Chatblan was eaten by my neighbor’s dog. I really liked having a cat and my hatred for the neighbor’s dog runs deep. The vile creature has also been known to eat goats and bite children. I will not get another cat while my neighbor’s dog is still around.

My good friend Joel came for a two week visit and we had lots of fun and excitement. It was so good to see him and act stupid the way we used to do together back in college. Joel and I graduated from the Vehicle Design program together. I went on to be a missionary but Joel actually went on to design vehicles for Kenworth Truck Company. He took his two week’s off this year to have a working vacation in Haiti.

Joel and I had the opportunity to hike up into the mountains with another missionary to visit a very secluded community. We left at 3:00 in the morning to avoid the heat of the day and hiked up into the mountains for SEVEN HOURS. I have never hiked so much before in a single day. The mountains are an entirely different world. People live very simple lives with very little money and they are used to hiking down the mountain each week or so to sell their produce in the market.

Walking around on top of the mountains I was feeling kind of goofy from my great fatigue and I decided to pose for a picture with a baby goat. Immediately after the photo was taken the mother goat attacked me and I made a hasty retreat. The mountains were cool, and that night I slept with a wool blanket in a mud walled hut.

The next day, we left at 10:00 a.m. and walked down from the mountains again. It took FIVE HOURS and it would have been my hardest hike ever if it hadn’t been for the previous day. When it became unbearably hot I got the bright idea to hike without a shirt on and proceeded to get my worst sunburn ever. When we arrived again at our missionary friend’s house Joel and I each went to find a shower and we each happened to emerge wearing a pumpkin shirt to go with our sunburns. All the people in the mountains asked me when I was planning to come up there again and I replied, “I don’t know, but next time I’m coming up on a motorcycle”. I think the road up may be passable by motorcycle and 4 wheel drive, but nobody up there owns a vehicle so it’s a moot point.

The second week of Joel’s visit I was very busy with our biggest filter technician training class yet – 13 students. Joel did a fair bit of work on his second week here but he also liked to borrow my motorcycle in the afternoons to make trips up into the mountains. One afternoon he rode 8 miles up a mountain and then burnt out the clutch near the top. Rather than leave my motorcycle up there, he pushed it all the way back into town and called me from a friend’s phone. Joel’s misadventure convinced me that I needed to replace our cell phone which broke in March. My new Comcel number is 417-5893 and the phone is always in my pocket except when I send it off with adventurous visitors.

Joel managed to fix my motorcycle clutch. He also did the 40,000 km service on the truck, which involved a great deal of effort. He also fixed our portable welder/ generator for the umpteenth time. Joel’s idea to spend a working vacation here was a good one and I would really like it if other people with relevant skills would do the same thing. Not only did some important work get done, but I was very encouraged by his visit and had a great time.

Last month I attended a conference in Dominican Republic to discuss project BRAVO. Project BRAVO is an international testing program being designed to prove the legitimacy of the biosand filter. One of the desired outcomes of the testing is that the World Health Organization will start to promote the filter. I enjoyed the conference a lot. I met a lot of interesting people and got to see The Dominican Republic for the first time. It is very beautiful there and covered with trees. Dominican Republic is a paradise like Haiti could be if it were taken care of and developed.

We just finished hosting 13 students in a filter technician training course. 10 students were sponsored by Save the Children. One student was sponsored independently and comes from the very far southwest of Haiti. It took him three days to travel to Pierre Payen by bus. The remaining students were sent by a local cement factory’s community development program. They were both Columbians working in Haiti and they intend to start their own filter program in 4 communities surrounding the factory. The class went very well. We modified the curriculum again to include some business training along with the filter training. Originally we had planned to offer small business training in a second week but now all the training is condensed together.

Well drilling has been very slow and frustrating for the last few months. The crew lacks experience and they are using new equipment, but another problem has been poor sites. The first site we had the opportunity to use our new equipment has very loose sandy soil with big, hard rocks in it. The drill bit drills straight through rocks, but when we drilled the hole deeper loose rocks fell in the hole. After trying many things we found there is no way to prevent that from happening. We tried drilling at another site in the same community. The second site was solid limestone. After nearly a week of slow drilling through solid rock, at 50 feet the drill broke through into a CAVE. All of the drilling fluid flowed into the cave, halting drilling completely. The community has now hired a crew to hand dig a well for them and after they are finished, we will install a hand pump over it to provide protection for the well. This is the community of Tikouyo, the same community with the leader who was attacked by a group of thieves whom I mentioned in my last update letter. I will be very happy when this community finally has water.

This week we are drilling in an area of Saint Marc that possibly has a greater need than Tikouyo. During the days leading up to the ouster of Aristide, gang members burned down the local church in the community. It is up in the hills surrounding Saint Marc, and women and children can constantly be seen carrying water up the hill on their heads. Our truck can only make it up the hill when the back is loaded up – if there is no weight over the drive wheels there is no way to climb the hill. Yesterday marked the first day of drilling and also the first time one of our workers has been robbed while on the job. The workers paid motorcycle taxis to take them up the hill. Two of the workers arrived above, but the third worker was kidnapped by his driver and taken to an alley location where two thieves with homemade guns took all of his money. We are all upset about the theft, and I have instructed the crew to always travel to the well site together from now on. Saint Marc, like the rest of Haiti, is crawling with criminals since the prison was opened up during the political problems in February.

Two weeks ago I joined the Saint Marc Rotary Club. I decided to join the club because they are a group of Haitians who volunteer their time and resources to develop their country. I think that working with them will be a very effective way to achieve what the mission wants to do. My new Rotary friends have already helped me out in countless ways. I am very proud that I was able to give my acceptance speech in Creole. One problem I have attending meetings though is that many of the members prefer to speak in French. During my speech, I asked my new fellow Rotarians if they would kindly speak Creole whenever possible because in French I am lost.

Some people have hope for Haiti’s political situation to improve now. The U.N. approved an 8000 strong team of soldiers and police to provide a degree of security to the country while the country’s security is rebuilt. One political writer stated that Haiti might need to be occupied for 20 years in order for it to gain the strength it needs to survive independently. I’m hoping that the international community will put a sustained effort into Haiti, not just for security, but for sustainable development.

We still haven’t had any real rain in our area, but enough has fallen to keep the dust down. In the south of Haiti, the main highway has become largely impassable because of mud covering the road. Only the marines’ 8-wheeled armored personnel carriers are sure to always get through.

I have heard some encouraging things from Tal who is still back in Canada. Enough people have donated to the mission over the past several months that we have finally retired our credit card debt! If fundraising continues to go well we will be on our way to financial stability. Our other great need is missionary staff, and I have really felt the need for other missionaries over the last month while things have been so busy.

Our webmaster, Nathan Marrion would like to speak about Clean Water for Haiti and is anxious to share at schools, churches and other groups. He lives in Mount Vernon, WA but he would be willing to present along the I-5 corridor from Vancouver down to Seattle. If you are interested in this possibility, contact Nathan at Nathan@bluetreerecords.com. The accompanying slideshow can be found at www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org/powerpoint/slideshow.zip.

Blessings, Chris