June, 2008

Dear Friends and Supporters of Clean Water for Haiti:

Usually it feels like Chris and I have just written when it comes time to do a new update letter, but this last month was so busy that I feel like it’s been a long time since we've been in contact.

Otto arrived on May 7th and the entire time he was here was filled with work on the dorm building. Many days our staff worked overtime. They also worked several Saturdays. As usual, anything scheduled in Haiti never seems to happen on time, so the actual ceiling/floor pour date kept getting pushed back. Otto was supposed to leave on May 27th, but he kindly extended his stay here by three days so he could be here for the big pour, and now that it’s all done we’re so very thankful that he did.

 Luxon and Michel putting some of  the form work up.

That was a day that we do not want to do again. For those of you that might not know, all buildings here in Haiti are made out of blocks and cement. No wood. I now appreciate how they build houses back in North America much more. It really is a much more flexible system. In Haiti, they also don't have really high standards for building things and sort of make due with what they have in regards to finances. The result is often that buildings are built with blocks that crumble when hit, and very little rebar. Clean Water for Haiti now owns what is probably the strongest building in all of Haiti. If you think I'm joking the following picture is of a wad of Haitian Gourdes, the currency here, that Chris needed to buy rebar one day.

 Over $1000 US! And yes, the money here is always that dirty.

I lost count of how many times Chris went out to buy steel and how many days our workers spent cutting and bending it to the right sizes and shapes. Otto wanted to see us with a quality building that would stand the test of time and I think he accomplished his goal.

 Looking down on “the pit”. The guy responsible for filling the buckets had the worst job of anyone.

 The “Bucket Brigade”.

On pour day we had an extra twenty or so men here from the community to help out. It’s a very labor intensive process. The day was very stressful for Chris and I and by the time it was over I think we were both ready to hide away and not talk to anyone. We had to hire several new staff members over the last few weeks, and then another extra twenty or so on the big day. Our workers ended up being disgruntled about a few things and the following day Chris and I needed to take some disciplinary action. If you want more details you can visit the blog (http://rollingsinhaiti.blogspot.com) to read about it. It was disappointing for Chris and I, but something we anticipated. If you live here long enough you start to learn how people function and the cycles they go through. I really feel like God walked us through it and gave us wisdom for the decisions that we made. We believe that part of what we do here is to teach our staff what it means to have a job. With that comes teaching them about accountability, following direction and conducting yourself in an honest, ethical way. The same standards would be true in North America and we don't believe we’re doing anyone any favors by having lesser expectations. The mission would suffer and in turn the people we are trying to help suffer.

Now that the ceiling is done I feel like we've climbed to the top of a mountain and are coming down the other side. It really was a lot of work to get to that one specific goal. Now we get to work on the finishing of the first floor. We want to host classes sometime in the next two months and our new volunteer needs a place to live, so we’re trying to press forward, but it’s much less stressful than the last two months have been.

This week, some of the staff that needed to be disciplined are staying home and we only have about 6 people here. Personally, I like it. After having so many extra hands around for several weeks and not really feeling like we had a full grasp of what was going on the calm feels good. We needed to take a step back and re-group a bit. An orphanage up the road from us has several foreigners there for the summer and four of the guys asked if they could come give us a hand with things for a couple days this week.  They worked really hard and were able to help our staff get all the support jacks down and returned to the rental store and helped fix our septic system. Yes, true to life in Haiti, when life seems crazy enough something else always seems to happen and last week it was the sewer bubbling up. Chris and I have felt really blessed by their willingness to come and give us a hand with a bunch of the grunt work, and our employees were impressed with how hard they worked.

Our new volunteer, Matt Ruple, arrives today. By the time you get this he'll already be settling into life here. Chris and I are excited about his arrival. It’s been a long time since we've had other volunteers here, so we know there will be some adjustments, especially in the first little while because we'll all be living in the house together until Matt can move to the dorms. Despite all that we’re excited about what Matt will be bringing to our team here. Please be praying for all of us over the next little while as we transition to this new phase at the mission.

This year has been a year where Chris and I can really see how God is blessing the work we’re doing here. Not that he hasn't been in the past, it just seems much more obvious and abundant. Kind of overwhelming too. I know we've shared in years past about the financial difficulties that the mission has gone through. The past 6-8 months have been quite the opposite. Not only have we had the finances available to run our filter program, it has grown to the point where we’re doing almost double the amount of filters we were doing regularly last year. On top of that we have the finances to buy a new mission van (arriving in August!) and to do the building project. I'll be honest. Yesterday I was doing the accounting and I kind of lost my breath when I found out how much we had spent on the building in the last month. We are over budget on the first phase of it, but a portion of it is for supplies that will be used to do the form work on the next level, so I could swallow that. I started stressing out a bit, only to find out later in the afternoon that Clean Water for Haiti had been awarded a $5000 grant, and that we received another big donation of $5000, on top of our regular monthly support. It always amazes me how God provides, often very specifically, before you ever know there is a need.

Chris and I feel really privileged to be part of God’s plan on the ground here in Haiti, and he uses all of you to make this work possible. I think it’s easy for us to put our heads down and not reflect often enough on just how far the mission has come in the last few years. When I first arrived in October 2005 we were only installing handfuls of filters each month. Now we’re installing over 100 per month regularly. We have provided several trainings each year for other projects and currently have about 9 organizations on a wait list, just itching to get going. The new building will provide a very usable space for visitors and training students, as well as much needing living quarters for staff. We have been able to upgrade necessary equipment such as welders and concrete shakers to help us work more efficiently. We will be installing a solar system that will in turn help us save thousands of dollars each year.  We have three working vehicles that serve us well, and another on the way that will be incredibly valuable to us. All of these things work together to help us reach the people of Haiti with the gift of clean water. Each month we are saving lives and it is because of your prayers, encouragement and generous financial support. Thank you for being a part of so many life stories here.

I know that many of you are starting to move outside with the warmer weather and that things will be shifting gears a bit as summer settles in. I think we'll be trying to do the same and are going to attempt to get away for a couple of weekends as a family. My aunt is coming in July for a visit which we’re excited about, and we'll try to host a couple of classes over the summer, but other than that we'll just be plugging away and gearing up for fall. Come September things will be in full swing until December. We have three groups scheduled to visit and we want to do more classes, on top of finishing up the building and doing our regular filter work. We’re going to be busy, busy, busy!

On behalf of everyone at Clean Water for Haiti,

Chris & Leslie Rolling

Executive Directors