Dear Everybody:

I am still in Haiti promoting water filters and getting to know the language and culture. For the past month my experience has been a different one because Tal and Adele, the founders of Clean Water for Haiti have been in Canada tending to fundraising and a sick mother. That has left Fritz and me in charge of the mission with all that entails. Effectively I have been the boss because unfortunately the blan (white man) is always seen to be in charge in Haiti. It is a new experience for me. After working for more than one tyrannical boss and knowing how unpleasant it is, I have taken the opportunity to be a nice, caring boss. Being the boss isn't all bad, but I will be glad when Tal returns to take over again. 

I want to take a few paragraphs to review what I am doing here in Haiti for the benefit of people with poor memories and those who haven't received all of my letters. It is also important to remind myself of what I am doing from time to time too. Haiti has enormous problems, the likes of which I hadn't fully conceived of before coming here. If you ignore other areas and just look at health problems it is bad enough. The average life expectancy in Haiti is 49 years. Around 1 in 8 kids die before they reach 5 years, mostly because of drinking contaminated water. Haiti ranks dead last for overall water quality according to the World Health Organization. I have literally seen people filling buckets for drinking water from the Sewers of Port au Prince. In other parts of Haiti, the only drinking water available is from irrigation canals, which are not only filled with various parasites and other contaminants, but have animals wallowing and pooing into them. Children are primarily affected by the bad water, as their bodies haven't had years to adapt to the myriad contaminants in the water. They get parasites of severe diarrhea or both, and their bodies aren't able to absorb nutrients from the food they eat. Their bellies swell up from parasites and fluid build up, and long term sufferers of malnutrition also lose the pigment in their hair, turning it red. I haven't taken pictures of any sick kids because it tends to upset people and its in bad taste. You don't want to see them anyway. 

So we all agree that sick kids are a bad thing and want to improve the situation. If everyone in Haiti had the money to buy bottled water, there wouldn't half the health problems there are. Unfortunately, Haiti is something like the third poorest country in the world, so only the richest 1% can afford water. Clean Water for Haiti's primary mission is to promote a new design of filter known as the Canadian filter or Biosand filter. The filter element is sand, which is abundant in Haiti, and the filter is made out of concrete, which is pretty cheap. After pouring nasty water through the filter regularly for a few weeks, bio-organisms take up permanent residence in the filter and eat the other bio-organisms that come in with the water. Its new technology that is perfectly suited for a third world country (or fourth world, in Haiti's case). Clean Water for Haiti is set up on a multiplication principle. Instead of making a number of filters each day and giving them away, we build the molds from which filters can be made. We also give classes to train people to build and sell the filters at a price most Haitians can afford. 

I recently took a day trip to see where some filters have been installed in a community filled with large bellied, red haired children and I came to the realization that the work I am doing is actually affecting peoples lives. Not only that, but I'm saving lives. Whatever other work I have done before this seems insignificant in comparison. In short, I am really happy with the work I'm doing and I don't mind the stuff I'm missing out on in the States. It has been my dream to be involved in work this important.

I sometimes appeal for funds for my own support but each month I seem to get by so this month I would like to make an appeal for Clean Water for Haiti. The mission is very short of money right now and I am currently frustrated that there is no money to buy steel or electrodes to make molds. Clean Water for Haiti gives one mold to each person who completes the filter training class. They cost about $450 each to make here which is way more than a typical Haitian can afford. If someone would like to sponsor a mold they can know it will make one filter a day indefinitely. Each filter provides clean water for between 1 and 5 families. Somewhere along the line, lives start being saved. Whoever wants to be a hero can make out checks to:

I have recently gotten involved with another project that I am really excited about. World Vision has shown interest in the biosand filters, and while talking with someone there I learned about a device that is used to turn garbage (paper, leaves, rice chaff, sawdust) into briquettes for cooking fires. The term Haiti is synonymous with environmental degradation because after a forest is logged (99.9% of it is gone) the locals scour the hillside for every baby tree and large bush that springs up for cooking fuel. Haiti is too overpopulated for the forest to re-grow while supplying the cooking fuel demand. Cooking gas is too expensive for 99% of Haitians. The machine which makes cooking briquettes can not only provide cheaper, better cooking fuel, but it uses garbage. I will be using my engineering skills for the first time since college to design a steel Hydraulic Briquette Press (the current design is wood, and there is almost no wood left in Haiti) and build a prototype, which World Vision can then use to contract production of them elsewhere. As with the filters, the theme is promoting practical technology to improve peoples lives. It goes well with the tree-hugging kick I've been on lately too. 

Some of you would probably like to know what my house looks like so I included a picture. It is actually half of a dorm which has never housed anybody except Fritz and me. There is a mango tree growing through thatched roof of the porch, and I like the bright, Caribbean colors. The dorm was built to house teams doing short term outreach to Haiti, but no teams have come yet. One is coming in July. If you have a youth/ church group that wants to do an outreach to Haiti, talk to me. It rained recently so little flying beetles have appeared in great numbers, and about 50 end up in my room every night and die on the floor. Soon we will have bug screens. J 

Last week some kids raided a falcons nest and stole 3 baby birds. Kids will often kill birds with a slingshot and eat them but other times they tie strings around their legs and drag them around, as in this case. I asked the kids for the birds and made a cage for them and fed them lots of lizards. Lizards are so common here that I don't even see them anymore but when I looked for them it rarely took more than a minute to kill a couple and hand feed them to my little birds. They either swallowed them whole or tore them apart with their little beaks. One bird died of emotional trauma, and one bird recovered and escaped. I saw that the remaining bird also yearned for freedom, so I left the cage door open and he hopped around the patio between one plant and another for a day before joining his brother in the trees. 

Hey, who won the war? Did the U.S. win or did Saddam invade America and that's why I haven't heard from anyone lately? 

Blessings, Chris