Time to Relax

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.