We're Home!

We made it home - in spite of the American Airlines system-wide outage that grounded their fleet for most of the day yesterday! We think the only reason we got here, a 5 hour delay notwithstanding, was that the Haitian Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, was on the plane with us. So we made our connection from Miami to Pittsburgh, arriving at 12:30 am this morning, only an hour and a half late. More importantly, we did not have to stand in the quarter mile long line of people waiting in the Miami airport for American Airline issued hotel and food vouchers!

Thanks to Steve, Glenn, and Dan who picked us and our luggage up at the airport at such a wee hour in the morning!

For your pleasure, I'm adding a few more photos from our celebration day on Sunday.

Pat, Brian and Karl waiting for the festivities to begin

My health & hygiene class - 19 strong!

Tim recognizes the operators for completing their training

Another photo of the gentleman who harvested fresh coconuts for us - 20 feet off the ground!

Port au Prince and Home

Monday Tim and Karl worked with the water system operators while Rick, Darenda and Brian reviewed some additional potential sites. I wrote a blog entry. Once everyone was back together, we all climbed into the Kia for the return trip to Port au Prince. The drive was uneventful, if hot, except that none of us had saved anything to eat and there was no place to stop for lunch. We were pretty ravenous by the time we got to Eucalyptus House.

We started the evening visiting with another Episcopalian group from DC who have an eduction ministry near where we have been working. But we were then stunned to hear of the bombings in Boston. What a sad day - we all pray for those injured and the families of the dead.

As we leave this place, we know we must return. The water from at least one of the sites we surveyed tested positive for contamination.

Sample on the left tested positive

We leave here for the airport about 11:15. We'll be back in the 'Burgh in a little more than 12 hours from then.

Celebration and Farewell

The children we hadn't seen much of all week suddenly appeared on Sunday. The kids in Camp Perrin seem much more reserved than those in Chaveneau and don't smile as readily. A few showed up on the steps of the buildings in Camp Perrin, and then a few more, and more . . . just quietly sitting and watching. We tried to warm us the crowd with crackers and a few pieces of candy. Then to engage them more, we began singing and doing the "Hokey Pokey". They really got into that, not the singing part, but the dancing. We must have looked a sight - six "blanque" adults singing and wiggling their bodies in front of a row of Haitian kids.

Two local boys

A rare smile

The Hokey Pokey

It was almost time for the celebration when someone remembered that we hadn't had any fresh coconut yet. Immediately an elderly man was summoned (the same fellow who got coconuts for us last February) and he shimmied up the courtyard coconut tree and began throwing down ripe coconuts. Once they detmined that we had enough coconuts he shimmied back down and began cutting the coconuts open and handing them out for a refreshing FRESH coconut water drink.

Prepping the coconuts

Harvesting the coconuts

Brian led the celebration but Akeisha and Chavannes spoke representing their individual organizations and the community. We celebrated our training groups with certificates for the operators and folks who attended the health and hygiene training. We also recognized the ladies in the kitchen with certificates for taking such wonderful care of us.

 

Water bottle being filled for the celebration

The dignitaries speak



The celebration crowd at Camp Perrin

 

When it was all over, we said tearful goodbyes, hugged everyone within range, and piled into the back of Chavannes' pickup truck for the trip back down the mountain and back to the Kia. Chavannes then took us all out for a treat. He led us down into into a canyon at the bottom of which was a dramatic waterfall, De Saut-Mathurine. It really was beautiful except that apparently a power company was doing some major work upstream and the water was all muddy brown. Then he treated us all to cold Prestiges at an outdoor lounge near the falls.

De Saut-Mathurine waterfall

On the way to Torbeck, we had to make a stop at our friend Frantzou's craft shop. We all bought some Haitian crafts and Karl made a new friend.

Karl and new friend

We got to Torbeck about 5:30 pm. Dinner wasn't until 7 pm. So we all took a walk to the beach at the end of the street. As we walked, we accumuated a whole covey of giggling, smiling kids. What a contrast to the reserved kids in Camp Perrin!

Our covey of kiddos on the beach

Brian makes friends with the Torbeck children

 

 

 

 



Last Morning in Camp Perrin

It is Sunday. Brian led us in a brief lovely worship service this morning. He jokingly said it was mandatory attendance for everyone with a PA drivers license. Akeisha joined us anyway. The worship in this place and knowing it is our last day here moved moved me to tears.

Decorating for this afternoon's celebration

Rick gets a hug

Last night everyone was happy but tired when all was done for the day. We were all either in bed or getting ready for bed when we were summoned to the dining room - even the presene of the ones already asleep was demanded. So we all gathered at 10:30 pm to find that ANOTHER delicious hot meal had been prepared for us. Apparently it is a custom on Saturday night, because people stay us late and sleep in on Sunday. The custom is called Fritay (pronounced free-tie). We really enjoyed the goat and the fellowship, then brushed our teeth again and went back to bed!

Just to let you know, we will be leaving Camp Perrin this afternoon and will spend the night in Torbeck. I will not have internet access in Torbeck. We will spend the morning on Monday scouting other potential sites in the Torbeck area. From there we will go on to Port au Prince where we will spend our last night at Eucalyptus House and fly to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. I will post pictures of the celebration whenever I have internet access again.

Random thoughts. Water for hand washing is not always available, so antibacterial liquid is ubiquitous. Akeisha has gotten us started calling it "Cootie Lotion".

"Cootie Lotion"

"I've got to get goat out from between my teeth" is not something you hear very often in Pittsburgh.

A cold prestige at the end of the day is a wonderful thing. And a cold "spit" bath from a basin or a cold shower doesn't feel nearly so shocking when it's 90+ degrees most of the day.

It's Been a Very Good Day

You have to understand how isolated this village in Camp Perrin is. To get here, we had to leave our own transportation at the bottom of the mountain in Camp Perrin. Then Chavannes, the Director of the MP3K project, drove us up the mountain to the village in his "turbo" Toyota pickup truck. Not just any vehicle can make the drive up that road and apparently our big Kia is not one of them. "Blanques" do not come here on vacation or for much of any other reason. Most of the locals have no transportation but their feet other than the occasional motorcycle or donkey.

The result is that we have been the most exciting entertainment in the village all week. We have had lots of people hanging around just watching to see what in the heck we are doing.

The installation has been moving ahead even though the finishing work on the water system room is not completed and the rest of the building is in an even more rudimentary state.

What we have done is finish the installation in two days, shocked the system, made pure water as well as train 19 people in public health and hygiene and how the water purification system works. The four operators' training will be completed by tomorrow noon. Darenda, Akeisha, Chavannes, and Franthz completed the covenant agrement. Potential new sites have been scouted. Tomorrow afternoon we celebrate!

Operator Training



Our class puzzles out the water purification system

Brian loads up fingerpaint for handprints on the celebration banner

 

Making the banner

Negotiationg the contract

 

Food. It doesn't get more fresh, local, labor intensive than this

It was an early start this morning and we downed all the coffee they had made for us before we even sat down to breakfast. So Darenda asked for more. Later she heard the kitchen staff laughing about her and her coffee. The fresh coffee turned up at lunch. You must know the coffee is really a big deal here - it is wonderful! Strong, flavorful and very mellow - and a little sweet, even without added sugar. Karl discovered the secret. Around behind the dining hall and kitchen is a little hut with a fire pit and a large wooden mortar and pestle. Karl heard pounding out there and went out to investigate. He found one of the women who works in the kitchen grinding coffee beans that had just been picked and freshly roasted over the fire. Doesn't get any fresher than that!

Speaking of fresh, we awoke this morning to the squealing of a goat (at the time we didn't know that's what was making all the noise). It was in the process of being killed for our dinner and none too happy about it. Just now I went around back thinking I might catch someone grinding coffee but instead I found one of the women working on the goat meat and a dead rooster ready to be plucked. These people, who don't necessarily eat every day, are going to incredible effort to feed us three cooked meals a day. It is truly humbling. It doesn't get any more local - or labor intensive - than that.



This morning the stuff in the bowl was a goat

Chicken for dinner - a feast!

 

The youngest gets the job of plucking the chicken

It really makes me think about how out of touch with our food we Americans are. And how much we take it for granted.

I Do All My Own Stunts

Today was a work day. Tim worked with Valdez to build the purification system. Rick and Karl worked on the wiring. Darenda and Brian visited some other sites. Akeisha helpd me teach the first part of the health and hygiene class with our friend Frantzou translating. In spite of getting a late start, much was accomplished. Tim and Valdez pretty much finished building the system. They will be ready to do operator training by tomorrow afternoon. Rick and Karl made great progress with the wiring for the solar power system and should be finished tomorrow.

Karl looks on as Tim and Valdez begin building the system

 

Karl hard at work on the wiring\

Our health and hygiene class went well. Akeisha and I started the class with having the class act out the story of Moses, Pharoah and the Red Sea. We had GREAT Moses and Pharoah characters! They really got into it. Afterwards, we had super community help with making paper chains for Sunday's celebration and putting Living Waters labels on all the bottles.



My best paper chain makers - making chains to decorate the celebration

Akeisha organized a gang of teenagers to label all the bottles

Darenda and Brian scouted some good potential sites for future installations. It was a great day all around.

At the end of the work day, we got a round of frisbee going among the crowd that had gathered to observe what the " blanques" (whites) were up to. Interesting that some of the guys had never encountered a frisbee before - but that didn't stop them from really getting into the game.

Akeisha helps one of the younger frisbee players

The most wonderful thing happened at the end of the day. Many of you may remember the little girl we photographed getting water in Camp Perrin last February. We have all been hoping to see her to know that she is still ok. After dinner, we decided to take a walk up to the church at the top of the hill. When we got to the church, it was getting quite dark and Akeisha disappeared around the side of the church. Darenda went after her to get her to come back so we could get back "home" before it got completely dark (the road/path up there is really uneven, rocky and rutted). Darenda disappeared and didn't return. Then Rick followed. And Tim, and then our Haitian co-workers. Brian and Karl and I were left standing in front of the church alone in the gathering dark having "Blair Witch" type thoughts. Finally I said I was going to see what was going on and Karl and Brian followed. On the far side of the church we found our group talking to 3 adult Haitians and a child. And the child was a little girl wearing a shirt that said "I Do All My Own Stunts" - the girl in the photo from last February! The shirt is how Akeisha, who had only seen her in a photograph, recognized her. That child must wonder about the bear hugs she got from this crowd of "blanques".


Bethanie found!

 



We're nothing if not flexible - April 11

OK. It's Thursday, the 11th at 7 pm and we're finally in Camp Perrin! We spent last night at Roody's Baptist Compound in Leogane. Ashley, from Solar Under the Sun, had recommended the place and suggested we think "summer camp" - an accurate assessment of Roody's somewhat ramshackle but welcoming compound! We slept in two tin buildings, the ladies in one room and guys in the other. Surprisingly there was air-conditioning, at least when there was electricity. At any rate, after our early rise and all-day travel, we all slept quite well. Except for the explosion of mangos that carpet bombed the tin roof off and on all night.

Roody's Compound, our "camp" cabins

Akeisha and Darenda relax

That was yesterday. We finally got started for Camp Perrin at 8 am this morning and were at Les Cayes by 11:30 and ready to head from there to Camp Perrin when Lucson got a phone call from Camp Perrin telling us we couldn't come today. Okaaaaaaay . . . So after a quick conference by the side of the road, we decided to go to Torbeck and Chaveneau to check things out there instead. We had intended to do that on Monday, but we are nothing if not flexible. And we called our friend Madame Franchette in Les Cayes to make sleeping and dinner arrangements there.

On to Torbeck and Chaveneau, where we found the systems being very well run, although not selling/giving away quite as much water as we'd hoped. It was wonderful to return to both Torbeck and Chaveneau and renew friendships from last year.

At Chaveneau, Darenda shares photos from last year

Rick and Tim checck out the system

Brian makes friends in Chaveneau and tries out his French

While we were doing all that running around, we got another call from Camp Perrin that we should meet Chavannes at 5 pm today in Torbeck and he would ferry us and the equipment across the river and up the mountain to the village. Okaaaaaaaay. So we called Madame Franchette back and cancelled our reservations for this evening. We're nothing if not flexible.

Tim and Brian ride in style up the mountain in the back of Chavannes' pickup truck

About 5 pm we did meet Chavannes and left the Kia in the town of Camp Perrin and Chavannes drove us on to our destination. Camp Perrin is both a town and something like a county and we were heading for a little mountain village in the "district" of Camp Perrin. We arrived in the village to a joyous crowd welcoming us with hugs and Creole voices and enthusiasm. We were overwhelmed! They took our backpacks and escorted us to the dining room on the compound where a sumptuous dinner awaited. Yumm!

We were expecting cots to sleep on - but these folks went overboard! They completely decorated 3 rooms including real beds with lovely bedspreads and beautful Haitian carved headboards and footboards. The women were soooo excited to show us the rooms they had prepared for us!

They built a new building to house the water system. The construction is complete, but the walls are not finished and the floor is in the process of being tiled. The water system room takes up one corner of the building, the rest of which will offer a market with soap, deoderant, and other sundries. Tomorrow we will just work around the construction workers finishing up! Okaaaaaaay! We're nothing if not flexible.

What the entrance to the water system room looked like when we arrived

After dinner, we met for prayers and mutual understanding with Chavannes (Director) and Franz (Executive Secretary) of MP3K (Peasant Movement of the 3rd Section of Camp Perrin). It is a farming cooperative started in 1990 that Akeisha and the group from George Washington U work with. They provide health care and health and agricultural education for the community in addition to providing seedlings for crops (yams, coffee, cocoa) and doing community improvement projects like roads.

Now for bed - we're all exhausted!

Looks really good!

Alesha Johnson joins us

Akeiska Johnson is joining us for the Camp Perrin installation. We are working with her and her Oshun Project, affiliated with George Washington University. Welcome Akeishi!

In transit

We're on our way - left home at 3:30 am. Six of us with 16 suitcases. Not quite so complicated as last time but equally early. Jim Burke drove the Leases and Jacobs, Carolyn Westerhoff drove Brian, one of Karl's coworkers drove him, and Bill Wegener brought the suitcases with all the equipment. Many thanks to all!

Right now we're in the Miami airport waiting to board the flight to PAP. I can't find an Internet server available to me so I'm posting from my phone. We hope to be in Haiti by 2:30pm and will spend this first night in Leogane at Roody's Baptist Compound.

Many thanks for the prayers and well wishes!

Camp Perrin Ho!

Access to clean, fresh water is a main concern in Haiti, where waterborne illnesses, such as typhoid, cholera, and chronic diarrhea, are the cause of more than half of the deaths in the country every year. Contaminated water is also one of the leading causes of childhood illness and the very high infant death rate in Haiti (57 for every 1000 births) .  Since the massive 7.0 earthquake in early 2010, the problems of drinking water scarcity have increased greatly.

Our team from Bower Hill Community Church in Pittsburgh, PA, is now ready to embark on another mission to Haiti to provide fresh, pure, healthful water to drink. We leave Wednesday, April 10, heading for Camp Perrin where we will installation a water purification system, working with the Oshun Project from George Washington University. Our team this time includes our pastor, Brian Snyder, Karl Casey, Tim & Darenda Lease, Rick & Pat Jacobs.

But not without a little drama! Only last week we learned that our contact in Camp Perrin, Chavanne Casseus had obtained cots for us there so we can stay there at no cost instead of on the other side of the river for $90/night. We also learned that the rainy season seems to have come early - so the concern is that the river we have to cross without benefit of a bridge will be flooded and we won’t be able to get across to do the installation. As of now, the river crossing is not a problem. “God willing and the creek don’t rise” we will get this done!

God has blessed this effort! We have had donations from many sources - besides the Oshun Project, Rotary, other Presbyterian churches, friends, family members and from within our own congregation have made generous donations. Mary Good and Cathy Philson organized a fashion show/luncheon that raised about $5000 for clean water for Haiti! And our congregation donated over $4000 to purchase various needed items for the project during Lent. And of course we get support from Living Waters for the World (http://www.livingwatersfortheworld.org/) and Solar Under the Sun (http://www.solarunderthesun.org/default/)

Saturday we pack for the trip. Everything for the water purification unit must be carried down in our luggage. Bower Hill congregation members have volunteered to take us and the luggage containing the equipment to the airport waaaaay too early on Wednesday - right now that’s Jim & Bev Burke, Bill Wegner, Glenn Child, and Susan & Dave Hicks. Steve Boisvert, Betsy Hohlfelder and Chris Robbins are available in reserve if we need them. We thank them soooo much!

It’s all about this little girl we met as she drew water in Camp Perrin in February, 2012. We know the water she drinks is contaminated with dangerous pathogens including cholera. Pray we are not too late for her.

Camp Perrin water tested positive for pathogens

She needs pure water