Who: Aaron Gordon, Civil Engineering Student at Clemson University
What: Working as a Project Manager
Where: Haiti
When: January-August 2015
Why: Keep reading to find out for yourself

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Bat fe a panda li cho a

Strike the hammer while the iron is hot.


We finally got the materials we need to fix our chlorinator here in Cange. The original plan was to purchase an erosion chlorinator but the high pressures in our lines precluded us from buying one domestically. As a result, this project turned into a "Junkyard Wars"-esque effort to find a solution. Above you see our desparate efforts to pull something together; it is far from pretty but it seems to be functional. 

This is me working on our rough design. We are using old filter housings that haven't been used in years along with an assortment of PVC pipe and fittings to create our own erosion chlorinator. We test tomorrow. Let's hope it works!

The other day, I was pretty stressed and on the phone with someone trying to solve one of the many problems we are having here. While on the phone, a small Haitian boy (no older than 10) came up and sat next to me. Seeing this, I thought "Great, he's going to ask me for money or food as soon as I am off the phone." As the phone conversation continued, the kid begin to doodle in a little notebook. When I finally got off the phone, I turned to him with a somewhat exasperated look. He told me his name, he told me that I looked tired and stressed, and then he gave me his drawing He said it was for me, stood up, and walked away.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Bay piti, pa chich.

To give a little is not being cheap.

Last Friday, I embarked with a team of four Haitians to fix the water system at Bel-Aire, a remote village about a two-hour hike due east of where I stay. The system is quite simple: a capped spring collects water and gravity carries it through a treatment system we constructed a year and a half ago before being stored in a cistern with two taps.

We originally built the treatment system in 2013 in an effort to mitigate cholera in the region. That village, and the surrounding area, had the highest incident rate of cholera than anywhere else around the Central Plateau where we are located. Today, cholera is not an issue in Bel-Aire anymore due to their new clean water and the vaccine campaigns of other NGOs in the area.

Over the past few weeks, while I have not been working at Morne Michel, I have been collecting materials to fix this water system. The piping from the spring to the treatment was broken and as a result people were drinking unfiltered water. On Friday, having finally purchased the proper fittings and threading the proper lengths of pipe, we departed with over 60 feet of galvanized pipe and a backpack full of various couplings, unions, and elbows.


I thought we had a 50% chance of actually fixing it that day. Bel-Aire is infamous for its incredible humidity and lack of shade. In addition to the struggles with heat, I didn’t know exactly what to expect once we got there. I knew what the problem was but I was convinced that we would find more problems once we arrived.


As it turns out, we did have to improvise but at the end of the day we got everything up and running again.  The people of Bel-Aire have clean water once more. Even though our solution may not be pretty (it involved some unorthodox piping strategies), it works and that is what matters.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Gwo lidé, ti memwa.

Big idea, tiny memory.

I apologize for the long delay in posting again. It has been a busy month here for me as I wrap up our work at Morne Michel and the Internet has been out for several weeks now. However, things have been going quite well. As mentioned in my last post, the school repairs at Morne Michel are now finished (including the painting which was done this week). We still have to install the solar panel up there but I am waiting for approval from the States. In the meantime, I have been getting our finances in order and trying to fix a water system at a neighboring village.

In addition, I scheduled another meeting with DINEPA (the Haitian water and sanitation department) so we can establish an official partnership. This relationship will be essential to the continued success of our water systems. There are also several more projects coming up, although none quite so large as Morne Michel, including the Aquaculture farm below Cange and a few smaller water systems around the Central Plateau.

While Morne Michel was a great experience, I am happy to be back in my room with running water. The biggest difference though is the attitude of the average person to the visiting white man. The children up in that remote village did not beg for anything, ever. They have so little contact with white people that they had no reason to associate me with free food and money. As a result I was able to truly engage in the community and, at least for a little bit, pretend like I was actually Haitian. It was unforgettable.


After finishing Morne Michel, I took a little vacation last weekend to Jacmel on the southern coast of the island. It is a much artsier town than Port-au-Prince and is the best surfing spot in Haiti. We toured the city, enjoyed the fresh (almost too fresh) seafood, and relaxed on the beach. Now I feel rejuvenated and ready to get back to work. Hopefully I will be able to start posting regularly again.
This is the view from the Hotel Cyvadier where we stayed last weekend. It was a great hotel, with a pool and restaurant, that provided a much needed respite from the stress of always being on-call in Cange.

Jacmel's boardwalk (and several other areas) are decorated with beautiful mosiacs. While I was there with several Partners in Health workers, I actually got to meet the American artist who had helped the Haitians design and create these pieces of artwork. The idea (in part) was that by beautifying the city, regular citizens would take better care of it and thus attract more tourists. I can honestly say that Jacmel is the cleanest Haitian city I have seen to this point.

This is one of our employees repainting the ceiling. The old drainage on the roof was poor and led to severe leaks that damaged the paint.

As we were painting, all the students were playing on the new courtyard. They were running around in circles, dancing, singing, playing tag, and just enjoying themselves. It was really heart-warming, and rewarding, to see them using the new space.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Sa ki pa touye ou, li angrese ou.

That which doesn't kill you, makes you fat.

I apologize for the long time between posts again. Cange has been without internet for two weeks now and I have been at Morne Michel for a lot of that time. On the bright side, we have finished up all masonry for the project and now we just have to paint!

After testing the water sources at Morne Michel, we decided it would be wise to start trying to mitigate their water issues ASAP. Let's just say that livestock walking through drinking water is typically an unhealthy phenomenon and can be an indicator for contamination. Here, you can see me and one of my workers handing out Aquatabs (point-of-use chlorine tablets) to the children in a classroom after explaining the importance of good hygiene and clean water.

In order to prevent children from running all over the wet concrete, we had to put up a temporary barrier around the courtyard. Naturally, this only made children more curious to see what we were up doing. Here, you can see one of our workers being watched by two children behind the wall.

Here is a picture of myself, looking at our finished product. I'll have more pictures later on this week if we can get better internet. I am extremely pleased with how everything turned out. See the picture below for a look at the new entrance of the school; we built the steps and courtyard.




Saturday, May 2, 2015

Twop lajan fe yon nonm pedi tet li

Too much money makes a man lose his head.

I just got back last night from Morne Michel after working there all week. As shown in the picture above, we are almost done pouring the courtyard slab. As not shown in the picture above, we also finished repairing the roof this week so the school will no longer leak. Unfortunately, it did not rain the entire week so our work has yet to be truly tested. The lack of rain also made water collection difficult but I hesitate to ask for more rain because that can delay the project. It's a delicate balance.


These were our provisions for the week. As you can see, lots of canned fish, rice, and onions. Every morning we eat pasta and every afternoon we eat rice. We also have mayi moulen, a corn-based starch similar to grits, that we can eat but no one but myself actually enjoys it. I always beg our cook to make it (in order to mix things up) and all my workers totally freak out.


We are extremely isolated up on the mountain so when things break we have to get creative. Here is a picture of us trying to piece a wheelbarrow back together with a coat hanger, barbed wire, and my leatherman. It actually worked surprisingly enough and thank goodness for that. Wheelbarrows are expensive here and getting them up the mountain was a major ordeal.