We're still waiting for the shipment of the Omega VI Mill to Port au Prince from Miami, bumped twice for medical priority shipments and now lost in transit, a second one is en route ... but that gives time to finish translating the documents for it's use and maintenance, and to collect the materials to build the pedal-powered framework (much more efficient than the hand-crank)...
Here in the "West" or First World it's hard to appreciate how very long it can take to get things done in Haiti - apart from getting things delivered there in the first place! Imagine if you had a mobile telephone that works most days, but no fixed phones in most of your country, almost all paperwork is done by hand in ledgers (but any official form must be typed and have stamps, seals, multiple signatures, often photos - and requires a 4 or 5 hour trip to make, and then file, in a town half-way to the capital city if not in the city!). You go there by bus or riding on top of a truck, because there are only two or three private vehicles in your district. If you are lucky the market town is in walking distance and has motor-bike taxis and a public notary and maybe a shop selling basic stationery...
Then if you need any kind of permit or license your papers may or may not be accepted, you may or may not get a receipt for them, you travel home again and wait... you have lost several days work by now and had to stay with relatives or ride all night in a truck... pay bribes, kowtow for hours, live in hope! And you need to be one of the less than 30% of the population who can read and write... or you'll have to trust someone else to do it!
When something is donated it causes immense joy - and a great deal of extra work for a few people who are charged with implementing the donation... and it will take months before we see how it works out, have some photos of it in situ, find out if we need another or a bigger version, etc. We're just seeing the very edges of the struggle that is life in Haiti.
Saturday, November 7
Monday, November 2
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