SOLAR POWERED WATER PUMPS EXPLAINED, PART 1

In this too-raw footage which took forever to up load to You Tube, Eric Sabelman of Palo Alto Friends Meeting and board member of If Pigs Could Fly - Haiti, patiently describes to us lay folk the intricacies of pumps and panels here in Part 1.  Part 2 will demonstrate the building of the tower, with fittings and hooks and sinkers.  This information will be translated orally during my summer sojourn June-July, as this video is shared with our colleagues and Gwoupman (GEZ) of Zoranje zone.  An instruction booklet, in Kreyol and English and French, will accompany all the apparatus when the fine-tuning and trouble-shooting is complete.

Bos Eric's target date is September.  If you would like to lend a hand, either on the ground with us and/or with a donation or assist with a back-translation of the instruction booklet, please Join the Cause, here  http://www.causes.com/causes/529435

Donations may also be made on the "If Pigs" website, www.ifpigscouldflyhaiti.org or by mail, even!  Mesi anpil!

HAITI ENVIRONMENT ISSUES? VIEW FROM THE TOP

So, tell me about it.  This needs a better camera and a better videographer, but you can get an idea of the terrain despite the jerkiness of the FLIP camera and, uh, the jerkiness of the beholder! Spectacular vistas, yet the vast erosion and patchy grasses and jagged path underscore that challenges to survival in this harsh, remote mountain zone of southeastern Haiti. We are maybe 4,000 or 4,500 feet max, give or take.  I'll take it!  You?

FLIMSY TENTS? WE'D LOVE ONE!

 Last week, there was a post on FB about how hurricanes will threaten (again) folks living in tents in the city.  Well.  Let me share with you: folks up here in the mountains would LOVE to have a tent - heck, even a tarp or two.  In a hurricane, we batten down the hatches (literally), pull out what's under any beds and put it on top of the beds and grab all the kivets and bokits within reach, to get ready to bail.  And then we sit and wait it out.  Me?  I'm lucky - I'm the one with candles, maybe even a tiny kerosene lamp made from a tin can.  Folks huddle at my place if they get caught in the storm.  Cosy? You bet.  Talk much?  Well, not after a coupla hours...

Now, this is the house of Mesye Sinelon, se pwopyete kay mwen li ye.  He put a new roof on and these are the new boards and doors, all prior to painting.  That's the cook house lean-to on the right.  It's pretty snug even during a hurricane, now that the roof ain't got a hole in it and I won't drown...