Day 6--Life-giving water

8:05 pm

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Today was our last full day in Haiti. I went with "Cowboy" to work on the installation of a water system at the Haiti Christian Orphanage. We checked on two others that he's recently installed. We had several other things planned for today too, but everything in Haiti takes longer than you expect--everything. Life moves differently here. As those who serve here, we must adopt that rhythm too. We cannot expect them to do things our way, we learn to do things their way while serving them.

Installing the water systems required us to drive all over town. Driving here is interesting. There are very few traffic control devices, no lines on the road, etc. The rules are the road seem to be 1) Blow the horn, 2) GO!

The streets are crowded with UN trucks, animals, tap-tap's (small trucks used as taxis), motorcycles

, and people selling all nature of things.

The water systems used are fascinating. The key is sustainability of parts and maintenance. Cowboy trained Haitian leaders in the community to install and maintain the systems. Then he connected them to one another as a network of resources. The system use just two tablespoons of salt and can chlorinate thousands of gallons of water. Current from a car battery separates the sodium and chlorine from the salt. The chlorine gas is infused in the water and in just an hour or so, the water is ready to drink.

In the clinics we saw children dying because of a lack of clean water. We can give them these medicines for a 10 days, but the illness will be back when they drink the only water they have. It was encouraging to install the water systems. However, the great need for water for thousands and thousands more lingers over me. I pray that I can be a part of such a project again.