Ravines

Hello Folks,

My pen has fallen silent.  That's not because I haven't had any "experiences".  I have had many of them - daily even.  However, I've lacked one vital ingredient (well actually two) to write about them. 
One is time - been running like crazy at the site - working six days per week (and Sunday turns out pretty much to be a work day as well with the ministry at Pastor Michel and Louise's place).  Two is electricity - now here in Haiti, electricity takes many forms - the most common are EDH (grid power), battery and generator.  We've been lacking battery power and that makes a huge difference - can't charge the batteries from either of the other two sources and it becomes very expensive to run the generator for any amount of time.  I am very happy to say that problem got solved yesterday - Christmas eve eve. 

Yesterday it rained - think they called it a tropical storm.  It is unusual to get rain during the day, even in rainy season.  Now think back to when you were a child - I have a special fondness for rainy days - we had a great big mud puddle out front of our house and got to play in it.  I kinda remember as we got older - playing was more with it, not in it - but when I was younger - seems to me, we got right into it - hands on, thick oozey mud.  I don't remember too many treasures - unless of course lost a dinky toy or something like that in the mud the last time. 

I got to play a similar game here in Haiti yesterday.  The setting is slightly different however.  Here they call them ravines - drainage ditches that course there way naturally down the mountain side.  They are replete with everything - used that is, well used.  Thankfully the rain wasn't heavy, about 8 or 9 in the morning - I decided that I should go by the worksite to check out what was happening where the ravine goes through/under the building.  We've just finished pouring the floor over that section and have a number of support colums in the ravine supporting the forms and the fresh concrete over the ravine. 

Everything under the building was fine, however the issue was a jam up in the ravine on our property just before it goes under the building.  About 3 ft of water and "stuff" was backed up at that point.  Obviously I was concerned as to what might happen if the rain got harder and the jam burst open.  It would likely make a real mess under the building and most like jam up again under there. 

Now the most common ingredient found in ravines here is plastic.  All shapes and size of bottles and pails.  The second most common ingredient would be all sorts of garbage in various states of deteriation.  Of course ravines always have human waste  - commonly used as public washrooms - and other stuff that I'd rather not even mention.  The thick oozey stuff that I played with as a child had a substitute here - thick and oozey - but it really didn't make the best alternative. 

Now ravines have never really been my favorite place.  And yesterday was no exception.  However, the only way to tackle the problem was hands on - so to speak.  So, I climbed on down into the ravine - cautiously and began working.  Slowly - avoiding contact as much as I could, but slowly getting a little wetter and dirtier as I worked.  Finally after an hour or so, helped arrived.  Two Haitian boys from the church.  I'm equipped with work boots - they are equipped with sandals.  No problem, they just climb right in - walking in it - and start moving stuff.  I was working to take it out of the ravine - not an easy task.  The were working to dislodge and move it downstream - aided by the water.  There approach and there method worked best.

The tropical storm passed and there wasn't any additional problems with the ravine.  On Monday, we will be back in business at the site and will remove all of the support that's in the ravine under the floor we've just poured. 

So, what's my approach next time.  Think I'm getting too old to play in the muck.  I'll call the boys sooner next time.