Sunday, 01-16-11
Sunday dawned just like normal, and we had a leisurely breakfast and off to church. They have mostly returned their church to normal after CDR left. The SS portion of the service was quite a bit than last year, we actually divide up into classes and had a pretty good discussion, with a lesson on Controlling the Tongue. The sermon was by Fwe Wildo on XYZ. Fwe Samuel, a professional interpreter, interpreted for us, and it was the best interpreting I had ever experienced. We were able to follow the thoughts very well. At the end of the service, we again had to stand and introduce ourselves, and Fwe Brutus (our landlord) gave us a hearty welcome and asked the congregation to give us their full support.
After a doctrine dinner, we had planned to go to the orphanage, but a steady stream of visitors kept us home. We had a delegation from the water committee, the local version of the MUA called UEMA, and various well wishers and job seekers. The guys did some clean up and arranging of stuff; it’s pretty amazing what you can do when you give a houseful of fellows a bunch of extension cords, power strips, and cheaters. Later, a group of us sang for awhile. Dave and Kale are feeling better (they got sick on the way to Haiti), but now Neil is going downhill. None of them went to church, and they have all been napping quite a bit.
Monday, 01-17-11
We didn’t have enough stuff arranged to really work in the canyon, and Neil is still not feeling well. We have instituted a 2 person policy, which is that nobody goes anywhere by themselves. I took David up to the canyon to run dozer, and Steve accompanied him. I drove the backhoe back to the new CSI HQ in Blanc Washe, and Darren came with me. We had a neat time returning by Top Top. Neil and Mike went to town to try to finish business, and Kale and Dave took the rental pickup back and rode home with Neil, so we were all pretty scattered. Unfortunately, the guys in town did not nearly get all their stuff done, so it will mean more time yet to get things going. Two loads of sand were delivered today.
Tuesday, 01-18-11
We restricted Neil to quarters today to try to get him well. We are of the opinion that getting him back to 100% in the near future is better than having him at 50% today. We took a little concrete up the canyon, and started a group prepping the sump base for concrete. David continued with the dozer clearing out a spot for the dam. Right now we are hopeful that we have enough bedrock that we can anchor the dam well. By mid afternoon, the sump was ready to pour, so we threw all our energies into getting concrete on the ground. It was chaotic at first getting everyone into the grove, but we soon had an assembly line going with about 20 hired laborers. They transport all goods by 5 gallon bucket, so the water up from the river, the gravel into the mixer, and the finished product to the sump are all carried by bucket. We have wheel barrows, but the ground in this area is too rough, and they can do better by bucket. Due to a calculation mistake by yours truly, we ran out of concrete before we ran out of hole to put it in, so we didn’t quite finish, but it feels real good to have concrete going down. Two yards placed, about 500 left to go! At the end of the day we had reached the rate of almost 2 yards per hour, based on the cycle times from the last two batches. Steve says we have several places to improve. Our goal is to get to 15 yards per mixer per day in the near future.
Wednesday, 01-19-11
We headed up the hill about on schedule, with Fwe. Brutus trailing along behind with supplies, a cement mixer, and fuel. Neil headed into town to complete materials purchases, and David and I rode along to the CSI compound to retrieve Raymond’s level, and hired a (motor)cycle home. Along the way we experienced a flat, which the driver fixed by clamping the tube in his mouth, and tightly tying the place with a piece of string, and running out of gas, after which he bought about ½ a gallon. Upon our return, we took grade shots along the canal path.
The rest of the group started forming the canal floor, and we started a crew digging out the location for the dam. It was the first day of real work with the hired locals, who have been eagerly anticipating the start up. It was very rewarding to stand at the container entrance and hand out shovel, and see the big grins when each one received his: They were hired! We instituted a time card system for our workers; only time will tell if it will work, but we needed a better system than we had last year. None of our ordered materials arrived today, so we were not able to put all our energies to full use, and we sent the workers home by lunch time.
Raymonds and their hired man Kevens arrived back from the west end about supper time, and we had a good reunion time. I did bookwork in the evening while most of the rest played scrabble. The moon has been very bright the last few nights – those who have never seen a tropical full moon have really missed something.
Thursday, 01-20-11
We brought a small amount of concrete and steel up ourselves today to get started. Everyone turned up with their time cards, and we put them to work finishing the pouring of the sump foundation and started pouring the canal base. Eric Johnson arrived mid morning and took over the concrete placing, which is a big relief. Mike and Davis started working on the drill, only to find out after some effort that the starter was fried! Mike admits that it was getting hard to start last year. Steve and I drove near enough to the DR border that we could get a good cell signal, and we spent a considerable time talking to parts guys at Ingersol Rand, and two Cummins parts places in the DR, as well as the dealer we purchased it from in Kentucky. We are getting a lot of conflicting stories, but they are all looking for another starter for us. The steel arrived and was dropped off at the edge of the main road. David took the dozer out and skidded it in.
Today was the first day we had the cook on duty. She cooks up a white rice over a fire in a very large schoudze (Dutch oven style pot), and in a separate pot makes a little broth with chicken bouillon, garlic, onions, peppers, etc, and pours just enough over each bowl of rice to give it a little color and flavor. Last year we all ate our lunch from her daily; this year with the cholera in the country we are reluctant to do so. She cooks with water straight from the river, and washes her dishes in the same.
The flow in the river is noticeably greater than last year. The water is reaching up to and even past the village of La Washe before it all sinks away. This is at least a mile farther than we have seen it before.
A couple of the guys helped me do some stream flow testing this afternoon, and we came up with 47 CFS! In August 2009 it was about 20 CFS, and last year after the quake I measured 35 CFS. This is going to make our diversion channel more difficult to dig and maintain, and is making the access road a challenge to keep open as well, but long term more water is going to be much better.
Friday, 01-21-11
The crew went up the canyon again, and I headed into PAP to do a little business and pick up the “next in”, Jerome Isaac from Crooked Creek, AB. Everything was uneventful, and we were headed home early afternoon. One of Jerome’s first tasks will be to build a security cage for the back of the truck, so we stopped at CSI to look at the one they build recently. While we were there, James told us the backhoe was available, so I drove slowly with flashers on and Jerome followed me back to HQ.
The guys came down about as we arrived with reports that still no sand has arrived, and we are a little perplexed what the deal is. Truckers are promising sand, but so far they have not come through. As of now, we are stopped with concrete pouring until we figure out what is happening.
This evening we hired a local restaurant to provide a supper of rice, roasted goat, black bean sauce, meat broth, pasta salad, and beets. Twa Bein.
Saturday, 01-22-11
Neil and Raymond made investigations yesterday eve about the sand problem. It seems that with all the rebuilding demand in PAP the local sand pits have been cleaned out of ready sand. All of the quarrying here is hand dug, and the resulting product hand shoveled onto trucks, and the demand is exceeding what the diggers can produce. We decided to take the backhoe to a local pit and dig our own. We did this, and we able to get about 24 yds up the hill and the truck loaded again for next week. We also got a truck of manufactured block to deliver. He powered out on the steep hill in, so we partially unloaded him, and then they shuttled him back and forth to finish. It took most of the day to get the block on site.
Since we had little work we could do, most of the crew hired a local brother with his taxi van to go sightseeing. They were gone most f the day, and reported that a good time was had by all. While we were waiting for the block guys, Jerome and I had a chance to do a little hiking in our canyon, and we went back much farther than I had been before. We saw some neat areas, including the Lastic Falls from above. Deep in the canyon I found what I believe to be a virgin mahogany log of about 32” in diameter X 28’ long. I’m trying to figure out a way to get that out to a furniture maker and have it turned into new front doors for my house!
We’ve got the house pretty much up to speed. The electrical equipment I had bought to automate the water system got left in my pickup at home, but it’s coming on “next in”. Our water system has been connected to several nearby houses, so we’re having trouble keeping our tank full. We haven’t wired in any water heating equipment either, but that needs to happen soon. We’ve got some problems with rats, and so far they are eating our bait without getting caught. Most rooms have a resident gecko, which helps with insect control, and they make a neat chirping type sound. Mine lives behind some shelves on the wall beside my bed. We’re also fighting tiny little sugar ants that stream up and down the walls and swarm everything that has any sweetness to it. All in all, we’ve got a pretty comfortable HQ here – we could have done much worse, and the Love & Peace Motel is just down the road, so anybody wants to visit, just drop in!
FP, Haiti
id up to the canyon to run dozer, and Steve accompanied him. I drove the backhoe back to the new CSI HQ in Blanc Washe, and Darren came with me. We had a neat time returning by Top Top. Neil and Mike went to town to try to finish business, and Kale and Dave took the rental pickup back and rode home with Neil, so we were all pretty scattered. Unfortunately, the guys in town did not nearly get all their stuff done, so it will mean more time yet to get things going. Two loads of sand were delivered today.
Tuesday, 01-18-11
We restricted Neil to quarters today to try to get him well. We are of the opinion that getting him back to 100% in the near future is better than having him at 50% today. We took a little concrete up the canyon, and started a group prepping the sump base for concrete. David continued with the dozer clearing out a spot for the dam. Right now we are hopeful that we have enough bedrock that we can anchor the dam well. By mid afternoon, the sump was ready to pour, so we threw all our energies into getting concrete on the ground. It was chaotic at first getting everyone into the grove, but we soon had an assembly line going with about 20 hired laborers. They transport all goods by 5 gallon bucket, so the water up from the river, the gravel into the mixer, and the finished product to the sump are all carried by bucket. We have wheel barrows, but the ground in this area is too rough, and they can do better by bucket. Due to a calculation mistake by yours truly, we ran out of concrete before we ran out of hole to put it in, so we didn’t quite finish, but it feels real good to have concrete going down. Two yards placed, about 500 left to go! At the end of the day we had reached the rate of almost 2 yards per hour, based on the cycle times from the last two batches. Steve says we have several places to improve. Our goal is to get to 15 yards per mixer per day in the near future.
Wednesday, 01-19-11
We headed up the hill about on schedule, with Fwe. Brutus trailing along behind with supplies, a cement mixer, and fuel. Neil headed into town to complete materials purchases, and David and I rode along to the CSI compound to retrieve Raymond’s level, and hired a (motor)cycle home. Along the way we experienced a flat, which the driver fixed by clamping the tube in his mouth, and tightly tying the place with a piece of string, and running out of gas, after which he bought about ½ a gallon. Upon our return, we took grade shots along the canal path.
The rest of the group started forming the canal floor, and we started a crew digging out the location for the dam. It was the first day of real work with the hired locals, who have been eagerly anticipating the start up. It was very rewarding to stand at the container entrance and hand out shovel, and see the big grins when each one received his: They were hired! We instituted a time card system for our workers; only time will tell if it will work, but we needed a better system than we had last year. None of our ordered materials arrived today, so we were not able to put all our energies to full use, and we sent the workers home by lunch time.
Raymonds and their hired man Kevens arrived back from the west end about supper time, and we had a good reunion time. I did bookwork in the evening while most of the rest played scrabble. The moon has been very bright the last few nights – those who have never seen a tropical full moon have really missed something.
Thursday, 01-20-11
We brought a small amount of concrete and steel up ourselves today to get started. Everyone turned up with their time cards, and we put them to work finishing the pouring of the sump foundation and started pouring the canal base. Eric Johnson arrived mid morning and took over the concrete placing, which is a big relief. Mike and Davis started working on the drill, only to find out after some effort that the starter was fried! Mike admits that it was getting hard to start last year. Steve and I drove near enough to the DR border that we could get a good cell signal, and we spent a considerable time talking to parts guys at Ingersol Rand, and two Cummins parts places in the DR, as well as the dealer we purchased it from in Kentucky. We are getting a lot of conflicting stories, but they are all looking for another starter for us. The steel arrived and was dropped off at the edge of the main road. David took the dozer out and skidded it in.
Today was the first day we had the cook on duty. She cooks up a white rice over a fire in a very large schoudze (Dutch oven style pot), and in a separate pot makes a little broth with chicken bouillon, garlic, onions, peppers, etc, and pours just enough over each bowl of rice to give it a little color and flavor. Last year we all ate our lunch from her daily; this year with the cholera in the country we are reluctant to do so. She cooks with water straight from the river, and washes her dishes in the same.
The flow in the river is noticeably greater than last year. The water is reaching up to and even past the village of La Washe before it all sinks away. This is at least a mile farther than we have seen it before.
A couple of the guys helped me do some stream flow testing this afternoon, and we came up with 47 CFS! In August 2009 it was about 20 CFS, and last year after the quake I measured 35 CFS. This is going to make our diversion channel more difficult to dig and maintain, and is making the access road a challenge to keep open as well, but long term more water is going to be much better.
Friday, 01-21-11
The crew went up the canyon again, and I headed into PAP to do a little business and pick up the “next in”, Jerome Isaac from Crooked Creek, AB. Everything was uneventful, and we were headed home early afternoon. One of Jerome’s first tasks will be to build a security cage for the back of the truck, so we stopped at CSI to look at the one they build recently. While we were there, James told us the backhoe was available, so I drove slowly with flashers on and Jerome followed me back to HQ.
The guys came down about as we arrived with reports that still no sand has arrived, and we are a little perplexed what the deal is. Truckers are promising sand, but so far they have not come through. As of now, we are stopped with concrete pouring until we figure out what is happening.
This evening we hired a local restaurant to provide a supper of rice, roasted goat, black bean sauce, meat broth, pasta salad, and beets. Twa Bein.
Saturday, 01-22-11
Neil and Raymond made investigations yesterday eve about the sand problem. It seems that with all the rebuilding demand in PAP the local sand pits have been cleaned out of ready sand. All of the quarrying here is hand dug, and the resulting product hand shoveled onto trucks, and the demand is exceeding what the diggers can produce. We decided to take the backhoe to a local pit and dig our own. We did this, and we able to get about 24 yds up the hill and the truck loaded again for next week. We also got a truck of manufactured block to deliver. He powered out on the steep hill in, so we partially unloaded him, and then they shuttled him back and forth to finish. It took most of the day to get the block on site.
Since we had little work we could do, most of the crew hired a local brother with his taxi van to go sightseeing. They were gone most f the day, and reported that a good time was had by all. While we were waiting for the block guys, Jerome and I had a chance to do a little hiking in our canyon, and we went back much farther than I had been before. We saw some neat areas, including the Lastic Falls from above. Deep in the canyon I found what I believe to be a virgin mahogany log of about 32” in diameter X 28’ long. I’m trying to figure out a way to get that out to a furniture maker and have it turned into new front doors for my house!
We’ve got the house pretty much up to speed. The electrical equipment I had bought to automate the water system got left in my pickup at home, but it’s coming on “next in”. Our water system has been connected to several nearby houses, so we’re having trouble keeping our tank full. We haven’t wired in any water heating equipment either, but that needs to happen soon. We’ve got some problems with rats, and so far they are eating our bait without getting caught. Most rooms have a resident gecko, which helps with insect control, and they make a neat chirping type sound. Mine lives behind some shelves on the wall beside my bed. We’re also fighting tiny little sugar ants that stream up and down the walls and swarm everything that has any sweetness to it. All in all, we’ve got a pretty comfortable HQ here – we could have done much worse, and the Love & Peace Motel is just down the road, so anybody wants to visit, just drop in!
FP, Haiti
--
Sunday dawned just like normal, and we had a leisurely breakfast and off to church. They have mostly returned their church to normal after CDR left. The SS portion of the service was quite a bit than last year, we actually divide up into classes and had a pretty good discussion, with a lesson on Controlling the Tongue. The sermon was by Fwe Wildo on XYZ. Fwe Samuel, a professional interpreter, interpreted for us, and it was the best interpreting I had ever experienced. We were able to follow the thoughts very well. At the end of the service, we again had to stand and introduce ourselves, and Fwe Brutus (our landlord) gave us a hearty welcome and asked the congregation to give us their full support.
After a doctrine dinner, we had planned to go to the orphanage, but a steady stream of visitors kept us home. We had a delegation from the water committee, the local version of the MUA called UEMA, and various well wishers and job seekers. The guys did some clean up and arranging of stuff; it’s pretty amazing what you can do when you give a houseful of fellows a bunch of extension cords, power strips, and cheaters. Later, a group of us sang for awhile. Dave and Kale are feeling better (they got sick on the way to Haiti), but now Neil is going downhill. None of them went to church, and they have all been napping quite a bit.
Monday, 01-17-11
We didn’t have enough stuff arranged to really work in the canyon, and Neil is still not feeling well. We have instituted a 2 person policy, which is that nobody goes anywhere by themselves. I took David up to the canyon to run dozer, and Steve accompanied him. I drove the backhoe back to the new CSI HQ in Blanc Washe, and Darren came with me. We had a neat time returning by Top Top. Neil and Mike went to town to try to finish business, and Kale and Dave took the rental pickup back and rode home with Neil, so we were all pretty scattered. Unfortunately, the guys in town did not nearly get all their stuff done, so it will mean more time yet to get things going. Two loads of sand were delivered today.
Tuesday, 01-18-11
We restricted Neil to quarters today to try to get him well. We are of the opinion that getting him back to 100% in the near future is better than having him at 50% today. We took a little concrete up the canyon, and started a group prepping the sump base for concrete. David continued with the dozer clearing out a spot for the dam. Right now we are hopeful that we have enough bedrock that we can anchor the dam well. By mid afternoon, the sump was ready to pour, so we threw all our energies into getting concrete on the ground. It was chaotic at first getting everyone into the grove, but we soon had an assembly line going with about 20 hired laborers. They transport all goods by 5 gallon bucket, so the water up from the river, the gravel into the mixer, and the finished product to the sump are all carried by bucket. We have wheel barrows, but the ground in this area is too rough, and they can do better by bucket. Due to a calculation mistake by yours truly, we ran out of concrete before we ran out of hole to put it in, so we didn’t quite finish, but it feels real good to have concrete going down. Two yards placed, about 500 left to go! At the end of the day we had reached the rate of almost 2 yards per hour, based on the cycle times from the last two batches. Steve says we have several places to improve. Our goal is to get to 15 yards per mixer per day in the near future.
Wednesday, 01-19-11
We headed up the hill about on schedule, with Fwe. Brutus trailing along behind with supplies, a cement mixer, and fuel. Neil headed into town to complete materials purchases, and David and I rode along to the CSI compound to retrieve Raymond’s level, and hired a (motor)cycle home. Along the way we experienced a flat, which the driver fixed by clamping the tube in his mouth, and tightly tying the place with a piece of string, and running out of gas, after which he bought about ½ a gallon. Upon our return, we took grade shots along the canal path.
The rest of the group started forming the canal floor, and we started a crew digging out the location for the dam. It was the first day of real work with the hired locals, who have been eagerly anticipating the start up. It was very rewarding to stand at the container entrance and hand out shovel, and see the big grins when each one received his: They were hired! We instituted a time card system for our workers; only time will tell if it will work, but we needed a better system than we had last year. None of our ordered materials arrived today, so we were not able to put all our energies to full use, and we sent the workers home by lunch time.
Raymonds and their hired man Kevens arrived back from the west end about supper time, and we had a good reunion time. I did bookwork in the evening while most of the rest played scrabble. The moon has been very bright the last few nights – those who have never seen a tropical full moon have really missed something.
Thursday, 01-20-11
We brought a small amount of concrete and steel up ourselves today to get started. Everyone turned up with their time cards, and we put them to work finishing the pouring of the sump foundation and started pouring the canal base. Eric Johnson arrived mid morning and took over the concrete placing, which is a big relief. Mike and Davis started working on the drill, only to find out after some effort that the starter was fried! Mike admits that it was getting hard to start last year. Steve and I drove near enough to the DR border that we could get a good cell signal, and we spent a considerable time talking to parts guys at Ingersol Rand, and two Cummins parts places in the DR, as well as the dealer we purchased it from in Kentucky. We are getting a lot of conflicting stories, but they are all looking for another starter for us. The steel arrived and was dropped off at the edge of the main road. David took the dozer out and skidded it in.
Today was the first day we had the cook on duty. She cooks up a white rice over a fire in a very large schoudze (Dutch oven style pot), and in a separate pot makes a little broth with chicken bouillon, garlic, onions, peppers, etc, and pours just enough over each bowl of rice to give it a little color and flavor. Last year we all ate our lunch from her daily; this year with the cholera in the country we are reluctant to do so. She cooks with water straight from the river, and washes her dishes in the same.
The flow in the river is noticeably greater than last year. The water is reaching up to and even past the village of La Washe before it all sinks away. This is at least a mile farther than we have seen it before.
A couple of the guys helped me do some stream flow testing this afternoon, and we came up with 47 CFS! In August 2009 it was about 20 CFS, and last year after the quake I measured 35 CFS. This is going to make our diversion channel more difficult to dig and maintain, and is making the access road a challenge to keep open as well, but long term more water is going to be much better.
Friday, 01-21-11
The crew went up the canyon again, and I headed into PAP to do a little business and pick up the “next in”, Jerome Isaac from Crooked Creek, AB. Everything was uneventful, and we were headed home early afternoon. One of Jerome’s first tasks will be to build a security cage for the back of the truck, so we stopped at CSI to look at the one they build recently. While we were there, James told us the backhoe was available, so I drove slowly with flashers on and Jerome followed me back to HQ.
The guys came down about as we arrived with reports that still no sand has arrived, and we are a little perplexed what the deal is. Truckers are promising sand, but so far they have not come through. As of now, we are stopped with concrete pouring until we figure out what is happening.
This evening we hired a local restaurant to provide a supper of rice, roasted goat, black bean sauce, meat broth, pasta salad, and beets. Twa Bein.
Saturday, 01-22-11
Neil and Raymond made investigations yesterday eve about the sand problem. It seems that with all the rebuilding demand in PAP the local sand pits have been cleaned out of ready sand. All of the quarrying here is hand dug, and the resulting product hand shoveled onto trucks, and the demand is exceeding what the diggers can produce. We decided to take the backhoe to a local pit and dig our own. We did this, and we able to get about 24 yds up the hill and the truck loaded again for next week. We also got a truck of manufactured block to deliver. He powered out on the steep hill in, so we partially unloaded him, and then they shuttled him back and forth to finish. It took most of the day to get the block on site.
Since we had little work we could do, most of the crew hired a local brother with his taxi van to go sightseeing. They were gone most f the day, and reported that a good time was had by all. While we were waiting for the block guys, Jerome and I had a chance to do a little hiking in our canyon, and we went back much farther than I had been before. We saw some neat areas, including the Lastic Falls from above. Deep in the canyon I found what I believe to be a virgin mahogany log of about 32” in diameter X 28’ long. I’m trying to figure out a way to get that out to a furniture maker and have it turned into new front doors for my house!
We’ve got the house pretty much up to speed. The electrical equipment I had bought to automate the water system got left in my pickup at home, but it’s coming on “next in”. Our water system has been connected to several nearby houses, so we’re having trouble keeping our tank full. We haven’t wired in any water heating equipment either, but that needs to happen soon. We’ve got some problems with rats, and so far they are eating our bait without getting caught. Most rooms have a resident gecko, which helps with insect control, and they make a neat chirping type sound. Mine lives behind some shelves on the wall beside my bed. We’re also fighting tiny little sugar ants that stream up and down the walls and swarm everything that has any sweetness to it. All in all, we’ve got a pretty comfortable HQ here – we could have done much worse, and the Love & Peace Motel is just down the road, so anybody wants to visit, just drop in!
FP, Haiti
id up to the canyon to run dozer, and Steve accompanied him. I drove the backhoe back to the new CSI HQ in Blanc Washe, and Darren came with me. We had a neat time returning by Top Top. Neil and Mike went to town to try to finish business, and Kale and Dave took the rental pickup back and rode home with Neil, so we were all pretty scattered. Unfortunately, the guys in town did not nearly get all their stuff done, so it will mean more time yet to get things going. Two loads of sand were delivered today.
Tuesday, 01-18-11
We restricted Neil to quarters today to try to get him well. We are of the opinion that getting him back to 100% in the near future is better than having him at 50% today. We took a little concrete up the canyon, and started a group prepping the sump base for concrete. David continued with the dozer clearing out a spot for the dam. Right now we are hopeful that we have enough bedrock that we can anchor the dam well. By mid afternoon, the sump was ready to pour, so we threw all our energies into getting concrete on the ground. It was chaotic at first getting everyone into the grove, but we soon had an assembly line going with about 20 hired laborers. They transport all goods by 5 gallon bucket, so the water up from the river, the gravel into the mixer, and the finished product to the sump are all carried by bucket. We have wheel barrows, but the ground in this area is too rough, and they can do better by bucket. Due to a calculation mistake by yours truly, we ran out of concrete before we ran out of hole to put it in, so we didn’t quite finish, but it feels real good to have concrete going down. Two yards placed, about 500 left to go! At the end of the day we had reached the rate of almost 2 yards per hour, based on the cycle times from the last two batches. Steve says we have several places to improve. Our goal is to get to 15 yards per mixer per day in the near future.
Wednesday, 01-19-11
We headed up the hill about on schedule, with Fwe. Brutus trailing along behind with supplies, a cement mixer, and fuel. Neil headed into town to complete materials purchases, and David and I rode along to the CSI compound to retrieve Raymond’s level, and hired a (motor)cycle home. Along the way we experienced a flat, which the driver fixed by clamping the tube in his mouth, and tightly tying the place with a piece of string, and running out of gas, after which he bought about ½ a gallon. Upon our return, we took grade shots along the canal path.
The rest of the group started forming the canal floor, and we started a crew digging out the location for the dam. It was the first day of real work with the hired locals, who have been eagerly anticipating the start up. It was very rewarding to stand at the container entrance and hand out shovel, and see the big grins when each one received his: They were hired! We instituted a time card system for our workers; only time will tell if it will work, but we needed a better system than we had last year. None of our ordered materials arrived today, so we were not able to put all our energies to full use, and we sent the workers home by lunch time.
Raymonds and their hired man Kevens arrived back from the west end about supper time, and we had a good reunion time. I did bookwork in the evening while most of the rest played scrabble. The moon has been very bright the last few nights – those who have never seen a tropical full moon have really missed something.
Thursday, 01-20-11
We brought a small amount of concrete and steel up ourselves today to get started. Everyone turned up with their time cards, and we put them to work finishing the pouring of the sump foundation and started pouring the canal base. Eric Johnson arrived mid morning and took over the concrete placing, which is a big relief. Mike and Davis started working on the drill, only to find out after some effort that the starter was fried! Mike admits that it was getting hard to start last year. Steve and I drove near enough to the DR border that we could get a good cell signal, and we spent a considerable time talking to parts guys at Ingersol Rand, and two Cummins parts places in the DR, as well as the dealer we purchased it from in Kentucky. We are getting a lot of conflicting stories, but they are all looking for another starter for us. The steel arrived and was dropped off at the edge of the main road. David took the dozer out and skidded it in.
Today was the first day we had the cook on duty. She cooks up a white rice over a fire in a very large schoudze (Dutch oven style pot), and in a separate pot makes a little broth with chicken bouillon, garlic, onions, peppers, etc, and pours just enough over each bowl of rice to give it a little color and flavor. Last year we all ate our lunch from her daily; this year with the cholera in the country we are reluctant to do so. She cooks with water straight from the river, and washes her dishes in the same.
The flow in the river is noticeably greater than last year. The water is reaching up to and even past the village of La Washe before it all sinks away. This is at least a mile farther than we have seen it before.
A couple of the guys helped me do some stream flow testing this afternoon, and we came up with 47 CFS! In August 2009 it was about 20 CFS, and last year after the quake I measured 35 CFS. This is going to make our diversion channel more difficult to dig and maintain, and is making the access road a challenge to keep open as well, but long term more water is going to be much better.
Friday, 01-21-11
The crew went up the canyon again, and I headed into PAP to do a little business and pick up the “next in”, Jerome Isaac from Crooked Creek, AB. Everything was uneventful, and we were headed home early afternoon. One of Jerome’s first tasks will be to build a security cage for the back of the truck, so we stopped at CSI to look at the one they build recently. While we were there, James told us the backhoe was available, so I drove slowly with flashers on and Jerome followed me back to HQ.
The guys came down about as we arrived with reports that still no sand has arrived, and we are a little perplexed what the deal is. Truckers are promising sand, but so far they have not come through. As of now, we are stopped with concrete pouring until we figure out what is happening.
This evening we hired a local restaurant to provide a supper of rice, roasted goat, black bean sauce, meat broth, pasta salad, and beets. Twa Bein.
Saturday, 01-22-11
Neil and Raymond made investigations yesterday eve about the sand problem. It seems that with all the rebuilding demand in PAP the local sand pits have been cleaned out of ready sand. All of the quarrying here is hand dug, and the resulting product hand shoveled onto trucks, and the demand is exceeding what the diggers can produce. We decided to take the backhoe to a local pit and dig our own. We did this, and we able to get about 24 yds up the hill and the truck loaded again for next week. We also got a truck of manufactured block to deliver. He powered out on the steep hill in, so we partially unloaded him, and then they shuttled him back and forth to finish. It took most of the day to get the block on site.
Since we had little work we could do, most of the crew hired a local brother with his taxi van to go sightseeing. They were gone most f the day, and reported that a good time was had by all. While we were waiting for the block guys, Jerome and I had a chance to do a little hiking in our canyon, and we went back much farther than I had been before. We saw some neat areas, including the Lastic Falls from above. Deep in the canyon I found what I believe to be a virgin mahogany log of about 32” in diameter X 28’ long. I’m trying to figure out a way to get that out to a furniture maker and have it turned into new front doors for my house!
We’ve got the house pretty much up to speed. The electrical equipment I had bought to automate the water system got left in my pickup at home, but it’s coming on “next in”. Our water system has been connected to several nearby houses, so we’re having trouble keeping our tank full. We haven’t wired in any water heating equipment either, but that needs to happen soon. We’ve got some problems with rats, and so far they are eating our bait without getting caught. Most rooms have a resident gecko, which helps with insect control, and they make a neat chirping type sound. Mine lives behind some shelves on the wall beside my bed. We’re also fighting tiny little sugar ants that stream up and down the walls and swarm everything that has any sweetness to it. All in all, we’ve got a pretty comfortable HQ here – we could have done much worse, and the Love & Peace Motel is just down the road, so anybody wants to visit, just drop in!
FP, Haiti
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