Finally Captured

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.