2Mar11

2Mar11

So I’m back to my thinking spot.
I’m at the beach in Grand Goave.
I drove up here today en route to Les Cayes, but chose to stay the night rather than drive the whole way to Cayes at once.
It was a good choice. The food was great (as always), it was good to see the Edme’s, and I got to meet a bunch of new people, including a medical team from NC, a dominican missionary, a british electrician, and some of the team from Blue Ridge well drilling.

Lately the work has been going well in Jacmel. Tim and I got to venture up to PAP two days ago to pick up stuff at the hardware store, and then when we got back to Jacmel, a team came in from Washington State. These guys have been a great help as well. Their team included a contractor, a civil engineer (with plumbing and electrical experience), an electrician, and a bunch of people all willing to work hard. So, I gave them copies of our work list, and it is getting taken care of much faster than I could have hoped for with just Tim and I working on it.

This was very helpful considering how many projects we have been working on simultaneously.
Completed jobs:
-re-wired their primary electrical service, upgrading their main panel box, transfer switch, and 5 sub-panels.
-installed 4 ground rods.
-ran new primary power lines to each of the houses that did not receive main power before.
-installed 1 new inverter, and relocated 2 inverters we already had.
-setup each building with 1 panel for inverter/grid power only, and at least 2 subpanels per house running off the inverter.
-removed 3 old breaker boxes that were not in good condition
-welded together a battery rack (yeah, i did it. no, it’s not great, but it’s functional. I’ll take that for my first welding project of my life. 🙂

Tasks left to complete:
-install 2 new industrial washers and driers (so, running 240VAC power, plus installing a pressure tank and water pump to feed them) [i had to call brian weaver, a plumber, from the hardware store to figure out what all i needed. :)]
-install a 240VAC subpanel in the garage to run the welder
-install security lights in the driveway
-fix a broken toilet
-wire in a new transfer switch for the generator
-weld another battery rack or three
-build battery cables cause i couldn’t find any in the right sizes
-and many more projects that i don’t remember.

Plus, I am out of Jacmel for tonight, all day tomorrow, and most of Friday so I can go to a meeting with Dr. Jay in Les Cayes. This meeting is pretty exciting cause it’s a bunch of politicians and businessman from the U.S. and Haiti discussing the idea of opening up Les Cayes Airport for international cargo. This would go a long way in helping establish viable businesses in the Les Cayes area.

It’s ok that I’m leaving though. Tim is getting in the swing of things down in Jacmel. Today I sent him to the hardware store with a translator, and he didn’t hesitate at all, so he’s getting used to life down here.

As for the contacts I met here, it’s been awesome. The brit works with large generator stations for music events, including glastonberry, which is one of the largest festivals in Europe, if not the world. The missionary to the D.R. also may need some solar assistance, so that would be a sweet contact too.
The well drilling team is the ones that drilled the new well for Hands and Feet in Grand Goave, that has come up mostly dry. I was happy to talk to him and get more information on what is actually available up there as well. I am sure I will talk to Bob about that soon.
Plus, the medical team from North Carolina is cool, and one of their team pastored a church in Franklin, NC for 2 years back before I lived there. So, no real connection, but cool to share that common background from such a small town.

As an update on the car situation. I did not get the truck from KY, the bright yellow one. I still like it, but it sold before my new friends could get home from Haiti and check it out for me.
God will provide though, right when I need it.
Keep your eyes open please, cause I still would really like to have a car, but I am surviving.

Also, and I realized I’m jumping around here, it’s just been too long since my last post, the engineer that is in Jacmel right now has told me about some sweet new toys for me to get. They will be very helpful for the work I am doing.
First, is a metering device that will log power usage in a facility and give me detailed feedback.
Second, is a device that will prioritize which circuit breakers are allowed on at a given time to maintain a certain load limit on the system overall. This also includes a way to cycle units to make sure my A/C’s, freezer, fridge and other devices do not all kick on their compressors at the same time and do bad things to my inverters.

So that’s my best update for now. I hope you can follow all of it.
In personal thoughts, life is good. I am enjoying being down here, and it looks like I will be here well into April. Dr Jay will be bringing down a team, as will Kim and the Univeristy of Akron group. So, those will be sweet.
In sad news, that means I will miss the Ember Days playing at Crucified, but I just can’t shift my schedule around to make that happen right now.

Wish List:
-rullo’s new video “missionary frat house” on DVD, preferably in .avi format or something that is easy to play from an external hard drive or transfer to other computers. 🙂
-a car 😛