Dear Everybody:

Haiti has been in the news a lot recently so I have been receiving many e-mails from worried friends and family. 

Haiti’s political situation is very complicated because there is no one single opposition. There isn’t even a single “armed” opposition or “non-violent” opposition. I don’t even know where to begin to explain the situation. So far the rebels have chased police out of various cities around the north of Haiti culminating in Cap Haitien yesterday. This morning’s headline was “Rebels Control More Than Half of Haiti”. The CIMO, Haiti’s special police, retook Saint Marc (the town closest to us) about a week ago after rebels took it over on Feb 7. Saint Marc is now the last big city between the rebels and the capital Port au Prince, but it has quite a CIMO presence and they aren’t likely to flee the city.

I would like to explain a little bit about how the rebels, only numbering in the hundreds, have managed to chase out the police in half of the country. Haiti has about 8 million inhabitants and only about 4000 police (probably less now). New York City by comparison has about 8 million people and 55,000 police who are well trained and equipped. Haiti has no military at all. Police in Haiti are paid the equivalent of about $103/ month, which doesn’t inspire much loyalty. I personally would need a much larger paycheck before I would agree to fight a rebel army. 

Safety wise, I am not concerned so much by the advancing rebel army as by the desperate economic situation that is likely to follow. When people become hungry enough, criminal activity could increase substantially and we could become a target. For the time being the community here is in pretty good shape. 

Tal is back in Canada on a fundraising trip at the moment leaving me here at the mission with Barb McLeod, a brave woman from Abbotsford, B.C. who came to work with street kids in Saint Marc. I am limiting travel as much as possible now, but I made a trip into Port au Prince on Wednesday to pick up Barb at the airport and buy materials for the latest batch of hand pumps we are building for the well drilling program. For the first time ever, I made it into Port au Prince with no traffic, managed to buy every single item we needed and made it out of town again ahead of schedule. I even met some new and interesting people and enjoyed my day. I didn’t even get rear-ended on the road. Thanks to those who have been praying for our safety. 

The problems in Haiti mean that our work has slowed down quite a bit. Our next filter technician training class has been postponed indefinitely because of worries about travel safety for the students. Also, we had been communicating extensively with the United States Peace Corps to find out how we could work together on water projects. The Peace Corps were withdrawn from Haiti last week, so we won’t be able to work together. I have been told that if the Peace Corps is forced to leave any particular country three times it will not return there and this is their third time leaving Haiti so we won’t see them again. 

Haiti has one cement factory which isn’t too far from here and is owned by a Columbian company. I was contacted by them about a month ago because they want to start a biosand filter program in the communities surrounding the cement factory in an effort to help the local area. Their program was in the process of being given final approval last week when most of the Columbian staff were removed to Columbia for security reasons. Hopefully their program will be restarted when Haiti calms down again. 

The slow down in our filter program has meant more time is available to support new technicians as they start their business. I find it encouraging that one man in Saint Marc and another in Gonaives are attempting to start filter businesses right now in spite of the political problems. Daniel from Gonaives arrived here on Saturday to pick up a filter mold. I didn’t even know it was possible to get out of Gonaives (the rebel army capital, as it were) so I was happy to see him. 

Over the past week I have been concentrating on our well drilling program because it is possible to drill wells locally and avoid travel problems. I have been traveling around to different local communities, assessing their water situation and talking to community leaders about our well drilling program. We will only drill in communities that are committed to taking care of the well when we have finished drilling, so every well requires working extensively with the community. In one place I visited the residents have to walk 30 minutes up a mountain to take water from a spring and carry it down again. They are anxious for us to start drilling. We have tested the new base that we built to add stability to the rig and to contain the driller’s gel that we use to remove the dirt and rock from the hole (see picture). It promises to make well drilling much easier in the future. We have not yet tested the new roller bit we bought for drilling through limestone.

I really enjoy getting out in the community to talk to people about wells. The majority of Haitians are very friendly. One woman in an area I visited gave me a kitten for the mission after I mentioned our terrible rodent problem so now we have a new cat named “chatblan”. 

We still need more missionaries for Clean Water for Haiti but I don’t think I can ask anyone to come out here while Haiti is having so much unrest. We need money for the well drilling program though. Right now we don’t have money to drill wells – I have been working with communities in anticipation of the money that will be coming in. It costs us about $2000 to drill a well and put a pump on it. 

Thank you for your encouragement, thoughts and prayers.

-Chris Rolling

See this article for more information on current developments:

Rebels seize Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest city