The government is attempting to bring organization out of the chaos by appointing committees and bureaus but, so far, little progress is apparent. There are occasional outbursts of violence, often associated with elections. Overall, we have found the people are generally both friendly and helpful.
As an NGO (non-governmental organization), work in Haiti is frustrating. Transportation is a major problem for several reasons. The initial cost of a vehicle is about double the US price because of Haitian Customs. The cost of gasoline in Haiti is around $5.00 per gallon. To rent a vehicle with a driver costs about $200.00 per day. A driver is a necessity because of the bad roads traffic jams and motorcycles.

The Koinonia Foundation was asked to treat a cholera outbreak at the local school in Moliere. Using SAFI to kill the bacteria, we sprayed the area and washed down every surface the students might touch. At the end of the week there were no more cases of cholera being reported.
Weeks later, we returned to see the results of the SAFI treatment. Moliere is located in the mountains and we were given two choices of transportation to the village, horseback or motorcycles. We decided to choose the faster method – motorcycles. The trip was uncomfortable because the road was filled with stones and we splashed through streams.
The view, however, was spectacular looking across the valleys at the other mountains and down on the farmers and animals in distant fields. Haiti truly is a beautiful place once you get out of the chaos of the cities.

Incidentally, riding up a mountain on the back of a motorcycle is not recommended.

Not much has changed. The rubble from the earthquake is still around, but much has been moved to either dumps or empty lots. There is still a lot of trash and traffic is still clogged. It takes two hours to make the forty-minute drive from the airport to the Methodist Guest House. Much of the traffic consists of either construction type trucks or large SUVs that many of the NGOs (charities) seem to import.

I am becoming wary about traveling to Haiti. On the last trip, we visited the Moliere School where we had contained the cholera outbreak. We were given a choice of making the twenty kilometer trip by horseback (four hours each way) or on the back of a motorcycle (one hour each way). Sadly, I chose the motorcycle and it was a harsh ride. The road up the mountain was over rocks, through creek beds, over more rocks and more rocks. Walking and other muscle pain from the jolting lasted for a week.

This time an incident occurred after dinner as we walked back to the Guest House. It was pitch black and as we felt our way along, I slipped off the path and fell into a 4-foot deep hole, injuring my head and shoulder. Apparently, the hole had been dug for use as a cistern but was never covered. After another visitor also fell into the hole a few minutes later. It was covered with boards the next morning.

Otherwise, the visit was successful. We talked with a number of missionaries and showed Tom Braak how to use SAFI. One drop of the compound in a gallon of water will kill all the pathogens. However, it is not a filter. If the treated water is run through a cloth, it will filter out and lumps.

World Vision has taken on the responsibility of treating human waste for the government. There is an area in Port au Prince where waste has been dumped and left without treatment. We want to help because SAFI is perfect for this. It can be sprayed on the waste using an applicator, similar to a lawn sprayer, on a regular basis. SAFI is non-toxic and leaves no harmful residues. They seem interested and, hopefully, we can have the chance to demonstrate the product.

Busy day yesterday. We went up to visit the Moliere School, where we had treated the cholera outbreak. Moliere is an area of farmers of approximately 35,000 population, about twenty miles up in the mountains at an elevation of approximately one-half mile.

The problem was it was a four-hour trip both ways, which actually wasn’t the real problem. It was those last twenty miles. We drove to Petit Goave, which is on the coast. This took three hours. Then they said the last part was by motorcycle and would take about an hour.

Being macho, I said “no problem”.

Riding on the back on the passenger seat was the most god-awful hour I’ve spent in long time. Brought back the aphorism, ‘be careful what you pray for, you might get it’.

When the road wasn’t rocky, it was crossed by streams of water, so if my behind wasn’t being spanked, we were slipping around in the mud. The worst was when I realized we had to come back the same way.

The reason for us visiting the school is because we had been called by Jim Gulley, from UMCOR (The United Methodist Committee on Relief), about an outbreak of cholera in the Moliere area. The families of the children at the Methodist were affected and ten people had already died. They asked if we could help by using Clean Water Environmental’s (CWE) Safi to control the spread of disease. Bill Burmeister arrived two days later and held a training session with about twenty of the residents in Petit Goave (rain had made it too difficult to travel to Moliere). By this time there had been 700 cases of Cholera with 30 deaths.

We visited the school and talked with the principal. He explained the families of the students had each been give a bottle of Safi, along with education on washing hands and other safety measures. All the grounds, including the outdoor toilets, walls and desks of the inside of the school were sprayed with Safi. Once the Safi was being used, there were no further cases of cholera, at least among the school families.

Bill tolerated the adventure better but he is younger. The only part of me that doesn’t hurt are my fingers.

Dale

We just returned from a week in Kigali, Rwanda to visit the Beacon Program and talk with the various ministries about the water decontamination product created by Clean Water Environmental, Safi.

As I have probably mentioned before, Safi is an alterative treatment for Chlorine in creating clean drinking water. It has the advantages of being non-toxic, tasteless and odorless and remains in solution indefinitely.

The response from the government agencies was very positive. Since the clean water conference in South Africa earlier in the year, the emphasis in Rwanda is on clean water and waste treatment, both of which are areas where Safi excels.

Another happening was a man working outside the office asked if we could do anything to help his leg. Apparently a couple of years ago his left leg has been getting bigger. In examining him, he had a condition I had read about but never seen called elephantiasis.

Elephantiasis is caused by filarial parasites that are transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. We started the man on treatment, which is simple, two drugs given once a year for six plus years.

Rwanda.

Arrived in Kigali to visit the Beacon Program last Thursday. 80 ladies have now finished the business training of the Foundation and are working together in three cooperatives of 10-20 women.  The last group of ten has not received their free K-Lights as of yet.  The shipment from the US is too late in arriving. We were “promised” that the container would leave the port of Mobassa yesterday.  If so, it will be here in a week.

The original group has already opened a store where they sell not only the solar lanterns, but also other items, like clothing and food.  Two women, Jackie & Teresa, have branched off into a dress making operation.  Apparently they are already breaking even financially. The ladies, with help from Trayce and Ali, have already put together a catalog of their fashions for customers to browse. They were tickled to get some of the donated smocks from the Spectrum volunteers and are going to remodel them into dresses, etc.  The remaining smocks were given to the Beacon store to sell.

Bill Burmeister arrived on Tuesday.  He just returned from Haiti. The Foundation got a call from the Haiti Methodist Church a week ago that the school in Moliere with 270 students was experiencing a Cholera outbreak. So far 10 people had died.  They asked if we would come and use the Safi to stop the spread of disease.  Since the samples of Safi that the First United Methodist Church of Grand Rapids had donated were already in Haiti along with sprayers, it was impossible not to help.  Moliere is remote, located in the mountains and difficult to reach, especially during this rainy season. Bill met the people at the foot of the mountains with supplies and trained the personnel in using Safi for both safe drinking water and the spraying of waste.

Dale

Traveling from one location to another in Port-au-Prince is difficult because of the traffic jams. There are too many vehicles trying to move on the roads that are in poor shape. Many have spots that are washed out or partially blocked by piles of rubble. Driving rules are nonexistent and it is not uncommon for someone to park a truck blocking a lane, slowing traffic even more. The amazing part is the patience of the Haitian drivers. We were held up on one junction for an hour but no one seemed to get upset (except us).

The UMCOR conferences (construction, water and medical) are over and were informative. Safi has gathered a surprising interest from the NGOs and government agencies attending. This interest caught us by surprise and we would have liked to stay longer. Bill will have to go back in a couple of weeks to talk with people who are interested. One group is the local Methodist Church women who would like to sell the product as a money raiser.

Already Safi is going to become used by the hundreds of health care workers who teach health and cleaniness for Global Health Action and IMA World Health organizations. Also a local mayor has asked us to set up our Cholera field test in his village.

All this new activity will enable us to set up our mixing operation in Haiti. This will save shipping costs, since sending anything out of customs in Haiti is both time consuming and expensive. This is exciting for the Foundation! With this operation we can also work out the problems involved in setting up programs elsewhere. The international organizations are encouraging us to move into areas of Asia and Africa where they work and 80% of the population lacks access to clean drinking water.

We have met a number of enterprising and interesting individuals at the conference on health who have worked and lived overseas for many years. They were both encouraging and a great help in assisting us develop a business plan for Haiti. One of the most helpful, Jim Gulley, is a hero. He is the UMCOR coordinator and has been in field for over 30 years. Very knowledgeable, he introduced us to NGOs who work in providing clean water.

A victim of the earthquake, he was at the Montana Hotel, standing next to the UMCOR Director, Sam Dixon, when hotel collapsed. Jim was trapped in the rubble for 55 hours before he was rescued.

Dale

The Beacon Program is progressing rapidly with the original group of 10 women being enlarged to 20.  We are ready now to move from a pilot project to one encompassing all of the eastern providence of Rwanda.  The original group has elected officers, opened a bank account, appointed an audit committee and opened a small store.  They have sold their original gift K-Lights and have begun ordering new units.  They are helping with establishment and education of the new groups of women.

1. Sensitization and mobilization of women in Nyarugenge was done the last week of June 09

2. The First meeting with the 10 selected women was held on 06.07.09. One man among local authorities I talked to participated in the meeting. All agreed to be part of the program and form a cooperative for the Beacon program.

3. The initial one day training workshop is planned for 15.07.09. URUMURI Company and a micro finance company will present their programs in relation to the Beacon program and how they will work with the women.

4. After the workshop an initial grant solar-powered lanterns will start

5. I will monitor the progress and advise women as requested

6. The Second meeting to evaluate the progress is planned for 25.07.09

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We soon hope to have several hundred women enrolled.

Dale

The last couple of days, of course, are the busiest, trying to finish all the details that had been put off for two weeks.We met with the Education Minister, who is quite enthusiastic about the K-Light, especially now that we have a cell phone charger that works off the light. It means that people living or teaching in areas lacking electricity now have the ability to communicate. Also, the health department will be issuing the package of K-Light, charger and cell phone to its health workers. This allows them to send in health data on a daily basis and will enable the department to start gathering statistics and plan better distribution of medical care.

The Foundation did a major overhaul of its Beacon Program. We had several non-governmental organizations that wanted to do the program last year. The problem is that they wanted to control the funds – paying the women that they decided. Koinonia has several non-negotiable conditions and one is that the women handle their own funds. This visit we formed our own cooperative and hired our own full-time employee, Beata. She will organize the women into working groups of 7-10. Each woman is given 6 free K-Lights, which she can sell and then come back to the Rwandan company, Murika, and purchase more at a discount.

On the last day, the Methodist Church presented me with a beaded staff for moral leadership, etc. I also bought a hat made entirely of wood that I can use here for golf.

Got a permanent visa and opened a bank account for PiSAT. Each took several visits. We met with the Minister of Education this AM. He is quite enthusiastic about the K-Light. We are also revamping the Beacon Program and hired a permanent representative, Beata, who will be setting up our own cooperative and enlisting women in business.

We received the sample cell phone chargers yesterday. They work and make the K-Light much more attractive to the Education Department and telephone company.

Am beginning to think about the trip home.