Saturday, July 16, 2011

June 18 – Drive to Post Metier, La Coma and Passe Catabois (Continued)



After we left La Coma, Uncle Bruce took us to see the newest project he has been working on. We drove to the site. We walked about a quarter of a mile or so to the floodplain where their project is starting. He shared a bit about how the areas we were in used to be one of the most productive areas for plantains and bananas in the 1960s and 1970s. For a long time, the area had been decimated by rains washing the silt and debris right off the mountainside and dropping the debris and basically changing the soil composition so much that nothing would grow in the area. But now it looks beautiful, lots of grass and trees growing up tall and strong.






We walked back to cars and we could see where the river continued to flood and again with soil composition changing so that the vegetation was scrub at best. Uncle Bruce and the interns are building a “channel” (sorry for those with engineering background) that will act like a continuation of the river to save the now productive plain and help divert the good soil, that is now being washed out to sea, to stay in the plain and renew the soil so that it can be productive again. With the channel, the debris and other harmful stuff will continue out to sea. I did not understand how this would happen but based on what has been done so far, I can see that it will happen over time.

Uncle Bruce has also worked on irrigation ditches that will help the areas be more productive and save the hauling of water to the gardens. If you look at the picture below you can see a long trench with a series of 45 degree angled trenches. Those are the irrigation ditches.


The projects up to now had been dug by hand. After the January 2010 earthquake, a number of contacts were made and a gentleman from southern Florida, whose construction business was closing, was able to donate and sell some of his equipment. The front end loader came to Bolosse (where my parents live) and the rest is in Passe Catabois and will be used for these construction projects. What a blessing!!



We loaded back up in the trucks and we drove down to visit the pastor of the local church, who was a student of Dad’s. He came to this area for his internship and felt God calling him back to serve. They are running out of room in their small church so they are starting to build a larger building! What a joyful problem to have!



We hiked up the hill behind his house and that is how we were able to get the picture of the Baie de Moustique (Mosquito Bay). We all thought a dip in the ocean would be nice but we skipped that and headed back to Post Metier for lunch.

Madame Christbon set up quite a spread for us! I could list all the items for you but that would just make me hungry for food I cannot get here so I will refrain. Suffice it to say, we left stuffed to the gills! It was so good.

As we headed to our vehicles, Pastor Christbon came with their son, Esdras, who had flown in from Washington state for a visit. Esdras is in college out there. Their daughter is in college in Lynchburg VA. They waited a long time for each to get their visas for school. It is a blessing that they are able to come back for visits. Getting visas for the US can often be a futile experience.

After that huge lunch, we loaded up in the trucks and headed for Passe Catabois where Aunt Deb was preparing supper! We started out. We made the turn from the main road and hit the muddiest mess of a road I have seen in decades! We slipped and slid, swerved back and forth for most of the way. We took a detour to see one of the water dams that Uncle Bruce built along an irrigation ditch. It was so cool. The main flow of the water goes crashing down the dam (when opened) and along the far side a small bit of water slowly flows. The main river keeps going but this bit on the side is what feeds the irrigation ditches, which cuts down on the flooding somehow. My non-engineering brain did not quite understand that part.






We arrived at Passe Catabois very ready for a rest. Aunt Deb and the interns got us settled in the guesthouse. Uncle Bruce helped Matt make arrangements for a local boy to wash all that mud from the truck. It was spotless when he and his dad were done with it! After unloading the trucks, we headed to the Robinson’s (Bruce and Deb) for supper. We had lasagna, very good lasagna! We did it justice despite having eaten so much at lunch!

Showers were a bit of a trick in the guesthouse. Water pressure is a novelty in Haiti so the water flow was a trickle at best from both showers. We filled up these solar camping showers. Not sure if you have ever used one. It looks like a big ziplock bag with a short hose attached. We filled them up and hung two in each bathroom so we all could shower without having to refill bags in between. Halfway through my shower with basically no water, I realized that I had to squat way down for the hose to extend enough that I got water out. Then someone said that if I turn the water on for the showerhead only half way, I would get a decent flow of water to rinse off. So abandoning the camping shower I tried the half turn and blessedly finished my cold shower. Aunt Deb had told us during the settling that there was no hot water and she was sorry. I just wanted water, regardless of the temperature. As hot and humid as things were, just getting rinsed off was a blessing.

Our room was series of bunk beds, a single bed and a double bed. The boys got all bunk beds and Mandie and James had a room with a double and single bed. Each bed had its own mosquito net. Now this was my first experience with a mosquito net since infancy. The trick is to get in bed and then tuck the net in really well or those dumb mosquitoes will sneak in and get you! From the time we landed on Saturday, I was a favorite feeding destination for the mosquitoes so I was very glad for those nets!

We were all up at our usual time, in time for showers before our 7am breakfast (I was up at 4am as usual)

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