Back in Haiti again! Have been here 6 days now and this is the first chance I have had to write. Spent all day Monday traveling, first by air then by car from Port au Prince to Les Cayes. The solar panels I brought down for the compost house would not have made it with me on the small plane and I needed to make two stops on the way. One at an orphanage in Grand Goave that has asked for help with its water supply, “Servants of All”, and the second stop was to find a girl who was approved for Gift of Life heart surgery last year. Her mom had tried once to get her visa, was denied because she did not have the right documents, but apparently is so poor and a little bit slow or afraid, was not able to follow up properly to put together what they needed. We tried to contact them numerous times with no success, although a family friend at Mt. Sinai said they were still hoping to get her here for surgery. I came armed with new letters from the hospital and the doctors office and from GOL to see what I could do. My driver, Jean Garry, was very helpful in finding her place. We arrived in Petit Goave in the dark, her street and house was supposed to be somewhere behind the Catholic Church. We wove our way through numerous streets blocked with mounds of dirt and gravel, others washed out. No street signs anywhere. Jean Garry asked at least a dozen people for directions and when we got close we started asking if anyone knew her. The last guy we stopped responded with, “are you here for her chart?” (somehow I knew that’s what he said, even though my Creole is almost non-existent!) At first Jean Garry said no, he thought the man misunderstood what he asked, so I interrupted him and told him, “wait, if he thinks we are here for her chart, he must know of her—and if she has a new chart, maybe we are here for her chart!” Turns out, this man not only knew her, but is the one who has been helping her get examined and put her chart together! She lives just up the street on the corner! The house, if you can call it that, just looks like some sheet metal stood up against a wall with people living behind it. According to her records, her father is deceased, don’t know why yet. We find the girl and her mom just kinda hanging out there with some other people and begin trying to ascertain if it really is her and if they are still interested and able to come to the US for life saving heart surgery. It seems like they are. The neighbor friend, Joseph, is most helpful, apparently mom, Paulonne, is a little slow or just so unfamiliar with what to do, she really needs help. Schmide, (pronounced Schmeed) is quiet and a bit shy, but as I find out later, is not so shy that she cant ask for what she wants! I promise to see what can be done to set up an appointment at the Embassy for Thursday or Friday. Jean Garry agrees to call Joseph to let him know when to be in Port au Prince.
The road to Les Cayes has not improved much in the 3 or 4 years since I last rode on it! It takes us a total of 5 ½ hours to go 120 miles! Between traffic and the many sections of road that are dirt, full of potholes, or almost washed out completely, it is a mixture of driving as fast as possible when the road is good, to crawling over and around the many obstacles! Jean Garry has not yet been to the “farm” so once we get into Cayes, I direct him thru the city to the exit from the road, down our mile long gravel, rutted, road/driveway! Dan welcomes us, and heats up some rice and beans for these two tired and hungry travelers, its late, so everyone else is in bed. Jean Garry eats, and then turns around to drive back home, which is not quite as far as Port au Prince.
Tuesday brings what has now become the usual smattering of frustrations and joys. The grey water pump in the kids neighbor hood is not working again, I assume it is clogged with debris but also discover that someone has removed the steel cover we had bolted to the concrete wall, protecting the connection (and anyone who might touch it), the outlet is hanging out of its box, and the connections on it look dark from shorting out when it rains and gets wet. Later I have Dan call Maurice, who is supposed to be doing electrical work, to come, remove the pump, clean it, repair the outlet etc. We did that whole routine a few months ago, and I am pretty sure he can handle it on his own this time. I am most interested right now on trying out the new “Feri pump”, a compressed air power water pump. Kevin Scobey (Scoobey for short) and I pull out the gas powered air compressor, dig thru our supplies for fittings we will need, and set out finding enough of the right size pipe—that is anything but an easy task, takes about 2 hours of asking a dozen people for the current location of various tools, keys to get to the tools, etc. finally have enough materials put together to try out this pump, but then the question is where? This kind of pump works best in a deeper well, it can be used in shallow applications but you need to have a special timer hooked up to your compressor as well. We first try it in the one pond they are using a trash pump in for irrigation, not deep enough, the Feri pump sends large sprays of water 50 feet into the air, but its not a steady stream like we want. We then go in search of a deeper well, there are several hand dug wells around the fields and property, but we cant find anything deeper than about 20 feet. We calculate we need at least 50 or 60 feet to make this work properly—I told the company in Australia that makes the pump we would be using it at 70 – 100 feet and they said this should work well at that depth. I am planning on using it at the north neighborhood in conjunction with a series of solar panels, wind turbine, composting toilets, 12 volt lighting and fans—hopefully all independent of the power grid.
By now its getting late, so we decide to try it in the morning at the kids neighborhood where we know we have a well that is 60 feet deep. We will just have to pull the electric pump out, insert this one, and if it works well, we may install it there permently. The pump that’s there now is not pumping enough water to fill the 500 gallon tank that’s there, (there were two tanks, but you may recall one was hit by lightening a few weeks after we installed it). We take some time to look at the existing well pump near the quad, it runs almost constantly, is something of a large contraption, originally designed to run on pedal power, solar, or battery, or converted city/generator power. It has been repaired and modified numerous times and currently something is leaking badly on it again. Its one of the reasons I am going to insist that we install a back up well and pump as soon as possible- when this pump quits for good, we will be struggling until we get something else in place. I learn some other difficult news in discussing this pump with Marc, some time ago, part of the pump was pulled out of the well for repairs and apparently the well casing collapsed about 30 feet down. It had been drilled to 120 feet and had fairly good water, but now we are only drawing from 30 feet, mostly ground water, and there is no way I can use the Feri pump in this location if we had to.
Anyway, the joys for the day were seeing the kids again. Michael, that used to carry my back pack is now really big and likes to help me when he is not in school, Scoobey has a group of 8 or 10 boys that he has been working with in the metal shop, cutting, welding, etc. they made a forge to heat metal from scratch that uses a bicycle pedal to run it, they are making an elaborate gate for the front entrance, and soon they will begin to work on making the large clean out doors for the compost house. That was another joy, To see the progress of the compost house that I designed and drew was pretty cool. Some of the construction details are not quite as we discussed in October, but they are putting a fair amount of Portland cement in the concrete mix and they are filling the lower walls solid, so I am fairly confident it will be a good sturdy structure for its purpose. First floor is almost finished and the second floor is going up! The exhaust pipe size is too small, and they are missing one, I discuss it with Jr., not sure he fully understands, but I know we can adjust that later.
Another plus to the day is the visit by a representative from the Farmer to Farmer program, a Dr. Darma something. He is doing a very thorough job examining all the plants and planting practices and later has several serious talks with all the guys involved in the farming and nursery planning and implementation. Number one issue is irrigation. “There is no point in calling this a farm if you don’t have irrigation” he said. The guys are doing some irrigation but its sporadic at best. One of the items on my list of things to do is to come up with a viable project that we can apply for a matching grant—obviously it has to be irrigation, combined with drilling more wells and buying more pumps. I am jumping ahead for a moment, on Saturday afternoon, after the water summit was complete, John Johnson, myself and Dominique (a Haitian women who we met at the conference who may be able to help us with clearing containers thru customs) had John Garry drive us to the Double Harvest Farm to take a look at their practices. WOW, what a huge project and its easy to see why they are the main supplier of produce for all of the Port au Prince area. They use a lot of hydroponics for their seedings and they use an incredible huge drip irrigation system for all of their farming. The produce that we saw growing, they have about 100 acres of it, all look large and healthy. They have a 300 foot deep well and huge water pumps, a 250,000 gallon back up water tank/pool, all kinds of equipment, buildings, etc. The manager of the place told us in the few minutes we spoke, “one of the most important things when working in Haiti, is to have a back up for everything”. I had been discussing that same thing with Darma concerning our own well pumps. I am not sure that we can put in a complete drip irrigation system at this time, but it definitely is the best way to be growing plants in Haiti. If anyone knows how to get a very large grant to do that sort of system, it would be the way to go, but until then, we will most likely work with a canal and flood system that Darma and I discussed and he thinks should work just fine for now.
Darma is supposed to be putting together a list of his suggestions and sending me and Dan a copy so we can try to follow up on them.
Needless to say, the amount of work that needs to be done to really make things work well, is incredible. Yet, I am convinced that it can be done if we can get and keep enough committed people and funding put together. Darma is also convinced that there is no reason why we cannot feed our own kids all the produce they need from our own land as well as have a sizeable, steady cash crop that would pay for the operation of the farm. We should not be growing corn at all! It is not nutritious, is hard on the soil, is not worth anything in the market, and wastes valuable cash crop space.
He also believes that another key initial ingredient that needs work is the field preparation. None of the guys in charge of the farm management know how to drive the tractor! None of them really knows how the field should be prepared and the old man that is currently paid to drive the tractor, only knows how to use the triple plow, which should only be used once or so per year on each field. The disc harrow should be used almost constantly, but by the looks of it and the fields, it has only been used on a few occasions. We also do not have a furrow making setup—something else to look into when I get home. Since I do have some experience farming, albeit with horse drawn equipment,(Thank-you Alvin) and I also know how to run the various aspects of the tractor, I volunteer to spend some time on Wed. teaching these guys some of this stuff. – Unfortunately, Wed. starts off with torrential rains and flooding, so all tractor plans are post poned.
Wed.= tons of rain and flooding overnight into the morning, when it breaks a little, Kevin and I decide to try to air driven pump in the well in the kids neighborhood. We get down there, all set up, try to pull out the existing pump—-and its stuck! I mean really stuck! Sand and sediment must have settled in on top of it, hopefully kids have not thrown junk down there, although that thought crosses my mind, but we cannot force it too much, it may break, and then we would have no water for the wash house. For some reason we are not meant to try this pump just yet. From what we did see of it pushing water, once we get the pressure balance right, it will produce a lot more water with less energy than any of the conventional electric pumps we are using. I need to send a note to the guy in Australia that I spoke with a few times to see if he has any other ideas at this time. We cannot wait to get the well drilling rig out of customs and start drilling real wells and getting pure water!! I really hope this new contact with Dominique will help and we will be drilling by mid January. John Johnson is pretty sure his retired well driller friend will come down then for a month to teach a group of our older guys how to run it.
Ok, on to the next thing, I quess it’s a good thing there is no end to the projects that need to be worked on, if one thing hits dead end, there is always something else to do! Kevin and I decide to take a look at the rotator/rototiller attachment for the tractor. Bertinee told us the one time Soluk had it hooked up it was smoking, so they haven’t used it since and none of them were sure what to do with it anyway. We get it all hooked up, make some adjustments to the depth of it and such, and then try tilling in several areas with no problem and no smoking! Not sure what they were doing wrong but am pretty sure they didn’t have it hooked up correctly. I spend some time with Kevin at least explaining the farm uses and techniques for each of the attachments, especially the disc harrow (thank-you Alvin) so that when the ground is less soaked, he can work with the farm guys and at least get them started. That is making a long story short of course, just wish I could be around more to see the farming and field prep thru.
Next, Maurice informs me that the main switch on the generator burned up yesterday and we cannot use it until we install another one. He has found a used one in town, the connections are not quite the right size and he is not sure how to mount it or hook it up. We spend a few hours mounting it, and adapting it to fit our needs but eventually we get it up and running. Hopefully it will last a while!
We finish out the day by going to the Rotary meeting to talk to them about applying for another grant. They seem positive enough, but apparently their district has adopted a new policy that all grants have to be submitted in writing, fully filled out to them and to their district rep. To be approved by both before signing. This will definitely slow things down, for some reasons, Haitians seem to love paper work, just for the sake of paper work! I talk to Jack on line later and we decide to proceed with the application anyway asap and keep our fingers crossed.
Thursday—have to head to Port au Prince for the water summit around 12. Nick, a young guy that volunteered at Espwa for a while now runs the Norwich Mission house in Petionville. I hear the place is nice, not sure what the guesthouse John Johnson has found is like, so I plan on checking out Nicks place and possibly staying there for my three nights in Port au Prince area. Later, when JohnGarry picks me up, I make contact with John, stop at his quest house, a Methodist place, not too crazy about the neighborhood, so on to Nicks place. Nick is glad to see me, the place is very nice, up on a hill, a good wall around the property, reasonable rates, so I decide to stay there. I have some time to kill before going out to dinner with Nick and some others from there, it’s the first time I feel like I can and probably should relax. They have a very friendly playful German shepherd, Tarma. Have a great time with her in between catching up on email and working on this journal! Two young guests arrive who are businessmen from Fla. Who have started a company using older donated sails from sailboats, that initially they were giving to poor fisherman to help them with their trade. Now they get so many sails donated, they decided they can make some really great handbags from these and sell them in the US and beyond, donating part of the proceeds back to areas that need it. They are here to see who could manage things here and have the bags made by local people here—definitely entrepreneurial types. They also say they would like to make a donation to Theos work, I give them our info—we shall see!
Friday, Jean Gary picks me up around 8, too early really, but he cant seem to understand that the appointment is at 11, he has already told Joseph and Schmide to be there by 830, so I hope they may let us in early to the US consulate. We meet them in front of the consulate, not far from the Presidents palace. Have to go around the back of the building to “gate 3”, its really just a door! There are already about 100 people back there waiting on line to get an appointment. I check with the guard at the door, sure enough we are on the list for 11 and the guard says we cannot go sooner! By now Jean Gary has left to go to the airport to pick someone up, so we head out on a brief tour of the central square and some photos by the palace. We see a playground in a park, I can tell Schmide wants to check it out, but she is too shy to ask, or maybe its that she is all dressed up for this occasion and doesn’t want to get her dress dirty! We sit in the shade nearby as I see her repeatedly glancing towards the playground, I finally say, come on, lets check it out! She has fun climbing around, but obviously doesn’t have much muscle to climb across the monkey bars. Back by her mom, a woman selling Piti, triangles of bread, stops by us, Schmide tells the woman she will take one, she only has 5 gourdes that I had just given her after a magic trick and it costs 10 gourdes, about 30 cents. Immediately she says no thanks and the woman starts to leave, but of course I stop her and offer the extra—Schmide is very happy and shares with her mom.
We get back to the embassy in time for our appointment only to wait with the crowd, must be 200 now, for our name to be called. Apparently people kinda struggle to get near the front of the crowd to have their Ids chosen to be put on a list who will later be called in for interviews. Not everyone is chosen and around 1130 I see the guard tell the crowd, that’s it for today, they are not taking anyone else. We finally get called in around 1230! After several meetings with 2 different agents there, we receive her visa approval about 230! Yeah!! We go look for Jean Gary who is now waiting out in front, tell him the good news, explain to them they have to pick up their passports and visa next week. Mom and Shmide give me hugs and kisses along with Joseph who offers heartfelt thanks, it feels good to have done this, all the waiting was worth it.
Now I can go to the water summit meeting! The summit meeting at the Montana hotel, the best Hotel in Port au Prince, is well attended, maybe 300 people from Rotary groups, church groups, government reps, NGO’s etc. , both Haitian and non-Haitian. A goal is set to provide pure drinking water to the entire country in the next 10 years. It would be more accurate to say that the goal is provide a way for everyone to purify their drinking water thru a system of building, donating and /or selling water purifiers to every school first and then every home. Many people will still be getting their water from rivers, ponds, shallow wells of polluted ground water, and sometimes even puddles! We hope to be able to supply pure water from our deep wells once we have them in place. The information is helpful to us, but we may be more helpful to those in Southern Haiti at least, if we soon have the capability to drill deeper, more pure wells for others around us. Then the only concern will be that people transport and store the water in clean containers.
As I mentioned earlier, after the conference was over on sat. John, Dominique and I go check out Double Harvest. On the way back Dominique says she needs to get back to take her daughters and some friends to an outdoor concert in Port Au Prince in the large public area near the palace. I had heard about it, some of the people at Norwich house were hoping to go. The crowds are predicted to be huge, the artists are two very popular rap guys, Akon and Jean Wyclef. Last time, 10 years ago, when a concert like this was held, it turned into a huge riot, Wyclef had to stop after 20 minutes, many people got hurt and it was a mess. So this is going to be a huge thing, that I was planning on staying away from! Dominigue wants to know if I would like to go, apparently she has some sort of VIP passes so they won’t be in the midst of the crazy crowd. I have heard so much about this thing at this point, I say, “what the heck, might as well check it out!”. We stop for a quick dinner, leave John Johnson with Jean Garry, and head to pick up her daughters and friends who are hanging out at the Montana. Turns out her VIP passes are pretty good! Once we get down town, park by a nearby friends house, work our way thru the huge crowds up towards the stage area, we push thru the barricades, the police let us thru, and then go up to the balcony of a hotel that the band has reserved, about 75 yards from the stage! Akon body guard/manager greets us up there and invites us to help ourselves to food and drinks, before long her daughters want to get closer and head, with their passes, to the VIP stage, only about 25 yards from the main stage! I guess we have no choice but to follow, so back down into even more of a crowd, and then up on the stage! The concert in largely sponsored by Voila, one of the two cell phone companies here. Dominique greets the owner or chief manager of the phone company on the stage, we stand next to him! A little while later, a woman and her daughter, very well dressed, stand next to me on the other side, Dominique says Hello, and tells me it is the Presidents woman! The concert is awesome, Akon and Wyclef are really good, (and I never liked rap!) but they have a really good message for the crowd. They compliment the crowd on the progress the country has made and encourage them to keep it up! Its up to them to change this country and to make it all they know it can be! The crowd seems to love the whole experience and message, at one point Akon repeatedly crowd surfs while singing, has to stop occasionally to pull his pants up that the crowds keep pulling at! The concert goes from about 730 to well past 1130! We leave just before the end to avoid the mob exit! At home, Jack sends me a news report that says more than 100,000 people were there! Something of an historic event, I would say! Really cool, and I am really mad I did not bring my camera to it!
Well I think that’s it for now, I went to bed tired, got to the airport and back home with no problems, even though it was nasty snowy, icy weather at home. The cold felt good, and now its back to try and make all the great plans and ideas come to fruition! Once again I appreciate all the support I receive to make this happen and keep up the work at Espwa. We are truly giving Hope to so many who desperately need it! Until next time, Ouvwa… Pastor Andy
