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Landed yesterday and was extremely tired from not having slept very much over the weekend before coming down.
Port-au-Prince was interesting, at least the areas that we saw on the way to HAC from the airport. As expected, the roads were very bad once we left the airport. Since there was a ton of traffic on the main roads, we took backroads through some of the neighborhoods.
Upon arriving at HAC, Laura gave us a quick tour and we met all the volunteers that are currently here as well as all the paid local and ex-pat staff.
The ladies that work here at HAC cooked an amazing dinner for us and afterwards Karim and I met with Laura and Sam to get an idea of what HAC does, who they are, what the goals are, how they differ from HAC USA, etc.
Tuesday began with the flag raising ceremony with the students and then a wonderful breakfast of porridge, fruit, and hard boiled egg sandwiches. Afterwards we had a Haitian Creole lesson and then spent a few hours walking around the surrounding areas looking at all the hand pumps. There are 6 hand pumps that provide water to several thousand people. None of the locals have running water in this area. Some travel to the hand pumps while others simply use the irrigation water that is flowing through the area. The issues with water arise during the rainy season when the human and animal waste contaminates the water table, thus spreading disease and causing illness.
HAC has a 2000 gallon tank of chlorinated water that it sells to locals for 3 goud for 5 gallons or 1 goud for 1 gallon. Unfortunately, most locals survive on between 1-2 goud per day. Buying water is a luxury many locals cannot afford. While here, I'll be speaking with some of the families of the students that attend school here at HAC to determine exactly what the situation is. This information will then provide HAC the data it needs to apply for grants and funding.
Karim and I started the survey this evening and will finalize it tomorrow. Many of the questions and spreadsheets that I used in India will be reused here in Haiti.
Port-au-Prince was interesting, at least the areas that we saw on the way to HAC from the airport. As expected, the roads were very bad once we left the airport. Since there was a ton of traffic on the main roads, we took backroads through some of the neighborhoods.
Upon arriving at HAC, Laura gave us a quick tour and we met all the volunteers that are currently here as well as all the paid local and ex-pat staff.
The ladies that work here at HAC cooked an amazing dinner for us and afterwards Karim and I met with Laura and Sam to get an idea of what HAC does, who they are, what the goals are, how they differ from HAC USA, etc.
Tuesday began with the flag raising ceremony with the students and then a wonderful breakfast of porridge, fruit, and hard boiled egg sandwiches. Afterwards we had a Haitian Creole lesson and then spent a few hours walking around the surrounding areas looking at all the hand pumps. There are 6 hand pumps that provide water to several thousand people. None of the locals have running water in this area. Some travel to the hand pumps while others simply use the irrigation water that is flowing through the area. The issues with water arise during the rainy season when the human and animal waste contaminates the water table, thus spreading disease and causing illness.
HAC has a 2000 gallon tank of chlorinated water that it sells to locals for 3 goud for 5 gallons or 1 goud for 1 gallon. Unfortunately, most locals survive on between 1-2 goud per day. Buying water is a luxury many locals cannot afford. While here, I'll be speaking with some of the families of the students that attend school here at HAC to determine exactly what the situation is. This information will then provide HAC the data it needs to apply for grants and funding.
Karim and I started the survey this evening and will finalize it tomorrow. Many of the questions and spreadsheets that I used in India will be reused here in Haiti.
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