Dear Everybody:

Yesterday I rode into Port au Prince to meet with some people and on my way out of town my motorcycle got stuck in the mud and buried itself above the axles. I was truly and utterly helpless because I couldn't even get off the bike without it falling over and burying itself further. To my great surprise and pleasure, the first truck to come by stopped and the occupants helped to pull me out of the mud. I was so happy to get out of the mud I didn't even mind riding back to Saint Marc in the rain. I am often surprised by the willingness of strangers to help here. Often when I stop for directions, I am told I am obliged to show you where it is and they ride along until we get there and then they walk back. I suspect if I had gotten stuck in the mud in the states, a lot of people would have snickered as they drove by and perhaps the 50th or 100th vehicle would have stopped. 

Haiti is becoming more interesting, and promises to get even more so as time passes. About a month ago a man named Metayer was assassinated in Saint Marc. Metayer was the head of a group called The Cannibal Army that supported President Aristide, sometimes violently. Metayer had been imprisoned but during summer 2002 his followers drove a tractor through the wall of the prison and freed him (along with 50 or so other criminals). He was not seen again until his body was found. His followers blame President Aristide, saying that Metayer had information that would implicate Aristide in various crimes and that is why he had him shot. Much of Haiti erupted in political protests known as manifestations calling for Aristides resignation. Manifestations normally involve flaming barricades on the highways made from tires and car hulks. The area we are in had some minor manifestations, but the town of Gonaives (where Metayer is from) shut down for some time and a number of government buildings were burned down and a number of people were killed. 

January 1 2004 will mark the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence from France. Many of the 2,000,000 Haitians living in the states have bought tickets to come here for the New Years celebrations. The airlines have even scheduled extra flights to get people into Haiti whereas normally Haitians do not return to their country at all once they have left. People seem to be getting excited about it and the celebrations promise to be very large indeed. Unfortunately, I wont be here for New Years Day. I will come back to Washington sometime in early December and return to Haiti shortly after the New Year when tickets are available again, coming Dec 3 and returning Jan 6. I will be coming back to spend time with family over Christmas but also to raise money for the mission. If you have a group I ought to talk to about Haiti, please make arrangements quickly and tell me what date and time you have in mind so I can schedule an itinerary. I would love to see the mission find financial stability so probably all of my trips back from now on will also be fundraising trips. 

I am taking over the position of mission director. Tal Woolsey the founder has decided he will end his involvement with Clean Water for Haiti as of December 2004, except to sit on the board of directors and maybe come visit sometimes. Being director is stretching me more than anything I have ever done. Once when I was in Junior high school I held my breath for nearly 4 minutes and that was quite a stretch but I'm being stretched even more now. Cultural differences make everything harder and recently I have managed to offend some people by using the wrong words in Creole. I have many things to learn. Part of the problem is I focus on getting stuff done and Haiti is very relationship oriented. I just need to spend more time talking to people. People are normally harder to deal with than machines and I sometimes find myself longing to just take my tools and go fix something off by myself.

Speaking of being task oriented, we have come up with a list of things we would like to make happen at Clean Water for Haiti this year. The first thing I have already mentioned which is financial stability. An important part of that is incorporating as a non-profit organization. Fortunately, we have a visitor here right now named Nathan Marion who is helping with that and preparing promotional materials. He is also working on updating www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org.  Nathan called me up out of the blue because he read a notice for the Haiti information night held at my church in Bellingham. He couldn't attend, but we met and talked about how he could help with the mission. It turns out I worked on Nathan's Corvair back when I ran Busted Bug Auto Repair. Its a good thing I fixed his car properly and didn't overcharge because a few months after meeting him the second time he flew to Haiti to learn more about the mission and how he can help promote it. He is here for a total of three weeks and he is great to have around.

We would also like to pay off the rest of our debt incurred by the truck accident and Tonie's medical bills. A church in Calgary recently donated a bunch of money which we put towards the debt, so we only have about $6000 (or about $9000 Canadian) remaining outstanding. It is hard to put aside money to pay the debt when we are trying to drill wells on a continuous basis. They are expensive. We realize what we really need is a sponsor or partner organization to fund our well drilling program.

In the area of well drilling, we would like to buy a roller bit for our rig. It would enable us to drill through soft rock. Also on our list of wants are a truck for the drilling team and a hammer bit for hard rock, but those big dollar items may have to wait more than a year. Our main task for the next years drilling is to develop our skills and finish wells in shorter time. There are still methods we need to learn to overcome difficulties encountered in the drilling.

This week, we have yet another filter technician class in session, this time for students sponsored by World Neighbors. As soon as possible we would like to add small business training to the curriculum of the class. We have come to realize just how important small business training is. Our vision to see filter production multiply will happen much more quickly with some formal training. For a start, we would like to sponsor a week long class in January whereby we invite back a number of technicians to receive just the small business training. Fortunately, it will only cost us about $50 per student to bring them back for the extra training.

Also, we would like to see one or two missionaries join Clean Water for Haiti to oversee different areas. I would especially like for someone to be here to be in charge of the filter technician program. There are now 30 technicians around the country who could use business advice and support as they work to produce and sell more filters. The project is definitely important enough to warrant someone's full attention. 

We also want to raise community stewards, who would be people responsible in their area for helping take care of filters and wells and help with health and Hygiene training. Haiti has a very low level of education in general, and many Haitians don't even know how serious diseases like malaria and AIDS are spread. Doctors tend to just hand out the medicine but not explain the whys behind it. 

I have been asked to include more pictures of people in my e-mails. The first picture is of a couple kids at an orphanage called Canaan close by here. We gave them 2 filters a long time ago and they have been providing clean water for the 70 or so kids at the orphanage. They aren't very organized there, and they don't know how many kids they have, but its somewhere around 70. Up until recently when they got a truck, the kids carried water on their heads up a steep rocky hill before filtering it to drink. They cant drink well water there because the ground water is salty in their area. 

The next picture is of me and Jonatin in our garden next to our most impressive papaya plant. Jonatin works in the garden a couple hours each day and with that machete in his hand he looks a little like a pirate. (Hey, have you seen that new pirate movie? I hear its rated Arrrrr.) Shiver me timbers.

The other day I was attempting to fix one of our many electrical problems and I removed an electrical outlet only to have a horrible science fiction creature crawl out. It is basically a huge centipede. You have to watch out for those things so they don't carry away your children when you aren't looking. Nathan saved the day by killing the creature with a large rock. 

As always, Chris Rolling