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.