Dear Water 4 Haiti Friends,

Isaiah lived 800 years before Christ and his words of comfort in 40:31 still hold true to this day nearly 3000 years later, when he says, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”.

Since the first of the year these certainly have been words of n encouragement. With the obstacles of gang fighting, shootings, burnings, rioting, no fuel for days, road blocks, customs not allowing containers to be picked up, inflation up 50% in the past year, shortages of food at the market, be home and do not open the gate after dark, all sounds very discouraging but taking the fact that the Haitians have learned to adapt to this as normal living, we are now going great.

What makes many of these happenings livable is that we now have stored 400 gallons of fuel and our pipe order arrived. The pipe supply should last nearly a year and the fuel, depends upon how many weeks the stations are closed.

The trip of the pipe is long in distance and time. It is mfg. in India, shipped to Port, a 13,000 mile journey, must pay customs up to 30% of the value of the load and the price increases of transportation and steel has increased nearly double in the last 3 years. Our supplier trucks it to their compound (5 hr drive), we then hire a truck to travel back down the same road to a boat dock, where a sail boat is loaded and carries the pipe to another boat at a dock 40 miles away, on an island, then the new sail boat is loaded and brings the pipe across 15 miles to our dock. Our truck then meets the boat and transfers the pipe to the truck for the last leg of the journey of 12 miles to our compound. The container of pipe had been sitting in customs for months as no trucker would chance the dangerous drive from the customs dock to our supplier’s compound.

With being out of pipe we are very fortunate to have a generous well driller located 20 miles from us. He had waited 13 months for his container of pipe and he loaned us 50 lengths until we received our order.

Each year during the dry season we get many calls that our pump is broken. Many times the water table has dropped and extra pipe needs to be added. If the well is dry, and hand dug, we bring one of our digging teams who enter the well and dig lower until they hit water. Since the beginning of the year we have cleaned and lowered 9 wells, repaired 38 and delivered 30,000 gallons of water to needy communities. These actions benefited over 15,000 people. Another project started last year, is giving qualified ladies a donated sewing machine. These ladies are in a 2 year sewing class and must have access to electric power. Over a dozen have arrived from compassionate women but with the increase of shipping costs I am afraid this project will eventually come to a close.

We have for years delivered water to a village into a 25,000 gallon cistern. This was one of first major projects 12 years ago. It had started to leak and delivering water was becoming a waste of time, water and fuel. So we hired a cement “specialist” to patch the cracks where tree roots were invading. We then delivered 6000 gallons to partially fill, as the roofs of a school and church are piped into it. When the rains start it will be a blessing for everything and everyone as Haiti needs rain!

Paul said in Phil. 4: 6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God”. I am sure many of us regret in not heeding his words and worry and are anxious and try to solve the problems ourselves. During this Easter Season it is comforting to know that the Risen Savior takes all of these worries upon himself so our burdens are lightened.

Have a great Summer, wishing you and your family’s good health and safety.

Sincerely,

Chuck, the Haitian people and the W4H board of directors

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