Take It As It Comes

Yesterday I worked with Leslie and one of our Haitian staff to conduct a test using the biosand filter. I won't bore you with the details, but I got to see how a filter is filled with gravel, sand, and a diffuser plate. Pretty interesting stuff and it's cool to see how they function. After the test I worked on my Creole for a bit with Evens and then on my own. I have a hard time memorizing things, but I hope I can learn the language relatively fast if I spend a decent amount of time with it each day.

Later, Chris and I ran to the hardware store to grab a few miscellaneous parts. After stopping by three hardware stores, we found what we needed at the fourth. When I say hardware store, I am referring to a concrete hut on the side of the road where someone has collected random parts and will sell them to you if you have some money. During one of our stops we were offered something to eat by the vendors in the street. Chris took a cup and started eating and I followed suit. He asked me if I wanted to know what I was eating and I thought for a second....then said, "Let's wait till I'm finished." I later found that it was conch. Like the shell you blow into to make a sound. I found a picture of the thing online:

A Conch In Its Shell

They had cut it into strips and then poured some kind of hot sauce on it. It didn't have a whole lot of taste other than the hot sauce, but it chewed like it was made of rubber bands. After we ate a cup full and got our hardware supplies, we made it about 100 yards before the truck stalled and we couldn't get it started. We determined that we had run out of fuel and borrowed a container from someone on the street and hitched a ride back to the local gas station. After filling the tank with a gallon of gas, the fuel pump decided not to prime. Chris popped off a few tubes and minutes later we were back up and running. When we got back, Chris ran me through the basics with the dirt bike. It is a one cylinder, four stroke, 600 cc bike. There is no key and no electric starter...to kick start that large of a bike takes a good jump in the air. Chris warmed it up for me and then let me start it a few times.

The Bike

I'm pretty tired today from the work that I did. I started the day helping one of the workers put together five filter molds. Theses are the steal forms that are used to construct the filters. We brush all the pieces with vegetable oil so that when break apart the mold, the concrete won't stick to the steal. After that we put the molds together using bolts. Then we insert the water tube and start mixing concrete on the ground. If you've never mixed concrete on the floor with a shovel, your missing out. Let's just say that two guys get pretty tired mixing enough concrete to make five filters. Below are the completed forms filled with concrete.

Filled Forms

I forgot to mention. Since our concrete vibrating wand is broke, we have to use a rubber mallet and hit the sides of the mold to get all the air out of the concrete. After hitting it a few thousand times, my hands stared to hurt and I knew that I should be wearing a pair of glove so I wouldn't get blisters. However, that would require me to go find a pair. As many of you know (mostly guys), it's a lot easier to just keep working. Well, below is one of the blisters I received because I didn't feel like going to get a pair of gloves.

The Aftermath

By the way, we use the same filters to get our drinking water in our home that we install for Haitians. After completing the filters, Chris had me get comfortable with the MIG welder and the plasma cutter. I cut out a large fan shaped steal beam structure from the doors that we are going to be installing on the new dorm building. Then I welded a steel sheet in its place.

Door After The Fan Structure Has Been Removed

Door With The Steal Sheet Welded In Place

The Nicer Side of Haiti

This last weekend I got to have some fun and see some of the nicest landscape close to where I'm staying. On Saturday we met up with some people that work down the street at an orphanage. Ten of us piled into the Volkswagen van (the one in the picture below) and headed for a secluded part of the beach. Seven of us rode in the back and due to the Haitian roads, we were all pretty soar by the time we arrived. It can be hard to find a spot on the beach or in the mountains where you won't see people. This was one of those places that Chris and Leslie go to get away from everyone and everything. There was a light house that some of us climbed and were able to get a great view of the surrounding area.

The VW Van

Lighthouse

View From The Lighthouse

Where We Swam

An Exoskeleton - Not sure I want to meet its owner.

On Sunday Chris and I hiked up to a place where water flows from a nearby mountain. A couple rivers/streams meet up and they call it "the source". A while back, a German organization built a facility to generate electricity from the water, but in order for the system to start and continue to run, it must have electricity from the city. When the city power is on 10%-20% of the time, it doesn't do a lot of good. While we were up there we met some kids that would let me take their picture if they could wear our sunglasses. We jumped in the cool, fresh water, and it was the cleanest I have felt since I've been in Haiti.....very refreshing.

Some Of The Local Kids

The Source

Water Plants

A Nice View

Day Two

Yesterday was my first full day in Haiti. I woke up at 5:45 am and started the day off with a fresh mango from Chris and Leslie's garden. Then I got the tour of the facilities and started helping with any tasks I could. There was a drill press that had a broken switch on it, so Chris asked me to take a look at it and see if I could fix it.

When a switch breaks on anything around here, the typical thing to do is use a light switch to replace the broken one. Well, the broken switch had 3 connecting wires and a light switch has two. Knowing that one was for the ground and not having a working multimeter, I tried certain configurations to see if I could get it to work. After a couple trials, I found one that did something...however, not exactly what I was expecting. Somehow I had wired a short and when I plugged the drill press in, it bogged down the generator, the lights started flickering, I heard a loud pop, and saw sparks coming from the plug. By the end of this the plug had been ejected from the socket and I was a couple feet away with my hands over my head. Not what I wanted to do on my first project.

After looking at the damage, I saw that the cord's insulation had been melted and the switch was fried. With Chris's help I found a new cord and switch, and wired the drill properly. Everything works and there was no major damage done....thankfully. After that Leslie and I took Olivia to get here vaccinations at the local hospital in Pierre Payen. On the way back we walked through the market in town and everyone makes comments at us, but I have no idea what they are saying. The rest of the day was pretty low key and I am staring to work on learning Creole. I took a few pictures of the living arrangements and they are posted below.

Chris and Leslie's Home

The Back Porch

View From Back Porch

Our Water Supply

My Room - 1

My Room - 2

The Bathroom and Laundry Room

Driers do not exist here and our washer is currently broke.

Greetings From Haiti

After waiting a long time to go and do water quality work, I have finally begun the adventure. I arrived in Port-au-Prince airport at 11:30 am local time. I'm not exactly sure what time zone Haiti is on...we are an hour behind eastern time in the states and I think the Dominican Republic and all the other Caribbean islands are on eastern time, so I'm not sure why we aren't either. Maybe it has to do with daylight saving time. Then again, maybe it is simply because Haiti seems to make there own rules. Anyway, I think I should also comment that the international airport here is nothing like you've ever seen in the U.S. I wish I could have gotten a few pictures, but I was more worried about getting my luggage, trying to ward off everyone that wanted to "help" me with my bags, and finding Chris (Chris and Leslie are who I'm working and staying with in Haiti).

After I found Chris, we headed to the hardware store to meet up with Evens (a Haitian worker for Clean Water for Haiti), who was buying supplies that will be used in the construction of the new dorm building. I mention that we went to the hardware store and I'm about to move on to the next event, when I realize how involved simply buying things can be. We gather everything up and pay for them, but on the way out they have to check the receipt and verify that everything in the cart is also on the receipt. This sounds simple, but when they are checking multiple people at the same time, it can get complicated. It ended up taking about 45 minutes just for them to get us from the cash register to the door...which are about 25 feet apart. At one point Chris had handed me some screw nuts and I was holding them as they checked the receipt. While I was waiting the security guard was looking at me and motioned at me saying something in Creole. I didn't know what he said, but given the fact that he was carrying a shotgun, I wasn't about to ignore him and hope he went away. I found out he wanted to know if the nuts had been payed for. I put them back in the cart and everything was fine. I never felt unsafe, I just mention the story for one, to scare my mom a little (sorry mom), and two, to say that these things don't happen in the U.S., but are common place here.

After that, Chris had to go to a class for three hours because his license was taken away for a traffic violation. I went with Evens and some other to pick up food and other supplies in our truck. On the way to get the food we didn't have enough room for everyone, so Evens and I rode in the back of the truck.

After waiting for an hour or so, it was our turn to get food loaded up. After they loaded the truck to the brim with food, I thought it was time to go. They had other plans. They kept coming out with pallets of desks and lunchroom tables. Every time we fit another pallet of desk on top, I was sure it was time to go. But they would just go back and get another load. The problem is that if you don't take the supplies when they offer, you run the risk of them not being there the next time you come.

Next, we threw a large tarp over everything and headed back to Pierre Payen. Oh, did I mention that the roads here are not exactly flat....I've heard that they are a lot better than they used to be, but they still have a lot of holes and sections with no asphalt or concrete. Basically, it was the bumpiest ride I have ever had. On the way, we had a couple accidents where tables would fall off the truck and we would stop and pick them up off the street and put them back on, trying to make it a little more secure than the time before. Once we unloaded the food and tables, I got dropped off at Chris and Leslie's house...it was after dark by this time. We unloaded everything from the hardware store and then I moved into what will be my new home for a while. Eventually I will be staying on the second floor of the dorm building, but for now I am staying in a room in Chris and Leslie's house until the other building is finished.

We ate dinner together and got better acquainted for a couple hours. We sat outside for a little bit and I experienced the bugs of Haiti in full force. I have never been attacked that bad by mosquitoes in my life. After that I was pretty tired, partly because of getting two hours of sleep the night before and also because of the stress, heat, and new environment I had just experienced. I crawled in my mosquito net and listened to the many sounds that are present where we live. I slept pretty well and woke at 5:45 am when my alarm when off. The typical work day here goes from 6:00 am till around 2:30 pm.

I think that is all I will say for now. That gives a pretty good synopsis of what happened my first day here. Today has also been interesting, but I'll fill you in on that later.

Getting Closer

Update: I have moved back from Sacramento, CA to Monclova, OH where I am staying with my parents until I leave for Haiti. Since getting back in Ohio, I have kept busy with being the best-man in Phil Rumschlag's wedding, traveling to Cincinnati to see college friends, and starting to get ready for my departure to Haiti. Things have been going great and I am enjoying the time with family and friends, getting everything in order, and relaxing a little before leaving the country. I very excited to see how the next couple weeks play out.

Phil & April