Stairs and Filters

Mon 3/28 

Built gates for in front of the Library. Sonny & Fedelum built the cinderblock and cement stairs for the bathroom. 

Lebon gathered palm frond for the fence and Wag, Lebon and Liffern stuck them into the fence. Nice work, nice fence. 

4 pm 12 more people showed up, gave out filters, 12 more people got filters and instructions how to care for them and clean them. Ken took photos again.

Demo and distributing the filters

Sun 3/27

12 people showed up at 4 pm to get water filters. I did a complete demo with Sam & Federique reading & translating the care and cleaning instructions. It went very well. 12 people left all happy to have filters. Ken took video and photos. 

The Filter Pure water Filters arrive

Sat 3/26

Took the 8 am taxi boat along with 25 or so locals from the village. Sam pays someone to carry him to the boat so he won’t get his shoes and pants wet.  I sit next to the French Canadian couple with two young boys from Quebec. They left the kids on the boat for the day and are off to Les Cayes to see the city. 

We are on a mission to PU the water filters.

We arrive, call the filter delivery man and I am told he is still two hours away, so we head for the hardware store to buy materials. You folks at Waterstreet Company in Sausalito would get a kick out of seeing how they run hardware stores here. Everything is behind the counter. Some things are displayed on walls behind the counters, but only a few. You ask for what you want, the clerk fetches it, or what she thought you asked for, then goes back several times until you get something that might serve the purpose, or you figure out how to make do with what they do have or give up. 

Then the clerk writes it all up long hand on a slip of blank paper, starting over if there are any changes or deletions. The completed list is handed across to a man in a wire cage in the middle of the room, who totals the bill and hands it back to the clerk. The clerk shows it to you, you hand her the money, she hands it to the money guy, who makes change, but wait, we are not yet done. The money counter man now locks up his cage, comes around to the counter and checks off each item on the list which have all be laid out neatly on the counter before the clerk is allowed to bag or box them up. Not the most efficient system, but it sure must be necessary to reduce shrinkage and pilfering. 

Just about the time we are done paying we get a call that the water filter truck has arrived. They made better time than we expected, or maybe I misheard what was said. Anyway we head out of the hardware store. I ask Karma if he will carry the four small sheets of very thin sheet metal we have bought to protect the water cisterns form the sun’s rays, and he says “No.” I am puzzled and not sure what is going on. I ask him why and am told they never carry anything in Les Cayes, there are other people for that. I ask Wagner if he will carry them and he also says he never carries anything in Les Cayes, it is never done. He says he will carry anything on Ile a Vache, but not in Les Cayes. I am not sure why, but don’t care or want to wait for the explanation, so I lift the four sheets up on my head and fold them down over my ears like a sheet metal sunbonnet and start off down the street, They are all incredulous and laughing at me and tell me that the people are all laughing. I don’t mind, but perhaps it would be better if I don’t break the local social taboos and take work away from the men who carry things for others for a living.

When we get back we call a committee meeting for 5 pm, went over filters w/ Karma & Sam reading w/ Federique translating, me demonstrating, and gave one to each of the 6 committee members, met and agreed each would pick two people to come at 4 pm on Sunday to PU filters

Pizza and Lobster

Fri 3/25

Wagner off to Les Cayes to PU money and buy materials. Breakfast at Port Morgan w/ Adrian, Liza, Alberto & his Mexican wife.

Offered and accept a ride back in Adrian & Liza dinghy, Very pretty hard shell fiberglass lapstrake dinghy with teak seats & flotation chambers fore and aft. Very stable, lightweight and strong. I like it a lot and will look for a similar one for Nepenthe.

Make Pizza in the solar oven. Solar Cooking 1.0, first attempt to make pizza. Semi success, mostly a failure, crust never got done, very doughy, cheese never melted. Need larger oven bags, more solar gain. Will try again by inverting the lid on the roasting pan, thus reducing its size and volume, making it possible to fit two oven bags over it, and also less volume of air to heat inside. Also need to increase solar reflector area by factor of 2-3 will use plywood covered with foil on second attempt. We ate the pizza anyway and everyone says it is good. What’s not to like? Dough, pesto with olive oil, garlic, basil, chopped tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, olives, all good to eat even if not crispy and melted.

Lobster for dinner. Just lobster, good size, large tails.  remove the tail, cover with lime juice and olive oil. It is delicious. Another great day in paradise.

No more climbing thru the window to the bathroom

Wed 3/23

Wag, Sonny & Fedlum knock out walls above and below window to make the door opening. Big mess. Monclaire helping.

Monclaire & I take Wags boat out rowing to visit boats in the harbor. Meet the French couple on Namaste, Adrian on Two Ticks, a Wharram catamaran from South Africa.

One day old colt by the path on way to Port Morgan hotel

A typical Haitian boat undergoing some repairs by the path on way to Port Morgan hotel

The shipwright 

Two Miracles in one day

Tuesday 3/22 

After two weeks here, and the tantalizing promise of a working shower some day “soon come”, today that much anticipated event finally arrived. Jackson finished hooking up the sink, shower and toilet, the cistern barrels on the roof got filled with water and Voila, we have running water. Taking a real shower for the first time in many weeks was an almost spiritual experience, or at least a material pleasure. Only a few problems: the sink drains onto the floor, the shower doesn’t drain at all, and the floor in the bathroom slopes away from the shower drain, making a deep puddle right in front of the door. Why have the floor slope towards the drain if the drain doesn’t work anyway?

For people who might have never seen or been in a running water bathroom, much less built one, it is coming along remarkably well and I have faith it will work well soon. 

Visited the fish ponds to see the men working to dig them deeper, doing a great job working out in the hot sun. 

The other minor miracle was that after giving out more than 25 sails, supposedly to fishermen with boats, supposedly in exchange for fish, we finally got fish for dinner, and it was delicious. Boney little things, but very tender and tasty. 

Today was my father’s birthday. He would have been 103 this year, but only made it to 89. I honored his memory with a swim in the lagoon, something he would have enjoyed if he were here.

The fence around the library was a bit too Haitian for me to fully appreciate. Some places had six strands of wire, some seven and some eight, one section even had nine. Some places the rows were even and straight, some they were very cooked and uneven. Of course it is not really important, but we decided it might be a useful lesson for them to make some adjustments to make it more “foreign”. It seems that foreigners, probably mostly North Americans and Europeans, like things straight and even, so I showed them how to make it more foreign. It might be good for them to learn a few foreign ways as most of the opportunities for jobs and money that might come their way in the future will most likely come from foreigners who like things straight and even.

Today we also learned about the deep well of good water that has been repaired two months ago. It seems that someone, some unknown NGO, put in a deep well with a hand pump that produces good fresh water from an underground aquifer about 10 years ago. It was broken for several years until just recently but is now fixed and works again producing the best water on the island up to a rocky hillside from and deep rocky aquifer.

Solar panel installation and saving chickens

Mon 3/21

Big full moon last night. Clear and beautiful, no clouds, the wind is dying down. Surprisingly the dogs were relatively quiet. The locals build smoky fires at dusk and the village fills with smoke, to drive away the mosquitos we are told. Either it works or maybe the local mosquitos don’t like white people. Ken tells me a story about how when the British arrived in Honduras and found people there building smoky fires inside their houses without chimneys, they promptly taught them how to build chimneys in every house. The result was a plague of malaria. Stupid F...ing white man, thinks he knows better. We are told the mosquitos here get much worse in the rainy season in summer when it is hot and damp. Remind me not to come here then, November to May is the time to visit Ile a Vache if you value comfort.

Wagner  heads for Aux Cayes along with Federique and a few others to pick up money for the water filters and to pay the crew. It is payday and many will be happy. Monclaire and I cover the roof of the bathroom with two very small jib sails that were donated and are too small for the Haitian fishing boats, must have been from small yacht club racing boats or kids learn to sail programs. Once the sails are covering the roof, we lay 2 x 4’s across over them, The (temporary) roof is ready for the two water cistern barrels to be replaced, one for well water for the toilet, the other for cleaner water for the sink and shower. Later in the day Jackson comes by to work on the shower pipes.

Samuel brings over his solar panel and I show him how to make mounting brackets for it out of some pipe clamps by bending and drilling them. We attach 4 of the 12 brackets Sam makes to the panels and head over to his restaurant/store to install it on the roof. On the way we run into an interesting couple of young Americans, Rebecca and Cory from Atlanta. They are camping in a tent in a field on the other side of the village at a friends house, taking a break from working for NGO’s in Jacmel and Port au Prince. They are on the way to Mme Bernard to the market and we invite them to stop by later on their way back. 

The installation at Sammy’s Place goes well,  I buy a couple of scrap wood blocks from the boatyard nearby for a dollar to use as backing blocks on the underside of the roof. I am sure they would have given me the small scraps for free, but I feel good about giving them a dollar anyway. I’ll get a free beer from Sammy when we are done so it all works out. We are a little skeptical about Sam’s roof supporting my weight, but I distribute it well and put my knees over the supports only. The very thin sheet metal roof makes lots of cracking, creaking and groaning noises, but does fulfill its threatened collapse. We are successful and retire to inside Sam’s for refreshments and music powered by the newly installed battery and solar panel. 

After lunch I grab my snorkel and fins and head for the lagoon. It is pretty dirty today, a lot of floating paper and plastic and sea grass, probably blown over from aux Cayes in the strong North winds we had for several days. Jean Lorique and Genieux have departed, but there are two new boats in the harbor so I swim over to take a look. One is Harmony VI, a sleek 48 ft monohull flying a very faded Japanese flag. As I swim by, one man sitting in the cockpit waves and says hello. We chat for a few minutes and he informs me they have spent 2 1/2 years sailing here from Phuket Thailand by way of the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. From here they plan another year and a half to complete their circumnavigation back to Phuket.

The other boat is a big catamaran flying a French flag, but no one is up on deck. I notice a large graphic painted on the side of both hulls that shows a logo of the earth and a sail with the name “Voiles sans Frontiers”; Sails without Borders. Remind me to look it up next time I get access to the internet, sounds interesting, I hope we get a chance to meet and hear their story.

After my swim, a washcloth rinse and a nap, I feel pretty good, a little tired but a good tired. I begin preparations to build a door for the bathroom by removing nailed on cleats from some thin plywood sheets from a crate that has Made in China stenciled in big red letters on it. The plywood is thin, maybe 1/4” thick, but sturdy enough and made of some nice red hardwood veneer so it will look beautiful when varnished. It will make good door skins when fitted to a 1X4 frame. We will leave the Made in China stencil on it to add character. It is a lot of work removing the nailed on cleats, three cleats per sheet, 6-8 nails per cleat and all of the nails have been driven through and clinched over so I need to dig each one out with a hammer and chisel (a screwdriver really, we don’t have chisels) straighten with pliers, pound back through and pull each one out with the most rusty claw hammer I have ever see. It is so rusty it has scale on it, like an antique or artifact from another era, but it still works. A hammer is a satisfying tool. They rarely break and can be counted on to almost always work properly, even when rusty, unlike a lot of other tools.

I have dragged a chair out on our front porch to pull the nails out of the plywood and attract a fair amount of attention, Karma comes by to watch along with Monclaire and a man passing by on the path in front who is so fascinated I think he takes out his camera to take my picture.

Wagner returns from Aux Cayes with a load of cinderblocks for Federiques house, some steel and cement for our projects along with a lot of food and other supplies, plus the money to pay the crew and for the water filters.

As dusk approaches Rebecca and Cory return from Mme Bernard, a long walk they confirm, an hour and a half each way. We offer them lemonade, and later we share some rum and coconut water. They tell us amazing, crazy, wild stories about life in Haiti. Rebecca has been here for over a year, since the earthquake in January 2010. She came first with Burners Without Borders, but has worked with 4 or 5 NGO’s since then, often living in tents and horrible conditions but avoiding the prison like dormitories of the larger NGO’s. She tells us of how prevalent cocaine and pot use is among the NGO workers. Most Haitians don’t use cocaine, only the wealthy ones, but there is a huge trade in it for the UN and NGO workers. She tells us there are two classes of NGO workers, the “on the ground and in the trenches” types like herself and others, who live work and travel in the open and among the people, and the “chickens” as they are called derisively, the NGO’s that are so big and powerful that they have to worry about lawsuits and damages if anyone gets hurt, so they insure safety of their workers by keeping them like prisoners under armed guard with strict quarantine areas, curfews, rules and regulations. She says they are more concerned with their own safety than helping people, so much so they are almost handcuffed and tied and totally ineffective. 

Yet another way that resources that could be helping people here are wasted. Even a huge international NGO with a half a billion dollar annual budget and a good reputation for high ratio of funds raised to funds going to programs, is called Save the Chickens here in Haiti, because their volunteers are kept cooped up like chickens and rarely get out to see what is really going on and are not allowed to do as much as other free lance or grass roots organizations. Your donation dollars at work. Yet another reason to give donations to organizations that deliver 100% of the money and goods donated directly to the people of Haiti rather than to a big NGO that, even if they don’t use it up on overhead and advertising, uses it up on ineffective programs.

Rebecca confirms that she loves the Filter Pure water filters, they work well and she has been using them in Jacmel for a year. Only a few drawbacks she points out: 1) At $30 each they are too expensive for most Haitians who need them; 2) they need to be cleaned every week; 3) the ceramic insert is fragile and easily broken during cleaning if you are not careful. We talk about reinforcing the top and rim with Gorilla tape or Duct tape and she agrees this will be a good idea and might prevent breakage. So if they can be subsidized and given to those who need them, if they can be trained and will follow up and clean them every week, and if they treat them carefully and don’t break them, they sound like a very good water filter.

Sat 3/19 Trash Competition

Each month that he is here, Dr. Lambert offers a prize of 5000 Gourdes (about $125 US) as an incentive for five groups in the village to work together and pick up garbage. At about 3 pm Ken and I went down the hill with him and watched him measure and talk to each head of household that had organized a group around their house to collect garbage.

 Lambert told each contestant that this month for the first time he has added a new criteria to the competition, a grade for how clean the area around actually is. No matter what size the pile, if the area is clean around the house and neighborhood they will get an “A”, almost clean a “B”, if so so, a “C”, not very good a “D” and “like a pigs house” an “E”. He tells them he will take 1500 G of the prize money and divide it based upon the grade, and the rest will be divided based upon the size of the pile of garbage. After carefully measuring each pile, taking notes and writing down each dimension, a man douses each pile with some diesel fuel and lights it on fire. We move from house to house throughout the village finding 9 piles instead of five, but that is fine. Lambert says he will use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the division of the money and it will be distributed next week. It is quite a good way to keep the village clean, seems to be working, the village is cleaner each month. Good job Lambert.

Fri 3/18 A virtuoso performance by the Ca Coq Chicken Symphony Orchestra and Opera Company, and a bit more...

4:30 am, roosters crowing and hens clucking, by 5:30 there are dozens, maybe hundreds of them singing a chorus, kind of similar to the Indonesian chanting I have heard and enjoyed, quite loud, rhythmic and musical, an amazing symphony/opera with frequent solo performances of crowing rooster arias above the chorus of the clucking hen rhythm section.

5:37 am The town crier, a woman with a very loud and masculine voice, walks slowly along the path shouting out a stream of Kreole that I don’t understand. I imagine that it could be a political campaign speech, or the announcement that school will or will not be held today for some reason. Later I learn it is a religious message of some kind. The school bell does not ring at 5:45 as usual, but only the dead could be still sleeping through the rooster and hen's concert anyway.

Yesterday, after getting the crews working on projects, we got together a list of items to buy in Les Cayes, then Wagner, Sam and Karma all headed off to the city in Wag’s boat on another shopping trip for materials. I head up for Lambert’s house for internet and cool breezes to work on emails, photo sorting and internet research for equipment to get the WIFI signal from Lambert’s house down to the school, library and clinic. 

Now a cow has joined the Ca Coq Chicken Symphony Orchestra and Opera Company, bringing its deep rich baritone in to blend with and balance the soprano roosters and clucking hens. 

Progress is being made on all fronts, 12-15 men working on the fish ponds every day, a new well has been dug out behind the library to use for the toilet and washing etc, the fence around the library is almost finished, the cistern at the library is almost connected after being cleaned and repaired, the sink has been hung on the wall in the bathroom, the water supply pipe almost reaches it and the drain almost reaches the drain pipe. There is promise of a shower some day soon, but we will not count that chicken until it is in the pot, as there is no water for the shower until the cistern is hooked up, and not even then until it rains. Rainy season doesn’t really start until May, and we will be long gone by then, so it will be a miracle if we ever get to have a shower while in Haiti. A swim in the lagoon followed by a washcloth rinse with brackish well water and a final wipe with a few precious drops of expensive Culligan drinking water will have to suffice. 

Last night we invited Federique to join us for dinner. One of the fishermen we gave a sail to brought us two conch, and someone gave Federique one conch, so we gave all three to Mirlein who cooked us a wonderful dinner of rice, beans and the conch in a spicy red onion sauce. Federique is a very interesting Haitian. Born in Port au Prince, at the age of three he was severely burned and was evacuated to the US for skin grafts and treatment. From age three til almost 15, he lived in the US in foster homes, but was never legally adopted. He went to school and learned everything any American child would learn, so he speaks, reads and writes English as well as any American and understands our culture, idioms, and social customs. Then at age 14 he was deported back to Haiti because he had not been legally adopted and was not only not a US citizen, but along the way his Haitian passport and birth certificate had become lost. After 12 years living in the US and growing up as an American boy, he was not only sent home, but he was sent to an orphanage in Haiti, because he had completely lost touch with his family. This was a particularly difficult transition for him because he had also lost his ability to speak or understand French and Creole, he was truly a stranger in his own country. 

Being a very intelligent young man, Federique quickly relearned French and Creole, and also excelled at school because of his many years of US education. He now teaches English here in Ca Coq village, is getting married to another school teacher from Port au Prince, and together they plan to start a preschool and kindergarten in Ca Coq, where none presently exist. He also dreams of starting a high school and vocational school in the village, as there are no educational opportunities beyond 5th or 6th grade within many hours travel from Ca Coq.

From talking with Federique, Lambert, and many others, and from what we have seen and learned so far, below are what appear to be the highest priorities and how we can help the most:

Water - They really need clean water. More water cisterns for collecting rain water and filters for purifying it to make it healthy to drink. We are working on cisterns, and today I ordered 50 of the Filter Pure Ceramic filters from Jacmel to be delivered next week. See http://www.filterpurefilters.org/  Many more are needed. 

Cook stoves - Most people in Haiti use charcoal to cook. Only the wealthy can afford gas. The largest export and cash income crop for Ile a Vache is cutting down trees to make charcoal, to sell and to use to cook. Those who cannot afford charcoal use wood, a difficult and smoky alternative. The Stove Tec stove is a wonderful and excellent alternative. This remarkable stove burns leaves, twigs and anything small and combustible, and due to it’s clever venturi design and construction, makes very clean and efficient heat from a very small amount of fuel. See http://stovetec.net/ Recently a Spanish charity came to the island selling Stove Tec stoves for $3 each. Those who bought one are the envy of everyone else in the village and everyone wants one now. Bringing more Stove Tec stoves to Ile a Vache and all of Haiti would make a huge difference to the whole country.

Education - There are many primary schools on Ile a Vache, I am not sure exactly how many, but even little Ca Coq has three. But even they all still lack good teachers, not all children can attend, some cost money that people do not have, there are no pre-schools, the subjects in primary school are limited to reading, writing and arithmetic by rote learning, there is no creativity or diversity of experience or social, cultural, art, history or other studies, many students are far behind, failing to finish even fifth grade until well into their teens, if at all, and there are no vocational or high schools for advanced subjects. Any and all resources that can be directed towards improving the educational system, not just more of the same, but real improvements in areas where it is lacking, will greatly help the young people of this small island.

Jobs - I asked Federique what is needed most of all to make life better on Ile a Vache. He replied that after water, food and education, jobs are most important. I asked one man what he does. He replied that sometimes he goes fishing with his uncle, a few days per month. I asked him what he does the rest of the time. He replied: "nothing." There are few jobs and nothing for any young men or most adult men to do with their time and energy. Some are fishermen. A few build or work on boats. Some cut down trees and make charcoal. That is about it as far as industry and opportunities go on the whole island. Projects like the fish farm ponds, installing water cisterns, building new dwellings, fixing up people’s houses, adding solar panels and electricity for homes and small businesses, micro-loans for small business, any and all projects like these provide jobs and put money into the local economy without being debilitating handouts. Jobs and focusing resources an productive long term sustainable projects will help the people and local economy far more than any amount of aid or handouts.

Medical Care - From simply walking around and learning very little about the island, it becomes obvious that health care is severely lacking. There is not one single doctor on the whole island. There are a few clinics, but they are small, maybe staffed by one nurse or midwife, and charge a fee to attend. Hardly a day goes by when we are not asked for medical advice or if we can help someone. I gave $2 to the mother of a young boy who had some kind of a bad and painful scalp infection so that she could take him to the clinic to get medicine, a man came to our door with a large cut on his leg, another asked for medicine for his mother who has a fever. We do what we can and refer them to the clinic, but it is frustrating we cannot do more. FOIAVH has made an arrangement with a better equipped clinic in Les Cayes to accept more severe cases, but that is ove an hour away by boat and to be used only for serious illness or emergencies. Simple basic family medicine and routine health care, a house where a visiting doctor or nurse could stay, sponsorship for a doctor or nurse to come and visit or stay for a while, anything possible that can improve health care for the island is greatly needed.

The Library - The Library is a wonderful structure, one of the best built in the village. It was generously and lovingly built by Tim and Leslie around 10 years ago, but has been underutilized in most years since. We have been using it as a storehouse and distribution center for the aid and donations being delivered, and also as our base and living quarters while here working. An excellent bathroom with toilet, sink and shower connected to a real septic tank and leech field is being completed in back for western guests to use. When we leave we will clean it up, replace all the books and once again it will become a library. One of the projects we are working on is providing WIFI internet access to the village. Dr. Lambert has generously offered to let us boost his WIFI signal and direct it down the hill to reach the school, library and clinic. He has also offered to buy 4 or 5 computers and pay the salary for someone to staff the library and open it as an internet cafe.

A Guest House - Building a new guest house for foreigners to come, stay, visit and help out working on projects or where a doctor or nurse can come and stay will be a great project, employ many locals, and result in a comfortable and safe place for visitors to stay. Land has been donated and building such a guest residence will provide jobs and income for many workers and their families, helping in the short term and long term as well.

The Fish Farm Ponds - Four fish ponds have been dug, two full of fish now and one more ready to fill when the rainy season arrives. They provide jobs and employment for many, and when they are producing will provide protein to eat and hopefully a surplus of fish to sell. With the addition of more ponds, perhaps up to 20 over time, the fish farm could become a self-sustaining business providing food and income for many.

A mellow day

Last night it was not easy to sleep. Dogs barking loud most of the night, then roosters crowing. I like well behaved dogs, but out of control ones that bark all night are not dear to me. 

Raining off and on this morning, the cistern crew got the cleaned gutter back on the roof, and the tank foundation made, and the cleaned tank back on the foundation.

Wag, Sam and Federique are off to Les Cayes with 4 or 5 pages of shopping list items to get. Will be interesting to see what they come back with. 


Turns out to be a beautiful day in paradise.

Water Cisterns and Internet

Monday, almost losing track of the days and dates here. We know it is Monday because the school bell close to where we are staying rings at 5:45 am. This is to wake up the whole village and let everyone know that the school will be open today and all children are called to get up and get ready for class. School begins at 8 with another vigorous ringing of the bell.

Now it is Tuesday, some how Monday slipped away, and about 12 men are working on the fish ponds, two working on splitting and making fence posts, digging holes and setting the fence posts, and one digging a well in the back yard in between the coconut trees, sugar cane and banana trees. The well will be for water to wash clothes, flush the toilet, maybe use for the shower and sink, but not for drinking without filtering. It is hard, salty, and doesn't look too clean, but I am told the locals drink it when there is nothing else.

We are getting our drinking water in 5 gallon Culligan bottles that are brought over by boat from Les Cayes. I look forward to getting water filters soon so we can filter the well water or the rain water.

Today is day one of the water cistern project: There are 10 or 15 cisterns that have been installed over the last 5 or so years. They are all in disrepair. The first one is the one where we are at the library. We begin draining the water out of it. It is good rainwater, but it has been standing a long time, is full of mosquitos, leaves, frogs, dirt and yucky. Even the Haitians say they will not drink it, but good for washing clothes. As the cistern drains we take off the gutter which is filled with leaves, frogs and slime. The men begin cleaning the gutter, scrubbing the inside with steel scrubbing pads and laundry detergent. We get 100 or so gallons of water out, some we send up in buckets to the smaller cistern on the roof of the new bathroom to be used to flush the toilet. I suggest we use saltwater for the toilet, but it turns out this is not a good idea, because the overflow from the septic tank will water the sugar cane, bananas and coconut trees, so fresh water must be used for the toilet.

Once all the work is well along, Wagner, Federique and I walk around to four other homes close by to survey their cistern systems. They are all in need of similar maintenance and repair, removing the gutters, draining the tanks, cleaning everything and reassembling them with more gutters, better valves and connections and new insect screens over all the openings. The four within 100 yards of the library will keep us busy more than a week, to get to all 10 or more will use up the next two weeks. Our plan is to helped train a good team of men to carry on, repair and maintain the cisterns and install new ones by the time we leave.

At 10:30 I head up the hill to Dr. Lambert's house. A steep hike on a rocky path, but very much well worth the effort for the cool breeze, fresh clean water, warm hospitality from Dr. lambert and the access to the internet that makes it possible for me to download email for the first time in over two weeks and post these ramblings on line to take up some of your time, hoipefully you will not consider it wasted.

It is spectacularly beautiful here, I will post some pictures in a day or two as soom as time and access permits. Suffice it to say Dr. Lambert lives 500 feet up on a steep hill top over looking the Caribbean, an empty white sand beach, and an endless expanse of green and blue sea stretching off to where the sky meets the sea far to the west. The sounds are as pleasant as the view: the surf from the beach is loud, even over 1/4 mile away, there are hundreds of tropical birds in all the trees softly calling and talking to each other, every now and then, a delicious breeze rustles the leaves and pushes the wind generator into its rhythmic whispering, like a mysterious language spoken by the wind. Life is good in paradise.

Sun 3/13 Distribution day

Yoga at 7:30 on the grass out front, breakfast of watermelon, papaya, pineapple, toast with butter, peanut butter and jam, coffee, juice, scrambled eggs at Port Morgan Hotel. emails, Charging batteries, the LiOn charger still works, pretty amazing considering how hot it got that it almost burst into flames, but our luck is holding so far.

Met two reporters and their school teacher wives who have been staying at the new hotel around the point and helping out with l’Ecole de Village in a nearby village. Nice people, we will be in touch by email as they are leaving today for Port au Prince.

10:30 Begin giving out 20 or so sails, all the shoes, food, clothes, fabric etc. Quite an exciting event for all.

I took lots of photos, one with each man or woman who received sails or shoes, and many more during the other goods distributions. Afterwards we shut the library and I went for a snorkle/swim in the bay, followed by an Incredible lunch of spicy cabbage and carrot cole slaw with the Caribbean specialty of fried spicy meat turnovers, washed down with lots of lemonade followed by a whole young coconut full of milk and tender meat for desert. Life is good here in paradise.

Saturday March 12 Another memorable day

Some highlights: Excellent breakfast of scrambled eggs with onions, fried potatoes and plaintains, again cooked and delivered by Wagner’s wife Miele and beautifully served and presented. 

Wag is off to Les Cayes for more supplies, and I set about cleaning house, moving and compacting the donations stuff, sweep out the room, rearrange the mats, try to figure out why the simple gravity feed pipe from the cistern on the roof of the new bathroom to the toilet, a distance of six feet with only two elbows and seemingly no way to not work, is failing to deliver water to the toilet.

It is a glorious sunny day, all blue sky and heating up. I roll out my land rug/yoga mat on the front lawn and stretch of few poses for a while, not a full set of 26 postures,  but an easy 30 minutes of floor postures, which leave me sweating and almost exhausted in the hot sun.

Samuel and Karma come by and we head for Jackson’s room over by the well and power generating building for the Port Morgan Hotel. As he works for the hotel, Jackson is given a small room with electricity that has a small fridge where all of our remaining food that needs to be kept cool is stored. On the way we pass what looks like a large fire pit made of stone, about 12 feet in diameter 2 feet high walls, a neatly made new looking large round fire pit with wooden benches all around, and  well made roof over the whole thing. I think, “how interesting, why would they have a roof over their community sing along fire pit?” I ask what it is. The reply: The cock fighting arena. Cock fights are on Sundays at 11 am. 

It is too hot and I am too tired for the long trek up to the Port Morgan or Dr. Lambert’s to use the internet, so you all will have to wait to read my many wise and witty words. I hope you can survive the delay and will forgive me. 

Early evening and Wagner fires up the little 950 watt 2 cycle generator so he and his family can watch TV or a video, and so we can all charge our cell phone batteries and computers. I also plug in the charger for my Lithium Ion batteries that power the circular saw, drill and lantern. After a little while we smell smoke and I turn on the light and the LiOn battery charger is smoking like a locomotive or a chimney, huge plumes of foul smelling black smoke. I yell something profane and run over and unplug it hoping I have caught it in time before the transformer is completely fried. Another misplaced assumptuion on my part. We check the line voltage coming through the cord from the generator and it is fluctuating between 190 and 196 volts, a bit much for a 120 volt maximum transformer and battery charger. Fortunatly both computers and the cell phone chargers will accept anything from 110 to 240 volts, they don’t care, so they are all fine. Only letting it cool off and trying it tomorrow on the 120 volt circuits over at the Port Morgan Hotel where we plan to go for breakfast will determine if it is fried or still works.

Friday March 11

The village “town criers”, the many roosters and dogs, crow and bark us awake with their symphony of animated calls and responses between 4 and 4:30. No one needs an alarm clock in Kakok, or probably any other small village in Haiti either.

The heavy rain comes again, drowning out the criers off an on. I use the predawn relative peace and quiet to write some of these words, trying to capture the memories of yesterday before they recede into oblivion. By 6 or 7 Ken and I set about surveying our situation, sorting and putting things away on shelves and contemplating the toilet. 

I have to tell you about the bathroom and toilet. In anticipation of our arrival Wager has hired a team of masons to build an addition on to the library, a cinderblock and cement elevated room for a toilet, sink and shower, to be the first one in the entire village, and probably the only one in any of the 37 villages on the island. It will have running water from a cistern on the roof, and one of the marvels of modern technology, a real two-stage underground septic tank with a removable clean-out lid that will vent its decomposed effluent into a stone and pipe leech field flowing right towards a small plot of banana trees and sugar cane planted behind the library.

It is amazing. We are all impressed, even dumbfounded, no one expected this level of sophistication and modern convenience. There are only a couple of problems. There is no door into the bathroom for one. The room has been constructed of three tall and solid cinderblock walls against one corner of the library, part of the back wall that includes one small window. By moving a couple of the 5 gallon pails of soup mix donated by the Gleaners against the wall and laying a board across them, we are able to get up enough to swing one leg over the window sill and wriggle through the window into the small room. With a door and a lot more work in can work as a bathroom, but at present it has no water, no sink, no shower and the roof is open to the sky, not to mention no door or way in or out save crawling through the window. 

But those things will come in time, the immediate priority is finding water to fill a bucket to flush the toilet and some toilet paper. I find a bucket and head for the bay while Ken searches for TP. Those simple little things in life we take for granted up north, are now precious, rare commodities that require effort, logistics and planning. 

The quests for water and TP are successful and the toilet flushes well, almost an occasion for celebration and congratulations all around. We love it. Thanks Wag and all who worked so hard on it.

Boat ride in “The Oxford”, Wager’s hand made, and rough by most standards, typical wooden Haitian sailing boat with a 9.9 Nissan outboard fitted to it. The Oxford is named after Captain Morgan’s flagship that sailed these waters a couple of hundred years ago, and Wagner’s little craft is no less sturdy, stoutly nailed together from native mango and other tropical hardwoods, she is ageless and timeless and a noble and seaworthy vessel for our short ride five miles across the bay.

Les Cayes Immigration office, 50 or so people staniding in line out into the street. As we approach Bruce remarks at the long line that it will take hours. I reply that maybe that is the line to get OUT of haiti, and the line to get in will be shorter. As we near the entrance, Bruce notices the Arrivals door to eh left and says “You were absolutely correct, no line at “Arrivals” and it was true, no line, walked tight in, the immigration officer gestured me to an empty chair, gave me a long form to fill out, I filled in the blanks, handed it back to him, he asked for $20, I handed him a 20 which he swept into a drawer which will hold it until he puts it in his pocket, the whole thing took 10 minutes. The 50 or so Haitians wanting to leave the country were still standing in line when I left, sad but that is the way of life here. They can't leave so perhaps working together many hands can help make life a little better for them here.

Trip back - fire on small island, Wagner says it burns completely, all the houses are mad of palm trees and when one catches fire they all burn.

Meetings, new priorities.

Farewell to Bruce, Arlen and R Heritage Too as they head off for Grand Cayman.

Dinner - Wagner's wife Mirleine cooked us Lobster in a delicious red sauce with onions and rice. It was fantastic, and served on a white table cloth on nice ceramic plates, clean silverware and delivered with a fly cover over the plates of food all the way. We are being treated like visiting royalty, though I know we have not earned it and feel mixed about taking food from people who have so little, but it would be insulting to refuse, and that is the deal. We cam here to bring them a huge cargo of gifts, and to stay and work and help them more, and they are welcoming us and extending what hospitality they can.

Now we are truly living in Haiti. Ken and I are not the only white people on the island (there are 25 or so Irish volunteers staying at Abaka Bay a few miles away), but we are certainly the only white people living in Kakok Village. All of the other visitors on the island are staying at the hotels, perhaps a few in one or two private homes, plus a few who come ashore from their sailboats during the day. Certainly no one else is living in a Haitian house in the middle of a village. We are strangers in a strange land, but feel totally safe, welcome, embraced, loved, appreciated and at home in spite of being far from home.