Jerry - The Last Post

Friday Chris, I and Liz hiked up a mountain just east of Mount Roi (about 10 miles south of Pierre Payen).  The target was a large natural spring about halfway to the top.  Chris drove one of the mission trucks about 4 miles up the mountain on the usual appalling road.  We parked it and started walking.  After a while we followed the irrigation system to the source.  The path next to the free flowing 4 foot wide stream was very narrow - in one place we walked about 500 yards on top of a 5 inch wide stone wall.  Every 2  minutes we'd meet a family going down carrying goods to market.   At this point it was about a 2 hour walk, some of them had donkies(on the nearby road) but most just carried what they could on their heads.  Imagine spending all day transporting and selling a regime (about 10 hands) of bananas in the nearest market.

The Haitian irrigation systems are curious to North American eyes.  On this hike we saw parts of a formal planned and constructed  waterway with informal systems branching off at every cultivated field.  These informal systems had 3 to 6 inch high mud walls with numerous branches regulated by the simple means of a rock or piece of mud placed at the base of the branch.  On my walks around Pierre Payen I didn't see anyone adjusting the water flow but on the backward part of the wlk I'd often see a completely different pattern of irrigation.  How all the farmers kept track of who got what I don't know.  This the dry season - it hasn't rained since November - so water is not without limit.

Here is a partial list of what we saw growing.  Avacados, Breadfruit, Coconuts, Watercress, Bananas and Mangoes.  Transportation precludes the farmers making any kind of money out of their crops.  We only went perhaps 20% of the way into the back country served by this "road". Everything grew well, lots of water, lots of sun, thousands of people but almost no cash income.

I was curious about Breadfruit.  This the plant Captain Blye tried to introduce to Tahiti when he was subject to the famous mutiny.  I had read that it is very nutrious, easy to grow and a cheap way to establish adequate food for a large population.  It can be cooked and eaten by simply throwing it into an open fire.  Captain Blye apparently succeeded in introducing Breadfruit to Jamaica as ideal slave food.  Unfortunately, because of that history it is not a preferred food.  We ate it at supper here one night.  It tasted very similar to potato.

This is Yoness.  She is lady who hand roasts the coffee bought in the Pierre Payen Market and we take back to Vancouver WA to sell to help support the mission.  The beans are top quality Aribica beans that can only be grown at higher altitudes rather than the more common Robusto beans.  The odor of 70# of coffee roasting is something else for an addict like me.

Leslie has kept you all up to date with Olivia walking, dinner at Club Indigo, being subjected to about 20 Haitians clustering around us taking photos etc so will I stop here.  Back to the USA Tuesday with luxury and lack of everyday surprise! 

Things people would NEVER say to you on the street there...

Yesterday afternoon I took Liz and Jerry down to the Pierre Payen market to walk around a bit and see what we could see. We found the most delicious bread - like a cinnamon bread, but with gingerbread instead. So. Freakin. Good. We've been munching on it since. I think it's now my new favorite Haiti thing. We also got the experience the shoe being on the other foot so to speak when two boys with a cell phone camera started snapping pictures. Pretty funny so we obliged them :)

On the way home as we were walking I said hi to a few ladies sitting behind one of the food stands. I had Olivia on my back in the sling, with the sling crossing my chest. One of the ladies got my attention and told me that I needed to fix the sling because "L'ap presse sur tete ou! Ou bezwen range li. Li ka bay ou yon infeksyon nan glan yo."

Translation???

"That's pressing your boob. You need to fix it. It can give you an infection in the glands."

I bet you ladies have never had a complete stranger be so concerned about your breast health. 

I did appreciate that she knew what she was talking about, but I assured her that I didn't have milk in there to worry about. That and walking around with the sling on for one hour was hardly going to do any harm ;)

One Year

It was one year ago this weekend that we met Olivia for the first time. Yesterday actually marked the day. As I was lying in bed last night I let my mind wander back to those days. The day we got the call. The day we met her. And later that night got the call that her blood work had come back with signs of HIV. I remember the tears and the emotional roller coaster and the people that God put in our path at just the right moments. I remember talking through all our feelings, crying more, and then making a decision. I remember our nervousness and excitement as we loaded up the truck for the second time to go get our girl. And coming home, putting our pj's back on (it was a holiday) and just becoming a family for the first time. I think Chris and I both wondered if we would know what to do with a newborn. I remember later feeling so amazed at how naturally those things can come. We managed to keep her alive.

I remember how quickly Liv seemed to thrive. The pictures from day one home to day 10 showed such a difference. I remember sitting on the deck visiting with Chris' parents when Chris got the call with the news that Liv was negative for the HIV virus. He came and whispered in my ear "it's negative" and that was it. The combo of relief and joy washed over me, the tears fell and I hugged my baby close and thanked God for her.

I look at Olivia today, and I look at Chris and I today and I have no doubt that God knows what he's doing. She's such a joy and has been such a blessing. People often say, "She's such a lucky little girl," but, it's us that are lucky. Our lives are richer because of her and who she is. Yes, there are trying days, like any parent experiences, but she's really been so easy for the most part. So easy. 

Last night we went out to Club Indigo with Jerry and Liz. The first time Liv was there was with Jerry and Sara. She was such a good baby and just snuggled down in her car seat while we ate. Last night our little wonder was kneeling in her chair, using a fork like the big people, and eating everything from bread to lemon tarts. Her favorite though was the fettucini. 

Olivia has such a big personality. For those that have met her there is no need for explanation. For those that haven't, she is by far the most social one year old I have ever met. People are drawn to her and she to them. She's made friends from all over the globe because of some of the places we go. Last night while we were at Indigo she charmed the restaurant manager and ended up taking her for a walk, then showed off her dancing skills while clapping. :) She is busy. Yonese has nicknamed her "siclon" which means cyclone in Creole. It's so very true. Right now she's walking along the boxes behind our desks and moving things from one to the next. I love watching her thought process. I have no other babies to compare her to, so I have no idea what's normal. What I do know is that I sit there amazed at what she connects and does, after she's seen us do it once. Things like taking the cap of a bottle and grabbing the bottle and trying to screw that cap back on. Things like getting upset and not touching her dinner until I give her a fork because she wants to eat like us. Things like moving blocks from one container to the next, then back again. Or sharing whatever she has in her hands. I love watching her brain work, to see her connect things and try them. I think it's one of the true joys of being a parent. I'm glad we don't have a huge number of other babies around because I love and appreciate everything that Liv does, and totally get engrossed in it, and I probably wouldn't be that way if there were more outside influence. 

Liv is cheesy and funny. She loves to repeat sounds. She's very chatty, to the point where whatever she's saying is so important to her that she often yells it with conviction. She has all sorts of goofy smiles and faces she makes, just because she knows it makes us laugh. She also has an infectious belly laugh of her own, one that usually pours out of her with some good tickling. She is curious and interested in everything. She loves an audience. She understands all sorts of words and feels very proud of herself when she can show us she understands. 

I'm not sharing this to brag about my kid, but rather to share the joy that adoption has brought to our family. There has never been a day where I regretted stepping into this, even though the process in Haiti can be daunting. In fact, I'm so very thankful that we get to be Olivia's family. We're trusting God's timing on the paper work and that he'll see us through with endurance and the energy that we need until we can all get on a plane together and take a good holiday. 

La di da di da

I like days like this where it's 8 pm and I find myself soooo looking forward to going to bed. The last few days have been busy, but fun. Like Jerry said, we went and did a delivery run today while Chris stayed home with Olivia. It was the first time I had been out on a delivery run in probably about 2 years. That sounds crazy, but the way things are set up now Chris and I are basically the facilitators and our staff go out and do the work. We find that we're often a distraction and that people don't respond the same way if we weren't there. Case in point. The second filter we dropped off a woman stood on the side of the road next to the truck asking our workers why the whites weren't giving the filters away (we run a subsidized program, which I've talked about before). If we hadn't been there there would be no question that it makes sense that people pay for their filters. When we got to the biggest delivery people came and gathered. Our workers right away started telling them not to ask for anything. After that I was able to have a conversation with a few of the women. I liked being able to get out and feel a bit more connected to what we do. I have a hard time with that sometimes but I also love the way we're set up because I know it's more effective. I don't need to go out just so I feel like I'm doing something. 

Olivia is walking. The difference over a period of hours is astounding. She's gone from being timid about stepping out to motoring around and being very proud of herself. If she can get herself up her chosen method of getting around is walking. Tonight she got so excited that she took off from one end of the room towards our kitchen where Daddy and Granddad were doing dishes, lost her balance, managed to avoid the stack of pop bottle crates, but bit it into the corner of the water cooler. She had a nice little bump on her forehead for bath time. Walking wound number one. She's so good at falling and not getting discouraged. She's also started putting things on her head and walking around. Apparently Olivia is one freakishly observant child. I mean, it's not like we've got people walking around the yard with things on their heads all day long, but she would have seen it driving through different communities. Crazy. And funny. :) I've found myself feeling amazed at how quickly kids can pick things up. I mean, two days ago walking was just something that she did along the furniture. Once she got it, she was all in. No halfway. 

I just realized that it was one year ago TODAY that we got the call about Olivia. She was so tiny that first day that we met her, only 5lbs 4 oz, and now she's walking. So much has happened in the last year, so much has changed. We saw John McHoul on Monday and I *think* we're in IBESR. That's Haitian social services. We need to call Junior to double check, but he was moving our paperwork as much as possible to get our file in. IBESR is the first step in the official adoption process here and can take any number of months. Some people are out in 3 months, others it's longer. Just depends on who's looking at your dossier on any particular day. Now we get to wait it out and see how long we get to be in this. After IBESR we have a few more legal steps before everything is finished. We would love prayers that things will move at a good pace for us. We don't want to leave until Liv's adoption is done, so that could mean a couple years in the country without a family holiday, and anyone that's been here knows and understands how important those breaks are for one's sanity and health. We're already feeling it and it's going to take a lot to slug through until we're done. 

I'm excited about a new project I have up my tank top. I had started a quilt top for our bed last year, but just wasn't feeling it, and thought I didn't have enough material to finish it. I decided that I'll stash the parts that I have done away for a while and make a twin sized quilt out of it for Olivia when she's old enough for a big girl bed because I will have enough for it then. I found some FABULOUS quilt squares on Ebay and Liz brought them in. Yesterday I stopped at the little fabric store in St. Marc and got the rest of the fabric for the front and the back. I'm already SO excited about it because I can already see how it's going to come together. I'm itching to get started on it... 

Our weekend away was good. Nice and quiet. The only downside was that we all had different variations of a stomach bug. I got hit Friday morning and spent the rest of the day feeling pretty rough as we did errands, then headed up the mountain. I was better the next morning, then Olivia had her little touch of it (no barfing, thank goodness), and then Chris got it Sunday and is still feeling a little "off" as he calls it. It was so nice and cold up at Furcy. Almost too cold actually, but such a treat for us Canadian folk. I think the change of scenery was good for all of us. 

My computer is still in the shop, though it should be done this week. Hopefully. That's why there haven't been many pictures. Someone donated a refurbished lappy to the mission and Jerry brought it in so at least we don't have to share computers anymore. I just don't have any of my stuff and am crossing my fingers that the tech will be able to fix everything and keep all my stuff. 

I had more that was running through my head to write about, but it's gone. G-O-N-E. I think that's a good sign that it's bedtime.

Have a stellar week.

~Leslie 

Day 2.5 Jerry and Liz Rolling

Tired and uncreative last night.

We visited Barbara Macleod's School Wednesday morning.  She now serves 100 kids in 4 grades.  The accommodation is spartan, concrete floors and walls a recess area no more than 400 square feet and a single bathroom, actually a pit toilet, I don't want to think about.  But the kids are happy and engaged and learning their basics.  We gave her about 30 pairs of shoes donated by our friends and colleagues in Vancouver WA for which she was very grateful. Parents are reluctant to send their kids to school here if they have no shoes.  Other kids and adults make fun of the shoeless children.

This photograph shows two aspects of Haitian life.  Most people do not pay for electricity here. They simply tap into the main line at the power pole.  The result, in a poor crowded area where Barb lives is this - dozens of illegal hookups.  The hookups are often poorly executed so power is reduced or cut off to other users.  The second thing is the number of vacant houses and unfinished construction.  All house are built with rebar sticking up from the flat roof of the finished house to allow for another story. 

This lady is selling charcoal.  You can just make out that these are not briquettes.  They are small branches, scarcely more than twigs, brought down from the mountains to the main highway to sell for cooking.  The major consequence of this is that Haiti is largely deforested, is more mountainous than Switzerland and has pretty well lost its topsoil to the Caribbean.

A word about the filters.  The following photo shows the three parts of the mold.  The square box is placed inside the U shaped piece and the plate bolted to the two ends of the U.  Concrete is poured into the gap between the box and the outside and mechanically shaken to get rid of air pockets.  When it is dry the three parts are unbolted and the filter removed.

Tap Taps

Haiti gets the first world's rejects.  Chicken from the US is fine and healthy but comes in the oddest sizes.  School and Greyhound buses, light trucks, heavy trucks and police cars.  You haven't lived until you've experienced a school bus doing 55 mph, on your side of the road with all it's hazard lights on.  Anyway the best use for worn out light trucks is to be used as Tap Taps.  At any time to get to where you want to go in Haiti you simply walk up to the Highway and wait.  When the Tap Tap arrives you load yourself, your produce or other goods and your livestock onto it - it's most often a small Toyota or Nissan - and off you go.  They usually have a steel frame welded to the back so more people can hang on.  I was on one in 2004 when they tied a goat upside down by it's feet on the outside of the vehicle.  When you arrive at your destination you take a coin and "Tap Tap" on the steel frame to stop the vehicle, disembark and pay.  It's actually a very efficient system - scary by North American standards but it works.  You can imagine how hard this overloading is on the vehicles but they go on for years.  Haiti, where Toyota trucks go to die.

This morning we went on a filter delivery.  We had to take the 2.25 ton truck as the road was too narrow to take the 3.5 ton.  Road is a gross exaggeration.  Off the main highway we travelled perhaps 4 miles up the side of a mountain, no blacktop, small irrigation ditches running across the "road", no guardrails, no gas stations, no electrical power in that part of Haiti.  White people rarely visit this region - witness the welcome from these kids at recess. One two year old girl was so frightened of us she ran off.  We delivered 15 filters which means 150 people with clean healthy water. 

One incongruity you will love.  We're half way up this mountain and turn a corner into a hamlet with 4 or 5 houses.  In a clear space next to the road is a table 6 men and a table full of cell phones.  Why are they selling cell phones where there isn't even one vehicle a day coming through here?  Nearly everyone here has a cell phone even if the kids are going hungry.  We asked the Haitian work crew and it turns out they were charging the cell phones.  No electricity so there are mobile businesses charging cell phones from car batteries.

Tune in tomorrow for  more news.  Taking Olivia for a swim now.

Jerry

L'ap mache!

Baby girl started walking yesterday :) In 24 hours she's gone from a few timid steps to covering a room in one go. It's SO fun. And we'll probably be wondering why we were so excited a few weeks from now...

First Day in Haiti

Left Vancouver 3:30pm Sunday, arrived at Pierre Payen 6pm Monday.  All bags arrived including 160# of mission stuff, inverter, 2 grinders, electrical switches and relays and almost a full bag of children's shoes for Barb Macleod's school.  

Everything is way more organized and comfortable than when I was here a year ago.  The new dorms are done, Chris and Leslie have an air conditioned van with a real suspension system instead of a 2 ton truck built for carrying capacity rather than comfort.  I was in bed just after 8 pretty tired.

They get up early here as much more gets done in the relative cool of the morning.  Shortly after 6 we're eating breakfast.  I am anxious to see Liz's reaction to Haiti - and a little anxious. Many visitors come to Clean Water for Haiti and just cannot handle the poverty, lack of power and sanitation and most especially the roads.  Liz actually enjoyed the fact that Chris drove flat out all the time, appeared to be playing chicken with huge trucks on our side of the road (Potholes) and the marketplace that is Route Nationalle 1.

She also savored her niece Olivia, seen here with her adoring and very relaxed grandfather.

Olivia is one year old and on the point of walking.  We pretty well stayed around the house today, played with the baby and the dog, looked at the progress of the mission in installing new equipment and deliveries of filters, read and ate.  The missions new solar panels deserve a few words.  All those who worked on this deserve congratulations.  This was a complicated project for a group of amateurs.  Four 35Ft (?) concrete pillars hold an array of panels.  The wiring to convert the power to usable 110 volt ac, coordinate with the public power and generator and the battery bank is daunting.  It all works and is saving the mission $300/$400 per month.  The inverter I packed along is going to enable the mission to provide 220 volt power.

I have told many of you before how well situated Chris and Leslie are.  They are on the Caribbean, just 10 feet from their property line, have wonderful neighbors, sunsets to die for, grow nearly all their own fruit and don't have to drive to work.

This is one of the views from their patio.

Hoping to visit the school tomorrow.

Guest blogger

Hey All!

Liz and Dad R arrived yesterday. Dad promised about 300 people that he would guest blog while he's here so consider this the official introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Jerry Rolling, the third Rolling to post on the Rollings in Haiti :)

One

Baby girl turned the big 1 on Monday. We had a few friends over for dinner and had a little celebration. My mom brought a "birthday bag" with her at Christmas. She had put a birthday table cloth, birhtday napkins, balloons, a "1' candle and the hat in it. She felt it was important that we had the necessities to celebrate in style :) Little Miss O wasn't really sure what was going on, but as always she seemed to enjoy being the center of attention. 

For the Fan Club, this is the hat. I was told I would recieve hate mail if I didn't post a picture for you. (For all of you not in the loop, this is the ridiculous hat my mother bought to torture our daughter with on her birhtday)

Daddy, the birthday girl and the cupcake "cake".

Banana icecream face.

This is what you get when you give a child who pretty much never has sweet stuff a ridiculously sweet cupcake. 

I kept thinking back to the day we brought Olivia home and how much she's changed and grown over the year, and how much of a blessing she's been to us. We love being her parents. I love to see how she interacts with us now compared to even a month ago. I get way more cuddles and snuggles now, she's super chatty and is just taking in so much everyday. She's also so incredibly curious and active. Seriously, this kid doesn't sit still. The only time she's not moving is when she's sleeping. She's a bit of an escape artist and often likes to adventure into the yard, so she keeps us hopping. I can honestly say that it's a really fun stage to be in right now. 

Go Watch This

I really want you to go check out the slide show that Matt put on his blog about his time here in Haiti from June to December. I feel like it's so hard show people what life is like here and because of our upload speed it's really hard to get anything like this done. He's done a great job of showing so much of what we see and do on a daily basis. You'll see pictures of the mission, all the projects we were working on, our staff, filter deliveries, Matt's adventures, us... it's really great. It makes me feel all mushy and sentimental. It's about 20 minutes, but well worth the time. 

So, go grab a cup of coffee, then click HERE to link to his blog and scroll down down the post, and play it to watch. 

Thanks for posting it Matt!

I'm a rambling Rolling

I thought it was time I showed up on here for a quick minute. I mean, it has been over a week. I don't really have the words to explain why, but I think I've been avoiding the blog. I keep thinking about it and feel like I waver between having all sorts of ideas about what to write and not having anything to say. Then, when I do feel like I'm ready to sit down and write I feel like there are too many disjointed ideas all crashing together in the same post. I respect people that can stay on topic. Really, I do. 

We're in the middle of a class for 9 people, which is basically a full class for us. I remember back two years when classes seemed like this big, crazy thing that we did. Now they're just routine. Routine even when I don't have my computer, which has all of the work files on it. Routine when our printer ran out of ink halfway through copying the manuals. Routine when... In Haiti "routine" is whatever happens to go on that day I think. 

Chris got a new generator today. It wasn't a planned trip into town. We realized at breakfast this morning that we needed more money because Friday is pay day. Chris refuses to go to the bank in St. Marc anymore, unless there is absolutely no way to avoid it. The last time he went in to take care of a money transfer he was there for 5 hours. You just think I'm exagerating, don't you? I'm not. Today he decided it would be better for him to drive to Port au Prince to go to the bank, rather than spending another 5 hours waiting in line. Just think of that the next time you have to wait at the grocery store or Walmart. He went and bought our new generator and ordered the windows for the apartment at the same time so it was actually a productive trip.

Turns out the guys that he got the generator from also build cabinets, so next week, or something like that, we're going to stop by and have a chat and see what they can do for us for the apartment. Chris made a joke with our board the other night that I wanted fancy pants cupboards. If any of you are reading, for the record, I was in bed and out of "what the heck are you saying to them!?!" range. Thank you all of you for thinking I deserve nice cupboards. Really, my needs are simple. I want the counters to be at normal person height, not hitting me at my pelvis. I want the doors to close properly. And, I want the shelves inside to be at reasonable heights. That's all. Sounds simple, but the thought of hiring any joe cabinet maker was giving me feverish sweats. You have to really shop around for certain things here because a "boss" will asure you that he knows what he's doing, then it all turns out wrong. The guys in Port actually have brochures and a website. That should be good for something. Oh, and they have a heart for missionaries and like to give them good deals :) 

Speaking of the apartment, yesterday I was sitting in class and during a moment when my mind was wandering from my translation duties I looked over and realized that Boss Simon was stuccoing the front of it. And that the front of the dorms (downstairs) had been finished. Last week. Today the whole front of the building is done and it looks so different. And it all happened without me knowing that it was happening. It made me feel giddy and out of the loop all at the same time. I still have a hard time thinking about the fact that we're on the finishing side of things. My brain keeps running to the details, like floors and cupboards and such. Part of me feels like because we're missionaries and we're supposed to be all humble etc that I shouldn't be looking forward to that kind of thing, but I am. The decisions need to be made by someone, and I'm happy to do them becuase I love this kind of thing. Mostly though, I feel like it'll be a little something that's "ours" in a sense. Chris and I got married after we were both working for the mission, and still live in the same house we lived in then, just with fewer people. We've never really had our own space with just our own personal stuff in it that we haven't had to share openly with everyone else. I'm looking forward to having some separation there, to be able to add our own personality to things, to have just our stuff around us and not have to think that someone else might think it's public access just because its there. We want to keep things simple for many reasons, but it's fun for me to be able to make choices that suit us and to think about how it's all going to come together. That, and I've never, ever been the very first person to live in a place. That feels cool. 

Today we got our new water system up and running. Chris bought a new tank last week, and now it and our old one are up on the roof of the new building and we have more water pressure now than we ever have without having to run the generator. It's pretty exciting to know that I won't have to plan the days that I wash my hair on whether the water pump is running or not. AND, the washing machine fills like it does when the pump is on. That may mean nothing to you, but to me it means that I'll actually be able to do a load of laundry in an hour, not four. Again, not exagerating. Tomorrow the new generator will get hooked up and our power and water system will be all put back together the way it's supposed to function. I've been trying to be a good sport about things and remember that we're lucky we have water and power on our property period, and I think I've done a good job with rolling with the punches and not complaining etc. It'll just be nice to have everything back to the way it's supposed to be so we don't have to calculate every single thing we do and can spend that brain power on other things, like running the mission. Or doing laundry. 

We get to get away next weekend and I'm already excited about it. We're going to our favorite place in Haiti - Furcy. Mountains, cool air, quiet. Mmmm. We need to have a bit of rest as a family, away from Pierre Payen. Our friends are being very gracious and letting us use their house. It's kind of like going to the cottage/cabin for any of you that do that. We get up there and just forget about time and totally unwind. I'm so looking forward to it. 

Well, this has been enough of a ramble so I'm going to sign off. Have a great week!

~Leslie

Happy new year. Just for fun, I'm going to start out giving my own perspective on the events of last week to contrast with Leslie's. 

On New Year's Eve, line power came on for a few hours and I decided to make use of it and weld up a loud, annoying hole in the exhaust pipe of our generator. I went out and welded it up, which was a pretty simple job. After just finishing the last bead, I still had my mask on but I noticed an orange glare inside the mask. My first thought was that my hair was on fire - it's happened before. I threw the mask on the ground and rapidly patted my head, but my hair wasn't on fire at all. A large part of the wall in front of me was on fire. It was much too big to pat out, as I'm used to doing from time to time when I'm welding. I very quickly pushed the welder out the door and started throwing the mostly empty diesel drums outside. However, the fire grew so quickly that three small cans stayed inside and melted. 

It was scary, and no matter what I did, it didn't happen fast enough. First, I looked for a bucket to fill with water - no bucket. I remembered that the buckets were probably in the shop (the room adjoining the generator room). I ran into the shop, which was already so hot and flamey that the cautious part of my brain told me to run back out again. Then I ran for the hose. By the time I got to the depot with a running hose, the water stopped coming out of it. What had happened is that the power lines inside the shop had burnt up and shorted out and there was no more power to run the 220v pump. Then somebody finally appeared in front of me with a bucket, and I used the water tank at the sand washing station to fill buckets. The buckets filled so slowly! After many buckets, there finally seemed to be more smoke than fire. 

Eventually somebody much smarter than me remembered that we had a well with a  hand pump across the yard, and started a proper bucket brigade. It shows how people's brains work in an emergency - not at peak efficiency. Time was moving at a different speed than usual, but if I had to guess, I would say that 10 minutes went by before anyone remembered about the hand pump. We finally got the fire out and assessed the damage. 

Everything in the generator room was destroyed. The generator itself cost $8200 when we bought it in 2005. It had 5300 hours on it and could have gone about 8000 hours before needing a rebuild. The US dollar has crashed since 2005 so the same generator costs $12,000 or more now. In addition, we lost a welding mask (the one I was using) a flashlight, and a large part of the roofing plywood (7 sheets). 

The biggest blow was to my pride though. The generator room would have been just fine if I'd had a bucket of water sitting next to me while I was welding. If it was during a work week and I'd had a worker do the work, I would have said "Make sure you have a bucket of water next to you when you do that!" Expensive mistake, and every dollar comes from donors who would much rather see their money go toward's filters. 

New Year's Eve is our dog's least favorite day. She hates loud noises. During summer lightening storms she's mostly okay, because my favorite thing to do is sit out on our deck, watch the lightening and pet the dog. However, on New Year's Eve there were fireworks going on at times all througout the day. At midnight I was in bed, but the racket shook my bones, and there was a generous amount of gunfire mixed in there. I'm pretty certain I heard some guy with a 9mm uzi as well. The next morning, no dog.

Jabez has never run away before. Her and I are the only ones who have lived here continuously for all of the past 6 years, and she's always been the one I can count on to be there and do her thing. When she disppeared it was pretty traumatic for me, and I was so happy when she returned 24 hours later. We both have a new appreciation for Jabez now, and we're going to get her a little friend (another rottweiler) for her to play with. She's over 7 years old, so she's no longer a young dog, and eventually her little friend will take over her old functions. I've even thought about building a doghouse - some of that plywood from the generator room isn't fully burnt but merely charred, so that, a few nails and a coat of paint could make a nice place to go when there's thunder, firecrackers or gunshots. 

The solar panels have been really nice. I mean, for most of what we do now we don't need a generator at all. The following is going to be a bunch of engineer speak so Leslie's usual readers can skip ahead a paragraph. That's okay, I won't be offended.

On Jan 3, I finally installed the MPPT controllers that came in with a friend who was in Haiti for the New Year. The controllers give all kinds of information about what the panels are doing. For example, I can see exactly how many watts they are giving. MPPT stands for "Maximum Power Point Tracking", which means that they optimize the watts that are pulled out of the panels by letting them give of their most efficient voltage for any given amount of sunlight they are receiving. This is important because the panels are each essentially 1 amp panels. However, if you hook those panels up to a 24 volt battery bank, then each panel is going to give 1 amp X 24 volts = 24 watts. (V X A = W) However, if the controller can pull out that amp at 40 V and convert it (which it can) then we get 1 amp X 44 Volds = 40 watts. The controller then sends out that 40 watts of power to the batteries at an easily digestible 24 volts, and voila, we have lots more power, plus a really cool digital readout display that I can look at throughout the day. I've noticed some interesting things in my observations. Yesterday, for example, it was about 11am and I was unhappy with the power coming out of the array, about 1850 watts. I asked Fristner to go up there with the hose and wash off the dust and all of a sudden we had 2350 watts coming out. That should give you some idea of how much dust we have coming off the highway right now - that was only 2 weeks worth of dust. We'll be cleaning those things off every monday morning. Free power! Yay!

Okay, welcome back, non-techies. The last thing I'll add is that I want to get back to the story of how I came to be in Haiti, but I'm still thinking about how to tell it. 

 

Home Again

We took the fam to the airport this morning, so they're on their way home again. It was sad to say good-bye. I know it'll probably sink in more over the next couple of days, but right now I'm so tired it's hard for it to make an imprint.

This morning Jan Filip, our guard, woke us up by yelling, "The dog is back, the dog is back!" Jabez came home in the night and we were SO happy to see her. We talked for a long time last night, sort of grieving, and coming to terms with the fact that we might not see her again. I know many would think that rash thinking, but this is Haiti and things are different here. My dad thinks she probably got so scared that she ran and hid somewhere nearby, but didn't come out at all yesterday, which is why we didn't find her. But, she is home, and she is absolutely fine. Not a mark on her. We're so grateful. We decided this morning that we're going to look for another dog, a puppy. We had been talking about it over the last couple months because we know Jabez is getting older, but hadn't wanted to jump into anything. We want her to have another dog around because dogs are pack animals and we think the company would be good for her. Also, she's such a great dog that getting a puppy now would be a good idea as far as training goes - it could learn from her. So, we'll be looking around. For anyone in Haiti, we're looking for a Rotweiler. If you know of any good breeders in the country please let me know. We'll be trying to track down the guy that Jabez was purchased from, but it's good to know if there are other options. 

I feel like a couple of days has given us time to think and regroup, though it's been exhausting emotionally. Evens, one of our employees, has gotten a good part of our wiring fixed to the point where we're charging our batteries off the solar panels and our EDH connection is working again. Chris and Evens got some spare transformers hooked up so we can pump water off the inverter. So, we have power and we have water. Our friend that owns the house two doors down just came by and said we could borrow his generator for as long as we need it as their house doesn't get used much. Our plan is to use that for the next couple of weeks so Chris can shop around for a new generator rather than making a rash purchase. 

Thanks to all of you who commented and for all of the prayers that have been sent up for us. Your support means so much to us and we feel it here. 

There are many more things to write about, good things. Things from the visit. I just don't have the emotional energy to do it right now. I also have a bunch of pictures that I want to post, but will have to work on that since my computer is not here. They will come though. Right now, I'm going to go take a nap. Sleep was fitful last night. 

At what point do you crack?

The last 24 hours have been hard. I won't mince words there. 

Yesterday around noon Chris went out to go and do some repair work on the generator because we had EDH. The exhaust needed patching, which meant welding. About 15 minutes after he got out there we heard him yelling for help. I ran down the stairs from our room to the back door and saw the mission shop on fire and him running from it. Not a little fire, a lot of fire. As he was welding a spark landed on a piece of wood laying against the wall and caught faster than you would believe. Because he was wearing the welding helmet he didn't realize it had happened until he lifted his head up. Within minutes the entire room was englufed in flames. Chris managed to throw most of the diesel drums out of the room. We hadn't gotten them filled this month and had been running off solar for the last week and a half so they were all mostly empty. Thank God. 

I was so thankful that my family was here yesterday because I have no idea what would have happened otherwise. Dad and Darren ran and helped Chris get stuff out of the way and started throwing water on the fire. Mom stayed at the house and made sure Liv was okay. I ran around non-sensically, then started making phone calls to our workers to get more people here to help. A bunch of the neighbors came running and started helping out. It took about half an hour to get the fire out. 

The damage? The generator is toast. The roof needs to be replaced. Most of our wiring needs to be replaced. A bunch of our workers showed up in the middle of getting the fire out and stuck around to help get some power running through the solar panels and help clean up. Turns out our inverter wasn't working. We could charge our batteries, but couldn't use the power. Our neighbors are all out for the week becuase of New Years so they let us plug into their power for the night. 

I feel blessed that things didn't turn out worse. My husband is alive. The damage that was done can be fixed. The equipment that was lost can be replaced. The funds are already there to do that. I'm thankful my family was here because if they hadn't been I have NO IDEA what would have happened. 

That is not the end though.

Last night people all along the beach were setting off fire works. Big fire works. The kind you need a permit for if you live in North America. Our dog HATES anything that bangs. None of us have seen Jabez since last night. We think that in the midst of all the banging and popping she ran away to hide, and hasn't come home. Darren and I went for a walk to see if we could find her, but no one has seen her. Chris and I are thinking the worst becuase we know that many people in our area were afraid of her simply because she's not a Haitian dog. We also know that dogs are not treated well here. We're pretty much resigning ourselves to the fact that she may not be coming home. Anyone that's met Jabez will understand how heartbreaking this is for us. We LOVE that dog so much. 

The last two weeks have been nothing  that we anticipated. I'm just hoping that none of it is an indication of what the next year will be like, because really. 

On top of all that my computer is in the shop and needs a recovery CD from the US to maybe get fixed. And ALL of my stuff is on there. ALL of the mission stuff is on there. If you've been emailing me, I can check email, I just haven't been quick to write people back.