I am back from Haiti for Christmas and will be around until 6 January. I am happy to be home yet I am a little disappointed to be missing the excitement in Haiti. Haiti is my home now, and in spite of the turmoil going on there I wish I was there to be involved and know what is going on. Apparently the troubles have impacted the mission directly now. I received this message from Tal a few days ago: 

Hi Chris
Here is what happened to the truck. The cops had a guy pulled over and they pointed their guns at him so the cop fled and as he fled all the traffic that was lined up started to back up to flee also in panic and a truck smashed into Lou Lou. There is about $1500US damage to the truck. Fortunately it was an NGO that hit him so we are hoping that they will pay to fix the truck.

Jan 1, 2004 marks Haiti’s bicentennial and it holds a great deal of significance for Haitians. That is part of the reason many Haitians would like to see their President Jean Bertrand Aristide ousted by the New Year. Aristide was immensely popular when he was first elected, but now that time has passed and the country is very much poorer most people would like him gone. Unfortunately, Aristide has assassinated or otherwise eliminated any potential replacement leader. I’m not very hopeful about a new leader being better than the last. 

President Aristide has a propaganda campaign going on that is really bizarre. In 2000, the Organization of American States suspended financial aid to Haiti because the elections of that year were corrupted. Aristide refers to the suspension of foreign aid as an “embargo”. Additionally, Aristide has demanded 29 billion dollars from France for reparation for events surrounding their revolution, which is foolishness. I’m going to paste on a news article about Haitian current affairs for whoever is interested.

It's Time for Aristide to Go, by Michael Putney
Haiti's forests turned to charcoal, by Tim Collie

Strangely enough, in spite of the violent demonstrations we are now getting consistent electricity almost 24 hours a day. We only had very thin wires carrying 120v from the street which was completely insufficient for powering our welder and our power tools in the shop. To remedy that we bought big thick wire and installed two power poles and ran the lines out to the street. It turned out we needed the power department to come out and install a new meter for us to receive 240 volts, so we had to go down there, pay a bribe sufficient to coax the workers out, and then drive them and their ladder out to the mission, their truck being unavailable. After they were done they told us that 240 volts wasn’t working at the street, so we would have to wait for a different group of power guys to come and fix it. I pondered our options for a while and then decided that instead of paying ANOTHER bribe (which I hate doing) and bring another group of guys out I would just wait until the power was out and then climb up the pole and do it myself. I’m pleased to say the plan worked perfectly and I neither fell nor was electrocuted. (proof) We have 240 volts of power, too and we no longer have to run our generator. A few weeks ago I even bought a refrigerator to use now that we have such consistent power. Cold drinks, leftovers, milk…

I really enjoyed my father’s visit last month. He kept a diary and he even posted it on his website along with a bunch of great pictures. You are welcome to check it out even though he seems intent on embarrassing me: www.rollingshomes.com/haiti.htm He describes his trip to Haiti as a real eye opener, but I know he also enjoyed himself. My dear friends, I will always welcome a visit from a friend or relative. It is a great encouragement to me when the people I love are able to understand a bit about what I am doing in Haiti.

I am able to report some success with our programs, but not as much as I would like to. We have been putting a great deal of energy into the filter program recently. CAWST (the Center for Affordable Sanitation Technology) sent a delegation to Haiti and sponsored a conference to which many organizations were invited including CWH and the government departments in charge of clean water and various other NGOs. The entire purpose of the conference was to discuss the promotion of the biosand filter in Haiti. We collectively agreed that the biosand filter is a realistic way to attempt to meet the World Health Organization’s millennium target for water quality. That target is to reduce the number of people without access to clean water in half by 2015. We also agreed that by working together we can make it happen so we scheduled monthly committee meetings. I have high hopes for our new cooperation.

In the short term though, we are disappointed by the lack of success of the filter technician/ salesmen we have trained. As of yet, none of them uses filter sales for their primary source of income. In an effort to improve the quality of our technicians, we will begin to include small business training along with every filter technician training. This will increase the class time from one to two weeks and will be quite a bit more work but I believe it will be worthwhile. The technicians need not only to know about the filters, but also how to run a business. 

We have now built 113 briquette presses as part of a new program to end Haiti’s reliance on charcoal. World Vision commissioned and bought 76 of the presses, and we sold an additional 20 to other missionaries. It worked out very well for us, because the money we received in payment was sufficient to pay the rent on our property for the next 6 months (we are still quite short of money). The members of the local community have shown great enthusiasm about the project, and the mother of one of our employees is purchasing a press with payments so that she can start a paper briquette business. Most of our employees are likely to buy from her, for starters. I would love to see this project take off with great speed. It is already too late for Haiti’s forests (read the second article I have attached below if you are interested in the topic) but if an alternative source of cooking fuel can be found quickly, perhaps a good deal of the topsoil can be prevented from washing into the sea by vegetation that begins to return. 

I would really like to have some new missionaries come and work with Clean Water for Haiti. The first reason is that we don’t have enough people to take care of different programs. The filter program really needs to take it on and be in charge of that alone. Also, if someone wanted to come and help Haiti’s environment by taking on the promotion of the hydraulic briquette presses, that would also be a worthwhile project. We welcome folks to come to Clean Water for Haiti and do whatever they feel God would have them to do. The next reason I would really like to have some new folks come is that Barb McLeod has finished her recent 4 month visit and doesn’t know if she is returning and Tal Woolsey is scheduled to leave at the end of 2004. So if you have ever contemplated getting involved in missions…

Oh, I just received another message from Tal:

Hey Man
Things were really messed up in St. Marc today. Lou Lou said he has never seen anything like it. The Chimera were out in full force with big guns. The cops would not do anything as they are supporting Aristide. People were running and hiding. This thing is going to blow!!! The meeting in PAP for the water committee has been cancelled as it is just too volatile.

The Chimera are the members who Aristide armed when he first rose to power and do whatever they want to do. Consider the people out there in your prayers. 

-Chris Rolling

Donate to Clean Water for Haiti:

In the US:

Shade Tree Foundation
C/o Lacy Nathan
5806 South M Street
Tacoma, WA 98408-3431
Tel: 253-472-2360

Specify FOR CLEAN WATER FOR HAITI

In Canada:

Clean Water for Haiti
C/o Vernon Alliance Church
2602 43rd AVE
Vernon, BC, V1T3L1
Canada

Tel: 250-542-4230 (Canada)
509-547-3210 (Haiti)