In April of 2011 I went to Haiti to work on some projects at the mission station in Borel. We also tried to find suitable, affordable, plastic pipe to use for a water line at Targette. We found no supplier, so I contacted Oil Creek Plastics, Inc. in Titusville, PA. They were very helpful and sold us, at a generous discount, eleven 400ft coils of ¾” heavy duty plastic waterline, approved for potable water. I also purchased a 45 watt solar panel, a 50 amp-hr deep discharge sealed lead-acid battery, a charger to interface between the panel and charger, a 750 watt inverter, a keyboard, mixer-amplifier-speaker all-in-one unit, a microphone, and assorted cables, cords, etc. for a sound system for the church.
On June 21, 2011 Dennis Bruner, Randy Pritts, and I took Dennis’ truck and trailer with the solar and sound equipment and fittings for the waterline to Titusville to pick up the waterline. We then took all of the materials to Rays of Hope for Haiti in Grand Rapids, MI. to include in a freight container of materials from other organizations. The container left in July and arrived in Haiti in August. There was some difficulty with someone’s paperwork which delayed the shipment moving through customs. The shipment was finally cleared for pickup in late November.
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| Village of Targette in the distance |
Our team of Dennis Bruner, Randy Pritts, Stacy Dix, and me left for Haiti on February 10, 2012. On Monday February 13 we headed up the mountain to Targette with Ken McIntyre (a CGGC missionary in Haiti), Watson Joseph, Jonathan, Cleveland. The waterline had already been sent ahead of us, but we took the solar and sound equipment with us. I wanted to test it to be sure it had arrived in good order before we took it up. The weather was not as hot as November 2011, so the trip was a little easier.
When we arrived, the church deacon told us that we should run the waterline from a different spring than what we had been planning. It was about dried up. Unfortunately, the other spring was about 400 feet lower in elevation which meant it was on the same level as the church where we had planned to terminate the line—and there was a large hill in between. The church is at the higher end of the village, so we located a spot that was 50 feet below the elevation of the spring at the lower end of the village.
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| Spring |
The next day we ran the waterline from the spring to the location in the village. From the spring we got the line out of the stream bed as quickly as possible. The villagers told us that during a heavy rain (or a hurricane) the water runs high and fast. Further down we crossed the stream with the line overhead. There was a perfect spot to do that, which kept the line high enough not to be destroyed by heavy flow of water. The Lord provides even when we do not have a clue. By the afternoon, water was flowing into the village. The people were very excited and thankful. Because we only needed 2000 ft of line to get to the village from this spring, there was line left over. So at the suggestion of the deacon, on Wednesday we extended the line further into the village, at the same elevation. There was still line left, so the villagers where going to add a third spigot further into the village at a lower elevation.
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| Waterline over the stream |
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| Waterline along a pathway |
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| Spigot in the village |
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| Pathway from spring to village. Villagers carried 5 gallon buckets on their heads from the spring to the village up this path |
View video of the first bucket of water.
View video of a young girl carrying water.
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| Installing solar panel on the roof of the church |
On Wednesday we also installed the solar panel on the roof of the church. We had unpacked the equipment on Monday afternoon and set it up. Since the battery was nearly fully charged, we had a good time playing music and singing praise songs. One morning several of the villagers came into the church, where we slept, and sang songs and had prayers of praise and thanksgiving to God for having sent us to bring water into their village and to provide the sound equipment.
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| Setting up sound system in the church |
Our next trip will entail checking out the waterline and sound equipment, to show them how to grow vegetable plants in plastic grocery bags, and to make plans for a larger irrigation project using a solar powered water pump to bring water from the stream to areas around the village.
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| Transplanted tomato plants in plastic grocery bags |
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| Poking drain hoes several inches from the bottom of the bag so that there is a reservoir for water in the bottom of the bag. This also conserves water. |
