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.
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