Day Five

Kathryn Fuller
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Zanmi Limye Takes on Carpentry

Earlier this week Pastor Cournet asked us to build a bookshelf for the library he’s dreamt of, and today we…got half of that done! How many engineers does it take to build a bookshelf? We are figuring that out, slowly but surely. Part of the fun of constructing something at the orphanage is how curious all of the kids are — one of the little boys even helped us figure out a jigsaw when none of the adults could figure it out. Great thing #2 is that pastor Cournet knows exactly what he wants and exactly how to build the bookshelf — but none of us know more than 10 words in creole and hand gestures only get one so far! Thankfully our friend Ga does an awesome job of translating (we owe virtually our whole trip to him) and we slowly but surely make sense of Pastor Cournet’s wishes. I have a feeling a real carpenter could have finished our bookshelf in 2 hours and he’d laugh at the gaggle of us trying to saw a 2x4 in half but I’m proud and I think the kids are delighted — we’ll finish tomorrow and the room will look brand new!

We also took to re-sizing our solar system components today — every time we do this it seems like we find ten things wrong and learn 20 new things; this is the life of a project, right? Today we found out the orphanage has a hot plate, that’s 1500 extra watts: a whole extra KW that our solar system needs to be able to handle. Thankfully, we’re confident with the people that we talked to in Port au Prince, and doubly thankful we have a whole year to get our calculations right. For now, we need accurate measurements that we can depend on for the rest of the year. A lot can change in a year, especially with a quickly moving technology like the solar sector. Apparently the tax on imported solar (or any renewable) energy components may even be gone in Haiti by the end of the year…we’re crossing our fingers.

Our makeshift workbench and the beautiful evening sun outside of the orphanage
Fonaibi was the best little helper and loved to pose with peace signs — or throwing punches

Zanmi Limye

Student led group with a vision to enhance the quality of life in rural Haiti through solar power

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Kathryn Fuller

Written by

Zanmi Limye

Student led group with a vision to enhance the quality of life in rural Haiti through solar power

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