Day Two
“Eben Ezer”
Cue Eben Ezer Mission; this vast plot of land splayed out in between two beautiful mountain ranges, just outside of Gonaives. The mission was founded some 40 years ago and houses an orphanage, a primary school, a university, a church, a hospital, a tree nursery, an airplane runway and the sweetest people you will ever meet. There is a man named Jean Noelle who has befriended us, shown us around, translated for us and everything in between. He feels like the embodiment of Eben Ezer Mission’s spirit; a goofy Haitian man with the biggest heart, with a flamelike enthusiasm for life but a realist’s attitude about Haiti’s current state and the hardships that they’ve all faced.
Today we did a few productive things! We discussed the actual implementation of a solar system with a local (Port au Prince) vendor, this huge guy with an easy laugh named “Little Joe”. Sounds like he can do everything we want and more, but his prices are rather expensive and we’d have little hands-on work to do if we chose to contract his company for the project. There are obvious pros and cons to going down this route and we have some big decisions ahead of us about the scope of this project, and the path we are planning to take.
We also met with the pastor who runs the orphanage, an infinitely grateful man who doesn’t speak a lick of English but led us through the maze of the orphanage pointing out lights and sockets in order for us to measure their electricity usage. He speaks happily about his dreams for a basketball court for the kids and a special playground outside. He even took the time to skillfully hack open fresh coconuts one by one, so we could drink the sweet milk inside. He speaks sadly of the lack of capacity to take any more children, but that the government continues to place them there. In the two days that we’ve spent here, the electricity has gone out more than five times; the government run utility, we’re told, is unreliable, corrupt and charges unfairly. The mission’s got a diesel back up generator, but, as you can imagine, that cost is ungodly as well. There is undeniably a need for a reliable source of electricity. We’re going to strive to help them provide that; the challenge right now will be to choose the right path that will get them there.







