Thursday, January 19, 2012

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012

Construction on the new high school being built at the St. Barthelemy school compound.


The main road in Terrier Rouge.
Water pollution, and trash in general. is a big problem...
Nat Geo's John Connolly...


The Tedeschi men...
Note the inscriptions, the artwork and the aluminum roof...
Last year the Rotary group visited Petit Bourg De Danda which is located about 15 miles up in the hills above Terrier Rouge.  The village's well was broken so Tony Tedeschi and Stan Parkes put the word out on Facebook and quickly raised the $2,000 needed for a new well.  I didn't give it much thought at the time, but after our visit I was damn proud of the Petty family's contribution having seen how important that well is and having seen how much the residents appreciate what was done for their community.  So on Wednesday, we headed off to visit "Danda," and the road was a little wet in a few places.
And eventually we got stuck...all in all, somewhere between four to six times depending on your official definition of "stuck."  Each time, some Haitians appeared literally out of nowhere (because that is where we were in the middle of)  to help get us unstuck.


I did not get a better photo of this, but this woman was digging the mud out from under the tire with her hand. The Haitians do not lack determination.
It literally took a village to get the truck unstuck...
John does the two-step into a rut to avoid a fall...Note the truck is going backward, so we still have to find a way through this bog.




This time John goes down...Note the truck is STILL going backward.
Who you callin' muddy?
Stan and John celebrate their muddiness...




As we got closer to Danda, the people were happy to see us...
Most of them...who knows what was on this child's mind or what hardships she had endured...


Since Danda is at the top of the hill, once we got going we had to keep going, leaving our army of pushers to hike up.  Note the fishtailing tire tracks.




Carrie, a Danda woman, Tony, Pere Bruno, Jim and Stan.  Tony, Jim and Stan all Rotary members.


Kevin takes a well deserved break.
Matt and Renard made a video diary of  the trip. John was their cameraman.
This woman insisted that John wash the mud off. He tried to politely decline, but she wouldn't take no for an answer.
A well-earned thank you hug.
Kentucky Derby 132 -- 2006, the ill-fated Barbaro.
Mom and the kids heading home from a big day of pigging around.
Last year, these two were examined in the dark by a physician who was in the group. He used an iPhone as a flashlight as there is no power in Danda.  These two needed further treatment at the clinic and were delivered there by motorcycle the next day. The clean water from the new well is part of their current good health.


The Rotarian well-builders Tony and Stan.
Danda also has a school...
Hand made desks...
Note the Christmas greeting in English...
Asiaha and Carrie with some local school children at the broken well on the school grounds. Before we left the Rotary well fund had provided the money for it's repair.








Culture clash:  The ever-present cargo on the head of a young Haitian woman and Kevin carrying a satellite phone.  The phone came into play after the Warrenton Presbyterian group got stranded without any communication after the 2010 earthquake. Now, the sat phone only goes to the most remote locations although cell phone signal in Danda was quite strong...




These trees make riding in the back of an open truck interesting. When someone yells duck...you duck, no questions asked.
The road back down looked fine...
This was my favorite tee shirt of the day...didn't get a very good shot of it: Punk Rock Girl.




Note the number on this house...I believe this is the village of Garrot.
Cell phone tower...
Americans in the back of a truck watching a cow cross the road under power lines that don't have any power...


Back at school...
Asiaha and John work on the new garden's border...
Big giant grubs...
They're not just for breakfast any more...
The garden crew getting after it.


Tony and Richard who runs the clinic...
Pere Bruno's stash of food for the Thursday food drop...rice, beans, pasta, oil and salted fish.
Pere Bruno tells how to prepare each care package.
Lulu lends a hand.
Pasta.
Edward and Richard both had a very fast and efficient way of closing up the finished bag...I watched them very carefully, but couldn't duplicate their technique.
An assembly line.
Lulu helps clean up.
Carrie, Lulu and Kevin.

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