Haiti
This week I travelled down to Haiti to volunteer with Engineers Without Borders at a local school. The school is located in the Bayonnais Valley, near Gonaives. It's about a 4 hour drive from the nearest airport (Gonaives is completely flooded after the recent hurricanes), and the last hour or so is up a winding unpaved mountain road that crosses several rivers. The bus drives through 2 rivers, and then finally crosses a bridge that EWB (Engineers Without Borders) built.
There is no electricity, sewage, or paved roads in the Bayonnais Valley. There is an irrigation system that provides pretty clean water from a local mountain spring, but that's about it.
The school and church was founded in 1993 by Actionelle Fleurisma and others, and has been helped for the last decade or so by the South Mecklenberg Presbyterian Church (SMPC) from North Carolina, along with several other churches. Amilore, one of the people that helps run the school told me that when Actionelle drove the first school bus into the valley, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the amazing sight. They couldn't believe it when the school actually opened, and they were really blown away when SMPC flew a helicopter with emergency food into the valley after Hurricane Gustav this year. They had seen helicopters passing overhead before, but no one ever expected one to land in the valley.
Engineers Without Borders installed a solar system at the school to power reading lights for the students and a computer system for the school administrators.
We came down to do some repair work on the system, as well as survey work for some repairs on the road to the bridge and soil tests for the septic system for the new hospital.
OFCB (Organisation de la Force Chretienne des Bayonnais), which is the Haitian group that runs the school and church (Orginizacion Force Chritian de Bayonnais), has been sending students away to college to come back and help in the valley. They already have several students who've returned, and their first nurses and doctor are about to come back. EWB is planning the hospital/clinic building, which is very exciting. OFCB has the land, but it's up to us to figure out how to create a hospital in the middle of an area with no electricity, sewage, or real running water. Which, as I'm sure you can guess, is kind of difficult.
But we're engineers, so we like that.
It's been really amazing coming here to the valley. It's a beautiful place, and the people here are very friendly and kind. It's a small community, so everyone knows everyone else, and they all know who we are and why we've come. Within a day or two, people who'd never even seen my face were calling out my name and trying to talk to me in spanish, since they'd heard through the grapevine that I speak it. Haitians mostly speak Creole (Kreyol) and French, although the students also speak English, and some people speak Spanish so they can go work in the Dominican Republic.
Every where you walk, people greet you with a friendly Bonjour or Bonswa (same in French and Creole) and a really big smile. Of course, some kids do want candy or balloons or recorder flutes, or whatever it is that someone gave away during their visit, but mostly they just want to know your name.
It's really been a joy helping out down here, and I only wish I had more time to do it.
Which leads me to my next point. I've been up and working since 8 am, and now it's after midnight. Time for me to finish this post, shower, and go to bed.
There is no electricity, sewage, or paved roads in the Bayonnais Valley. There is an irrigation system that provides pretty clean water from a local mountain spring, but that's about it.
The school and church was founded in 1993 by Actionelle Fleurisma and others, and has been helped for the last decade or so by the South Mecklenberg Presbyterian Church (SMPC) from North Carolina, along with several other churches. Amilore, one of the people that helps run the school told me that when Actionelle drove the first school bus into the valley, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the amazing sight. They couldn't believe it when the school actually opened, and they were really blown away when SMPC flew a helicopter with emergency food into the valley after Hurricane Gustav this year. They had seen helicopters passing overhead before, but no one ever expected one to land in the valley.
Engineers Without Borders installed a solar system at the school to power reading lights for the students and a computer system for the school administrators.
We came down to do some repair work on the system, as well as survey work for some repairs on the road to the bridge and soil tests for the septic system for the new hospital.
OFCB (Organisation de la Force Chretienne des Bayonnais), which is the Haitian group that runs the school and church (Orginizacion Force Chritian de Bayonnais), has been sending students away to college to come back and help in the valley. They already have several students who've returned, and their first nurses and doctor are about to come back. EWB is planning the hospital/clinic building, which is very exciting. OFCB has the land, but it's up to us to figure out how to create a hospital in the middle of an area with no electricity, sewage, or real running water. Which, as I'm sure you can guess, is kind of difficult.
But we're engineers, so we like that.
It's been really amazing coming here to the valley. It's a beautiful place, and the people here are very friendly and kind. It's a small community, so everyone knows everyone else, and they all know who we are and why we've come. Within a day or two, people who'd never even seen my face were calling out my name and trying to talk to me in spanish, since they'd heard through the grapevine that I speak it. Haitians mostly speak Creole (Kreyol) and French, although the students also speak English, and some people speak Spanish so they can go work in the Dominican Republic.
Every where you walk, people greet you with a friendly Bonjour or Bonswa (same in French and Creole) and a really big smile. Of course, some kids do want candy or balloons or recorder flutes, or whatever it is that someone gave away during their visit, but mostly they just want to know your name.
It's really been a joy helping out down here, and I only wish I had more time to do it.
Which leads me to my next point. I've been up and working since 8 am, and now it's after midnight. Time for me to finish this post, shower, and go to bed.
posted by Don at 9:07 PM
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