I have had a good visit with my friends and family in the states and I head back to Haiti on Feb 4. My stay here was highlighted by mechanical troubles with my van and yet another recurrence of malaria. Apparently I was mistaken and Castro’s communist doctors did not cure my malaria once and for all. I’m out of the “sick” stage and mostly through the “tired all the time” stage.

My mechanical troubles were my own fault. My friend Joel gave me big 32mm venturis for my 28th birthday to go in the carburetors on my VW van. When I installed the venturis in the carburetors I inadvertently dropped a nut down one. The nut got sucked into my engine and chewed up one piston pretty badly so I had to take half the engine apart to repair the damage. Now reassembled, my engine has about ½ horsepower more so all those hours working in the cold and damp were worth it.

When I return to Haiti I will be working with my friends Tal and Adele Woolsey and their organization Clean Water for Haiti (www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org). I will probably be doing many different kinds of work, but it will include a lot of welding, organizing projects and possibly well drilling. I will be working almost entirely with Haitians because Tal and Adele and Haitians are the only people there. I’m looking forward to being immersed in Haitian culture.

A friend wrote me the other day suggesting that I might be insane, going back to Haiti. It’s true that my previous time in Haiti was pretty miserable, but I anticipate better times to come. I will be living about 9 miles out of Saint Marc where I used to live in an area called Pier Paienne (spelling?) which is also 9 miles closer to the capitol. It is out in the country, but within easy access of most places. I will be living right next to the beach. In Saint Marc I also lived close to the beach but there was no beach access, and even if you could get there it was filled with garbage. In Pier Paienne it is actually quite nice. I won’t have my own apartment any more, but like before there will be electricity most of the time thanks to the generator and storage batteries. There are a lot of fruit trees growing on the property, and I will eat lots of mangoes and drink lots of coconut water.

After spending over two months in the U.S., my money has completely disappeared. My church in Bellingham is handling donations for me and giving tax receipts. You can make out checks to “Bellingham Vineyard” and send them to:

906 N. State Street
Bellingham, WA 98225

Include a note to say the check is for me.

I have heard the political and economic situation in Haiti has worsened while I’ve been gone. The currency has lost about 40% of its value and the usual protests and riots have increased somewhat in intensity. When I’m in Haiti, it’s very hard to get news about anything. Newspapers aren’t widely circulated, and even if I found one I don’t read French very well. Often I would see a cloud of black smoke rising about Saint Marc and ask someone what it was about only to hear “I don’t know” or “They want electricity” which is kind of a stock answer. My Creole isn’t good enough to understand the radio news. Would someone look up news on the internet, and then cut and paste select articles into e-mails for me? It would really be helpful to get Haitian and world news once or twice a week. If you would like to help me out that way, please e-mail me to let me know.

I try to make my update letters interesting for people to read. Unfortunately, the U.S. is a pretty boring place so I don’t have anything else to add. I can only drop so many nuts down carburetors and catch so many diseases. My next letter should be better.

Thanks, Chris Rolling