Hurricane Gustav

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

That's A Downer

What do you see in the picture below?

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

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

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

A couple other things that happened this week:

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

Some Things Are Hard To Understand

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

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


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

Our Transportation

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

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

Nels eating peanuts that he had spilled on the floor.

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

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

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

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

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

Coconuts Anyone?

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

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

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

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

One of our workers picking a few coconuts.

Part of the yield from our trees.

Is That Your Pile Of Rocks?

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

Apparently this river is normally just a trickle.

Some of the mud.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wait Up

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

Chris and Kameal enjoying the view

One of the old cannons that has survived

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

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

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

Living Simply

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

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

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

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

Holding tanks for the Talapia

Esther (Matthew's daughter) admiring a cactus tree

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

My bed and desk

The other side of the room

My bathroom

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