maker and it seems to make us a very popular spot to have celebrations....for any reason.

The rest of the week I worked on the drawings for the new biosand filter mold. Since my computer died, that work had come to a haul, but we wanted to get them finished so we could start using the new design. I finished them up on Friday and we are currently building the first mold using this design....hope it works.

Yesterday, I went with Mark, Bobbi and some others from Canaan on a hike. It was fun because we had about 15 of the kids at the orphanage come with us. I think they enjoyed getting out and being "free" for a couple of hours. It was a pretty intense hike and with the heat and sun, we all got tired quickly.

Getting Back to Normal

2008-09-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Mark and I wanted to get away for part of the day so we decided to go to the light house beach to do some snorkeling. The water is usually pretty clear there and not a lot of people go, so it is a chance to not be starred at the whole time you are trying to relax. We set out a little before lunch and after stopping at a few gas stations, we finally found one that had diesel. After filling up we got on the path to go to the beach, but found that the road was still in pretty bad shape from all the water the hurricanes brought. The road is pretty steep and with the recent trenches that had been carved, it proved to be difficult to drive on. We got to a part in the road shown below, and tried to turn the truck around but couldn't even get close because of how steep it was and the loose dirt and rocks.

We decided to proceed forward and after a few more sections like these, we came across a few locals. They proceeded to tell us that the road got worse farther down and that it was impassable. Our only option was to turn back, but I was unsure if we could make it up what we had just descended. We decided to make it to an open section so we could turn around. We ended up having to use a lot of rocks to fill in some of the trenches so that I could drive over them without getting the tire stuck. After we got turned around, we loaded the truck with a full bed of large rocks in order to give us better traction. The entire trip up consisted of me inching the truck forward with Mark and the two locals telling me to turn my wheel this way or that, getting stuck, filling holes with rocks, and shifting rocks in the back of the truck. It was a long trip, but eventually we made it back to the national highway. The trip took about 5 hours and we never did end up making it to the beach or doing any snorkeling. Not the relaxing day we had thought it was going to be, but it was another adventure that always seems to be around every corner.

On Tuesday, Chris and I went to Port to pick up Erik and Susie from the airport. Erik is Chris' friend from college. Before we picked them up we did the usual errands but also met with Roman, who is a former Clean Water for Haiti volunteer. He now works with Pure Water for the World in Port and is building biosand filters. We got to see his production site and talk to him about collaborating on some projects in the future.

Thursday I went with Bobbi, Elsie, and Pastor Henry on a trip to Petite Goave. Canaan works with a few churches in the area and cannot get to some of the churches because of the flooding. We went to one of the accessible churches and met with the pastor and then drove as far into Petite Goave as we could get. The highway has been flooded and everyone is now using small boats to take things from one side to the other. A large fuel truck tried to cross and ended up getting stuck and spilling all his fuel into the water. The truck has been left there and will have to wait until the water goes down before getting out.

On Friday we went to visit Barb in Saint-marc and see the school she runs. We also installed a filter in Barb's new home and fixed a filter at the school and the principal's home.

Finally to the good news: The temporary bridge in Montrouis has been opened. Friday we found out that the bridge they have been working on for the last couple weeks is now open to traffic. Yesterday we went to visit the Hopps and used the bridge. It was great to be able to drive all the way and not have to switch vehicles or fight with the thousands of people around the damaged bridge. We have all been pretty impressed with the timely work they have been doing since the hurricane. It may be slow compared to standards in America, but for Haiti it is a real sign of progress to have things play out the way they did.

Rescue Mission(s)

2008-09-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a long week and I really haven't had time until now to sit down and write about what has been going on here. I've had a few people post comments saying they want to hear the stories from this week, so I'll try and get everyone up-to-date.

Let's start with last Sunday. We had our biweekly missionary meeting and a ton of people showed up. Everyone is finally back from furlough and we had about 15 people come. It was nice to finally meet the people that I had always been hearing mentioned in conversations and also having more people in our area to connect with. Chris was still feeling sick so when we were ready to start the meeting he told everyone that I was going to be leading worship. Well, I didn't realize I was going to be doing this so I went and grabbed his guitar and a few chord sheets that I had and gave it my best shot. That was the first time I have lead worship or played in front of more than a couple people. It was good though and I enjoyed having the opportunity to do it. After the meeting Chris broke out the ice cream we had made the day before and everyone was taken back about how good it was. We used some of the bananas and kówósól that came out of our garden.

Monday started out like any other normal day but ended up playing out differently than I had expected. The short version: Matthew and a gentleman from CAM stopped by on their way to Gonaives. Matthew was going to be visiting the local prison there. After they left, I had to make two trips to take water to the Canaan orphanage. I then made another trip to Montrouis to get a few plumbing supplies and 40 sacks of cement...this is extremely stressful because of all the mayhem that goes on near the broken bridge in Montrouis. When I got home and was talking to Chris about how busy the area is around the bridge, he got a call from Matthew saying they were stuck on the bypass road in Gonaives. Apparently they had a little run in with a dump truck and the front rim on their motorcycle got the worst of it. It was bent and they were unable to continue to ride home. I hopped in the truck with Evens and we headed toward them. Now, Gonaives is the place where some of the worst flooding has happened in Haiti. I have never been north of Saint-marc and was glad to have Evens with me in case something came up along the way. We drove for a little over two hours and finally made it to Matthew. We loaded the bike up and then drove another two and a half hours back to Pierre Payen. When we got back to the mission, I had just enough time to hop out of the truck before Chris told me to get back in. We were going to drop Matthew off at the bridge in Montrouis and then go to Canaan for dinner. On the way Chris told me he had gotten a phone call while I was gone and through a friend of a friend, we were being asked to help transport 40 or so orphans that were stuck in Gonaives. I said that I would be up to help. After we dropped of Matthew we headed to dinner at Canaan and I felt a little grubby and sorry for the people sitting close to me. Driving in Haiti is anything like driving in America. The roads are horrible and it can be extremely stressful...with all the dust and sweat that occur during a drive, you end up feeling and looking like you have run a half marathon.

Anyway, on Tuesday I was supposed to pick up some Americans around 7:30 am in Montrouis. They had arrived in Haiti to help the orphanage, but were unable to travel to Gonaives because of the impassable bridge in Montrouis. This is where our mission comes in. We have a large truck that could transport the kids from Gonaives to Montrouis. Well, we didn't get a call until 9:30 am saying that the cell phone towers were not working in Montrouis and that the Americans were there waiting for us. In headed out and met them close to the bridge. They went back across the bridge and dot their supplies. While I was waiting with the truck I was talking to two kids that were hanging out close to me. While we were talking one of them pulled out a set of headphones...the small ones that fit in your ear. I could see that the wires coming from the headphones were cut and didn't lead to anything. He put them in his ears, tucked the wires inside the neck of his t-shirt, and then started to dance. I asked him if he heard anything and he said no...all of us, including him, just laughed and we kept watching as he tried out his moves. When the Americans returned, we loaded up everything and we headed out to Gonaives...a little later than we wanted, but that's how it goes.

This story probably begins once we got the the bypass road in Gonaives that I had just been to the day before. The bypass road is pretty ruff and has to be taken slow because there are large holes and water that is hard to know how deep it is until your driving through it. As we were driving, one of the Americans in the back of the truck decided to throw out some food to a couple kids near the road.....not a good idea. It only took a couple seconds before they had screamed "manje" (food) and kids were running out of everywhere. I was afraid that one was going to run out in front o the truck. After we escaped the scene we told the guy who threw the food not to do it again and he agreed that it probably wasn't the best idea.

After we got off the bypass road and back onto Route National 1, we saw how bad the flooding still was. I snapped these pictures out the window of the truck as we were wading through the water that was still covering the road.

The first time we got the truck stuck was because a strip of asphalt had been washed away in the road and was covered in water. Our right side, front tire fell into the crevice and we were unable to move forward or back ward because of how deep it was and the lack of traction for the rear wheels. After assembling a half a dozen locals, we were able to push it out and get it back on a solid part of the road. For a while after that, someone walked in front of me with a stick to test out all the puddles and mud to see how deep it was and if it was safe to drive through. We dropped some off their supplies at someone's home in the area and then headed for the orphanage. The pastor of the orphanage was riding in front with me and was supposed to be telling me where he thought it was safe to drive. At one point he got a phone call, and a couple minutes after he started talking the right side of the truck ended up in mud and water that was up to my knee. We were there for about 25 or 30 minutes trying to push and pull the truck from this mess, but to no avail. Over a dozen locals came to see what was going on and ended up trying to help us get it out. All together it took about 15 people pushing to get the truck moving and eventually free it. After a couple more incidents we finally were within 200 yards of the orphanage before this happened:

After 45 minutes of shoveling and pushing, we decided it would be best to leave the truck where it was since we would have to drive right back out in the morning with all the orphans. The pastor knew some of the people that lived there, so we payed them to sleep in the truck and make sure nothing happened to it overnight. After the hurricane, people found their vehicles with missing tires, batteries, broken windows, etc...so we wanted to make sure we had something to get us home in the morning.

We got our bags and walked the rest of the way to the orphanage. On the way a large truck carrying diesel full came down the same road we were on. For some reason I didn't take a picture, so let me describe it to you. Imagine the front of a semi truck attached to a large flat bed that has three huge tanks for carrying diesel fuel. There are eight tires on the trailer and each is about five feet in diameter. Each one is somewhere around two and a half feet wide and they all stick out outside of the footprint of the trailer...basically this thing is a monster. As it passed the part where our truck got stuck, it tore up the mud and made huge ruts. I was glad we had not gotten through there because, there was not way we could have gotten out after that truck had torn everything up. Fifty or so yards after our truck the semi ended up getting stuck. We walked past and watched for a little bit, but there was nothing we could do because the truck was so heavy that no amount of guys pushing on it would do anything. Shortly after we got the orphanage it started raining. Just what the area needed.....more rain. They had already done a lot of clean-up of removing mud from inside the buildings, but a lot of the land was destroyed, walls had been knocked down, and anything else that was outside was either washed away or damaged.

We slept on the floor and in the morning we gathered up some supplies and all the children and loaded everything in the back of the truck.

It took about 10 yards before this happened:

By this time we were used to being stuck so we just followed the normal routine. We unloaded most of the older kids, started shoveling, and then had everyone start pushing. It only took a little little while and we were free and on to the next challenge:

We saw this one coming and before we simply headed into it like our normal routine, we knew we had to plan a little more carefully than normal. I could go through how we all discussed the best route and tactic, but instead I'll just let you watch how it went:

We only had to shovel a little bit after that and we were home free. That was the final time we got stuck even though we did have a couple more close calls. On the bypass road we did have to wait for a while because a Caterpillar 972H wheel loader had rolled off the road and gotten stuck in the mud. They brought another 972H and pulled it out...that was interesting to watch. When we finally reached the Montrouis bridge I got us as close to the bridge and ended up blocking everything and people started yelling at us, but my main goal was to unload all the orphans and make sure they made it across the bridge to the vehicles that were waiting on the other side. We got everything unloaded and they headed off to Cabaret where the orphans will be staying. I headed back home and after arriving, tried to convey some of what had happened and how Gonaives looked to Chris.

Yesterday, Leslie got back from her stint in America. It was good to have her back here and things are starting to feel more normal again. Last night I went with Elsie and Bobbi to the YWAM base in Saint-marc. Bobbi, who just arrived two weeks ago to help out at Canaan, met another girl (Shekinah) on the plane to Haiti that was going to be volunteering at the YWAM base. She invited her, and in turn Elsie and me, to her birthday party. I had never met Shekinah before, but I figured her birthday party was as good of a place as any....I'm not sure if that is rude typically, but in Haiti it felt pretty normal. We had a good time and played a few games, had cake, and made some new friends. It ended up being a late night, and I realized how few the opportunities are to have have a social life after dark.

Ok, this thing took a long time to write and it has been another long day with a funny story just waiting to be told, but that will have to wait for another day......

Baby Duty

2008-09-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday Chris took Leslie to the airport in Port and I stayed home to look after Olivia. I have received a lot of comments calling my ability to take care of a baby into question. While I assume that the majority of these are simply jokes, it still doesn't do a lot for one's self esteem. I have taken care of kids before and even used to babysit a long time ago as a part-time job. Relying on that experience and the fact that Olivia is pretty much the easiest baby to take care of, everything went quite well. No crazy stories to tell or anything else to report, which is probably a good thing.

This week has been a bit hectic with Chris and I trying to take care of Olivia and also get work done and coordinate everything going on at the mission. This week the stairs to go the second story of the dorm were poured, the second story of the dorm construction has started, the solar panel support structure is being built and assembled, plus all the other normal work that goes into building filters. The support structure for the solar panels is proving to be difficult to assemble 25 ft in the air. We have had try and then reevaluate how to accomplish everything. With the height, span between columns, weight of the steal, and extreme heat in the sun, things are progressing slowly. One of our workers fell of a ladder and landed on the roof. He didn't fall too far and was unhurt, but it was a wake up call to everyone that we need to be careful and take everyone's safety very serious.

On Thursday we had some people come from Port that wanted to see our mission and how things ran. This would normally not be too difficult, but with everything already being hectic and the fact that we have to pick them up in Montrouis because the bridge is still impassable, it added to the stress and confusion already present. Chris and I were invited to Canaan to have dinner. This was a nice treat since we didn't have to cook and got to visit with friends.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day removing the formwork for the dorm stairs...this basically consisted of a lot of hammering and nail pulling.

Last night I went to Canaan again, this time to participate in movie night. On the weekend, the kids will all gather and watch a movie that is setup with a projector. Things were kinda crazy because everyone was putting together bags of food and toiletries that they would be handing out to people affected by the hurricanes. After that was all accomplished and the mess was cleaned, we got the movie ready and tried to calm down.

A Quick Update

2008-09-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

First, I just want to say thanks for all the encouragement and support from people in the midst of what is going on here in Haiti. It is great to get comments and emails from friends and family who remind me there are people behind me and the work that is going on here.

Over the weekend we had Hurricane Ike pass well north of us. It was a category four when it was passing by, so we did get some rain and a steady amount of wind, but it was extremely tame and quick compared to Hanna. We only got a couple inches of rain here in Pierre Payen, but we did hear that some parts of Haiti got more and again had problems with flooding. Because of Ike, we had to cancel the missionary meeting. There have been a lot of people that have returned to Haiti in the past couple weeks and it was going to be a chance for everyone to reunite, and for me to meet most for the first time, but we'll have to wait till next week. However, Elsie and Mark, from Canaan ended up stopping by in the afternoon on Sunday. Mark has just arrived in Haiti and is heading up the school and education program at the orphanage. He is planning to be in Haiti for at least a year. It was good to have another person here to relate to, especially someone close in age...most missionaries I've met here are older than me and there is nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to have someone in a similar stage of life to communicate with.

Today, we started welding the support structure for the solar panels. This proves to be a little more complicated than it sounds because the structure is very large and we are using scaffolding that sways a decent amount since it is so high in the air. I didn't take any pictures, but I'll try and do that soon so you have an idea of what I'm talking about. After that I went with Jean and Israel to deliver around 35 filters that we had sold last week. We had to carry a lot of the filters up rocky paths and through mud....by the end of it I was completely exhausted. However, when I got back Chris asked if I could would help him go on a diesel run. We were told that of all the gas stations in the area, most were out of gas, and some were starting to run out of diesel. This is happening because a lot other roads and bridges are impassable and fuel trucks can't get around the country yet. If we are unable to buy diesel and run out of fuel for our generator, we are can't continue welding. So, we loaded up all the containers and headed for the closest station we knew had fuel. When we got back we grabbed a few guys and unloaded the tanks. We have a few tanks that are 40 gallons...we estimate these to be around 300 lbs when full. We had three guys and we were unloading them off a truck and onto a shelf in a small generator room.....not the easiest thing to do, but we got it done. After that I jumped in the shower and tried to stay awake until dinner.

Tomorrow, Leslie is leaving to fly home for a while. Chris is driving her into Port and will spend the day there getting different things accomplished. This will be the first time any of us has gone to Port since the hurricanes so it will be interesting to see the condition of everything. They are going to have to walk across the Montrouis bridge and borrow a vehicle, since traffic is still not allowed to pass over the bridge. I'm going to be staying at the mission making sure things are alright here, but my main task will be taking care of Olivia. I have to be up pretty early and I can barely stay awake while I'm typing this, so I think I'm going to head to bed.

Hurricane Aftermath

2008-09-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

The rain has stopped and Haiti is now trying to pull itself back together. Yesterday, Chris and I ran around the area assessing the damage and finding out whatever information was available. The rivers had risen higher, homes had washed away, and fields of crops had been destroyed.

The Montrouis River

One of the Neighborhood Homes

Michel, one of our workers, stopped by and told us that a large rock had washed down from the hillside and rolled into his house. We went to check it out and found this:

The rock was more of a boulder...about 5 feet in diameter. It crashed into his house in the middle of the night, breaking the wall and throwing him off his bed. No one was injured, but because of the steep hillside around his home and a church being directly downhill, there is no way to move or break the boulder. They are going to have to find another place to live.

Later, Chris got a call from Jan Filip, our night guard, saying that he couldn't make it to our house because the foot bridge in the Pierre Payen corridor had been washed away. Chris and I hiked up to where the bridge used to be and saw this:

Just before dark we got word that the Montrouis bridge was starting to collapse. This bridge is on the national highway and connects northern and southern Haiti. Without the bridge, it would cripple food and supplies transportation and remove the only way for us to get to and from Port-au-Prince. Once again, Chris and I hopped in the truck and to find out what was going on. If we could drive across, the plan was to leave one vehicle on the other side so we could at least get to Port if we had to. When we arrived, people were everywhere and tires were being used to block off access to the bridge. There was a definitive dip in the bridge, but we decided that it was probably safe enough to cross. However, the police that were present would not let us drive across. We headed back with the hope that that in the morning when the river had died down they might let smaller vehicles pass.

Chris got a call just before 8 pm from some people at the local orphanage here. They had purchased supplies in Port-au-Prince and were stuck on the far side of the Montrouis bridge. The police were letting people walk across, so they carried everything over the bridge and we met them with one of our trucks and transported everything back to the orphanage for them.

Yesterday was a long day. All the running around and trying to figure out what we could do to help really stressed us all out.

Today, I went with our workers into the local community to talk with people about the biosand filters. We started selling them at a fraction of what we used to so that everyone can get one if they need it. We started close to the highway and worked our way up the mountain. One of our workers lives at the top of the mountain and knows almost everyone in the area because he walks the path five times a weeks. People seemed to respond well.

Hurricane Hanna

2008-09-02T11:17:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend I traveled to La Gonâve. I was going to write about what happened, but with all the severe weather that has been occurring lately, I will save that story for another time and give an update regarding the recent tropical storms. Our internet cuts in and out due to the storms, but hopefully I will be able get this update out today.

Gustav dropped somewhere between 3.5 and 4 inches of rain here in Pierre Payen, but some places in the south of Haiti received substantially more. I've heard reports that 77 people have died from Gustav and now we are currently in the middle of another hurricane...Hanna. Last night I went to bed after seeing that Hanna was well North of Haiti and was supposed to be heading northwest. I heard a little rain while trying to fall asleep but when I woke up, the wind and rain had picked up a lot and I found a decent amount of water on my bedroom floor. I went outside the dorm building and saw a lot of our yard under water. Overnight, Hanna had slowly tracked South and was hitting Haiti harder than expected.

This morning, Chris and I drove to the Montrouis River to see how bad it was flooding. The force of the rushing water is eroding the landscape and destroying whatever is in its path.

Later, Chris, Leslie and I stood under the back deck and watched Dennis' boat fill with water as the waves broke over it. It didn't take long for the entire thing to be under water and then we started getting oars and other parts of it washing onto the beach. The boat is still upright with the mast sticking out of the water. Hopefully it stays like this until all this passes. Here is a picture a few minutes before it started sinking.

We've heard that there is flooding in Gonaives. In 2004, a hurricane hit the northern part of Haiti and Gonaives flooded. 3,000 people died as a result, the majority being from the city of Gonaives. It is currently still pouring here and we've already heard that parts of the city are under 9 meters of water. This sounds like a repeat of 2004 and there will undoubtedly be a lot of people displaced and many casualties.

Hurricane Gustav

2008-08-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

I've had a few people email me and ask about the hurricane that is currently passing over Haiti. I figured while I have internet access, I would give a quick update. As you can see in the picture below, Hurricane Gustav passed over the Southern part of Haiti. Apparently, Port-au-Prince started getting rain around 2:00 am, and there has been a decent amount of flooding in the area. Clean Water for Haiti is located just South of Saint-marc, and if you look closely at the image, you may be able to see that we are just on the outskirts of what the hurricane is affecting. It started raining here around 1:30 pm. It is around 8:30 pm now and the rain hasn't stopped, but it is pretty light. It was a little windier than a normal storm, but not anything too spectacular. The other byproduct of hurricanes is the cool weather they bring. Currently the feel-like temperature is 84 degrees F. That is a lot cooler than normal and we are all enjoying that part of the weather situation.

That's A Downer

2008-08-23T04:59:00.000-07:00

What do you see in the picture below?

Did you say a laptop? Well, if you had asked me 24 hours ago I probably would have agreed with you. However, today what I see in the picture is a giant paperweight. Yep, my laptop gave out yesterday and I'm pretty bummed out about it. If you have ever been around me when I use this computer, you know that it is one of the loudest machines ever built because it has three fans that run constantly. HP had a BIOS update to help fix the fan issue so I let it install the upgrade and during the installation the computer shut off and now will not do anything when I press the power button. It won't even recognize that the battery is charging when I plug it into the wall. I looked online and found that this has happened to other people and now my computer is just a bunch of electronic pieces that don't know how to communicate with each other. The most difficult part for me is that the computer is still just fine except for one little chip that needs to be reprogrammed. I was hoping that when my laptop died it would short circuit and flames and smoke would ensue.....it's just difficult to accept that my computer no longer works because of an update from HP.

After it died, I took everything apart to see if the BIOS chip was removable. I don't think it is so I'm pretty sure I would have to buy a knew mother board to fix the problem and since I'm in Haiti, that isn't really an option. While I had it apart, I cleaned all the dust out of the heat exchangers. Everything is nice and clean now, but it doesn't make much of a difference anymore.

So what am I writing this blog entry on? Well, Chris and Leslie had an old laptop that still works and I'm using that until I figure something else out. To look on the bright side, how great is it that they have a spare computer? I can still check email and put pictures online, so I really can't complain too much. If your reading this and have any suggestions about how to fix my laptop or what else I can do, please write me an email or comment on this post. Thanks.

A couple other things that happened this week:

Chris and I came up with a design to mount the solar panels on the pillars we have constructed.
We started cutting and building the support structure that the solar panels will attach to.
A dead dog washed up on the beach in front of our house. Chris dug a hole and I helped him bury it. I think I'll leave it at that since the description of the dog I would give is anything but pleasant. Bright side....they have had a horse wash up before, so at least we didn't have that.
The other side of the dorm building is now finished. We had a push this week since there is going to be a class coming in on Sunday. This will be the first filter class that we have taught since I arrived, so I'm looking forward to finding out how it will all work.

Some Things Are Hard To Understand

2008-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

How do I wrap up what happened this week in a few paragraphs....or even in words? I don't think I can. This week has been one of the most challenging since I arrived in Haiti. The things I saw and experienced don't all make sense...some of them don't even seem real.

On Tuesday Chris and I headed to Port to meet with a couple people from the UN that Chris has been in contact with. The UN is looking to do a pilot program and have us install filters in schools from few different zones in Haiti. We talked with them about how the filter works and some of the logistics of what it would take to get the project up and running. The meeting went well and we'll have to wait and see what comes from it. After the meeting we did the typical things like getting groceries, going to the hardware store, and visiting a few people. However, instead of heading back with Chris when we were done, I drove to Matthew and Nels' home. For a while now I have been waiting to accompany Matthew on one of his trips to work at the prisons. On Monday Matthew called Chris and said that they would be leaving on Wednesday to travel to a prison and wondered if I would be able to make it. I didn't have anything pressing, so Wednesday through Friday I accompanied Matthew and Nels as they worked in the prison near Les Cayes.

Wednesday morning we woke up around 4:30 am and packed our things and then drove to the UN base in Port-au-Prince. As I've mentioned before, Matthew and Nels have partnered with the UN to put biosand filters in all the prisons in Haiti. At the same time, this gives them the chance to interact with the prisoners and staff at the prison and pass out literature. Although the UN has agreed to provide the transportation necessary to do the work, we are last on the priority list and if they run out of room, we are the first to go. We were told that the plane we were going to be flying in had a few problems and that the pilot would only take 26 passengers. Well, we were passengers 25, 26, and 27. Nels had a friend that was going to be driving from Port to Les Cayes that afternoon, so he decided to catch a ride with her and meet us later in the day. By car, the drive is around 6 hours.

Our Transportation

When we landed in Les Cayes, we were greeted by some of the UN personnel from Canada that had been working with the prisons in Haiti. We grabbed everything we had brought and loaded it into their SUV. I must say that riding around in the UN vehicles is very nice since they are one of the few times you get to enjoy air-conditioning down here. Our first stop was where we would be sleeping for the next few nights. It was a university that had been built in the 80s but was pretty vacant due to poor management and recent bankruptcy of the original owners. You could tell the building was very nice when it was built, but over time nothing had been kept up and things were starting to deteriorate. The building had been built like and American style building with a drop ceiling and made to be air-conditioned. However, while we stayed there, we did not have any electricity. Without air-conditioning, the building heats up and does not cool off at night because there are only small windows and no air can move through it. The heat would have been bearable if we would have had electricity to run a fan. None of us slept very well since we would sweat profusely just laying in bed. The other downer was that we ran out of water on the second night and couldn't flush the toilets or get any drinkable water. I remember just laying in my bed between the interval naps, thinking....it must be getting close to morning....but when I looked, it was only 11pm. During all of this though, I was silenced from complaining by what I had just witnessed in the prison.

Our meals consisted of eating groceries out of a box that we picked up our first day in Les Cayes. We typically ate peanut butter, tuna, or spam sandwiches. However, when the supplies got low any combination of things was acceptable to eat.

Nels eating peanuts that he had spilled on the floor.

Matthew making a peanut butter, mayonnaise, and hot sauce sandwich.

On Wednesday afternoon we arrived at the prison and were admitted to enter after talking with the director. I was not allowed to take any pictures at the prison so I will have to describe it in words. After passing through two gates that separate the main prison area from the rest of the world, I was struck by the smell of urine and stagnant, swamp water. The prison is arranged in a rectangle with the prison cells on the outside and the middle being open to the atmosphere. In the middle is also a partially grassy area that serves to collect any liquids that are discharged from the cells, laundry buckets, and showers. There is a strip of concrete that cuts the grassy swamp in half that prisoners lay things on to let them dry in the sun. There were 12 cells on the perimeter of the rectangle, each one being about 12ft by 20ft. In the cells there were around 15 to 20 prisoners. There were not nearly enough mattresses for people and I'm not even sure everyone could lay down at the same time if they wanted. The prison had no electricity so the cells were extremely hot, dark, and full of mosquitoes and flies.

The judicial system is far from perfect in Haiti and varies greatly across the country. I've heard of police arresting people simply because citizens are in an uproar about something and in order to get them to calm down the police will arrest someone nearby. Or if you have a problem with someone, you can purchase a warrant for their arrest and the judge will grant it and drum up some charges to make sure they end up in prison. It is hard to know who truly deserves to be in prison and who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or who has an enemy with enough money to buy their prison sentence.

When we arrived the filters were all in one corner of the prison and none of them were being used. As Matthew went around to each cell and talked to the prisoners about how the filters worked and why they needed to be using them, I rearranged all the filters and started to get them working again. All the diffusion plates were missing from inside the filters because the prisoners had taken them out to fan themselves. We didn't expect that and had only brought eight diffusion plates...but now we needed eleven. After talking to the prisoners, Matthew found out that it would be best to install a filter at each cell so they could manage it themselves. Once Nels arrived, we started the slow process of walking the filters to their new locations. We did all the installations we could and then decided it would be best to come back with the proper materials and install the remaining filters another time. Matthew and Nels are trying to go back on Monday to finish everything up.

While we were installing the filters, prisoners would want to talk and between the Creole I knew and the English they knew, we were able to communicate a little. What do you say to a person who tells you they don't deserve to be in prison when the fact is that they may very well be telling the truth? What do you say when they ask you for a little money or for some food? Why doesn't it feel right to say I can't give them what they want or need when I have excess?

Coconuts Anyone?

2008-08-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

I did a few filter installations and repairs today somewhere off the beaten path near Saint-marc. It is interesting to see how people react when I come to help...especially when we go to some of the more remote locations. Typically I have found that people seem to be more friendly. They say good morning and more rarely ask me for money or something else. It may be because they don't see as many white people and they aren't used to having foreigners come by. The funniest part has to be the children though. Apparently there is some sort of rumor that is told to kids that white people eat children. When children grow up in the city and see white people more often, I think they don't hear this as much or they realize that it's no true pretty fast. However, the children where I was today seemed a little hesitant to get close to me. One of the moms pulled her son close to me and said, "Look, there is nothing to be afraid of." But the boy was squirming and wanted to keep his distance. I try to smile and ask them questions with the limited amount of Creole I know, but they typically just stare at me with their mouth open and seem to be waiting for me to have some sort of outburst.

After work, I climbed the guinep tree and got some fruit. We have picked off all the low hanging stuff, so I climbed up the ladder and then up the branches to some parts that haven't been picked yet. The tree is pretty tall and it gets a little sketchy climbing up to around 40 ft and leaning to pick fruit off branches. All went well though and they taste even better since there was an element of danger involved.

A guy also stopped by to spray for mosquitoes, which is great because they have really gotten bad the past few weeks. He used a concoction of permethrin and kerosene. He sprays everywhere and right now I'm adjusting to a room that smells....well....like insecticide and kerosene? I've been told it's harmless, and it doesn't really make much difference whether it is or not. I'm going to be sleeping in a bed that got a nice dose and I just dried off after a shower with a towel that was pretty wet a few hours ago from the spray. I hear that mosquitoes will die pretty quick if they land on a surface that has been sprayed, so I think I'll sleep well tonight knowing that any insects trying to get snuggle up with me, won't last very long.

Lastly, we have about 11 coconut trees on our property and they were all pretty full. We let one of our workers and some people from Canaan pick all the coconuts off and then we gave most of them away to the kids at the orphanage.

One of our workers picking a few coconuts.

Part of the yield from our trees.

Is That Your Pile Of Rocks?

2008-08-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

At the start of the week I did some random projects that needed to be done like: fixing the latch on the VW so the tailgate would close properly, fixing the toilet in the dorm so it doesn't constantly run and waste all the water in our tank, making a set of shelves for the house, working some more on updating the filter mold drawings. On Wednesday morning, Chris, Leslie, Olivia, and I, went with Jean (our night guard) to his home up in the mountains. I hadn't been there before, so it was a chance for me to see where he lives and meet his family. We have been getting quite a bit of rain in the evenings lately and the path to his house is not typically accessible by vehicle, but we had to hike even farther than normal because the river was too high to cross with the truck.

Apparently this river is normally just a trickle.

Some of the mud.

This is Jean's family. I don't think a lot of Haitians are used to having their picture taken and they tend not to smile very much. This may look like a mug shot, but trust me, they were very happy before and after this photo.

On Thursday, one of the things I was able to do for the first time was to deliver some filters to people nearby in Pierre Payen. We were replacing some of the older units that had been installed and that had cracks or needed to be replaced for some other reason. When I came to Haiti, I thought that I would be doing this kind of work all the time, but this was the first "good" chance I had to go. Typically, the Haitian workers we have at the mission are the ones who go out and find people that need filters and do the delivery and installations. I'll try to explain why as briefly as I can.

1) There is a lot in the culture of Haiti that differs from those in America. In general, if you have white skin, you are viewed as a foreigner and someone that has a lot of money. A lot of people don't like whites because of all the oppression that has happened in Haiti's past (that's the really short version).

2) We typically sell the filters for $40 Haitian dollars. This is not to make money, since the filters cost around $320 Haitian dollars to make. $40 Haitian dollars is not a lot of money for most people here, but it does make them save a little and think if they really want to spend the money. The reason we don't just give them away is because by making people pay a little bit, they take ownership of the filter and want to keep it running because they have invested something in it. If we give them away, which we used to do a long time ago, people will just take them because they are free and then use them for whatever....sometimes filtering water, sometime a flower pot, a source of spare concrete....who knows.

Now that those two things are established, my next statement will hopefully make more sense. If I were to go on the trips to find people that need filters, Haitians would want the filters for free because I'm white a white foreigner that has money. This complicates things tremendously, and most of the time it is better that I don't accompany our workers on these trips. There will be opportunities to go, but it won't be something I normally do. In a way that is good because our Haitian workers do everything in the process: from making the filters, to finding people that need them, to installing and teaching people about them.

After work we all went over to Ben and Heather's and went swimming. We stayed for dinner and had spaghetti and fresh, homemade bread that they had cooked in their solar oven. Fresh bread is so good....and it seems to taste even better knowing that the sun was used to cook it.

Today, Chris and I decided to tackle replacing our burn pit that has gotten pretty fragile and is in need of some work. Our first project was to find some rocks that we could use instead of the cinder blocks that were used in the old one. Here is how you get rocks here: Haiti is doing work on the major road that runs through the country.....which is really exciting for us. They bring in truck loads of material that they are leveling out that serve as the foundation for new asphalt. In the loads there are usually rocks that are too large and the local people will pick them out and make a pile of rocks that becomes theirs. Chris and I drove down the road until we saw some piles of rock and people standing close to them. We asked if they knew who owned the piles and after a while one of them spoke up and said that he owned some of them. Did he really? Who knows, but we bought them and loaded them into our truck. When we got back, Chris started washing the rocks to get all the dirt off and I went with one of our workers to finish installing the filters that we delivered the day before. After that was finished, Chris and I dismantled what was left of the burn pit and then hauled the blocks away the the local dump (which is a small patch of land behind some trees, next to some crops just off the road). Most of mission's property is shaded, but all of this work was done in the sun. Chris and I were drenched in sweat the whole day and our main goal was to not have a heat stroke.

Wait Up

2008-08-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Chris and I went for a hike to get out of the house and see a change of scenery. We were accompanied by Kameal (I have no idea how to spell his name). His wife works at the UN embassy here in Haiti and he is visiting her for a while. They stay at Dennis' house here in Pierre Payen. We drove just past Saint-Marc and then headed up a trail that led to an old fort that was built to protect the city. The entire hike was in the sun and there was very little shade once we reached the summit. I know I'm not is the best shape, but I still like to think that I can keep up with most people. Well, apparently Kameal is in the police force back in Africa and is accustomed to doing 20 mile hikes with full attire and a backpack on. He was talking on his cell phone the whole way up and I was running after him trying to not pass out. I don't think he broke a sweat until just before the very top.

Chris and Kameal enjoying the view

One of the old cannons that has survived

After that we took a little break and got some food and rehydrated ourselves. Later in the afternoon, I Met up with Kameal and Dennis and we went sailing for a little while on Dennis' boat. There was a decent amount of wind because a storm was coming in over the mountains. We only got a little bit of rain, but it was great because it cooled everything off and the sun wasn't beating down on us.

On Sunday, Chris, Leslie, Olivia, and I went to church in Montrouis with the Ben and Heather Hopp. It was quite and experience. The church is just a cinder block building with a tin roof. Since we had city power, they decided to us the speaker system....which looks like a megaphone without the handle. The room is pretty small and there is nothing to absorb the sound, so it just bounces around. I was told that they don't have it very loud compared to most churches, but I sat behind Chris and noticed that he had his fingers in his ears almost the entire service. Everyone was very friendly and it was good to see another part of the culture here.

After church, the Hopps came over for lunch. After lunch a group of people stopped by the house. The group typically fixes wells in Haiti, but are also going to start drilling a few wells on La Gonâve (the island off the west coast of Haiti). They wanted to get some of the old equipment we still had from when we used to drill wells. They stopped by again today and I ended up helping them by welding a cracked bracket that was part of the drilling rig.

Living Simply

2008-08-01T19:23:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Chris, Leslie's aunt, and I headed to Port-au-Prince at 5:30 am. The truck was loaded with 20 biosand filters, the dirt bike, and some luggage.....I'll explain the cargo in a bit. We dropped Leslie's aunt off at the airport and then ran a few errands. One of our stops was to see if a place in Port could stamp some of our sheet metal parts for the filter molds. I finished the cut-out drawings on Monday and brought them with us to show. Apparently we were there a little early, so we talked to the only guy there and he said he would check and get back to us. After that we met up with Matthew and Nels to drop off the filters we had brought with us. The plan was for me to stay in Port on Tuesday night with Matthew and then accompany him on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as he installed the filters in a prison. Chris would ride the bike home after we unloaded the filters and then I would drive the truck back on Friday.

Well, as I've found out before, almost nothing goes according to plan here. Matthew and Nels work with the UN to get the filters to the local prisons. We all headed to the UN base to unload the filters. When we arrived they told us that we couldn't unload anything until they had all the proper paperwork. Chris tends to get a little impatient when things take longer than they should, so we unloaded the motorcycle off the back of the truck and he headed for home. After waiting for a couple hours and talking to a lot of different people, someone finally gave us the go ahead to unload the filters on pallets. After that I went with Matthew and Nels to get a few groceries. On our way home we stopped by a place with internet since Matthew and Nels don't have internet at their place. After an hour or so there, we found out that the transportation that the UN was supposed to be providing us on Wednesday morning was not going to work out. Instead of driving home....some of it being in the dark.....I decided to stay the night with Matthew since he had been expecting me anyway.

Ok, so Mathew and Nels are Mennonite missionaries that live close to Port. I didn't know very much about Mennonite's before meeting them, but have come to greatly admire them and the work they do. Nels is Matthew's father, and their families share a home that is basically cut in half. They live as simply as most Haitians and have only the basic necessities. Here is an example of what I mean....After our long day, they told me to take a shower so that I could sleep better. I went into the bathroom and got a little confused. I didn't see anything that would provide water to take a shower with. After calling Matthew into the bathroom, I learned that the bucket of clean water in the corner with a cup in it was how they washed themselves. Other examples: no refrigerator, no running water for bathroom or kitchen, enough electricity to run a few fluorescent lights. I was humbled by how they lived and what they placed importance on. That night they hooked up a small fan and told me to run it as I slept, but that it would cut out once the power from their battery was gone. They had pretty much nothing, but were still willing to make me as comfortable as possible. In case you are wondering, I had the fan on for a little while and then shut it off before I fell asleep....I didn't want to consume ALL their electricity.

That night, after dinner, we went up on the roof where it was cooler because of the breeze. We laid out a blanket and Matthew read us a chapter out of a book and we all laid there looking up at the stars. It was one of the coolest things I've done. Matthew and his wife have three children and we had a lot of fun just looking into the sky and watching the lighting that was flashing off in the distance. The next morning we went to an orphanage that was close by. Matthew and Nels families don't get out much because the only mode of transportation for all of them is a dirt bike that Chris gave them a while ago....oh, and Matthew has had his whole family on the thing at one time....that's five people! We went to see the orphanage's Tilapia fish farm. Tilapia are fish that feed of algae and are becoming a very popular, low cost source of food for developing countries.

Holding tanks for the Talapia

Esther (Matthew's daughter) admiring a cactus tree

After that I headed back to Pierre Payen. The drive was pretty uneventful, except for the typical playing chicken with on-coming traffic. That was my first time I've driven back from Port by myself. I was almost certain that I would get a flat tire and have to somehow get it fixed on my own. When I got back I ended up moving all my stuff out of the main house and into the dorm where Leslie's aunt had been staying. I had been staying in Olivia's room until now, so it's good to be able to give that back and have a more permanent residence. Below are a few pictures of what my new home looks like.

My bed and desk

The other side of the room

My bathroom

After moving in, I spent all day Thursday trying to get internet to the dorm building. The wireless signal we have in the house gets pretty weak once you get out to the dorms and is non-existent once you enter what is essentially a concrete bunker. It took a long time, but I finally got it working. There is another story behind that, but I'll save it for another day. Aright, I think I've written enough for now....I'm off to bed. Goodnight.

Finally Captured

2008-07-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

Typically I go to bed here between 9:30 and 10:00pm. I know what you're thinking....that's really early. Well, yes, but we also usually get up and going around 5:40 am. Most things quiet down after dark here because the majority of people don't have electricity and are active while there is daylight. With that explained I can now start another story.

I went to sleep around 10pm on Friday and woke up around 11:30pm to some commotion outside my room. I didn't know exactly what was happening and in Haiti, it could have been any of a number of bad scenarios. However, I heard Chris' voice so I new that the situation was probably under control. I came out of my room to find out what was going on and was told that Leslie's aunt had been bitten twice by a centipede. Not a good thing. We are told that some of the larger ones here can send a person to the hospital, but apparently the one that bit here was on the smaller size....maybe two to three inches. She took an antihistamine right away and that seemed keep things from getting any worse. There was some swelling and she said it burned a decent amount, but things are pretty much back to normal now.

While we were up and sitting around talking, Chris got on his computer and showed us a picture of a centipede they found behind one of the electrical outlets in the old dorms. It had to be around 9 - 10 inches long. I'm not sure if that made Leslie's aunt feel better or worse.

As I was walking around the house I noticed that something smelled like it had died. Looking behind the water cooler I found a dead mouse. I gathered it up and threw it outside on the beach. After that we all went to bed and on Saturday I woke up to another mouse dead in the middle of my bedroom floor. I'm thinking that was most of the ones in the house, but who knows. On Saturday morning we went for a hike and then stopped by Canaan to visit with some friends.

Some of the local kids in the mountains

A flower I've never seen before

On Saturday night there was a pretty strong storm that came through. We had the hardest rain I've witnessed since being here and there was also a good bit of lightning. I've tried to get a photograph of lighting a few times here, but nothing has ever worked out. Well, this time there were quite a few bolts that were occurring over the ocean right outside our home. I took a ton of pictures and finally caught some photos with lightning in them. Take a look...

The first good one I took

A giant bolt

This afternoon, Leslie, her aunt, and I went to an 18th century sugar cane plantation that has been turned into a hotel and beach resort. They have vendors outside the hotel and Leslie and her aunt were able to pick up a few gifts/souvenirs. It was pretty interesting seeing a lot of the architecture preserved and getting to look into Haiti's past in a way.

Moulin Sur Mer

I think these represent Haitian slaves

Filter Design

2008-07-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a week since I've written anything. I guess that last entry took a lot out of me. Thanks for all the comments and encouragement that you gave. It is great to know that other people have been thinking and asking similar questions to the ones I brought up.

So, last Sunday Chris, Leslie, Olivia and I went to Dave and Judy's. We met the ex-managers of Club Indigo and another missionary couple that work in Port. It was great meeting more people and we had a huge lunch/dinner. One of the main dishes was dove....which I didn't know people really ate, but learned that the French apparently eat small birds...including doves. I have to admit it was pretty delicious, but it takes quite a few to get a fair amount of meat.

This week I have been taking a break from the manual labor and am renewing my skills with computer design work. I have been updating the drawings for the biosand filters for a couple reasons. The first is that we are producing filters that we don't have a formal set of drawings for. Chris and another guy that helped out at Clean Water for Haiti, Otto, redesigned the filter to save weight a while ago and we've been using this as the new standard. The second is that once I create the drawings, we are going to see if the sheet metal used to construct the molds can be cut in Port-au-Prince with a press. Currently we plasma cut the pieces and then have to do a fair amount of grinding to get everything within tolerance before we weld. If we can get them cut with a machine, it will save us a lot of time and should help us produce more consistent filter molds. Hopefully they can do it, and at a reasonable cost. Here is what I've come up with so far...

Biosand Filter Mold

On Wednesday, Chris and I went to Port and got some supplies. We stopped by the Toyota dealer and checked on the van that CWH ordered at the beginning of the year. They said that Toyota hadn't been shipping what they promised and it was going to be at least mid-September before we would probably see anything. They also mentioned that we wouldn't be getting the white color we had ordered....it may be grey or silver. You can't be too picky here though, or you'll end up never receiving anything. After that we headed to the airport and waited for Leslie's aunt to arrive. Her flight was only delayed by 30 minutes, but then it took another hour and a half before we saw here come out past security. It gets pretty hot waiting outside the airport where the the shade is limited and the people are many.

The left portion of the dorm has been finished and just in time with Leslie's aunt arriving. She is staying out there and everything seams to be working out well. After she heads back home, I'll be moving out to the dorm and giving Olivia her room back in the house. I don't have any pictures of it now, but I'll take a few once I've moved in to show how everything has turned out.

Yesterday after dinner I climbed one of the coconut trees in our yard and stripped it of all the decently sized coconuts. I had never eaten one straight off the tree before, so that was another first I've experienced here. We used a machete and cut the tops off, poured the water out into a jug, and then split it in half to eat the flesh.

Half a Coconut

Chris Cutting A Coconut

I've Been Thinking

2008-07-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading a book Chris gave me on the history of Haiti called Paradise Lost, by Philippe Girard. The excerpt below is the first paragraph in the introduction of the book. It has been a few years since his account and Haiti has been improving slowly...very slowly. However, he paints a very vivid picture and articulates many of the things I experienced when I arrived here.

"I first visited Haiti in June and July of 2001. I was born in the Caribbean, spoke French fluently, and had visited several poor countries before; but I was strikingly unprepared for the heady mix of pride, decadence, misery, culture, and energy that defines Haiti. The dirt, destitution, and bustling activity of Port-au-Prince were straight out of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris, complete with begging lepers. Some crossroads had traffic lights, but it took me three weeks before I saw one function. The potholes were so deep many reached the sewers five feet below. They were filled with garbage that no one picked up; homeless orphans filled used plastic bottles with the trickle of water making its way through the waste. Piles of garbage also lined the streets, with the occasional man scavenging through them. Nondescript dogs, all bones and skin, wandered around; they were not the hungriest living beings to be found. Downtown streets were choked full with vendors, pedestrians, the SUVs of well-connected businessmen with windows shut tight, the overloaded tap taps (shared taxis) and publiques (public buses) that serve as public transportation, and the antediluvian trucks spewing black smoke that mixed with the acrid smell of burning garbage. Sweating men pulled wooden carts stacked high with tires and water jugs. The city’s prodigious activity matched that of an anthill, but one whose inhabitants roamed with chaotic freedom rather than heeding the whims of some all-powerful queen.”

Part of the City

A Truck Crammed Full of Passengers

Market in Port-au-Prince

When I arrived in Haiti I realized that life here was very different from anything I had experienced before. I remember Chris telling me over the phone about a guy who came to volunteer for three months with Clean Water for Haiti. After three days, he was back on a plane, leaving for home. I told myself that no matter what the conditions were, no matter what I experienced, I was going to stay in Haiti for six months. Maybe it was because I knew that I wasn’t leaving for six months, maybe it was the shock of moving to a third-world country, maybe it was leaving my community of family and friends behind…whatever it was, I quickly longed for the comforts and safety of home. I thought immediately whether I could do this for six months.

I was talking to Leslie the other day about how things were going. I said that in the U.S. I kinda prided myself on living as simply as possible and I thought I was pretty flexible with life in general. But I soon found out that living simply in the U.S. is still extremely comfortable compared to living in Haiti. Even here in Haiti I live pretty well compared to most of the general population, but it has still been a shock. I didn’t think the transition to life here would be as difficult as it has been.

Thoughts went through my head like, maybe I can just make it through the six months and then go back home and continue life as normal. But the more I think about this option, the more it is unsettling. I think we all know something is wrong with a world that has people starving, child slavery, an AIDS epidemic, etc. I believe most of us, deep down, long to see these issues change; long to help those who need it most. When you read that excerpt above, doesn’t something inside you say, this isn’t how life was meant to be lived….this isn’t the way things are supposed to be.

Why was I born to a middle-class white family in America? Why did I have everything provided for me? Water, food, shelter, clothing, schooling, and even non-essential items that served to make my life more comfortable. Is it random? I don’t know. I do know that something doesn’t sit right with me to come here, see and experience the poverty, desperation, even hope, and then simply go home. I think a lot of times it is easy to dismiss what happens outside America because I’ve never had to see the people that are affected face-to-face. They become an impersonal statistic and not a person that is very similar to me in numerous ways.

Isn’t there more to life than looking out for myself? Isn’t there more than trying to plan out my entire life, more than saving up money so I can retire comfortably, more than trying to eliminate any risks so I don’t have to trust anyone else? I understand that not everyone feels this way, that people have other circumstances that complicate things, that some may not have the means to travel to another country and experience something like this. But I look at my situation and see how everything has been so convenient for me my entire life and how I’ve been given this opportunity to see another world. I don’t think I have any excuse to say that I can’t help in some way.

Something I think about often is having to give an account of my life. I don’t want to say, “Sure God…I saw people that needed help and I helped them for six months, but that was kinda hard so I decided to go back home and live my comfortable life again. Oh, you care about those people that were dying just like you care about me? Well, that’s noble, but you didn’t really expect me to give up the American dream and help them my entire life….right?”

I’m not saying the only way to serve people is to go to another country and devote your life to living in poverty. And I’m not making a money plea, saying people have to support every missionary they come across. However, there are people all around us that need help and are trying to make it through one more day. Shouldn’t I have some sort of desire to at least help my neighbor….whatever that looks like?

What does all this mean? Do I stay in Haiti? Do I move somewhere else? Do I take a job back home and serve people there? Do I need more training or schooling? I’m not sure yet. I just know that something is stirring in me and it may not be the most comfortable thing, but it feels like I’m heading in the right direction.

A Little Under The Weather

2008-07-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

The weekend played out a little differently than I had expected. On Saturday night, around 8:00pm, my stomach started feeling a little funny and I decided I would lay down and maybe go to bed early. Well, I couldn't fall asleep and with every minute that passed by I started feeling worse and worse. You know that feeling where you have to throw-up, and even though you hate it, you wish you would so you could start feeling better? Well it happened around 10:00pm.....and then 20 more times before Sunday morning rolled around....no exaggeration. I lost seven pounds and every ounce of water I had in my body in about twelve hours. Needless to say I didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night.

On Sunday morning I was so thirsty and I hadn't thrown up in around two hours, so I decided to drink a little water. A few minutes later I was back in the bathroom getting rid of everything I just drank. I decided to take some antibiotics with the smallest amount of water possible to swallow it. This seemed to help and after a while I was able to fall asleep for a bit and my fever started to go down. The entire day on Sunday I just laid in bed and would be awake for a half hour, and then would sleep for a couple of hours. This was disappointing because we had our bi-weekly missionary meeting on Sunday, and I didn't get to participate at all. Also, some of the volunteers at Canaan will be leaving this week and it was my last chance to hang out with them before they depart. Today was a slow day and I just sat around reading for a bit and then would have to lie down because I got tired from sitting....that seems pretty pathetic. Anyways, I'm starting to feel better but I don't have a whole lot of energy yet. I just had some Jello tonight and hopefully I'll start getting my appetite back in the near future. Ok, that's all I got for now....I'm off to bed.

Just An Update

2008-07-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't get the input I was hoping for regarding the crab. I've told myself that it's due to the fact that people are shy for some reason and didn't vote; not because only a couple people read this thing every week. I feel like the latter may be true, but that's ok. So for those of you who do read this, the crab's name is Rogue. However, I won't be able to let him know because I haven't seen him in the shower lately. He may have left us behind and is on to his next adventure.

Anyway, I'll get back to what I normally write about so my family doesn't thing I'm going crazy because I've decided to start naming crabs. Early this week we experienced some connectivity issues with the satellite for the internet. There were branches from a couple trees that were obstructing the signal. Some of the limbs were pretty high and long, and didn’t look safe enough to use the typical trimming method, which is to climb the tree and use a machete. We wanted to get a pole with a branch cutter on it, but no one seemed to have one. Instead, Chris borrowed a chainsaw chain and tied a piece of electrical cable on either side of the chain. We then threw the chain over a branch and used it to saw through the limb. Once we had cleared the satellite signal’s path, we moved to the top of the dorm building where the second story will be built. Some of the branches overhead will need to be cleared eventually, and we figured it would be smart to do it while we had the tool in hand.

On Tuesday Chris, Leslie, Olivia and I went to Port-au-Prince. Since the truck cab was full of passengers, I road in the back with the water filters. I made myself a nice little seat out of some bags of sand used for the filters and then sat back and enjoyed the ride. We unloaded about 34 filters at a women’s shelter where some of our friends work. They are helping to distribute these filters in Port to families that have made requests for them. After that Leslie and I went to get groceries, while Chris ran a few errands. Our last stop was at Matthew and Nels' home in Gauthier. Matthew, Nels, and their families have been working with Clean Water for Haiti to get filters installed in all the prisons. I wanted to show were they live on the map, but as I’ve found before, it can be hard to locate places in Haiti online. I know the town is east of Port-au-Prince, but I’m not exactly sure where.

On Wednesday I removed the front wheels on welding machine because the bearings were completely missing and you had to drag the welder instead of roll it to whatever location you wanted. I drilled a few holes and mounted the new wheels. It was probably the most straight forward work I’ve done here and everything seemed to install and work just fine. After that, Chris and I went to Saint-Marc to try and get more paint for the dorms. The store where we usually by the paint was closed. After talking to a guy sitting in a wheelbarrow outside the store, we learned that the owner was on vacation and no one was sure when he’d be back. After searching a lot of other locations, we were unable to find what we needed. Chris called Mike, a friend that lives in Montrouis but makes frequent trips to Port, and found out that he was in Port for the day. Chris asked him to pick up 6 of the 5 gallon buckets. Later that day, Mike stopped by with the buckets, and we were able to continue painting on Thursday.

On Thursday I headed to Port-au-Prince with Israel. The day before, we had started to install the windows for the dorm and a few of the rivets started popping off. Chris called Tebo, the store we purchased them from, and after doing a little research, they found that the day they manufactured our windows was the same day they were having trouble with their riveter. The riveter adjustment had been a little off and they would need to redo all the windows that we had purchased. Chris asked me if I would mind running them back and doing a few errands while I was in Port. I said that I thought I could handle it, and realized it was time to venture to Port without Chris. While Chris was drawing me a map of where to go, he started to tell me a story of what had happened once on the corner where Tebo is. Knowing how Chris' stories usually go, we both decided it would be better to hear it after I got back. Turns out that one of the people Chris and Leslie know had a bullet go through their window while they were pulling into one of the stores there. This was a few years back though, and I'm assured that things have settled down. From all the stories I hear, I'm glad to be in Haiti now and not a few years ago. I guess the UN is actually bringing some kind of stability, however temporary, to Haiti.

Our first stop in Port was at the Kia parts shop to get Jean a part for his truck. After that we headed to Tebo to drop off the windows and then we also bought a sheet of ¼” steel that we need to make filter molds. There weren’t any big surprises on the trip, which was a relief.

This morning Jean noticed a leak on the back left tire of the blue work truck. Chris and I pulled the wheel off and pulled apart the brakes and found one of the pistons was leaking brake fluid. Chris said that he had recently replaced the pistons in all the brakes. We found some dirt on one of the seals and cleaned it off. The only place to get parts for the truck is in Port, so we were hoping to solve the problem by simply cleaning everything and putting it back together. The brake pads had a good layer of oil on them, so we put them on a cookie sheet and threw them in the oven. After the brakes had baked for a while, and the house had filled smoke, we let them cool and then reassembled everything. Not sure if it has solved the problem yet, but we’re trying to be optimistic.

Everything Disassembled

Brakes After a 30 Minute Baking Session

Participation Requested

2008-07-07T18:52:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the Hopps stopped by to visit for the afternoon. They have three kids and we did a little swimming and had a nice big lunch. The Hopps are missionaries living at Kaliko, but they work primarily with people and churches on La Gonâve. La Gonâve is a small island off the western coast of Haiti. I’m including a map to show La Gonâve in relation to Clean Water for Haiti. I’m hoping to do this more in the future to show where places are located that I’ve mentioned. If nothing else, this should help me to learn more Haitian geography.

A little while back we discovered a crab that decided to take up residence in our shower. I took a picture of him, or her, and thought I would share it with you. We haven’t decided on a name yet, and I was hoping to get your input. On the right column of the blog there should be a survey that will allow you to vote for one of the names that I’ve been contemplating. For those of you who don’t like to be boxed in, please suggest an alternate name and I will add it to the list of possibilities if deemed appropriate.

The Nameless Crab

Dorm Construction

2008-07-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

I realized that I have talked about the dorm building that is under construction, but I don't think I've posted any pictures of what's going on with it....sorry about that. Well, here are a few pictures of where the construction is at. The first floor has been built and work is currently being done to finish this one before the second floor is constructed.

The First Floor

Left Side of the Dorm

Right Side of the Dorm

My task the past day and a half was to put on the door knobs and locks for the two exterior doors of the dorm. It proved to be a bit of a task though for two main reasons. One is that the doors are made of sheet metal and have no thickness to them. That makes it hard to install a door knob and lock that are designed for a wooden door that is an inch and a half thick. The other reason was that we had to relocate the welder, CO2 tank, plasma cutter, and air compressor....and those things are heavy.

Before

I ended up having to create a metal box to add thickness to the door. Then I ground paint of the door and welded the box into place. After that I used the plasma cutter to cut holes in both sides of the door and both sides of the frame where the locking mechanisms engage. I ended up just welding the dead bolt and door release to the frame since wooden screws don't really work that well on sheet metal. In the future we'll be painting everything so it looks nice.

After - Outside

After - Inside

What Happened?

2008-07-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

Monday after work I started some informal Creole lessons. I go to Canaan every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after work to learn and practice Creole with Robert. Robert speaks French, Creole, and knows a decent amount of English. I’m hoping that spending time with him and practicing more will speed up the learning process. I’m finding out that I have a hard time learning languages. There is a lot of memorization, and you have to practice without having everything perfect. Well, I have a horrible memory and I don’t like doing something in front of others unless I have figured out; hence, why I’m bad at learning a foreign language. Anyway, while we were talking I found out that Robert’s grandfather used to be the president of Haiti. That explains why he knows French….most of the upper class in Haiti speak French. He is very helpful and seems to enjoy teaching.

So, remember how I said the weekend was pretty low key? Well, some things happened over the weekend that I didn't find out about until Chris and Leslie got back. We have a guy that comes by after dark to keep an eye on the house and the mission. His name is Jean (a lot of people have that name here), and he usually walks around with a flashlight and is a presence on site to keep people from wandering onto the property. Jean doesn’t speak a word of English and of what little Creole I do know, I still have a hard time picking it out when people are speaking to me. Since Chris and Leslie were gone, he would say “bonswa” (good evening) to me and then start a conversation. I would try to listen and contribute to the conversation, but I was completely lost. After a minute or two, I think he realized I didn’t understand anything and he’d stop trying. Well, on Sunday he came by and we went through the same routine, except that he seemed a little more enthusiastic about something. I couldn’t make out what he was saying and just thought he had a little more energy than usual. Once Chris and Leslie got back I told them to ask about what he was saying on Sunday. He told them that he arrived on Sunday and while talking to someone outside the gate to our house, he saw someone walking in our yard. The person was trying to steal keys to the door locks that we hadn’t installed yet in the new dorms. Jean yelled at him and chased him away. I heard the commotion going on outside and I went to check it out. I didn’t notice anything at the time, but that explains why Jean was more enthusiastic than normal. I slept just fine that night not knowing what had happened. Maybe it was a good thing I didn’t know what was going on.

I’ve been feeling a little funny since around Thursday of last week. Whenever I eat something my stomach immediately starts to churn and make a ton of noise. There are other symptoms that deal with digestion, but I won’t go into that here. Chris had been experiencing similar symptoms and then he started losing his appetite and getting tired really quickly from doing anything. He took some antibiotics and seems to be getting better, so I followed suit yesterday and things seem to be settling down for me also. I’m actually surprised it has taken this long for me to get sick. Hopefully I will continue to stay pretty healthy….it makes life a lot easier if your not sick.

Time to Relax

2008-06-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

The weekend here was pretty low key. Chris and Leslie went to Furcy to celebrate their anniversary. They left on Saturday morning and will be back sometime on Tuesday. I pretty much had the whole weekend to myself. I was going to go out with Dennis on his boat and there was talk of some of the people at Canaan coming over, but nothing really seemed to work out. I stayed around the house and just did a lot of reading, studied Creole, played guitar, and contemplated a lot of things in my mind.

On Saturday I decided to give myself a haircut. I had never tried before and I'm not sure about the results. I used clippers and put a guard on to get everything to the same length. Well, after going over my head quite a few times, I still was unable to get some spots in the back by my neck. I tried putting on a shorter guard and going at it that way. This worked great until the guard fell off. I took one swipe with no guard and felt a little too much hair being removed. I tried to even things out the best I could, but I have not idea if it worked. The good thing though is that I never see that side of my head.

On Sunday I did a load of laundry in the fixed washer, and it turned out pretty well. My clothes aren't stiff and all the interesting smells have been removed....that's a good thing. Being here alone makes me a little more cautious of things and whenever I hear a loud noise or people talking close by, I check things out and make sure I'm aware of what is going on....as best as I can.

I don't really have any new pictures from the weekend, but I feel like I should at least give you something to look at since a picture is worth a thousand words....right? While Ben was here we cut down a regime of bananas from the garden. We hung them up in the house and then waited for them to start to turn yellow. These are not like the bananas that are imported to the U.S. The ones here are typically shorter, fatter, and have a sweeter taste. Right now we are on the tail end; trying to eat as many as possible before they get too brown and we end up freezing them.

Chris, Leslie, and I admiring the bananas.

A Few Days Work

2008-06-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday, Chris, Ben, and I hiked up to the "Source" and went for a cool swim in the water.

Part of the hike is along the wall of a canal.

Me enjoying the cool, clean water.

I don't think they see too many white people up here.

Once we got back to the mission, I grabbed a shovel and helped dig the hole that will be part of the septic tank for the new dorm building. While I was working on this, Chris and Ben got stuck at a clinic down the street. The clutch cable had broke on the VW van and I ran a new one out to them in one of our work trucks. After dropping that off I headed to Canaan, a local orphanage, to drop off the dirt that we had dug up for the septic tank. The land that the orphanage is on, is extremely rocky and they are happy to get soil from us whenever they can. I'm pretty sure they are using it to start a garden so they can grow their own vegetables. After unloading the dirt I headed to Dave and Judy's to pick up a fish they had for us and then headed back home. Nothing to spectacular, but it was the first time I had driven around town on my own.

On Tuesday I replaced the pump on the washing machine and now we can use it again and stop doing laundry by hand. This actually saves us water and laundry detergent.

Maintenance on the Washer

I also took another load of dirt to Canaan. After we got done unloading the dirt, we noticed that I had a flat tire. I had seen Chris do this a few times, so I felt pretty comfortable changing the tires on the work trucks. I threw the spare on, and then needed to get the original tire repaired. Instead of going to the local repair guy by myself and getting charged way too much because I'm white and can't speak Creole, I grabbed a guy that spoke Creole and English from the orphanage to help me. We headed to Montrouis for the local tire repair guy and after getting the tire looked at, realized that the tube was beyond repair. I had to go buy a new tube and and bring it back to have it installed. After that I dropped of my friend at the orphanage and headed back to the mission.

Oh, a random thing I saw while I was waiting for the tire to get fixed: 4-5 goats hog tied, upside-down to the side of a tap-tap. I'm surprised the goats will live banging against the side of a vehicle on the Haitian roads. A tap-tap is what they call taxis here, but not the typical taxi you may be thinking of. A tap-tap is usually a small truck that has a bench welded onto the bed and then is jam packed with people. When asked, "How many people can fit in the back?" The answer is always, "Once more." I need to get a picture of these things so you can understand what I'm talking about.

My first project on Wednesday was to replace the kitchen faucet because it had sprung a leak. After fighting with the mounting hardware for a while I finally got the old one free and installed the new shinny fixture.

New Faucet

Later, Jean Renaud (The head Haitian worker) and I, headed to Saint-Marc to get our gas cylinders for cooking filled and pick up some 1/16" steel sheets. It was good to spend some time with him since I haven't talked to him much. He speaks a little English and we agreed to practice our foreign languages with each other in the future. After we got back I started working on reinforcing the bed of the Volkswagen van with the steel sheets we bought. It has started to rust through and needs some work done on it before it gets too bad.

Starting to work on the truck bed.

Today, I continued the work on the truck bed. Midway through the day I took another load of dirt to Canaan. This time the dirt was loaded into the large work truck. It was the first time I drove this one and should have know that something was bound to happen....so here's the story. I ended up getting to Canaan just fine...except that I drove right past the entrance, which happens to me frequently. Usually I just turn around in the next open area, but since I had the large truck and a full load of dirt I didn't want to slam on the brakes, so I waited till the next spot I thought I could turn around in. Turning around on the roads here isn't the safest thing since trucks and buses barrel down the streets and once they honk, it's your job to move. Needles to say, I try to make any maneuver I do fast. I tried to turn around in one U-turn, but came up short and had to backup. While doing that, the dirt gave way under the back left tire and slide into a ditch. The truck got pulled in also and the truck was almost buried up to the drive shaft. I called Chris and he sent Jean with the smaller work truck to pull me out. Chris said that this stuff happens all the time and started to laugh on the phone. Before we could pull the truck out, we had to unload some of the dirt. After shoveling some of the dirt into the ditch, we quickly hooked up some straps and pulled the truck back into the street...and oncoming traffic. I then headed to Canaan to unload the rest of the dirt and went back to the mission to continue working on the truck.

One last thing. You may notice the "Current Weather" display on the right side of the blog. I found this online and thought it would be fun to show what the weather is like here. When I started writing this it was 91 degrees Fahrenheit. What I really want to show though, is the feels like temperature. It may have been 91 degrees, but the feels like temperature was 108 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't want to complain, but that is pretty hot....especially with no air-conditioning....ever.

A Visitor

2008-06-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

We kept pretty busy this past weekend since we had Chris' brother Ben in town and wanted to make sure we did some fun things. A lot of the stuff we did made me feel like I wasn't even in Haiti. We experienced some of the nicest things here and sometimes I forgot where I was in Haiti....except that it was 95 degrees and the humidity was off the chart...that's pretty hard to forget.

On Saturday we visited a missionary friend, Heather, and her three kids. They rent a house and part of the deal is that they can use the pool that is on the property. We all headed to the pool and found it pretty busy, but still had a lot of fun. The water was probably close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and didn't really cool us off any, but still felt better than being in the blazing sun. After that we visited Dennis, who works at the embassy. We had food and just sat outside and talked until we all got tired an headed home for bed.

On Sunday we went fishing with Dave and didn't catch a single thing....except a plastic bowl. It was extremely hot and we ended up swimming and trying to stay in as much shade since we were pretty crispy from being in the sun all morning on the boat.

Fishing

Later we went to Club Indigo and had a buffet style dinner. The food was very good and I ate more than I should have, but don't regret it at all. We woke up this morning and everyone was noticing how tired and soar we were. The heat and sun can take a lot out of you....it felt like I had done a very strenuous workout the day before.

Ben and Olivia

Accommodations At Club Indigo

A Long Week

2008-06-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Let's see....what has happened since Port-au-Prince on Monday? On Tuesday I painted the shelving unit I made for the kitchen and then we put it in place. I think it should work fine and will hopefully give some more space to store things in. After that I used the plasma cutter to cut steel sheets that are used to construct a filter mold. That takes a little while since I want to make sure I don't mess anything up because the price of steel is extremely expensive.

On Wednesday I spent the whole day replacing a tin roof on one of our buildings. It had been used as a platform to haul concrete to the roof for the dorm building. In the process, people had stepped where they shouldn't have and concrete was also spill on parts of the roof. When it rained, the roof would leak, so I replaced a section of the roof with new tin.

Part Of The Roof That Needed Replaced

Some of the workers here were clearing some of the trees so the telephone pole could be put up. They had tied a couple roped together and had it around one of the trees they were cutting with a machete. As Chris and a couple other guys started to pull as the tree was getting close to falling, the rope snapped and we all watched the tree slowly fall into the neighbors property and onto the roof of one of his buildings. Not a good thing, but we are pretty good friends with them so it should be alright. We just stood there for a second and everyone looked at each other, and then we started to laugh. There wasn't much else we could do and it was a little funny to watch.

Chris and Leslie mentioned that coffee beans are very cheap here. One of the things they do is buy the beans, have them roasted, and then send them back with people that visit Clean Water for Haiti. It helps to raise some money for the mission, but the main reason is for people to hear what is going on here. It is a good way for people who come to visit to take something back and share their story with friends, family, coworkers, their church, etc.

Fresh Roasted Coffee

On Thursday, Chris and I headed back to Port because his brother, Ben, was coming to visit for a few days. I drove from Pierre Payen to our first stop in Port. I'm getting more comfortable driving and learning what I can and shouldn't do. I did "bump" one of the stray dogs that roams the streets. Usually they will get out of the way and you can just keep going. I slowed down a little, but this dog moved slow and then we heard a whimper. Chris got out an looked, but the dog was off to the side of the road. I'm guessing I just bumped it....who knows. Ben's plane ended up being delayed about four hours, so we ended up getting quite a few errands ran while before he got in.

On Friday we took it kinda easy since Ben was visiting. We changed the tires on one of our vehicles and got a load of cinder blocks. At night we visited Dave and Judy and had rhubarb pie that Leslie had made. Chris asked his brother to bring rhubarb with him since you can't get it in Haiti. I had never had rhubarb pie before....it was very good.

Never A Dull Day

2008-06-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

So, on Monday Chris and I headed to Port-au-Prince with a load of filters. We left at 5:30 am because we wanted to beat some of the traffic in Port. However, we got a couple miles down the road and found out that one of our six tires was flat. Ok, no big deal. Flat tires are pretty common here. We get the spare loose and, of course, notice that it is also flat. When we had pulled off to the side of the road, someone who used to help out at Clean Water for Haiti was riding his bike by and offered to help us. He got his electric compressor so we could pump up one tire enough to make it to the next town where we could get the tube fixed....most car and truck tires here have tubes. After getting enough air in the tire to make it drivable, we headed to the tire repair guy.

The Flat Tire

We got both tires fixed and noticed we had low pressure in a third tire also. We had them pull the tube and look for leaks, but it checked out alright....after the hour and a half delay, we were back on the road and heading for town.

We met up with two other missionaries who are coordinating filter installations at some of the local prisons. We unloaded 10 filters at a women's shelter and then headed for a prison just outside of Port. I was told traffic wasn't too bad, but I thought it was still pretty crazy. After dropping off the filters and separating from the other missionaries, Chris and I set out to run some errands.

Our first stop was a hardware store to get interior doors for the dorm building, door knobs, hinges, and some other things we couldn't end up finding. The shopping system at this particular store is quite interesting though. When you walk in, you are basically assigned a guide and you tell them what you want as you walk around the store. Then he writes up a list and you take it to the cashier. After you pay for everything, they go back and collect everything on the receipt. Not a very efficient system, but their reason for doing it is to eliminate stealing.

After that, we went to another hardware store to get some other odds and ends and then went to get groceries. Our last stop of the day was a electrical supply company, called Elmeco.....which took us a while to find. Background: Chris has had to climb the telephone pole out by the street quite a few times to fix the power that comes from the city. People will cut the wires, run some to their home, and will mess something up that ends up ruining our connection. If it is not completely disconnected, then it can still cause fluctuating current. To combat this, Chris and a neighbor have decided to put a transformer between their properties so that no one can climb up it and tap into the power. So, we went to Elmeco to get the telephone pole, transformer, and other miscellaneous parts for the installation. I'll let the next few picture speak for themselves:

Loading The Transformer

Chris Anticipating The Fun Drive Home

Is This Thing Long Enough?

We loaded the 550 lb transformer into the bed and then found plenty of room available for the 40 ft, 800 lb telephone pole. This was the only way to get it home, and in Haiti, no one really cares. We passed plenty of police and they just waved as we drove down the street.

I wanted to get some pictures of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area since I haven't shown any yet. However, since my camera is decently sized, it can be a pain to carry everywhere. Also, you have to be very careful about taking pictures in the city because some people get upset. Chris and Leslie said one of their family members took a quick photo out of the truck and a couple seconds later a rock was hurled through the window. So, I borrowed a camera from Chris and Leslie because they have a small digital camera that I can carry around in my pocket. I tried to discretely take some photos while we were driving around. The following are some of the pictures that turned out during our trip.

UN Troops

The City

A Water Source

Housing

Another Weekend

2008-06-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

Another fun weekend in Haiti has passed and I am winding down getting ready to get some sleep and start another work week. Before I head to bed though I wanted to recap what happened this weekend....I feel like so much happens here and if I don't write it down the day it happens then I forget a lot of the little things. Saturday I broke out Chris's guitars. One of them had very old strings on it that had rusted and didn't sound very good anymore. I brought a set of strings with me, so I changed the stings and also filed the bridge down to lower the action (get the strings closer to the frets/neck) so it is easier to play. This should give me something to play now.

We also celebrated Leslie's birthday on Saturday.....even though it is actually tomorrow. We had a lot of people stop by the house and say hi. Some stayed and we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and had cheesecake for desert.

Chris and Leslie

Some people at the party had never picked mangoes before, so Chris sent them to the top of the dorm building with the mango stick and let them loose. It was pretty funny watching them try to get mangoes to fall in the basket.

Mango Mission

One of Chris and Leslie's friends, Dennis, stopped by and took people out on his sail boat for about an hour. There was a storm approaching and the winds were great for sailing. After everyone left the party, the storm blew in and we sat on the porch and watched the rain and lightning.

Start of the Storm

Today we had our biweekly missionary meeting. It was my first one since I've been here. It was just Chris, Leslie, me, and six people from the orphanage down the road. I guess a lot of the missionaries in the area have gone home or are on vacation. It was good though. Chris played the guitar and then we did a short time of reflecting on what we have been dealing in Haiti and how to regain a healthy perspective and strength from God. After that Joel was noticing that the sore on his leg was oozing puss. Everyone was intrigued and it was decided that it should be squeezed to remove whatever was inside. A good deal of material was removed....and we're still not sure what exactly the sore is from. Joel said that it felt like something stung him and then his leg was really achy, but that it had been feeling better. Well, hopefully getting that stuff out will help it heal even faster.

Joel Getting Looked At

The Sore

Tonight Chris, Leslie, Olivia, and I went to visit some friends, Dave and Judy , that live close to Pierre Payen. I would give you the name of the town, but I have no idea how to spell it....that happens a lot for me. They own a very nice home with an amazing garden. It was very relaxing to stay there for a little while and have tea and pie. While we were talking, mangoes would fall from the tree every few minutes and Chris would go collect them. He ate quite a few while were there and then brought back about a dozen or so. The variety they have is one that Chris and Leslie don't have on their property, so Chris likes to take some home when he gets a chance.

Dave and Judy's Back Yard

Dock Where We Had Tea

Overcast Night, But No Rain

On the way back there were a lot of people out and the city power had been turned on. Leslie said that was because the Haitian national soccer team had a match today in Port-au-Prince. Everyone here loves to watch soccer if they can find a TV to crowd around and apparently if they don't get to watch the game because there is no power, they tend to start riots. I road in the back of the truck since the cab will only fit Olivia's car seat and two other people....I don't mind though...it's something you never get to do in the States. I took a little video of the ride.

Now we are back home and getting ready for bed. Chris and I are heading to Port-au-Prince tomorrow with a load of filters to distribute at a prison. We are waking up at 5:00 am to head out early so we can beat the traffic in Port-au-Prince. Well, I'm sure I'll have some more to write about after tomorrow....I've only been in Port one day, but it seems like there is always going to be something unexpected that happens when you are in that city.

Still Learning

2008-06-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, I finished grinding and welding the second door for the new dorm building. During the grinding process a piece of metal somehow found its way behind my safety glasses and into my eye. I can't find it in my eye, but it sure feels like something is in there. Oh well, it'll go away on its own....right? Also, when I was welding a piece of molten metal found its way onto my foot and burnt a small hole in my skin...that didn't feel very good either.

I also removed the filters from the mold and the picture below shows what we pulled out.

Yesterday and today I worked on a shelf and counter top for Chris and Leslie's kitchen. Chris doesn't like working with wood and I said that I didn't mind making it for them. This week is a little different than most because we don't have a lot of our Haitian workers, so production of filters is going slowly. Next week should be more of a normal work week though. Below is a picture of the shelf I built without the counter top.

Today, I went in to Saint Marc with Leslie to pick up groceries. Saint Marc is the closest town that has a grocery store....it is probably about 10 miles away, but it takes around 30-45 minutes to get into town depending on the traffic and the potholes you encounter along the way. On the way back, Leslie let me drive so that I can start to get more comfortable with the roads. We have two work trucks and a Volkswagen for trips when we aren't trying to haul supplies. I got to drive the smaller of the work trucks:

Today was also laundry day. Since our washing machine is broke, all of our clothes have to washed by hand....the way most Haitians do it. It will be nice to have everything clean again.

I've just finished the first full work week and I think things went pretty well. We are celebrating Leslie's birthday on Saturday and are expecting somewhere between 30 and 40 people to stop by. It should be fun and I'm Looking forward relaxing a little and meeting some new people.

Take It As It Comes

2008-06-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I worked with Leslie and one of our Haitian staff to conduct a test using the biosand filter. I won't bore you with the details, but I got to see how a filter is filled with gravel, sand, and a diffuser plate. Pretty interesting stuff and it's cool to see how they function. After the test I worked on my Creole for a bit with Evens and then on my own. I have a hard time memorizing things, but I hope I can learn the language relatively fast if I spend a decent amount of time with it each day.

Later, Chris and I ran to the hardware store to grab a few miscellaneous parts. After stopping by three hardware stores, we found what we needed at the fourth. When I say hardware store, I am referring to a concrete hut on the side of the road where someone has collected random parts and will sell them to you if you have some money. During one of our stops we were offered something to eat by the vendors in the street. Chris took a cup and started eating and I followed suit. He asked me if I wanted to know what I was eating and I thought for a second....then said, "Let's wait till I'm finished." I later found that it was conch. Like the shell you blow into to make a sound. I found a picture of the thing online:

A Conch In Its Shell

They had cut it into strips and then poured some kind of hot sauce on it. It didn't have a whole lot of taste other than the hot sauce, but it chewed like it was made of rubber bands. After we ate a cup full and got our hardware supplies, we made it about 100 yards before the truck stalled and we couldn't get it started. We determined that we had run out of fuel and borrowed a container from someone on the street and hitched a ride back to the local gas station. After filling the tank with a gallon of gas, the fuel pump decided not to prime. Chris popped off a few tubes and minutes later we were back up and running. When we got back, Chris ran me through the basics with the dirt bike. It is a one cylinder, four stroke, 600 cc bike. There is no key and no electric starter...to kick start that large of a bike takes a good jump in the air. Chris warmed it up for me and then let me start it a few times.

The Bike

I'm pretty tired today from the work that I did. I started the day helping one of the workers put together five filter molds. Theses are the steal forms that are used to construct the filters. We brush all the pieces with vegetable oil so that when break apart the mold, the concrete won't stick to the steal. After that we put the molds together using bolts. Then we insert the water tube and start mixing concrete on the ground. If you've never mixed concrete on the floor with a shovel, your missing out. Let's just say that two guys get pretty tired mixing enough concrete to make five filters. Below are the completed forms filled with concrete.

Filled Forms

I forgot to mention. Since our concrete vibrating wand is broke, we have to use a rubber mallet and hit the sides of the mold to get all the air out of the concrete. After hitting it a few thousand times, my hands stared to hurt and I knew that I should be wearing a pair of glove so I wouldn't get blisters. However, that would require me to go find a pair. As many of you know (mostly guys), it's a lot easier to just keep working. Well, below is one of the blisters I received because I didn't feel like going to get a pair of gloves.

The Aftermath

By the way, we use the same filters to get our drinking water in our home that we install for Haitians. After completing the filters, Chris had me get comfortable with the MIG welder and the plasma cutter. I cut out a large fan shaped steal beam structure from the doors that we are going to be installing on the new dorm building. Then I welded a steel sheet in its place.

Door After The Fan Structure Has Been Removed

Door With The Steal Sheet Welded In Place

The Nicer Side of Haiti

2008-06-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I got to have some fun and see some of the nicest landscape close to where I'm staying. On Saturday we met up with some people that work down the street at an orphanage. Ten of us piled into the Volkswagen van (the one in the picture below) and headed for a secluded part of the beach. Seven of us rode in the back and due to the Haitian roads, we were all pretty soar by the time we arrived. It can be hard to find a spot on the beach or in the mountains where you won't see people. This was one of those places that Chris and Leslie go to get away from everyone and everything. There was a light house that some of us climbed and were able to get a great view of the surrounding area.

The VW Van

Lighthouse

View From The Lighthouse

Where We Swam

An Exoskeleton - Not sure I want to meet its owner.

On Sunday Chris and I hiked up to a place where water flows from a nearby mountain. A couple rivers/streams meet up and they call it "the source". A while back, a German organization built a facility to generate electricity from the water, but in order for the system to start and continue to run, it must have electricity from the city. When the city power is on 10%-20% of the time, it doesn't do a lot of good. While we were up there we met some kids that would let me take their picture if they could wear our sunglasses. We jumped in the cool, fresh water, and it was the cleanest I have felt since I've been in Haiti.....very refreshing.

Some Of The Local Kids

The Source

Water Plants

A Nice View

Day Two

2008-06-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first full day in Haiti. I woke up at 5:45 am and started the day off with a fresh mango from Chris and Leslie's garden. Then I got the tour of the facilities and started helping with any tasks I could. There was a drill press that had a broken switch on it, so Chris asked me to take a look at it and see if I could fix it.

When a switch breaks on anything around here, the typical thing to do is use a light switch to replace the broken one. Well, the broken switch had 3 connecting wires and a light switch has two. Knowing that one was for the ground and not having a working multimeter, I tried certain configurations to see if I could get it to work. After a couple trials, I found one that did something...however, not exactly what I was expecting. Somehow I had wired a short and when I plugged the drill press in, it bogged down the generator, the lights started flickering, I heard a loud pop, and saw sparks coming from the plug. By the end of this the plug had been ejected from the socket and I was a couple feet away with my hands over my head. Not what I wanted to do on my first project.

After looking at the damage, I saw that the cord's insulation had been melted and the switch was fried. With Chris's help I found a new cord and switch, and wired the drill properly. Everything works and there was no major damage done....thankfully. After that Leslie and I took Olivia to get here vaccinations at the local hospital in Pierre Payen. On the way back we walked through the market in town and everyone makes comments at us, but I have no idea what they are saying. The rest of the day was pretty low key and I am staring to work on learning Creole. I took a few pictures of the living arrangements and they are posted below.

Chris and Leslie's Home

The Back Porch

View From Back Porch

Our Water Supply

My Room - 1

My Room - 2

The Bathroom and Laundry Room

Driers do not exist here and our washer is currently broke.

Greetings From Haiti

2008-06-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

After waiting a long time to go and do water quality work, I have finally begun the adventure. I arrived in Port-au-Prince airport at 11:30 am local time. I'm not exactly sure what time zone Haiti is on...we are an hour behind eastern time in the states and I think the Dominican Republic and all the other Caribbean islands are on eastern time, so I'm not sure why we aren't either. Maybe it has to do with daylight saving time. Then again, maybe it is simply because Haiti seems to make there own rules. Anyway, I think I should also comment that the international airport here is nothing like you've ever seen in the U.S. I wish I could have gotten a few pictures, but I was more worried about getting my luggage, trying to ward off everyone that wanted to "help" me with my bags, and finding Chris (Chris and Leslie are who I'm working and staying with in Haiti).

After I found Chris, we headed to the hardware store to meet up with Evens (a Haitian worker for Clean Water for Haiti), who was buying supplies that will be used in the construction of the new dorm building. I mention that we went to the hardware store and I'm about to move on to the next event, when I realize how involved simply buying things can be. We gather everything up and pay for them, but on the way out they have to check the receipt and verify that everything in the cart is also on the receipt. This sounds simple, but when they are checking multiple people at the same time, it can get complicated. It ended up taking about 45 minutes just for them to get us from the cash register to the door...which are about 25 feet apart. At one point Chris had handed me some screw nuts and I was holding them as they checked the receipt. While I was waiting the security guard was looking at me and motioned at me saying something in Creole. I didn't know what he said, but given the fact that he was carrying a shotgun, I wasn't about to ignore him and hope he went away. I found out he wanted to know if the nuts had been payed for. I put them back in the cart and everything was fine. I never felt unsafe, I just mention the story for one, to scare my mom a little (sorry mom), and two, to say that these things don't happen in the U.S., but are common place here.

After that, Chris had to go to a class for three hours because his license was taken away for a traffic violation. I went with Evens and some other to pick up food and other supplies in our truck. On the way to get the food we didn't have enough room for everyone, so Evens and I rode in the back of the truck.

After waiting for an hour or so, it was our turn to get food loaded up. After they loaded the truck to the brim with food, I thought it was time to go. They had other plans. They kept coming out with pallets of desks and lunchroom tables. Every time we fit another pallet of desk on top, I was sure it was time to go. But they would just go back and get another load. The problem is that if you don't take the supplies when they offer, you run the risk of them not being there the next time you come.

Next, we threw a large tarp over everything and headed back to Pierre Payen. Oh, did I mention that the roads here are not exactly flat....I've heard that they are a lot better than they used to be, but they still have a lot of holes and sections with no asphalt or concrete. Basically, it was the bumpiest ride I have ever had. On the way, we had a couple accidents where tables would fall off the truck and we would stop and pick them up off the street and put them back on, trying to make it a little more secure than the time before. Once we unloaded the food and tables, I got dropped off at Chris and Leslie's house...it was after dark by this time. We unloaded everything from the hardware store and then I moved into what will be my new home for a while. Eventually I will be staying on the second floor of the dorm building, but for now I am staying in a room in Chris and Leslie's house until the other building is finished.

We ate dinner together and got better acquainted for a couple hours. We sat outside for a little bit and I experienced the bugs of Haiti in full force. I have never been attacked that bad by mosquitoes in my life. After that I was pretty tired, partly because of getting two hours of sleep the night before and also because of the stress, heat, and new environment I had just experienced. I crawled in my mosquito net and listened to the many sounds that are present where we live. I slept pretty well and woke at 5:45 am when my alarm when off. The typical work day here goes from 6:00 am till around 2:30 pm.

I think that is all I will say for now. That gives a pretty good synopsis of what happened my first day here. Today has also been interesting, but I'll fill you in on that later.

Getting Closer

2008-05-24T23:40:00.001-07:00

Update: I have moved back from Sacramento, CA to Monclova, OH where I am staying with my parents until I leave for Haiti. Since getting back in Ohio, I have kept busy with being the best-man in Phil Rumschlag's wedding, traveling to Cincinnati to see college friends, and starting to get ready for my departure to Haiti. Things have been going great and I am enjoying the time with family and friends, getting everything in order, and relaxing a little before leaving the country. I very excited to see how the next couple weeks play out.

Phil & April

The Start

2008-04-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

So, I am going to be using this means of communication to hopefully keep my friends and family up to date on what is going on in my life. I will be going to Haiti in a couple months and I guess a blog will be the easiest (and cheapest) way to get information to a lot of people.....plus I don't really know if I can afford paying outrageous phone bills. Hope this thing works.