It is always surreal leaving Haiti. Waking up in Port Au Prince by myself and being escorted to the airport in a police vehicle had me shaking my head! Three security checkpoints and sipping a cafe latte in the lounge feels like being in a different world. Culture shock? Maybe. But after each trip, I am more thankful for the friends, the family, and the opportunities than the time before.
As a closing to this trip... This is the report we compiled for the newsletter. Enjoy!
42 LWW installations. 10 days. 2 In-Country Technicians. 2
Haiti NCT Members + 5 potential IPs. 1 In-Country Coordinator.
The mission we chose to accept was to evaluate as many of
the existing systems in Haiti as possible with the goal of determining who had
the best system, who had the best operator, which operator was keeping the best
records and other vital statistics. Several OPs proposed this idea last January
at the Haiti Operators Conference in effort to create a little competition and
boost performance amongst the water systems.
So for 10 days Chris McRae and I, along with two potential
IPS, set out in the Kia truck for a long journey. Our path took us from Port Au
Prince to Arcahaie to Montrouis to Gonaives to Gros-Morne to Limbe to Cap
Haitien to Pignon to Hinche to Port Au Prince. Did I mention that was just the
first four days? We dropped off two IPs, picked up two friends of LWW Haiti,
and our journey continued south. We went first to Les Cayes, then to back to
Leogane, the team hit up systems through the mountains in Fondwa, Decouze, La
Voute, Cherident, Trouin and more, and by the time we made it to Jacmel, we had
visited 42 Living Waters for the World clean water systems.
From the 36 systems where water meter readings were
recorded, a total of 1,681,006 gallons of clean water have been distributed.
The top producing system has made 233,610 of clean water since 2009 for its
community. The successes and celebrations were aplenty, and communication and
record-keeping was reinforced.
A detailed report from this trip will be available for all
Haiti NCT IPs, and for new (and veteran) teams, an updated Haiti Network
Guidebook is now available. Please contact Ashley Broadhurst
(ashley@solarunderthesun.org) for an e-copy.
