Getting Back to Normal

Last Saturday Mark and I wanted to get away for part of the day so we decided to go to the light house beach to do some snorkeling.  The water is usually pretty clear there and not a lot of people go, so it is a chance to not be starred at the whole time you are trying to relax.  We set out a little before lunch and after stopping at a few gas stations, we finally found one that had diesel.  After filling up we got on the path to go to the beach, but found that the road was still in pretty bad shape from all the water the hurricanes brought.  The road is pretty steep and with the recent trenches that had been carved, it proved to be difficult to drive on.  We got to a part in the road shown below, and tried to turn the truck around but couldn't even get close because of how steep it was and the loose dirt and rocks.

We decided to proceed forward and after a few more sections like these, we came across a few locals.  They proceeded to tell us that the road got worse farther down and that it was impassable.  Our only option was to turn back, but I was unsure if we could make it up what we had just descended.  We decided to make it to an open section so we could turn around.  We ended up having to use a lot of rocks to fill in some of the trenches so that I could drive over them without getting the tire stuck.  After we got turned around, we loaded the truck with a full bed of large rocks in order to give us better traction.  The entire trip up consisted of me inching the truck forward with Mark and the two locals telling me to turn my wheel this way or that, getting stuck, filling holes with rocks, and shifting rocks in the back of the truck.  It was a long trip, but eventually we made it back to the national highway.  The trip took about 5 hours and we never did end up making it to the beach or doing any snorkeling.  Not the relaxing day we had thought it was going to be, but it was another adventure that always seems to be around every corner.

On Tuesday, Chris and I went to Port to pick up Erik and Susie from the airport.  Erik is Chris' friend from college.  Before we picked them up we did the usual errands but also met with Roman, who is a former Clean Water for Haiti volunteer.  He now works with Pure Water for the World in Port and is building biosand filters.  We got to see his production site and talk to him about collaborating on some projects in the future.

Thursday I went with Bobbi, Elsie, and Pastor Henry on a trip to Petite Goave.  Canaan works with a few churches in the area and cannot get to some of the churches because of the flooding.  We went to one of the accessible churches and met with the pastor and then drove as far into Petite Goave as we could get. The highway has been flooded and everyone is now using small boats to take things from one side to the other.  A large fuel truck tried to cross and ended up getting stuck and spilling all his fuel into the water.  The truck has been left there and will have to wait until the water goes down before getting out.

On Friday we went to visit Barb in Saint-marc and see the school she runs.  We also installed a filter in Barb's new home and fixed a filter at the school and the principal's home.

Finally to the good news:  The temporary bridge in Montrouis has been opened.  Friday we found out that    the bridge they have been working on for the last couple weeks is now open to traffic.  Yesterday we went to visit the Hopps and used the bridge.  It was great to be able to drive all the way and not have to switch vehicles or fight with the thousands of people around the damaged bridge.  We have all been pretty impressed with the timely work they have been doing since the hurricane.  It may be slow compared to standards in America, but for Haiti it is a real sign of progress to have things play out the way they did.

Rescue Mission(s)

It has been a long week and I really haven't had time until now to sit down and write about what has been going on here. I've had a few people post comments saying they want to hear the stories from this week, so I'll try and get everyone up-to-date.

Let's start with last Sunday. We had our biweekly missionary meeting and a ton of people showed up. Everyone is finally back from furlough and we had about 15 people come. It was nice to finally meet the people that I had always been hearing mentioned in conversations and also having more people in our area to connect with. Chris was still feeling sick so when we were ready to start the meeting he told everyone that I was going to be leading worship. Well, I didn't realize I was going to be doing this so I went and grabbed his guitar and a few chord sheets that I had and gave it my best shot. That was the first time I have lead worship or played in front of more than a couple people. It was good though and I enjoyed having the opportunity to do it. After the meeting Chris broke out the ice cream we had made the day before and everyone was taken back about how good it was. We used some of the bananas and kówósól that came out of our garden.

Monday started out like any other normal day but ended up playing out differently than I had expected. The short version: Matthew and a gentleman from CAM stopped by on their way to Gonaives. Matthew was going to be visiting the local prison there. After they left, I had to make two trips to take water to the Canaan orphanage. I then made another trip to Montrouis to get a few plumbing supplies and 40 sacks of cement...this is extremely stressful because of all the mayhem that goes on near the broken bridge in Montrouis. When I got home and was talking to Chris about how busy the area is around the bridge, he got a call from Matthew saying they were stuck on the bypass road in Gonaives. Apparently they had a little run in with a dump truck and the front rim on their motorcycle got the worst of it. It was bent and they were unable to continue to ride home. I hopped in the truck with Evens and we headed toward them. Now, Gonaives is the place where some of the worst flooding has happened in Haiti. I have never been north of Saint-marc and was glad to have Evens with me in case something came up along the way. We drove for a little over two hours and finally made it to Matthew. We loaded the bike up and then drove another two and a half hours back to Pierre Payen. When we got back to the mission, I had just enough time to hop out of the truck before Chris told me to get back in. We were going to drop Matthew off at the bridge in Montrouis and then go to Canaan for dinner. On the way Chris told me he had gotten a phone call while I was gone and through a friend of a friend, we were being asked to help transport 40 or so orphans that were stuck in Gonaives. I said that I would be up to help. After we dropped of Matthew we headed to dinner at Canaan and I felt a little grubby and sorry for the people sitting close to me. Driving in Haiti is anything like driving in America. The roads are horrible and it can be extremely stressful...with all the dust and sweat that occur during a drive, you end up feeling and looking like you have run a half marathon.

Anyway, on Tuesday I was supposed to pick up some Americans around 7:30 am in Montrouis. They had arrived in Haiti to help the orphanage, but were unable to travel to Gonaives because of the impassable bridge in Montrouis. This is where our mission comes in. We have a large truck that could transport the kids from Gonaives to Montrouis. Well, we didn't get a call until 9:30 am saying that the cell phone towers were not working in Montrouis and that the Americans were there waiting for us. In headed out and met them close to the bridge. They went back across the bridge and dot their supplies. While I was waiting with the truck I was talking to two kids that were hanging out close to me. While we were talking one of them pulled out a set of headphones...the small ones that fit in your ear. I could see that the wires coming from the headphones were cut and didn't lead to anything. He put them in his ears, tucked the wires inside the neck of his t-shirt, and then started to dance. I asked him if he heard anything and he said no...all of us, including him, just laughed and we kept watching as he tried out his moves. When the Americans returned, we loaded up everything and we headed out to Gonaives...a little later than we wanted, but that's how it goes.

This story probably begins once we got the the bypass road in Gonaives that I had just been to the day before. The bypass road is pretty ruff and has to be taken slow because there are large holes and water that is hard to know how deep it is until your driving through it. As we were driving, one of the Americans in the back of the truck decided to throw out some food to a couple kids near the road.....not a good idea. It only took a couple seconds before they had screamed "manje" (food) and kids were running out of everywhere. I was afraid that one was going to run out in front o the truck. After we escaped the scene we told the guy who threw the food not to do it again and he agreed that it probably wasn't the best idea.

After we got off the bypass road and back onto Route National 1, we saw how bad the flooding still was. I snapped these pictures out the window of the truck as we were wading through the water that was still covering the road.

The first time we got the truck stuck was because a strip of asphalt had been washed away in the road and was covered in water. Our right side, front tire fell into the crevice and we were unable to move forward or back ward because of how deep it was and the lack of traction for the rear wheels. After assembling a half a dozen locals, we were able to push it out and get it back on a solid part of the road. For a while after that, someone walked in front of me with a stick to test out all the puddles and mud to see how deep it was and if it was safe to drive through. We dropped some off their supplies at someone's home in the area and then headed for the orphanage. The pastor of the orphanage was riding in front with me and was supposed to be telling me where he thought it was safe to drive. At one point he got a phone call, and a couple minutes after he started talking the right side of the truck ended up in mud and water that was up to my knee. We were there for about 25 or 30 minutes trying to push and pull the truck from this mess, but to no avail. Over a dozen locals came to see what was going on and ended up trying to help us get it out. All together it took about 15 people pushing to get the truck moving and eventually free it. After a couple more incidents we finally were within 200 yards of the orphanage before this happened:

After 45 minutes of shoveling and pushing, we decided it would be best to leave the truck where it was since we would have to drive right back out in the morning with all the orphans. The pastor knew some of the people that lived there, so we payed them to sleep in the truck and make sure nothing happened to it overnight. After the hurricane, people found their vehicles with missing tires, batteries, broken windows, etc...so we wanted to make sure we had something to get us home in the morning.

We got our bags and walked the rest of the way to the orphanage. On the way a large truck carrying diesel full came down the same road we were on. For some reason I didn't take a picture, so let me describe it to you. Imagine the front of a semi truck attached to a large flat bed that has three huge tanks for carrying diesel fuel. There are eight tires on the trailer and each is about five feet in diameter. Each one is somewhere around two and a half feet wide and they all stick out outside of the footprint of the trailer...basically this thing is a monster. As it passed the part where our truck got stuck, it tore up the mud and made huge ruts. I was glad we had not gotten through there because, there was not way we could have gotten out after that truck had torn everything up. Fifty or so yards after our truck the semi ended up getting stuck. We walked past and watched for a little bit, but there was nothing we could do because the truck was so heavy that no amount of guys pushing on it would do anything. Shortly after we got the orphanage it started raining. Just what the area needed.....more rain. They had already done a lot of clean-up of removing mud from inside the buildings, but a lot of the land was destroyed, walls had been knocked down, and anything else that was outside was either washed away or damaged.

We slept on the floor and in the morning we gathered up some supplies and all the children and loaded everything in the back of the truck.

It took about 10 yards before this happened:

By this time we were used to being stuck so we just followed the normal routine. We unloaded most of the older kids, started shoveling, and then had everyone start pushing. It only took a little little while and we were free and on to the next challenge:

We saw this one coming and before we simply headed into it like our normal routine, we knew we had to plan a little more carefully than normal. I could go through how we all discussed the best route and tactic, but instead I'll just let you watch how it went:

We only had to shovel a little bit after that and we were home free. That was the final time we got stuck even though we did have a couple more close calls. On the bypass road we did have to wait for a while because a Caterpillar 972H wheel loader had rolled off the road and gotten stuck in the mud. They brought another 972H and pulled it out...that was interesting to watch. When we finally reached the Montrouis bridge I got us as close to the bridge and ended up blocking everything and people started yelling at us, but my main goal was to unload all the orphans and make sure they made it across the bridge to the vehicles that were waiting on the other side. We got everything unloaded and they headed off to Cabaret where the orphans will be staying. I headed back home and after arriving, tried to convey some of what had happened and how Gonaives looked to Chris.

Yesterday, Leslie got back from her stint in America. It was good to have her back here and things are starting to feel more normal again. Last night I went with Elsie and Bobbi to the YWAM base in Saint-marc. Bobbi, who just arrived two weeks ago to help out at Canaan, met another girl (Shekinah) on the plane to Haiti that was going to be volunteering at the YWAM base. She invited her, and in turn Elsie and me, to her birthday party. I had never met Shekinah before, but I figured her birthday party was as good of a place as any....I'm not sure if that is rude typically, but in Haiti it felt pretty normal. We had a good time and played a few games, had cake, and made some new friends. It ended up being a late night, and I realized how few the opportunities are to have have a social life after dark.

Ok, this thing took a long time to write and it has been another long day with a funny story just waiting to be told, but that will have to wait for another day......

Baby Duty

On Tuesday Chris took Leslie to the airport in Port and I stayed home to look after Olivia.  I have received a lot of comments calling my ability to take care of a baby into question.  While I assume that the majority of these are simply jokes, it still doesn't do a lot for one's self esteem.  I have taken care of kids before and even used to babysit a long time ago as a part-time job.  Relying on that experience and the fact that Olivia is pretty much the easiest baby to take care of, everything went quite well.  No crazy stories to tell or anything else to report, which is probably a good thing.

This week has been a bit hectic with Chris and I trying to take care of Olivia and also get work done and coordinate everything going on at the mission.  This week the stairs to go the second story of the dorm were poured, the second story of the dorm construction has started, the solar panel support structure is being built and assembled, plus all the other normal work that goes into building filters.  The support structure for the solar panels is proving to be difficult to assemble 25 ft in the air.  We have had try and then reevaluate how to accomplish everything.  With the height, span between columns, weight of the steal, and extreme heat in the sun, things are progressing slowly.  One of our workers fell of a ladder and landed on the roof.  He didn't fall too far and was unhurt, but it was a wake up call to everyone that we need to be careful and take everyone's safety very serious.

On Thursday we had some people come from Port that wanted to see our mission and how things ran.  This would normally not be too difficult, but with everything already being hectic and the fact that we have to pick them up in Montrouis because the bridge is still impassable, it added to the stress and confusion already present.  Chris and I were invited to Canaan to have dinner.  This was a nice treat since we didn't have to cook and got to visit with friends.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day removing the formwork for the dorm stairs...this basically consisted of a lot of hammering and nail pulling.

Last night I went to Canaan again, this time to participate in movie night.  On the weekend, the kids will all gather and watch a movie that is setup with a projector.  Things were kinda crazy because everyone was putting together bags of food and toiletries that they would be handing out to people affected by the hurricanes.  After that was all accomplished and the mess was cleaned, we got the movie ready and tried to calm down.

A Quick Update

First, I just want to say thanks for all the encouragement and support from people in the midst of what is going on here in Haiti.  It is great to get comments and emails from friends and family who remind me there are people behind me and the work that is going on here.  

Over the weekend we had Hurricane Ike pass well north of us.  It was a category four when it was passing by, so we did get some rain and a steady amount of wind, but it was extremely tame and quick compared to Hanna.  We only got a couple inches of rain here in Pierre Payen, but we did hear that some parts of Haiti got more and again had problems with flooding.  Because of Ike, we had to cancel the missionary meeting.  There have been a lot of people that have returned to Haiti in the past couple weeks and it was going to be a chance for everyone to reunite, and for me to meet most for the first time, but we'll have to wait till next week.  However, Elsie and Mark, from Canaan ended up stopping by in the afternoon on Sunday.  Mark has just arrived in Haiti and is heading up the school and education program at the orphanage. He is planning to be in Haiti for at least a year. It was good to have another person here to relate to, especially someone close in age...most missionaries I've met here are older than me and there is nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to have someone in a similar stage of life to communicate with.  

Today, we started welding the support structure for the solar panels.  This proves to be a little more complicated than it sounds because the structure is very large and we are using scaffolding that sways a decent amount since it is so high in the air.  I didn't take any pictures, but I'll try and do that soon so you have an idea of what I'm talking about.  After that I went with Jean and Israel to deliver around 35 filters that we had sold last week.  We had to carry a lot of the filters up rocky paths and through mud....by the end of it I was completely exhausted.  However, when I got back Chris asked if I could would help him go on a diesel run.  We were told that of all the gas stations in the area, most were out of gas, and some were starting to run out of diesel.  This is happening because a lot other roads and bridges are impassable and fuel trucks can't get around the country yet.  If we are unable to buy diesel and run out of fuel for our generator, we are can't continue welding.  So, we loaded up all the containers and headed for the closest station we knew had fuel.  When we got back we grabbed a few guys and unloaded the tanks.  We have a few tanks that are 40 gallons...we estimate these to be around 300 lbs when full.  We had three guys and we were unloading them off a truck and onto a shelf in a small generator room.....not the easiest thing to do, but we got it done.  After that I jumped in the shower and tried to stay awake until dinner.  

Tomorrow, Leslie is leaving to fly home for a while.  Chris is driving her into Port and will spend the day there getting different things accomplished.  This will be the first time any of us has gone to Port since the hurricanes so it will be interesting to see the condition of everything.  They are going to have to walk across the Montrouis bridge and borrow a vehicle, since traffic is still not allowed to pass over the bridge.  I'm going to be staying at the mission making sure things are alright here, but my main task will be taking care of Olivia.  I have to be up pretty early and I can barely stay awake while I'm typing this, so I think I'm going to head to bed.

Hurricane Aftermath

The rain has stopped and Haiti is now trying to pull itself back together.  Yesterday, Chris and I ran around the area assessing the damage and finding out whatever information was available.  The rivers had risen higher, homes had washed away, and fields of crops had been destroyed.  

The Montrouis River

One of the Neighborhood Homes

Michel, one of our workers, stopped by and told us that a large rock had washed down from the hillside and rolled into his house.  We went to check it out and found this:

The rock was more of a boulder...about 5 feet in diameter.  It crashed into his house in the middle of the night, breaking the wall and throwing him off his bed.  No one was injured, but because of the steep hillside around his home and a church being directly downhill, there is no way to move or break the boulder.  They are going to have to find another place to live.

Later, Chris got a call from Jan Filip, our night guard, saying that he couldn't make it to our house because the foot bridge in the Pierre Payen corridor had been washed away.  Chris and I hiked up to where the bridge used to be and saw this:

Just before dark we got word that the Montrouis bridge was starting to collapse. This bridge is on the national highway and connects northern and southern Haiti. Without the bridge, it would cripple food and supplies transportation and remove the only way for us to get to and from Port-au-Prince. Once again, Chris and I hopped in the truck and to find out what was going on.  If we could drive across, the plan was to leave one vehicle on the other side so we could at least get to Port if we had to. When we arrived, people were everywhere and tires were being used to block off access to the bridge.  There was a definitive dip in the bridge, but we decided that it was probably safe enough to cross.  However, the police that were present would not let us drive across. We headed back with the hope that that in the morning when the river had died down they might let smaller vehicles pass.

Chris got a call just before 8 pm from some people at the local orphanage here.  They had purchased supplies in Port-au-Prince and were stuck on the far side of the Montrouis bridge.  The police were letting people walk across, so they carried everything over the bridge and we met them with one of our trucks and transported everything back to the orphanage for them.

Yesterday was a long day.  All the running around and trying to figure out what we could do to help really stressed us all out.

Today, I went with our workers into the local community to talk with people about the biosand filters. We started selling them at a fraction of what we used to so that everyone can get one if they need it.  We started close to the highway and worked our way up the mountain.  One of our workers lives at the top of the mountain and knows almost everyone in the area because he walks the path five times a weeks.    People seemed to respond well.

Hurricane Hanna

Over the weekend I traveled to La Gonâve.  I was going to write about what happened, but with all the severe weather that has been occurring lately, I will save that story for another time and give an update regarding the recent tropical storms.  Our internet cuts in and out due to the storms, but hopefully I will be able get this update out today.

Gustav dropped somewhere between 3.5 and 4 inches of rain here in Pierre Payen, but some places in the south of Haiti received substantially more.  I've heard reports that 77 people have died from Gustav and now we are currently in the middle of another hurricane...Hanna.  Last night I went to bed after seeing that Hanna was well North of Haiti and was supposed to be heading northwest.  I heard a little rain while trying to fall asleep but when I woke up, the wind and rain had picked up a lot and I found a decent amount of water on my bedroom floor.  I went outside the dorm building and saw a lot of our yard under water.  Overnight, Hanna had slowly tracked South and was hitting Haiti harder than expected.

This morning, Chris and I drove to the Montrouis River to see how bad it was flooding.  The force of the rushing water is eroding the landscape and destroying whatever is in its path.

Later, Chris, Leslie and I stood under the back deck and watched Dennis' boat fill with water as the waves broke over it.  It didn't take long for the entire thing to be under water and then we started getting oars and other parts of it washing onto the beach.  The boat is still upright with the mast sticking out of the water.  Hopefully it stays like this until all this passes.  Here is a picture a few minutes before it started sinking.

We've heard that there is flooding in Gonaives. In 2004, a hurricane hit the northern part of Haiti and Gonaives flooded.  3,000 people died as a result, the majority being from the city of Gonaives.  It is currently still pouring here and we've already heard that parts of the city are under 9 meters of water.  This sounds like a repeat of 2004 and there will undoubtedly be a lot of people displaced and many casualties.