Ayisyen swiv kouran.

Haitians follow the flow.

Last Sunday was International Women’s Day. To celebrate, the local women empowerment organization here held a show and party to honor Haiti’s women and the strides they have made in the past few decades. They had all sorts of performers including singers (see photo), dancers, rappers and even stand-up comics. It was really enjoyable to watch although Haiti is still plagued by gender inequality.

In preparation for the Clemson team coming to stay for Spring Break, we were cleaning our filter and storage building (in which our water treatment is housed) when the static mixer cracked, making everyone jump and getting everyone soaked. The static mixer, shown above, mixes the water as it comes out of the chlorinator and is an item not sold in Haiti. We managed to open the bypass line so we stopped wasting water but at the cost of forgoing the most important stage of our treatment: chlorination. This was a little bit of a crisis because the local hospital depends on the chlorine in the water for its patients.

As soon as the water stopped spraying everywhere, we removed the broken section and started desperately looking for a pipe we could insert until the new static mixer can arrive. We found a nice thick PVC pipe and two adapters, much faster than I expected, and immediately got to work fitting it into the system. Time was of the essence; every second we wasted was a second that potentially contaminated water was being provided to the villagers and the hospital here. As the picture displays (look for the white pipe), we were successful.

In other news, we finished the renovation of the water system and fountains in the village. I can officially say that our first project is complete. Our funding source is coming to check it out tomorrow. Next, we are looking at rebuilding parts of a school in a remote village. It’s the same one featured in a previous blog post (Deye mon, gen mon) and the same one we are trying to bring water to as well at some point.