Valve Replacement

Bas Cange, Haiti

The dense oppressive humid tropical air spawned by Hurricane Paloma has dissipated and late last evening we were blessed with much drier air that actually was moving. Breezes make such a grand difference!

During the night a heavy truck arrived in the compound with the four newly fabricated 700-pound valves needed for the new dam penstocks. These penstocks (short large bore pipes) are like the coronary arteries that give life to the heart. These penstocks and their valves will bring life-giving water to the new pump house and hydraulic turbines working without electricity will carry it up to four storage tanks above the town. Water will then be available at community fountains for 12,000 residents. I’m told those valves had to be hauled across the river by canoe.

As I write, a crew is hauling those 700 pound valves down the 1,500 stairs to the dam site on the valley floor. Those five men will have climbed 12,000 steps, half of them while carrying a 140 pound share of the load. We feel like our mission here has been highly successful with getting the valves made and hauled to the dam site. If a valve can be successfully installed today under the supervision of our engineers, then the other three can be put in during the next several weeks under the supervision of a local engineer.

I managed to avoid doing heavy lifting and was instead hunched over my monitors and computers at 6 AM to record yet another one of the many singing groups here in Cange. It still amazes me that twelve teenage singers and six musicians would be enthusiastic about coming to sing for two hours at 6 AM. I have a break for eight hours and will then record another women’s group. A Haitian fellow just stopped by where I am working and brought me group rosters, music listings with composers and arrangers, and digital files of the groups in their performance garb. How splendid!!

Several of us are doing photo work during the day. A group of pooled our images yesterday and had our resident computer genius enhance them overnight with image processing software. We all look like Ansell Adams now. As we write, our photo directories are uploading by satellite dish to a public access web site. Technology can be grand.

Tonight we party!! The big town party was moved from last night until tonight. We enjoyed a quiet time last evening on a nearby patio with one’s beverage of choice and good company. The moon was quite fine in a clear dry tropical sky.