From across the US & Canada our folks are starting to stream back to Haiti. Sam has been working there all summer, Jerome, Morgan, and Jalen arrived within the last week or so, and have been at work setting up the compound, and generally getting ready for this year’s work. The AC has been fixed on the DMax, new tires are ordered, the (new to us) quad has been rebuilt, and we’re mostly ready to go (more on that later).
In case there are those of you who haven’t been informed, water was turned into the project in February 2012. The system mostly worked during the year, with some startup pains, until the double blow of Hurricane Isaac & Hurricane Sandy that took us out of commission. Our task is to repair this damage, and strengthen for future threats.
We have rented the same house in Fond Parisien that we’ve had the last several years. This will be our first year without Raymond formally involved, although he was not on site last year because of his surgery. This year he plans to be off west building a bridge, and of course we wish him the very best at that. Quite a few volunteers from previous years will be there, and we’ll be welcoming new folks as well.
After initial setup, our first task will be to further assess the dam VS bedrock situation. A large amount of backfill prom previous years has washed away, and this gives us the chance to anchor all or most of the dam down to bedrock. With the help of the excavator, we’ll be probing to see how far we have to go. We anticipate about 175 yards of concrete will be poured to accomplish this, with about 5 tons of steel to be placed and tied. While this is going on, a second team will be repairing the limited damage to the canal, and we will also be revamping our gate/control layout to streamline that part of it.
A lot of time was spent during the summer and fall mapping and drafting the distribution area, and that project is complete. A total of 1419 gardens are being supplied with water, and each one has been mapped, drafted, calculated, and a “Sètifika Dlo” (water certificate) prepared. Each garden is cross referenced to our field notes, the district it resides in, and the map sheet & grid on which it is currently shown. As we continue to establish the local Water Committee and the operating budget, each landowner will receive his formal certificate as he pays his annual dues for water. In 2013 the fee will be about $35 USD per acre, or about $14 for the average size garden. It is our goal to have this completely set up and organized by the time water flows again, which we hope will be happening by the end of February.
Since we don’t have Raymond working with us this year, we also don’t have his tools and equipment. Last fall we made up an exhaustive list of what we needed to acquire for this year, as well as adding the routine consumables. This was all assembled in Pennsylvania near to CAM’s HQ, carefully packed into a container together with some items for Raymond and Keith Toews, and delivered to CAM. Due to circumstances seemingly beyond our control, they have delayed shipment several times, and it’s still sitting in their yard! Since it takes about 4 weeks to make the transit and clear customs, we will likely be half done by the time it arrives. We’re starting to take some alternate measures, but not everything has been resolved at this time. The current promise is to ship in two days (Wednesday), so we’ll see what happens.
Right now our funding is about 75% of our budget, so we’ve come a long ways, and our goal is almost in sight. As long as ya’ll keep supporting us in prayer, and with volunteers and funds, we’ll keep working.
Kevin Bronson
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