Well Care

Before I go forward, I want to apologize for not having pictures recently. I have tried to put pictures on in the past few posts but the internet connection is so terrible that I can't upload them without the site crashing and getting kicked off permanently. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. 

For the past few days I’ve been working side by side some of the members of the Friends of Haiti fixing a wells all over La Croix. We went to Bocon Tony, Perisse, and around the mission. The entire experience was a wonderful demonstration of community development. (the idea of community development is something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently and will be writing more on)  

Pastor Pierre has worked with various contractors and NGOs to dig wells all around La Croix. Digging a well is a long and intensive process; first there have to be diagnostic tests done to confirm a continuous flow of water below the ground, then Pastor Pierre has to get a rig to come and dig the well. The rigs that are capable of digging 50 feet in the ground are huge machines (there’s one pictured below), and require specific trucks to transport them. In some cases, the roads to the wells have to be repaved (or paved for the first time) so that the drill rig can get to the well. Putting in a well is pretty expensive, but it’s a great resource for the community. The alternative source of water if a well is not present is the rivers. The volume of water the rivers carry varies depending on the season, and carries any pollution dumped up stream. 

Pastor Pierre understands the value of these wells, so he tries to put in as many as he can. Every time Pastor Pierre puts in a well he generally gets the initial payment from donations, but also requires a small fee from the surrounding communities who will benefit from the well. This money is intended to go to the well maintenance, but it’s primary purpose is to give the community a sense of ownership of the well. This way the surrounding community is more likely to take care of the well and keep it in good condition. Pastor Pierre even assigns one member of the community as a person who looks after the well, and gives him a lock and key so that he can keep the well will only be used at certain times.

One of the villages near by, Bocon Tony, had a well put in a few years ago. The well in Bocon Tony was not working to its fullest potential, so Dave Errit and Mark Gilbert, two Americans who came down with the friends of Haiti team, went to take a look at the wells. Mark is a builder and does a lot of work with wells in Vermont, and Dave has been heavily invested in the well maintenance in La Croix for quite some time. After looking at the well for a few minutes, Dave and Mark saw that the chain inside of the pump had limited mobility and needed to be greased. Dave went back, got the needed oil and grease, and took care of the well. When Dave and Mark first got to the well to diagnose the problem, they brought Tirese with them (pictured below). Tirese is a groundskeeper here at the mission, maintaining everything from the water to the electricity, and he one of the handiest men I know. Every I had trouble with the pump or the power he was the first guy I saw. After Dave showed Tirese what needed to be done and fixed the well, he got Edvens and had him tell the community how to properly use the well so that the grease on it would last longer (if people perform short choppy pumps on the well, the grease will not last as long as if people pump fully). I felt a little uneasy about the whole thing, I wasn’t sure if the community was really understanding what was going on, but right after Edvens finished explaining the Well Maintenance, one of the men in the community prayed over us, thanking us for our help. What we did seemed simple but it made a huge difference to the people who used that well.

This didn’t take long, we were back in time for lunch at 12:30. It didn’t feel like much of an accomplishment, but as I thought about it more I realized that it was a perfect demonstration of successful community development. Pastor Pierre has had a well in Bocon Tony for quite some time, and it is used almost on a regular basis. The community was invested in its best use, and when they noticed a problem they told Pastor Pierre who sent Dave to fix it. Dave then taught Tirese  a permanent resident of La Croix, what he did and how to care for the well in the future. The maintenance was pretty simple, but Tirese wouldn’t know to grease the chain unless Dave showed him. Lastly, we gave the community a small guiding lesson to keep the well running at its fullest potential.

There are many different ways Pastor Pierre could take care of these wells. He could hire a company to always come through, he could just drill them and leave them, or he could try to empower the community to take care of them. Giving the well responsibility as well as the well itself to the community involves a lot of work on his part, but it’s the only solution that holds any potential for real change. Mark and I spent the rest of the week checking out the wells that the mission maintains, greasing the ones that were not doing so well, and checking the water for bad bacteria. We also took Tirese with us, and he got the hang of what needed to be done to keep the wells up and running. Now all we can do is hope that the next problem a well in La Croix has, it will be Tirese going out to fix it rather than us. All we can do now is continue to make sure Pastor Pierre has all of the administrative resources he needs (mainly money to employ people like Tirese . This type of community development is very difficult, but if it works the whole community not only gains another resource, but pushes itself forward.