Day Three

Kathryn Fuller
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

“Gonaives (GohnAHeeve)”

Each of these days is seeming like a week in itself. Today we got the chance to go into the nearest city, lively and historic Gonaives, to both see the town and also run some errands. The pastor who runs the orphanage has asked us to build a bookshelf for the new library they are planning to have and we had to chase down some lumber and nails and a hammer in the city. This was fun. Gonaives is a lively place, full of people and motorcycles and giant trucks and shops everywhere you look. Women walk calmly down the sidewalks with bundles and bowls the size of small refrigerators on their heads. Gonaives is an important locale in Haiti’s history; the spot where the small country declared independence from France after many hard fought years; the locals are proud of this place. We are lucky to have our friends Gasendi and Jethro to show us around and translate, and to drive through the mazes of busy streets- including a street called rue liberte, a main thoroughfare and a place where throngs of people come to buy and sell goods-you can imagine it’s a fun place to weave a truck through. Jethro helps us purchase some planks and nails for the library bookshelves, which we tie to the top of our old SUV and drive back to the mission.

Later today, we attacked a big task of ours: calculating the load of electricity that the orphanage uses. This is important in order to size the solar system properly; it will determine the number of solar panels we buy and the size of the necessary batteries that we’ll use and much more. Turns out, this is all a huge learning experience for us — did you know that an electric iron uses up to 10 x the watts that a fridge uses? Neither did we.

Pastor Cornet hacks open coconuts for us from the trees outside the orphanage — we’ve all resolved that we’d like to have his work ethic and general chill when we’re his age.
Cindi, Losna, Joanna & Cristela (each a little ball of joy)
Will never cease to amaze me
Jethro’s truck loaded with our loot (lumber for the bookshelf)
The chaos of Rue Liberte

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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