A team of students from Florida Christian College and New Life Church at the University of Michigan built this "Uber - RainCatcher" on the curch in Seguin. It feeds a forty thousand gallon cistern! When the dry season comes next year, water will be a five minute walk. Not two hours.
We want to know how much water is in the fog
and clouds of Seguin.
FogQuest - www.fogquest.org - has been in Chile collecting water with this technology for years. Two flag poles and a giant net. Thank you New Life Church at the University of Michigan.
2004 began with weeks of volatile demonstrations
and the departure of president Aristide. Our spring trips were rescheduled
for summer, and 85 more Haitian families now have water at their doorstep.
Chad & Bob spent a week in Seguin experimenting
with alternative raincatcher designs and came up with an ingenious way to
use locally available tin sheets to deflect virtually all of the rain water
into the pipe.
On one of our hikes, we discovered a huge
vacant building that we named the Ark. It turns out it belongs to the Government.
Roro is pursuing a dialog with the agriculture secretary to ask if it is
available and could be donated to us. Until we know more details we'll suspend
work on "La Kay".
This is Teresa Murphy, our resident doctor, and dentist, in Seguin. She drives us to and from Port au Prince every trip. She has lived in Seguin for 5 years, and is on call 24 hours a day to over 5000 patients in the community. She also teaches sunday school and often serves as a local mediator in a culture where disputes are both frequent and frustrating. We depend on her skills as a physician to keep us healthy, and her relationships with the local residents to determine which families need a Raincatcher.
This is one of her days:
"I went to port friday to pick up school supplies...
lots of books and things. When we got to the mountains on the way to jacmel,
we hit dense fog, which made the going very slow. I think friday, even though
there was no rain in port, there must have been loads of rain in jacmel
and in seguin, because when we finally got to the river at about 6 on saturday,
as the sun was setting, it was flowing pretty good. But it didn't look any
deeper than it had been the previous day. So, we tried to cross. We found
a deep hole (not on purpose), and got stuck. The front end/headlights/winch
was under water, but the gas tank and back end were above the water. It
was raining, it was getting dark, and the river was getting deeper. We couldn't
go forward or backward, and after a little while, I turned the engine off
so it wouldn't have a chance to take in water. After you turn the engine
off, though, you can't turn it back on, just to be sure you don't ruin it
with water, so then at that point, our only option was to get pulled out
of the river. The winch was totally submerged, as well as the outlet for
the winch, and the current was so fast, and the river so wide, it was useless
anyways. So, I sent Chrisnet and Manes (the school principal and the head
pastor) out to get help. They crawled out the window and got on people's
shoulders to go find Jover, a guy in peredo we know. I sat in the cab, which
was progressively filling with water. As I was waiting, several other trucks
came to try to cross the river. One of them was crossing from the opposite
side towards the side I was on, and got stuck. It was a big truck with tons
of people. So, now there were two of us stuck in the river, facing each
other, but far apart. Finally, Jover came with a dump truck, but he had
difficulty getting around the other truck that was stuck. He got around
him, though, eventually. He got to the middle of the river, where there
is a little rocky island, and set up to pull me. But there was no chain.
So, they paid to find a chain. Then he wasn't heavy enough, so they piled
rocks in his bed. Then they struggled and almost got pulled away with the
current trying to tie the chain to my front end. Then he pulled me to the
middle of the river. His next job was to pull the other truck out, so we
could get around it. He got stuck trying to pull that other truck out. So
then there were three of us stuck in the river. Finally, he got unstuck,
and gave up on the other truck. So, he pulled me out around the other truc.
Many heart pounding seconds and some "i know we're gonna smash into that
truck...thank you lord that we didnt" thoughts later...we were on the other
side He towed me to peredo, where we paid out the wazoo to find a mechanic
at 10 at night. We did, and they changed the oil which had taken on a little
wwater, and cleaned things up, and everything was good to go, finally. So,
we start up the mountains again. An hour later, and about 3 minutes from
home, we get stuck in a very muddy bridge (the new one). Cant budge. NO
one to help us, because everyone's in bed, scared of boogie men at this
late hour (12:30 at night). SO, seeing as Chrisnet was the only one there
to push, and I had to drive, we knew we weren't going to get out that night.
So, I walked home, and Chrisnet slept in the truck with the supplies. This
morning, the whole community was out to help us get unstuck, and we are
now home. Praise the Lord. I'm going to go teach sunday school class now,
and then go take a nap!"
Our hikes take us all over the country side. Seguin is far from the slums of Port au Prince, where the hills are terraced by hand and roads are replaced with narrow walking paths.
-Solar Water Disinfection-
This year we will test a new system that uses solar energy to purify water. It's simple and effective. For more information visit : www.sodis.ch
-THANK YOU-
Special thanks are due to several individuals and businesses. We appreciate their generous donations of materials and tools that make our lives so much easier in Seguin.
Bill Oatey, Oatey Corporation, for supplying
us with J hooks and fittings.
Tom Buis, Fastenal Corporation, for drills and saws that make our work safer.
Ed Warner, Armor Products, for the worlds
most ingenious backpackable folding ladders. We couldn't reach most of the
roofs without them.
Gene and David Michael for plumbing
fittings.
Julie Brown - for the invaluable CB radios that keep our little convoys in communication with each other.
