Support the Haiti Water Project! Join us for the Quench Fund Run!

Come have fun with us and help raise money for the next water purification installation in Haiti! The Quench Haiti Fund Run will take place on Saturday, June 8, 2013 in South Park. All proceeds benefit the Haiti Water Project of Bower Hill Community Church. Participants registered by May 25 will receive a t-shirt - no shirt guaranteed after May 25. Please bring your own water bottle - water and melon will be provided at the finish line. Medals will be awarded to the top two finishers in each category.

Date: June 8, 2013
Place: South Park, South Park, PA
Entry Categories:
     5 K Run/Walk
     Stroller
     Kid's Fun Run
Cost:
     5 K Run/Walk - $25
     Kid's Fun Run (no shirt) - $5
Schedule:
     7:00 am Registration
     8:00 am Run/Walk/Stroller
     9:00 am Kid's Fun Run

     
To register and/or get more information:
Go to http://www.bhccml.com/SpecialProjectsHaitiWaterProject5kQ.cfm to download and complete the registration form and send it along with your check to Bower Hill Community Church, 70 Moffett St., Mt. Lebanon, PA 15243
or
Pick up a form to complete at the church office
or
Call Mary Good (412) 341-0291 or
Kathy Philson (412) 531-7539

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.