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.