Food for Thought

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

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...

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?

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

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

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

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

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.