Ok, I was hoping to give you all a grand update, but it seems that I've spent too much of my computer time doing Peace Corps stuff as well as answering e-mails from almost two months ago...I really am trying!

So, I'm about to head back to site now, but I will say that I'm really excited about getting back because of all the things I have lined up to get started. I completed a water sanitation baseline survey of every family in my village, and it opened quite a bit of conversation of what the current conditions of my village are...and what their greatest needs are. One of the first things I am addressing is the lack of latrines. For a village of about 425 people, there are only 4 latrines. So, as you can imagine, open defecation is a serious problem.

To give you a quick rundown of my current project plans...- Latrines

- Soakpits (sorry, I'll explain later...or you can look them up)

- Animal trough for pump wastewater (cows crowd around the pumps to drink wastewater around the pumps...so I want to pipe the wastewater into a trough AWAY from the pump area)

- 2 Community deep wells (there are 10 wells in my village, all of them are dry year round...even in the rainy season...but they don't know how to dig deep wells without them caving in on them. They get all their water from the hand pumps, and WHEN they break, they travel long distances to neighboring villages to fetch water)

- Community women's garden with a deep well (since the wells are dry, there are no gardens, and therefore no vegetables...if we dig a well and create a community garden around it...with a fence...people can then grow vegetables, improve their diets and nourish their children as well as sell vegetables in the market and make a profit...I'm really excited about getting this one going)

- Construct an incinerator at a clinic in the next town over (the clinic burns all of their bloody garbage in an open pit...in addition, there are loads of needles from vaccinations that are all shipped to another town 50km (30+ miles) away that has an incinerator...long story short, the clinic NEEDS an incinerator :)

- Ok there's a bunch of other things but I can't type them right now because I have to go catch a bus to take a nice hot, gross, dirty, dusty 3-5 hour bus ride to my banking town.

My new djembe!

I'm sitting eating breakfast in my banking town...these are "cart" guys waiting for someone to need a hand cart

These guys are all over my hut...they look scary, but there not :).What? You don't work in your garden and fetch water with a baby strapped to your back?

Another garden shot...I hope to have something like this in my village soon enough!

As ALWAYS, thanks for checking in! Love Owen.

Haketo, a menna dooni! (This is Bambara for: Please excuse me, it's been a while!) I'm hoping to get another post up in addition to this one, but I just wanted to tell a quick story that I forgot to write about back in December.

So, it was back during Peace Corps' In-Service-Training (IST) that I was on a field trip with all the water sanitation volunteers visiting an organization working with composting latrines (yes, human waste CAN be recycled...and very easily I might add). We were on our way back from this trip when our bus driver noticed a goat lying in the middle of the road. The goat was a bit injured because it had fallen off of the roof of another transport (I'm sure the Malian who was traveling was NOT happy to find that his lovely goat was no longer on the roof when arriving at his destination).

The driver had initially stopped because he wanted to drag it out of the road so it didn't get run over...but, of all the kids who were on this bus, the two kids from New Jersey (myself and a friend Matt Clemente) both said..."Let's just take it, no one's coming back for it". No one else wanted anything to do with this goat, so we both hopped out, heaved the goat onto the roof of the bus, tied it down...and went on our merry way.

When we got back to Tubaniso (Peace Corps training center), I went and got one of our cooks and showed him what we so kindly brought back to him. The goat could still stand, but he was definitely struggling to stay alive. Long story short, we ate the goat for lunch the next day :). Feeding 70+ volunteers costs a decent amount of money, so we not only saved the goat from suffering, but we also saved Peace Corps Mali some doh.

Yes, I know, you don't have to say it...what GOOD Peace Corps volunteers we are :).

"Securing" the goat to the roof.

Matt and I with our new friend (who was ashamed to show his damaged face...and that's putting it lightly).

This little bugger was on the wall in my room. Yes, I grabbed my sandal and beat the living daylights out of him :).

Happy New Year! I've been doing my best to catch up on e-mails, facebook, blogposts, etc. before I head back to village because it may be another month or so until I get access to internet again. I recently received an e-mail from my cousin who teaches 7th grade, and he asked if I could share a little bit about daily life here so he could share it with his students. Since I spent a good amount of time typing about a smörgåsbord of things in my daily life, I decided maybe others might be interested as well. There's some more photos down the bottom as well...for those of you that don't like reading :).

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To the students...

As for things to pass on to your students...I'm trying to decide what would be best to tell them (I don't want to scare them!). As for my daily activities, I get up every morning to the sound of many women pounding grains of corn and millet using a wooden mortar and pestle. To give you an idea of the size...the pestle (or bat) is larger than a full-sized baseball bat, so it's fairly loud. They begin their grinding between 5:30-6:00AM, so I'm normally up pretty early.

I then take a bucket bath using water fetched from a hand-pump located in the center of my village. The water is mostly transported by women, always balanced on their heads in large buckets. I don't know if you're familiar with how much water weighs, but at 62.4 pounds per cubic foot, these women can handle some serious weight all concentrated on their necks. So, my bucket-bath is taken outside in a small walled area with no roof called a nyegen, and I use a cup to dump water over my head to wash myself.

As for my meals, I eat a corn or millet porridge for breakfast, and then a corn or millet porridge congealed into jello-like patties for both lunch and dinner...everyday. The people of my village cannot afford things like meat and pasta, so it is rare to eat anything other than what I just described. The men go out into the fields, harvest the corn or millet, and then bring it back for their wives to grind and cook.

As for drinks, people drink tea and water. Yes, it's incredibly hot here, and so when you need that nice cold glass of water to cool you down, you put the cup to your lips...and then remember that the water isn't cold, there's nowhere to get ice! :)

In my village there is no electricity (therefore no refrigerator, TV, computers, facebook, youtube, ipods, or even a place to charge an ipod for that matter)...when the sun goes down I operate on moonlight and my flashlight. There is no running water...so no sinks or toilets, and most people just go to the bathroom by squatting in their fields...and no, there's no toilet paper either. Before I drink the pump water I run it through a filter and then put bleach in it to kill any bacteria still living in it.

In addition to no electricity or running water, there are no stores, no bread, no school, no cell phone reception...just people and their fields. Some kids travel to a neighboring village to attend school, while others are kept home to work in the fields or help with household chores. For those that do go to school, they either go by foot (often barefoot), or on bicycles...oftentimes squeezing 3 or 4 kids on one bike...yes, it's possible.

For fun, kids roll up a whole bunch of plastic bags into a ball and kick it around like a soccer ball...and every once in a while a kid will ride his bike with a car battery strapped to it, and bring it to another town that happens to have a solar panel...and he gets it charged up. The next day he'll go and pick it up, bring it back to my village, plug a radio into it, and all the kids will dance the night away to Malian music.

I know I mentioned a car battery, but there are no cars in my village. People travel places on bicycles, and they transport everything else (such as crops from their fields or firewood) using a donkey and a donkey cart.

Ok, I know I'm just rambling now, but that should give them a good idea of what life is like here in rural Mali, West Africa. Just remind them that with all these things, people here are still happy. They love to smile, they love to laugh, and they are a very peaceful people.__________________________________________________________

Here it is..."Toh"...the food I was talking about that's jelly-like and made out of corn or millet...along with some sauces for dipping. I eat this twice a day, with my hands (yes, there's skill involved). These two dishes are both corn toh, but right now millet is in season so I'm mostly been eating that...it's a much darker color...somewhere between purple and dark brown...depending on who's cooking :).

The village kids in my concession on Tabaski. The girls go from home to home (concession to concession) doing a traditional song and dance and then you either give them small change or candy...kind of like trick-or-treating.

So, I was in my host family's concession and one of the little girls picked up one of the small pestles to imitate what she always sees her mothers (yes she has two) doing grinding grain with a mortar and pestle. Everyone (myself and the Malians) thought it was adorable because I think it was her first time doing it. I snapped a picture and made a joke (in Bambara) about how I was going to send the photo home and tell my family in America that babies do all the work in Mali. My host brother thought it was funny, but then I heard him tell one of my host mother's "Mom, Zan (Owen) is just kidding! He's always kidding!" So yeah, it turned out she thought I was being serious and took offense...whoops :).

Ok, that's a wrap for now. I hope you've all enjoyed getting 3 blog posts in one week's time, don't get used to it...it's just for the holiday! Ha ha. I can't believe it's 2010...and the fact that I've been here for almost 6 months already! Crazy right?!?! As always, thanks for reading and joining me on this journey.

Ok, I'm going to make this quick because I'm exhausted...but I just wanted to upload these videos to share with you all. Below are two videos giving you a tour first of the outside and then of the inside of my house in Socourani, Mali. They are both low-quality movies because otherwise I would never get them uploaded with the way I get internet access here! If you have any questions about things you see in the video clips, feel free to leave a comment and I'll be sure to get back to you :).

By the way, for those of you that have Facebook, I also just loaded some photos and videos there showing some Christmas photos as well as videos of me jamming on my new djembe (hand drum) with some Malian drummers...pretty cool stuff :).

Outside tour of my house.

Inside tour of my house.

Not that you can tell at all...but the inside of my house (as shown in the video) looks significantly better now that my mud walls have been plastered over with concrete. It makes my house much cleaner, and keeps out SOME of the termites :).

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday yesterday! I had a great day spent here in Bamako, Mali's capital, with a handful of other volunteers. Peace Corps Mali recently got us a "stage house" in Bamako to serve as a place for volunteers to stay overnight when visiting or doing work in the capital. We're each given 12 nights per year, so a bunch of us decided to use up some of our nights and spend Christmas together. The house has everything we could want including a fridge, stove, internet, and a TV (although it's not hooked up to cable or anything at the moment...we just plug our computers into it and play movies).

Everyone pitched in to help out with food shopping, cooking, baking, decorating, and we all went in on a Secret Santa gift exchange which was awesome! I've posted a few photos below, enjoy!

Breakfast was delicious! French toast, quiche, sausage, & coffee (thankfully, we had some good cooks in the group!)

I made out like a bandit in the Secret Santa gift exchange...Santa happened to know that I was a big Scrabble fan and just so happened to find the game at the Tubab (white man) store in Bamako!

Group shot by the Christmas tree! Yes, we had a Christmas tree!

All the "kids" in the living room watching "Santa Clause" with Tim Allen and attempting to catch up on internet time.

Our family Christmas picture on the stairs, ha ha :).

After dinner we went around caroling in the neighborhood where all the American expatriates live. The expats couldn't believe they had American carolers come to their door in the middle of Mali! Aside from all the warm smiles, we got some cookies and fudge out of the deal too! A successful endeavor if I don't say so myself :).

While I really did enjoy my Christmas here in Mali, I still really missed being home for the holiday with family and friends. I love and miss you all very much! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wish you all a Happy and Blessed New Year!

Love Owen

Well, I know it's been a while...and of course a lot has happened, but I'll be honest and say that I've been using my little bit of internet time to write e-mails instead of posting here! But, if you haven't been sending me e-mails, don't feel like I'm cheating on you...or maybe you should just send me e-mails too :).

I've started uploading some photos for another post, but in the meantime, I forgot that I wanted to post something from my "Swearing-In" ceremony which happened at the US Embassy back on Sept. 10th. Mr. Michael Simsik, our Peace Corps Country Director here in Mali, made a really nice speech (found below) that I thought some of you would like to read. Yes, it's a little long...but I haven't posted in almost two months...so you can handle it, ha ha. Enjoy :).

PS - Just in case I don't get another post up as soon as I would like, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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I am delighted to welcome all of you here today for this time honored tradition: the swearing-in of Peace Corps Volunteers in Mali. That is to say, the dream continues. The international events of the last few years have not diminished their enthusiasm to go towards people of other cultures, for the purpose of cultural understanding and to share their know how.

The idea of creating the Peace Corps was presented nearly 50 years ago in October 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy, who was the Democratic party candidate for the U.S. Presidency, spoke to students at the University of Michigan. He challenged the students to commit two years of their lives to help people in countries of the developing world. Since then, 49 years have passed and nearly 200,000 Americans have answered the call to service made by Kennedy. Volunteers have served in nearly 100 countries around the world. Today, there are 8,000 Volunteers serving in 70 countries around the world, including in 25 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

These future Volunteers seated before you today are a manifestation of the ideals that helped to create the Peace Corps in 1961, and show that these ideals are still very much alive in the hearts of Americans today. These Americans come with the desire to work toward the noble causes of peace and development, as well as for the ideal of mutual understanding across cultures.

This event cannot pass without acknowledging that tomorrow is the 8th Anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 on the United States. Since the passing of the horrific events of that day, Americans have been awoken to the dangers of the larger world around them. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, Americans understand the need for improved understanding across cultures and have continued to respond to President Kennedy’s call to service in record numbers.

The U.S. Peace Corps is here in Mali at the invitation of the Malian Government. For 38 years the Malian government, along with the Malian people, has warmly welcomed our Volunteers. During that time, nearly 3,000 Americans have served in Mali, where today, there are 110 Volunteers serving in five of eight administrative Regions throughout the country. Today, 64 more Volunteers will join them in a few moments.

I would like to sincerely thank the Malian government, as well as the Malian communities where are Volunteers work, represented respectively by the Ministers and Mayors present here today, for their support of the activities done by the Peace Corps in Mali. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, on this happy occasion, to celebrate this newest group of Peace Corps Volunteers, and to acknowledge the exemplary nature of the cooperation that exists between the Peace Corps and Mali. Even the Malian President Amadou Toumani Touré expressed his gratitude and respect for the work that our Volunteers have done over the years in Mali, during a visit that he made to Peace Corps headquarters in Washington several years ago. He noted that they, “…live in the same villages as the Malian people, sleep on the same mats, eat the same food, and even get bitten by the same mosquitoes.”

The tasks that lie ahead for these soon-to-be volunteers is great, but will be facilitated to a large extent by the Malians in the host-families, organizations, and communities with whom they will be living and working. The Malians with whom our Volunteers collaborate have always proven to be more than willing to share their culture, wisdom, and know how with our Volunteers. For 38 years Peace Corps Volunteers in Mali have been welcomed by their Malian host-families and treated as they would a member of their own family. This is the best example of the fraternity that exists between the American and Malian people.

During the next two years these future Volunteers will have the opportunity to experience all aspects of what is a very rich and beautiful Malian culture. Here, in this country of ancient West African kingdoms and Empires lies a veritable kaleidoscope of diversity and cultures: united by the Malian values of teriya (friendship) and djatiguia (the ancient Malian tradition of hospitality, respect, and fair play), and co-existing in the amiable practice of sanankounya, or “joking cousins.” These qualities not only facilitate, but pretty much oblige the integration of our Volunteers into their Malian host families and communities, where hospitality has no limits. Our Volunteers respect Malian cultural norms, learn to speak the local language, and even adopt Malian names. Within this cultural context, these future Volunteers will be working in communities throughout the country.

To the trainees, I would like to be the first to congratulate you on having successfully completed your training program, and being selected to serve here in Mali. I am truly impressed by the manner in which you committed yourselves to learning as much as you could, during these past nine weeks. I am also encouraged by how much you have already given of yourselves, and how amazingly positive you have remained throughout a demanding training program. I must say, this bodes very well for the coming two years.

The sectors to which you are about to devote two years of your best efforts, are key to the hopes and dreams that so many Malians have for themselves, and their families. All of the Malians with whom you will soon be working, have not been as lucky as you in having access to reliable health care, clean drinking water, nutritious and abundant quantities of food, quality education, or opportunities that encourage entrepreneurialism and creativity. Even as you may find yourself slowly growing accustomed to this sad injustice during the next two years, I encourage you to act upon your passion for equality and social justice to do good work. Also, do not forget that each of you will serve as a model to be imitated in the communities where you will be living and working.

In addition to acquiring language and cross-cultural skills to facilitate their integration into their future Malian communities, we have also instilled in the trainees the ten core values that they are expected to uphold and respect during their service as Volunteers. These are listed on the cover of today’s program. One important aspect of these values is mutual respect and empathy for others, as well as being open to others. Not only will Volunteers be teaching others, they will be learning a great deal about life and themselves. While they may be living and working with people lacking the same level of formal education as them, these future Volunteers will soon find out that in doing their work here, they will greatly benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of Malians who have “graduated” from what the renowned Malian writer and ethnographer, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, called “the great university of the spoken word taught in the shade of baobab trees." By the time they finish their two years of service in Mali, our Volunteers may feel a bit of guilt that they have learned more than they taught. However, they will then realize, in the words of Mr. Bâ, that they have come to “know what they do not know, and only then, will they know.”

To the trainees, I will be honest in saying that Peace Corps service in Mali is not necessarily going to be easy. However, to help you get through those tough moments, remember to push your limits, but also be patient; keep an open mind but don’t lose sight of the values that brought you here; adapt to the local culture, but never forget who you are and where you come from; embrace the seriousness of your mission, but be ready to laugh when things get really tough. Help each other in your work and protect the good reputation of the Peace Corps in Mali. And if you become overwhelmed by the seeming impossibility of what you are trying to do - reach out for assistance. We all want you to succeed, and to do significant and sustainable work here. To this end, the quote of cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead is poignant:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. - Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Trainees, I promise you will never forget your two years in Mali, and I promise as well that the Malians with whom you are going to be living and working, will never forget you.

To our entire staff, who have all assisted with some aspect of the training that has just been completed, I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done to help prepare our trainees for their service. You have worked long hours under difficult conditions to teach language, technical, and cultural adaptation skills to our trainees. Other staff have worked extensively and often, behind the scenes, to make sure the training was a success. From identifying Malian communities and host families suitable for training, to setting up the rooms where the trainees would be staying, and all the rest, they have done it all. To all of our staff, I would like to know that I am continually amazed by your deep sense of commitment to our mission, and the energy with which you so skillfully carry out the innumerable tasks that make up your work day. It is truly a pleasure and honor for me to work with you in helping us to achieve our common goals.

And to the officials representing the Malian government here today, I offer you these 64 future Volunteers who will serve for the coming two years to facilitate development in your country. Their work will be varied; including well construction, reforestation, food security, small business development, girls’ education, adult literacy, and infant and maternal nutrition.

I would like to thank Ambassador Milovanovic, for her endless support of our program as well as her deep appreciation of the work our Volunteers are doing here in Mali. We also appreciate the honor of having this ceremony in this lovely setting in front of this beautiful building that is the U.S. Embassy in Bamako. I would also like to thank all of our colleagues in the U.S. Mission here in Mali, who have always shown nothing short of enthusiastic support of our Volunteers and their work.

I join my Peace Corps colleagues in the excitement of seeing what you are going to achieve here in Mali – starting today. While your motivation and perseverance during training largely involved personal and individual efforts, and drew upon your personal strength, today they become a public promise. Thus, in a few minutes you will take the oath to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. You will promise before God, and these witnesses, that you will faithfully carry out your duty as a Peace Corps Volunteer. And what is that duty that you will be doing so faithfully? It is to fulfill the goals of the Peace Corps. That is your duty. You accept today to uphold an honorable tradition of volunteer service here in Mali.

In finishing, I would like to share with you a quote by President John F. Kennedy, during his inauguration speech in January 1961, during which he noted the numerous tasks that lie ahead of him and his administration. I think his words will ring true for our future Volunteers, as they think about the tasks ahead of them:

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, not in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

Madame Ambassador, I invite you to swear-in these trainees, as new Peace Corps Volunteers in Mali.

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As I'm sure you already know, I am very thankful for all of you, my friends & family (and stalkers), and I just want to remind you how much I appreciate your love and support. To show you my appreciation, I have slaved over a computer to upload and caption some photos :). I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Chowing down on sugarcane and tea with my hostbrother, Mutaka, and some other kids from the village.

Everything needed to make tea...something I do often in my village :). I'm going to explain the process of how tea is made here, not because I want to bore you, but because it's such an important part of the culture and the everyday lives of Malians. The actual process of making tea is rather lengthy (takes at least an hour), but Malians love to sit around and chat over their 'three cups of tea'. To give you an idea, most of the people in my village have no money, they just farm their fields and then eat the crops. But, whenever there is money to be had, it is often spent on buying tea and sugar.

Making tea: The blue teapot sits on the charcoal stove boiling the water & loose tea. When the first pot of tea is finished brewing (3 pots are made with one pack of loose tea), it's poured into the red teapot. The blue pot is then refilled with water (from the tin cup on the left) and put back on the stove. Then sugar is added to the red teapot and the tea is poured over and over (about 10 times?), back and forth between the teapot and the little clear tea glass (sitting to the right of the red pot). This repetition of pouring is an important part of the process in that it not only mixes in the sugar, but it also creates a foam at the top of the tea (yes, like a pint of Guinness). When I first came to Mali, I was unable to create the foam, but with lots of practice, my tea making abilities have come a long way :). Once the foam is made and the tea is sufficiently mixed, the red pot is then put on the stove to reheat the tea one last time before serving to your company. When serving, the tea glass is normally filled about halfway (w/ more or less depending on how many people will be drinking), and is first served to the eldest person of the group. Once that person finishes, the tea glass is returned to the person pouring, the glass is refilled, and then served to the next oldest...and so on. In my town, only one glass is used (some people use 2), so everyone drinks from the same glass, one person/cup of tea at a time.

People in my community burning garbage behind my house and in front of the big tree. There is very little trash because people aren't really buying many packaged goods besides tea. The kid standing in front of the fire was just playing around and I thought it made a cool picture :).

Transporting furniture the 50km (31 miles) from my banking town to Gloria's village (Gloria is another volunteer located about 2 miles from my site). Then I used a donkey and cart to get things the rest of the way to my site. Unfortunately, the roads (and the driver) are so bad that every single piece of wooden furniture on the roof was broken by the time we got to Gloria's village!

These are the beds Gloria and I had made up by a carpenter in a town about 7 miles away. You guessed it, donkey delivery.

This guy, Kalidou, was selected by my village and assigned by Peace Corps to be my homologue/village counterpart/go-to guy. I later found out that he doesn't even live in my village, and I only see him every few weeks. Here he came to visit, and brought me a chicken and pasta as a gift! I brought the live chicken and pasta to my hostmother, and we ate it for lunch :). At my bank there are military personnel who sit outside and 'protect' it (aka...play checkers and cards all day long). I got to talking about music with one of the guys and before I knew it he brought me into a little house next to the bank to have a little jam session. He sent one of the younger military guys to go get me a drum (a bucket, ha ha), and we sat and played for a while. Another normal day in Mali, ha ha.

Me and the postman, Dabo, at the Dioila post office. Unfortunately, these packages are not all mine, but I was picking them up for myself and other volunteers...and it took me a few trips back and forth to transport them all! My hostbrother, Mutaka, and I out in the rice fields hanging out under a tree for some shade. Ok, I'll admit, I couldn't help but to climb it, it was a great climbing tree! Women in my village pulling peanuts off of the roots.

Me and dinner :). Yes, seriously. One of the villagers killed this big lizard out in the fields, and it was later served for dinner. It was pretty good actually, but the skin was kind of tough, ha ha. I've also eaten rabbit...and rat :). The rat was caught in a trap set in the fields, and was probably almost twice the size of this lizard, no joke. It was by far the biggest rat I've ever seen...and he was delicious :).

This picture is taken from the top of hill/mountain which I have to hike up in order to "maybe" get cell reception. If there are clouds in the sky, if it's during the heat of mid-day, or if there's little leprechaun's hanging out in the trees, I won't get service. So, if I need to make a phone call or check voicemail, I make the 30 minute trek from my site to this spot, and more often then not, I still can't get service, ha ha :).

Myself and some Malians at "The Spot" on top of the mountain. Unfortunately, at this moment...none of us could get any reception, ha ha. But, on the occasion that I do get it, the only way I can keep the call connected is if I extend the phone above my head as far as I can, and put the phone on loudspeaker to hear the voicemail or talk to someone. Eventually, all the blood runs out of my arm, and I have to end the call :). What's that? You can lay in your bed in your house and get reception? Must be nice :).

Out in the fields picking cotton with some kids from my village.

Ok, so we WERE picking cotton, until I started joking around and we made ourselves cotton beards, mustaches, and hair, ha ha. For those of you that don't know (I didn't at first), cotton is picked off the plant practically in the form of cotton balls...and it's pretty fun to pick, until you get stabbed by the thorns and have to go digging them out of your finger with a knife :).

My new window!!! Ok, so in my mud house there are two rooms. In the first room is my front door and then one window on the opposite wall. In the "inner" room, there was only one window, so there was hardly any air circulation, causing that room to be very hot and not very well lit (remember my life operates on sunlight...and flashlight). So, as seen above, I had another window installed on the opposite wall of the inner room, and now I get a breeze! Worth every penny (two masons for the day cost $3).

In addition to having the window installed, I am having the masons plaster my mud walls with concrete. I have a serious termite problem (one that caused the termites to eat my already broken furniture!), and plastering the walls not only makes things much cleaner inside, it will also potentially stop the thousands of termites from boring through my walls and attacking me in the middle of the night! Well, the termites don't attack me, but their termite "mounds" fall off the walls and the ceiling while I'm sleeping causing me to get showered by dirt bombs :).

Nightlife in Socourani (my village). Some of the girls made some water drums and asked me to join them on the djembe. Before we knew it, the whole village was out dancing and singing around us in a circle until about midnight (not just the kids, the elders too...just the women though). The water drums are made by flipping big half-shell gourds upside down into buckets of water, and are played by hitting them with a smaller gourds. The big one on the left makes a deep bass drum sound and the smaller one on the right is a bit higher pitched.

Here are some of the women dancing and singing as we play. This picture should also give you a good idea of the types of bright fabrics typically worn by Malian women.

Speaking of fabrics, here is the newest Malian outfit I got made up for the upcoming Muslim holiday, Tabaski. Tabaski is Mali's biggest holiday...I guess it could be compared to Christmas back in the States, so it's a pretty big deal, and loads of people buy new fabrics and have clothes made. Before this, I only had that one silly outfit (the bowling outfit from swear-in), but now I have two :).

Ok, that's a wrap with the pictures for now, I hope you enjoyed them. I just want to make a quick closing remark, because I have a feeling some of you are wondering what the heck I've been doing over here for the past two months, ha ha :). From my pictures, you can probably tell that I've been spending quite a bit of time getting my house set up, getting furniture made and transporting it, adding windows, plastering my walls, etc.

In addition to house work, I've also spent time going out into the fields to learn about what my community members do everyday; seeing what crops they farm, how they farm them, and then pitching in to help with the harvesting. So far I've gone out and harvested millet, peanuts, rice, and cotton. I have yet to join them in the corn fields, but I will eventually.

Aside from all that, the bulk of my time has been spent on learning the local language, Bambara. Everyday, I'll have informal conversations with people, I'll go for walks and chat with people at their homes, ask them about their work, sit in my concession with visitors, make tea and chat the day away. I also had a language tutor come to my site for a week which was awesome. My language is definitely coming a long way, and it makes SUCH a difference finally being able to communicate with people, and more importantly...make people laugh! (with me, not at me, ha ha).

While it may not sound like I'm being overly productive at the moment, these relationships that I'm forming and the trust that I'm building now is what will be most important to the work I do later on.

With that said, I will be heading to the Peace Corps training center on Dec. 6th for two more weeks of technical training where I'll have more internet access...and hopefully get some more posts out!

Again, I wish you all a very Happy Healthy Thanksgiving! I just spent mine at the Ambassador's house...ate turkey, and watched football. It truly felt like Thanksgiving :)

Love Owen

Ok, so I know I've been slacking on the photo front, and since I was able to get into Bamako this weekend and get on a computer, I'm going buck-wild here to try and put some pictures to the stories I've been telling. I won't make much of a "blog post" now, but in my little amount of computer time, I'll do my best to just caption pictures and give you an idea of what's going on. Enjoy!

Canoes on the Niger river

Kids at homestay...the young girls always take care of the babies

This is where I would sleep outside at homestay...yes, my "bed" is about 5 feet from the cows, donkeys, chickens, roosters...etc. (I had to wear earplugs to sleep, ha ha)

First time visiting my new site...here's this is the main path leading to the village...there's a 7-11 around the corner where I can get slurpees, ha ha (I WISH!)

Welcome ceremony at site! Everyone dances, sings, and plays instruments. Someone told the woman drumming that I played the djembe and so she passed it off to me. Everyone got really excited when I started to play :).

The new outfits a few of us got made for our swear-in ceremony, ha ha. It was something like $6 to buy the fabric and have the tailor make each outfit. Yes, I know, it looks like we're on a bowling team!!! Ha, ha.

This is my homestay family, who I lived with for the first couple of months during preservice training. My hostdad is the guy in the front with the white hat...and he has three wives, the woman with the orange shawl, the woman in the back left corner, and the woman at front right!

My new sitemates...Gloria in purple and Irina in yellow. Mike and Chris are my other two sitemates...just not in this picture. When I say "sitemates", these are people that having the same banking town as I do, so we'll probably see eachother every few weeks or so. Gloria and I live only a few kilometers away from eachother, so we should be best of friends by the end of these next two years!

There's no driving age in Mali...so they start the kids young :).

After visiting my site for the first time, all the new volunteers met up with some of the current PCV's. We all packed into that green transport (at least 19 people), and landed up getting a blowout, ha ha. :)

Our goal was to conquer this rock by the end of homestay. Eric and I tried at the beginning, and finally found a way to get up top on our last day there. I'm on the left, Eric's on the right.

Our homestay clan. The 7 of us all lived in a village called Soundougouba together during our preservice training.

The group of newly sworn in Peace Corps Volunteers! I'm in the back row under the "ED" of "United".

We found this turtle just hanging out at the American Club, the place I mentioned where they have a pool and cheeseburgers...and air conditioning :). He was REALLY heavy.

Yeah, you guessed it...we found a place in Bamako, the capital, that makes brick oven pizza! It's no New York/Jersey pizza, but it was deeeeelicious :).

Some women selling tomatoes, oranges, bananas, etc.

Site installation! Notice the mattresses, bikes and all our other junk piled on the roof J.

This is how Malians get around with all their stuff, ha ha. If you look closely, there’s a blue tarp covering a huge pack of people towards the front…rain protection J.My homologue, Adama, and I in a town about 11km (about 7 mi.) away from my site known as Faraka. We biked here to look into some additional transportation options for Gloria and I to be able to get in and out of our remote locations (each village assigns a “homologue” to their PCV as someone to look after the volunteer’s needs/well being).

Here’s my bedroom as it stands right now. Eventually, I hope to get a bed frame made to get my mattress up off the floor. I bought the floor mat/rug in the market…it’s a woven plastic, and I think it brightens up my room nicely, ha ha.

If you were to sit on my bed and turn around, this is what you’d see. From left to right: purple sheet to pull across my screen door for privacy, a broom, a propane tank w/ a single burner screwed on top to serve as my stove (for now anyway…I’m hoping to get a 2 burner propane stove), my water filter sitting on top of a blue bucket, on top of the filter is a battery powered lamp and a yellow bottle of bleach (I put bleach in my water after it’s filtered…2 drops/liter), my two water bottles down below, the purple bucket with the green cup in it is my bathing bucket (I dip the cup into the bucket and pour water over my head…its that simple, ha ha). The other room is a little bit bigger, but only has one window so has no cross ventilation (but I’m working on getting another put in). In there I just have my clothes, bike, cooking stuff, etc. This concludes the grand tour of my two bedroom apartment J.Right outside the front of my house I have a little walled-in area that is known as my “concession”. So, whenever I talk about my concession, this is the area I’m referring to. In the corner of the picture you can see a little opening in the wall…this opening goes to my nyegen (bathroom)…which is just four mud walls (currently caving in) around a concrete slab with a 6”x 6” square hole. There’s no roof which is nice when bathing if the sun is just coming up or just going down…but going to the bathroom midday the sun beats the sweat out of you…and it is then that you have to decide whether you lost more fluids from your pores or from taking a leak J. The green jug is my drinking water and hand washing water supply. It’s pump water, which is better than well water J.

What I see when I look out from my concession.Another view from my concession. In front of this hut you’ll see the big mortar and pestle, which is used all day and night by women pounding corn and millet.

A bunch of women and children from my village. They came into my concession because they wanted to see pictures of my family from home. I guess I showed someone else at some point…and word spread!

Kids looking in on Gloria and I in the bashee. The kids love when you take a picture of them and then show it to them.

Furniture from the Crate & Barrel down the street…I mean, furniture I got made in my banking town 50km away. A nice looking bookshelf and table if I don’t say so myself…much needed too!Crate & Barrel delivery truck J. How else do you expect me to transport this stuff? Ha ha. This is also a shot of my house/concession from the outside to give you an idea of the overall size.

Ok, that’s all for now. I hope you all enjoyed my little slideshow. I don’t know when I’ll get internet access again, it could be another few weeks. As always, thanks for reading and for all of your comments…it’s great to hear your feedback on things! (and your encouragement of course J) Love Owen

Ok, I only have a few seconds to make this post because I'm about to head out to my site...where I'll be for the next two years, crazy! But, it is official, I am now Peace Corps Volunteer and not just a Trainee :). On Thursday, Sept. 10th, the entire group of trainees went to the American Embassy and were officially sworn in as PCV's. Afterward there was a party at the American Club (an oasis for Americans living in Mali...complete with a swimming pool and cheeseburgers!).

I have tons of pictures from the swear-in ceremony, and I attempted hooking up my camera to upload at least one...but as I was about to plug in the cable to the computer...I got zapped to the point of almost dropping my camera! So...photos to follow!

I have to go! Thank you again to everyone who left me posts. I love you all.

Sorry it's been almost a month since I last posted, but things are crazy hectic over here...and access to internet has been rather limited.Training is going well, and believe it or not...it will be over in 2 weeks and 2 days!! "Swear in" is on September 10th, which means I will finally become an official Peace Corps Volunteer (this whole time I've only been a PCT - Peace Corps Trainee). I'll have my big tests just before that to see if I'm well prepared to be dumped off to my site all by myself :).Ok, to step back a little, I got my Peace Corps bicycle last time I was at homestay, which was a VERY exciting moment in time! I finally felt like I could have some freedom and get some exercise all at the same time. Myself and some of the other guys hopped on the bikes right away and went for a ride for about four hours...it was great! We rode to a neighboring town where we could buy cold sodas and cookies, and then visited some other PCT's in that same town.The following day, myself and those same guys all went riding to the Niger river to visit my host brother at work, where they go out in canoes and excavate sand from the bottom of the river. Two of us went out in the canoes with him, and tried our hands at it :). I have some video footage of me in action, but it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to share that with you right now because I can hardly get photos loaded up! To paint a picture for you, these canoes are handcarved out of wood, and are propelled by looong poles that are thrown to the river bed, and then used to push off the ground. Now, it sounds easy, but managing a 20 ft. stick while balancing barefoot on the tip of the canoe, it takes some getting used to :). I did it for a while and would rotate off with my host brother. I almost fell in once...but caught myself, ha ha.So, to excavate the sand, there is a guy swimming in the river who dives down to the bottom with a bucket, sets the bucket in the sand, then the guys in the boat stand on the edge of the canoe barefoot and pull the bucket full of sand and water up from the river bed. Standing on the edge and hauling the bucket up is what I have a video clip of myself doing, so hopefully I'll be able to share it with you at some point :).Ok, I need to jump around a bit because I don't have much time left here...and I'm leaving tomorrow morning to go back to homestay for 10 days.All of us finally got our site assignments (where we're going to be for the next 2 years), and we also went on site visits to go see our houses, set up bank accounts, post boxes, and meet some people in the community. My region in Mali is known as Koulikoro, and my town is called Soucourani, which is about 45km from my banking town, Dioila. If you wanted to see where I'll be, you can search "Dioila, Mali" on google maps and get an idea...it's really cool! As you'll see in the pictures, I had an awesome welcome ceremony in my community, with dancing, singing, drumming, and other percussive instruments that I didn't know existed...but I'm looking forward to getting my hands on them :).My house is mud/concrete with a tin roof, and has a straw hut out front for shade. No, there's no running water, toilet, electricity, cell phone service, or any of that jazz...so I think I just eliminated a list of people who MAY have come to visit me :). The house is two rooms...concrete boxes really (each a bit bigger than 10x10), with one window in each, and a tin roof. The area I'm in is beautiful, with lots of vegetation and some awesome huge trees! I'm so happy to be in a country where 2/3 of the land is the Sahara Desert, yet I'm in an area with plant life, woo hoo! (just get me a beach and I'll be all set)My village only has 425 people...which is still the smallest village I've heard yet out of all the new volunteers! I have a feeling that by the end of two years it will be a place where "everyone knows your name" (to the tune of Cheers). Since I'm in such a remote area, there's only reliable transport to my banking town once a week (on Saturdays), which is also market day...so it will enable me to do all of my "grocery" shopping on that day. Since there wasn't any public transportation running the day that I left my site, I got to ride my bike 40 km, with a 40 lb. pack on my back...on my 40th day in Mali :).Because of this 40, 40, 40 coincidence, I was going to title this blog post "In the 40's" but I didn't want people to read that and think it was cold here and that everything was fine and not even read my post, ha ha. I made the trek with two other people, and one of them got a flat tire during the ride, so it definitely slowed us down a bit. We pulled over and patched it up, but the patch that he had on him was old and not so good, so the tire wouldn't hold any air. We eventually found a place that could fix the tire for us (very luckily), and we were on our way. The total trip took just about 5 hours and 15 minutes, but we also stopped in there for a bit of a food break to eat some bread, peanut butter, and oranges (little yellow/green ones, not the nice big orange ones Florida produces, ha ha).Long story short, we made it alive...and without hemorrhoids, ha ha (the extra 40 pounds pushing my butt on the bike seat wasn't so comfy...to say the least).Ok, I have to go. Thank you again to everyone who reads this mess of ramblings, and for those who leave comments. It is most encouraging to hear from you all, and I really appreciate it. I'll write again when I can...enjoy the few pictures I was able to upload :).

Peace Corps Training Center - aka Tubaniso or "Camp Peace Corps"

Me climbing rocks in my homestay town, Soundougouba. Yes, that's a mosque in the bottom right. Mali is a Muslim country if you didn't already know!

My classroom where I learn how to speak Bambara.

What I see when I look out my classroom window :).

This is in my room at homestay...I get to see stars during the day! (Translation...there are holes in my roof, so the light shines through making dots on my walls that I pretend are stars, ha ha).

Me and another PCT climbing rocks in Soundougouba.

Me at Tubaniso at mealtime when I had amoebas...I'm happily holding my first dose of medication :).

The group of PCT's who will be spending the next two years in the Koulikoro Region of Mali, woo hoo!

Well, the past two weeks have been both educational and challenging, with lots of language learning (about 9 hours/day combining Bambara classes and practicing with my host family) and lots of getting sick, woo hoo :).

My day starts each morning with one of my “family” members tapping on the door to my room at 6:30AM to wake me. They’re awake way before that, but it takes me so long to fall asleep at night that I usually will sleep until I get the wake-up call.

Sleeping has definitely been one of the more challenging things of the past two weeks. I’ve been finding it extremely difficult to fall asleep being that my room is a hot box to the point that sweat is pouring out from my skin, even though I’m laying perfectly still. I have a small, one square foot, window and I leave my door open at night with the screen door shut, but I can’t feel any of the breeze that passes through the window unless I stand up right in front of it (and sometimes there’s no breeze at all…and I’m using the term “breeze” very loosely, it’s not the cool refreshing kind you’re thinking of :). Ok, I’m going off on a bit of a tangent here, but I’ll just say that my initial plan was to fan myself to sleep with this little weaved, bamboo-like, fan I was given. It feels good, but I have to move my arm to fan myself, so I sweat from all the movement (yes, I can sense all of your jealousy now).

So, after not sleeping very much for several nights, I decide to set my mosquito net up outside and lay my mat down on the dirt where I can feel that cross breeze in all its greatness. My “brothers” stayed up late listening to a radio, playing with their cell phone ring tones, talking, and playing checkers (well, their version involves many moves that I never thought could be done on a checker board). As a result, it still took me a long time to fall asleep…but it was much cooler outside. Then, a nice big fat rainstorm rolled in and hit hard, waking me up to frantically take down my mosquito net, grab my bedding, and sprint back into the hotbox. Back to square one, woo hoo :).

Ok, enough on the sleeping subject, but I needed to preface everything with that because doing everything during the day on minimal amounts of sleep just adds to the excitement :).

Back to the beginning…my day starts each morning with the tap on my door. I then put my bathing bucket outside my door, someone takes it, fills it up and puts it in the bathroom/shower area (an 8’ x 8’ concrete slab with block walls all around and no roof). Once the bucket is planted, I go take a bucket bath. By the time I’m back in my room and just about fully dressed, there’s another knock at my door with my mom holding a bowl of boiling water and a piece of bread. I have a little tin of instant coffee that I mix the boiling water with…and voila, coffee and bread for breakfast.

I leave my room, greet my host dad, say good morning to everyone else in my family (about 15 people), and then say good bye and head to school. I’m the furthest volunteer out on the main street, so I have the longest walk to school…about 10-15 minutes. What often lengthens my trip is the fact that in Malian culture, you have to greet EVERYONE that you pass in your travels. And since everyone sits outside all the time, the numbers add up quickly. Oh, and when I say “greet”, it’s not just a ‘good morning’ but: “Good morning” – “Good morning” – “Was the night peaceful?” – “Yes, the night was peaceful” – “How is your family” – “My family is fine” – “How are you?” – “I’m fine” – “How is your mother, how is your father?” – “They’re both fine” – “See you” – “See you”. It’s funny because this is also the same greeting I have with my host dad when I greet him in the morning, and it doesn’t make sense for him to ask about my family and my Mom and Dad when I just woke up and he knows I haven’t spoken to them since I said good night to him, ha ha. But, that’s the way it goes :).

So, school consists of a concrete structure for a classroom with some oldschool desks, a chalkboard, and windows which are essential because there’s no electricity and the only lighting is the natural lighting coming through the windows. There’s 3 kids in my class (including myself) and 4 kids in the other class. The language training is all about constant conversation, either student to teacher or student to student, applying whatever was just taught to us. It’s very tiring, but very effective…and I can feel my language improving.

Now, just when I thought I was getting acclimated to this new routine, I started feeling sick. I couldn’t eat anything for breakfast and then I laid on the floor of the classroom for the entire morning session (4 hours) trying to participate but was just too nauseous to be involved. After the morning session my teacher had me call the Peace Corps doctor, who told me to get some bananas and oranges, and to just take it easy for the rest of the day. I had absolutely no energy to even walk back home, so my teacher hailed me a donkey and a cart that were rolling by with two Malian women who were coming back from the market. I rode back and then slept at my house for the remainder of the day, waking up whenever someone would come home and ask me how I was feeling and what was the matter (well, I’m assuming this is what they were asking…remember I can hardly communicate with these people!).

For the next couple of days, all I did was lay down and sleep all day, then sleep all night. I didn’t think it was possible to sleep all day and all night, but my body was definitely trying to conquer something. The only thing I ate over this period was a couple of bananas and an orange here and there, and later on my teacher got me some little, plain, biscuit-like crackers that kind of taste like animal crackers. Oh, I guess I shouldn’t say that I’d lay down all day and night, because I also landed up having diarrhea, which had me sprinting to the bathroom about 10 times per day, but I’d get nauseous from standing up, so I’d have to make it quick and then lay back down immediately, fun, fun :). I'm not leaving out the little details...have you noticed?

After being rather miserable for a few days (the doctor and I both thought I had giardia from the symptoms), I finally woke up one morning and was starting to feel better. With that, one of the other volunteer’s dad walks to my room with a cell phone and hands it to me. On the other end is the Peace Corps doctor telling me that she heard I was feeling horrible, that I had tremors, and that she had a transport on its way to pick me up. I was very confused, and told her that that wasn’t true and that I was actually starting to feel better, not 100%, but definitely feeling better. I told her to cancel the transport and that I would see her on Sunday when all the volunteers head back to Tubaniso.

With that, I hung up the phone and my teacher pulls up to my room on his moto (moped). I told him about the phone call and that I cancelled the transport, and he seemed to be frustrated. I thought he’d be happy I was feeling better, but what I found out was that one of the other volunteers' dad went to him early in the morning to tell him how horrible I was feeling and that I was getting worse. He immediately called the doctor, who then called the transport to come and rescue me, ha ha. I don’t know where that guy got the idea that I was getting worse, but it definitely caused a bit of a ruckus. So, right after my teacher finds out that I’m ok, he rides away and very shortly after I hear a truck running outside…the transport. I guess he never got the message because he’s trying to get me to go with him, and I’m trying to explain to him that I’ll be ok, but we can’t communicate with each other. Somehow I get across the fact that I’ll go with him to the school so that my teacher can explain everything to him, so I hop in the truck and...sweet deal, Air-conditioning! Anyway, I have my teacher explain everything to the driver who understands and then leaves.

I'm going to jump ahead really quick because I need to go get some sleep. Getting back to Tubaniso (camp Peace Corps), my results came in from a stool sample I had sent in two days prior and I don't have giardia afterall, it's ameobas! Now, I think ameobas are the worst that you can get (stomach-wise), but there is medication you can take to flush out your system, so I was just happy to know what it was that I had, and that it could be treated and be done with.

So, as I type right now, I am two doses into my medication, and feeling significantly better, so no need to worry :). I'm leaving to go back to my homestay tomorrow morning and will be there for 12 days again, so I won't have internet until then.

Really quickly, I just want to mention that there are some awesome rock formations at my homestay where I would often go to climb with other volunteers just to get away, climb, and relax in some shade. It's like our safe-haven where we don't need to talk to people, so it's really great. I wanted to mention this part because looking back, most of what I wrote about wasn't necessarily good stuff. So, the rocks are good!

Thanks for reading and I'll update in 2 weeks!

So, today I left the Peace Corps Training center (I call it Camp Peace Corps) in Tubaniso to head to my homestay village in Soundougouba, Mali. Myself and 6 other Peace Corps Trainee’s (PCT’s) all came to the village of Soundougouba together to mainly engage in some intensive language training (total immersion…dropping us in a village with nearly no Bambara words to communicate with, ha ha). When we first arrived, the village people had all congregated at the chief’s home and were singing, dancing, and playing drums and gourds to welcome us. We had to dance around the circle with them, and then we eventually were sat down across from the chief and the other elders of the community. We were given a very nice welcome speech by the chief and a few of the other elders (in Bambara…our Malian PC counterpart, Christian, did the translating), and John (PCT) presented the chief with kola nuts as a kind gesture/thank you. Soon after, each of the PCT’s names were announced to present us to our new host families. We had to do a quick dance around the counterclockwise moving train of Malians, and then our families announced the Malian names to be given to each of us. My new family name is Traore, and my new first name is Zan, meaning the "second son".

After that whole rigmarole, we walked from the chief’s place to each of our own homestays. They wouldn’t let me carry my own internal frame backpack, but my host mother (one of my host mother’s…my host father has 3 wives J) quickly realized that it was too heavy for her back…so she put it on her head, I wasn’t surprised, ha ha. I was shown to my room, was helped putting up my mosquito net, and was then served lunch (rice with some sauce on top). Wife #3 (yes, they each have their own status) poured water over my hands as I cleaned them with soap before lunch. This is very important because you’re not only eating with your hands, but you're sharing a community bowl (with the family), and so you want them to wash their hands too before you all start digging in J.

I sat and went through some vocabulary with my host dad (yes, it was very difficult being that neither of us could speak a word to each other). One thing that was extremely helpful is this visual dictionary I brought that has thousands of pictures and has the French and English translation right next to each picture. So, being that I can just flip to a picture when I’m trying to ask what a word is, I started writing the Bambara translation right into the book. I have a feeling it’s going to be a great learning tool for me!

After a few hours being on our own at our homestays, we all met back up at 2:30PM at the chief’s house to have a quick debriefing session, went back to our families for a bit, met back up at 6PM for a quick language review, then back to our families at 7PM for a bucket bath and dinner.

This is definitely going to be extremely challenging, but I’m excited for what lies ahead, and picking up some language skills!

So, first I just want to thank everyone for the comments and e-mails, it's really nice to get onto the computer and have notes from people, so Thank You.

Ok, now for the good stuff...I'm heading out tomorrow morning to move in with my host family (I just found out the village a couple hours ago), and I'm really excited about the group I'm going to be with. There are a few guys that I'll be with for language training that are super light-hearted, and I think the comic relief will be much needed!

I may not have internet for 11 days while I'm with I'm at "homestay", but I'll be here back at the training center afterward for 3 days, so I'll try and give an update them. This will be total immersion, going to live with a family that only speaks Bambara (the language I am learning), and I don't speak Bambara, so it should be quite challenging! You're prayers are welcome and appreciated!

Ok, I only have a second, but I just wanted to quickly let everyone know that I arrived safely in Mali, Africa on Friday, July 10th, 2009. Training keeps us and will continue to keep us very busy, but I will post when I can. For those that don't know, I joined the Peace Corps, and will be living/working in Mali, West Africa for the next 27 months working on a water sanitation project. The initial 9 weeks is all training, but I do have some internet access during this time, so check back soon.

Thanks for checking in on me :).

Ok, so this post is super late (8 months), but before I start writing about my new venture (Peace Corps) I want to wrap up this Haiti blog. Sorry everyone, but most of the points are bulleted because that's what I did back when I wrote everything, and I'm not going to be able to go back right now and write out each day's story. I'm also not really explaining things...so this post is more just being used to complete the Haiti trip journal for myself, my apologies. But, if you stay tuned in, I should have some new and exciting material to share about me now being in Mali.Monday, October 27, 2008:Matt and I arrived in Milot at 10AM. Pigged out on goldfish, and went to find Meegoda, his daughter Eleanor, Bryce, and Melissa up at the hospital’s computer lab. Immediately went and showed them several water sources around Milot, and was impressed with my memory in that I located every one I was looking for. I haven’t seen or thought about these locations since last year. Those guys did water testing at each spot, and then we headed back to incubate the samples in the hospital’s lab and then headed over for lunch. Matt & I were very hungry from our journey, and were very pleased with the spread of food that was put before us. It’s always like that when staying at the Crudem compound. At lunch, we met Seth, a young volunteer at Crudem, and he toured us around the compound so that we could understand the way the area operates, and scope out a production area for ourselves. Afterward, Matt & I showed the EWB group what we brought with us (2 molds, lids, tubes, gravel, etc.), and they showed us what tools and miscellaneous items they brought with them (mostly the list of items I told them to bring, minus the 1½” wrench and a few other items). They didn’t bring a 1½” wrench, of which Chris said “they better bring a 1½” wrench because you can’t find them anywhere in Haiti”, ha ha, oh well.Afterward, I showed the EWB group one more water source for them to test, and then talked to a guy that I met last year, Michael (pronounced “Michelle”). I also met a bunch of other guys that I met last year, and I was amazed to see how much that played a role in the progress we made this week. People were happy to see that I came back, and were willing to help. I asked Michael if we could find a 1½” wrench somewhere, and he said he’d look for me. What do you know, he came back within 30 minutes and had an adjustable wrench that could open to a full 1½” wrench, I was impressed.Soon after, we had a meeting with Matt & I, Dr. Ladocsi, and the EWB group and we talked about what the plans are for our project.Dinner was delicious, and sleep was tough the first night as we killed the power a bit early and didn’t have our fans for the evening.Tuesday, October 28th, 2008:BreakfastGameplan for meeting w/ sister MarthaMet w/ sister Martha, head of hospital (Dr. Charletmeu), & director of public healthThey suggested meeting with the principal of prof. school, Lubin RosnySet up appt. w/ Rosny, Liason between hospital & school, & Sis. Martha @ 11amThey all liked the BSF and the project, we received their blessingWe asked for the production area and our wish was granted and the key was handed overAgreed with Rosny that the students could begin learning at 8:00AM the following morningGot Bryce & Melissa started on cleaning up the area (w/ help from some Haitians) while Matt & I went and picked up misc. tools (buckets, cement, shovels, sand), negotiating all the way throughSetup shopDinner“Accomplishments of today, goals of tomorrow” meetingWednesday, October 29th, 2008:Started working at 6AMGot everything set up & prepared molds for students coming at 8AMBreakfastStudents arrived (as well as other bystanders), and Matt & I demonstrated how to make a BSF. The class was successfulMelissa left for Cap Haitien to see an orphanage and pick up some supplies we couldn’t get the day beforeWe unloaded the load of sand from the truck using 5 gallon bucketsAfter clean up, we went and used the computers for a few minutes before lunch because there wasn’t enough time to go get gravel or search for all the water committee membersAfter lunch, everyone went to Dr. Higgin’s lecture about heart murmurs Matt, Bryce, & Marie went to the gravel pit to pick up stone, and they tried charging twice the amount that they quoted us the day beforeWhile they were at the pit, I headed out into the town with a local Haitian “Thony” to find the water committee members from last year, and let them know about Thursday’s meetingFather TiJwa was in Canada, Maurice Ettienne was in the US, I met with Jose Valbrun, Elios Charlott, & Pierre WilfridI got back to Crudem at the same time as Matt and the others, and we regrouped a bit. They told me of their gravel troubles, but they still picked up more sand and some gravel.Melissa & Eleanor got back from Cap with a wheel barrow, more buckets, fine mesh for the sand sieve, tarp, copy of lock key, etc.Dinner“Accomplishments of today, goals of tomorrow” meetingMade a list of steps for constructing a BSF for the students and I started drawing picturesI couldn’t draw and stay awake any longer, so I sat on the couch and watched the end of the movie everyone was watching “The Notebook”Thursday, October 30th, 2008:Started working at 6AMBryce & Melissa started putting together the wheel barrowMatt & I prepared for the classBreakfastClass arrived (and Rosny & one of the teachers) and Matt & I demonstrated how to demold, and then had the students work with us to make the next two filtersWe had one of the students write down the procedures step-by-step, and to our surprise he later rewrote them so they were perfectNika, the mayor, and the two SOIL girls showed up, along with 3 people from an orphanageWe explained the technology to them and chatted a bitHad lunch with everyone, including Nika, Sasha, and LeiaAfter lunch we unloaded the truck of the sand and gravel with buckets (wheel barrow didn’t have air in the tire yet)Matt, myself, and Michel headed out for a different sand and gravel pit much further away, heading on the paved road toward the DR. Unfortunately, they only had lots and lots of sandThen we headed for the original sand and gravel pit to place an order of small gravelWe did some negotiating (of course) and I signed a contract w/ Mr. Gravel, the head honcho for a full truckload of gravel for $2000 HTGSOIL guys showed up with some paint that Sasha ordered for usPlanned for the Water Committee meeting with Dr. LadocsiDinnerHad everyone show up at Crudem for the meeting, traipsed everyone through the mud back to our filter yard to show the BSFPlanned on having everyone go to Father’s TiJwa’s house (weren’t allowed to stay at Crudem), but we landed up going to the mayor’s office for the meeting (probably about 20 attendees)The meeting was a success, people were excited and supportive of the BSF projectI later found out that I didn’t have a heart murmur after all, woo hoo (thanks Dr. Higgins)Friday, October 31st, 2008 – Halloween!:Started working at 6:30AMGot everything set up in work yardBreakfastHad students do the demolding and pouring of new filters all by themselves. They did a great job.While I was finishing up with the students, the truck broke down while Matt and Bryce were trying to go get more bags of cement; they did eventually get it goingI took some pictures with the very excited students. They were proud of the work that they did all by themselves.I also took a video explaining the work area and how it’s laid outWe got the completed sieves from the carpenter shop, with wheel barrow attachment and all JMatt & I left to pick up the stone we contracted for the day beforeOf course, it wasn’t near as easy as it could have been. They filled the truck up ¾ of the way and demanded the full $2000 HTG payment. My line was “Ou kohne, plen machin” and kept pointing at the contract (this meant, “You know it. Full truckload”).We eventually got our full load, we just had to play their gameLunchGot Marie to translate to install the filter at the professional school (with all the students watching) while Bryce, Melissa, and others unloaded the gravel from the truck.We were told that the group picture was happening at the hospital, so we headed up there to find no one.We went into the lab and helped Sister Marie out with a few things, and she showed us some bacteria under the microscopesWe took the group photo outside, and then Sister Marie gave us all a tour of her lab and showed us some more things under the microscopesWe tried calling Nika to install her filter, but were unsuccessfulWe took Joanna and Anna out to paint the one filter, Matt and I watched…and they had a bit of a paint fight (the color red was quite rich (bright) and pretty awesome)Dinner and cake (celebrated Matt’s birthday)We thought we were going to have a nice relaxing night, but Father Tijwa showed up with all of the people that were too sick to come to the meeting the night before…oh and the mayor showed up tooWhat do you know, I land up traipsing everyone back out to the filter area to do my schpeal one last flippin’ time J (I was so tired)Played Harry Potter Uno, I got the Howler card, then played Egytian Ratscrew…a silly game requiring focus, something I lost days ago…with my lack of sleep JHung out and chatted for a bit, and went to bedSaturday, November 1st, 2008:Matt & I slept in until 6:30AMEveryone was packing up to leaveThey had a quick breakfast while I collected contact info, and they headed offMatt & I then had a relaxing breakfast with our favorite Sister MarieAfterward, we did a bunch of miscellaneous things we needed to get done before departingCleaned up work areaInstalled Nika’s filter (brought “John” as our translator)Painted filter in school (teacher wasn’t too happy)Installed filter at Eveline’s house down the road (SOIL)Purchased wrenchChowed down on junk food (vanilla crème cookies and soda…and a banana)Left for Father Tijwa’s house with John, went over last bit of project details and bought some of his cards made by his workersDrove up to the parking lot for the Citadel (carried lots of Haitians along the way)Hiked up to the Citadel, very cloudyStarted raining on our way back down, road was very slippery (skidded a few times), and we were carrying many a HaitianGot back to Crudem, wrote a note to Jess having her tell the students some things and also gave her the spare key we got made up in CapEven though we planned to head to Cap, it was already dark, and a torrential downpour started, so we were starting to think otherwiseUpon our call to Sasha, we were encouraged to head to Cap anyway, and we didSasha and Leia took us out to a restaurant called La Kay, in which Matt & I had some delicious cheeseburgersHeaded back to the SOIL apartment, chatted for a bit…but was overtired and couldn’t speak another wordWe set up our mosquito nets, and passed outSunday, November 2nd, 2008:Matt & I got up early, packed up the truck, and waited on the roof until the girls got upHad coffee and breakfast with them (Thony made eggs), but my stomach was giving me troubles, so I ate a banana, attempted to chat for a bit, but then went and took a couple Tums and laid down for a bitWe left at 10AM, got gas, and departed for our journey home (CWH, Pierre Payen) at 10:20AM.It was a rather long day with the trip being about 7 hours long, with getting a flat tire in thereMatt let me drive after getting the flat tire fixed, and I drove all the way home to Pierre PayenWe unpacked, showered, and had dinnerMatt & I came back to the room, watched an episode of “The Office” (“Diversity Day”…from season one), and tried to put on an episode of “Planet Earth”, but didn’t make it more than 10 minutes. We couldn’t keep our eyes open. In bed around nine.Monday, November 3rd, 2008:Matt & I slept in a bit, and it was so nice to just lay in bed and relax a bit after such an intense week Homemade bagels with peanut butter & jelly for breakfast (I made a fried egg too), then we started on what Chris wanted us to do for the day…figuring out angles for braces on the solar arrayFigured all the angles out, made egg salad for lunch, and sat out on the back patio for a while. It was a gorgeous day, and there was an awesome breeze blowing. We breathed it in and enjoyed it for quite a while.Brought the computers out and started transferring photos/responding to e-mailsChris came back from his trip to Port picking up the shipping container contents (ordered nine months ago), and we helped unload the truck, which included very carefully unloading 64 solar panels one by one.Ate dinner, played with Olivia for a bit, and sat down with Matt to type this bulleted list.I’m going to take a shower now, then I’ll go to bed because I’m going to pack in the morning (we have to leave for Port at 6:30AM…but I’m too tired to pack right now)Haiti Complete :)

It's been tough keeping up with the blog since I've been home, but I need to do it in order to finish this thing as a complete Haiti photo journal for myself, and there may be some people that still want to hear about the rest of the trip, about coming back home, and about what my plans are now that I have returned home. No, I won't answer any of those questions now...I'll keep the few readers I have in suspense :)...(aka, buy myself some time to figure out those answers myself).

Ok, back to Milot. But before I begin, I need to give a brief explanation as to why Matt & I went up to Milot in the first place.

As I think I've mentioned in previous posts, I attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT...just graduated in May), and through the course of my studies I came across a student-run organization called Engineers Without Borders (EWB...for more info, check out www.ewb-usa.org). There are chapters of EWB all over the US & abroad, and there were a few students that were just getting the NJIT chapter started.

As it turns out, there was a group of doctors that would travel to Milot each year to provide their services at the local hospital. They approached the newly formed EWB-NJIT chapter saying the following: "People in Milot drink the water, they get sick, they come to the hospital, we fix them, they go back out, drink the water again...and it's a never ending cycle. We need someone to break that cycle".

From there, I travelled to Milot for the first time last year with that group of doctors and two other EWB members. During that trip, our goal was to assess the situation, meet with locals, and collect as much data as possible. Bringing that data back to NJIT, we assessed the situation, and started our research on different clean water technologies appropriate for Milot. Through our research, we came across Clean Water for Haiti and the Biosand Filtration technology, and we selected that as our solution for cleaning the water of Milot.

With that, I graduated from NJIT, and was pursuing different volunteer opportunities that could potentially be long-term. One of the organizations I contacted was Clean Water for Haiti, and so I planned a visit to go down and spend some time with them. It just so happened that an EWB-NJIT group was also going to be travelling to Milot during the time period I would be in Haiti, and the students were planning on purchasing filter molds and other materials from CWH. So, wouldn't it be nice if Owen could drive up to Milot with all of the materials, and help us get this project started? What a great idea! Ha, ha.

As I was getting all the details worked out with CWH, they suggested that Matt join me for the trip up there, which I was thrilled about. And so, the trip was planned. Matt & I would be travelling to Milot with tools & materials to meet the EWB group and help them get their very own biosand filter project started.

I'm sorry to bore you with all of this, but I hope that it sets the stage for future, more interesting posts. Check back soon.

The next morning, Matt & I got up at 5AM in order to hit the road early for our travels to Milot. The sun hadn't risen yet, but by the time we got our stuff, climbed down from the roof, and were ready to go, the morning rays were upon us.

Unfortunately, we used our stealth moves to leave without waking anyone, only to find that one of our truck tires was very low on air, and we couldn't depart for our journey until we woke people up to ask for a pump. And no, driving to the nearest Exxon station with "free air" wasn't an option for us.

I climbed back onto the roof to wake an AMURT volunteer, who then hopped in the truck with us to drive to the nearest AMURT office. We get there and find the two security guards sound asleep (sleeping so soundly that we couldn't wake them up with loud noises...and we didn't have the heart to shake them). We eventually talk to the landlord of the office who said there was no pump there. So, we drive to another location where volunteers sleep outside on a concrete slab (5 star accommodations). With a little convincing involved, we got our Gonaives tour guide friend from the day prior to hop in with us and show us a place where people are set up in the street to fix tires.

We needed the left front tire pumped up, but I guess the right one needed air too :).

We got pumped up, dropped our friendly helpers back off, and restarted our journey at 6:15AM. It was a rather scenic drive over the mountains, and the total trip time was about 4 hours (even though it was only 4 hours, that number should be multiplied by a factor of 3 to accurately calculate the mental exhaustion felt after 4 hours on Haitian roads). Over the hill and through the woods.

When we arrived in Milot, Matt and I met up with the EWB group (Bryce, Melissa, and Dr. Meegoda). They were ready to begin water testing, so we immediately headed out into the town so I could show them each source where people collect water (I was rather impressed with my memory in that I remembered all the locations just from my first visit to Milot last year...all of the sources except for one are semi-hidden).

Front to back: Bryce, Melissa, me

Left to right: Onlooker, Melissa, Bryce

We had lunch after water testing, and then Matt & I showed the EWB group all the goodies we brought to get this Biosand Filter project going.

The goods: Molds, a filter (not broken in transport, woo hoo), lids, diffuser plates, tubes, luggage, etc.

The rest of the day was spent unpacking, showering, rigging up mosquito netting, and planning our activities/goals for Tuesday and the rest of the week.

You'll notice that in many of the pictures taken in Milot we are wearing scrubs. The organization we stayed with runs a hospital, and most of their volunteers are doctors who all have to wear them. So, there is a large supply for all guests to wear. They're very light & comfortable, and we didn't have to wash them :).

That's all folks. Goodnight.

Please accept my apologies for this extensive gap between posts, I didn't know people actually read this thing (besides my family).Because of how eventful last week turned out to be, I will attempt to summarize the happenings with a series of posts as opposed to just mustering up one big one. It will help me chip away at documenting the adventure bit by bit, and it will give people things to read as I go.

With that said, I will first share some of the promised photos from the last post, Wild, Wild West. As I mentioned, Matt & I toured the area of Gonaives, and then headed out to visit Sou Chod.

First thing you see entering the Gonaives area. More homes underwater.

Mud on the ground and dust in the air, rather unpleasant. One example of an impassable street. In the background you can see excavating taking place. The dump trucks haul the mud to the outskirts of the city and dump along the sides of the road.I couldn't pass this one up. For those of you who are familiar with "Dora the Explorer", this one's for you :).The UN presence in Gonaives. Is it overkill? Maybe, but they keep the peace, and make the place safe enough for other organizations to get in there and help out. Either way, I'm thankful.

Here's a little video clip I took while driving through the streets of Gonaives. It's not representative of the whole city (some areas are better and some are worse), but I figured I'd include it to give a better idea of what it's like.

Ok, that pretty much wraps up our first tour through Gonaives before we headed out to Sou Chod. Saturday (Oct. 25th), we stayed overnight in Sou Chod, and our tours of the salt farms were on Sunday. The desert sunset. AMURT's salt farm project (to learn more about AMURT and their projects, check out www.amurthaiti.org)

The scuffle I told about in the last post.

Playing the tambou (drums) with the locals.

In the late afternoon on Sunday (after the drum circle), we headed back to Gonaives and stayed there overnight in preparation for our trip to Milot the next morning. Volunteers with AMURT brought us to their brand new house to stay the night, which Matt and I were thrilled about. As seen in the pictures below, the rooms are quite nice with their clean tile floors, but the airflow was very poor in the lower level, and the mosquitoes were horrendous. We hand-pumped some well water, took bucket baths, and then headed for bed. We both tried sleeping using one bed sheet each. I tried wrapping myself in the sheet to protect myself from the malaria carriers, but it was so hot that I sweat through the entire sheet within minutes. So, I pulled the sheet off praying for the slightest breeze, but received nothing but an air-raid from my flying friends. Due to lack of airflow in the room and the fact that we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes (yes, I am still taking chloroquine), we decided to head to the roof and try for at least a little sleep. It was a flat concrete roof, and it was significantly cooler because there was a breeze constantly passing over us. As a result, I was able to rewrap myself in the sheet, stay cool (I use that term loosely), and defend myself from the bloodsucking bandits.Oh, and one other thing. Unfortunately, sleepwalking has shown its ugly face in my past, so I carefully positioned myself near a piece of rebar protruding through the roof, and tied my wrist to it giving myself enough slack to move in my sleep, but not enough to allow myself a long painful drop :).Phase I of our sleeping arrangement. Phase II of our sleeping arrangement. If you look close, you'll see another volunteer's tent set up on the roof. We didn't have a tent, so we were under the stars...and the mosquitoes. Notice that it could have been a painful fall had I gone for an unconscious late-night stroll :).This wraps up everything until Monday morning, Oct. 27th. Check back soon for the next episode. Thanks for reading.

Hello everyone,

I am at the UN base in Gonaives right now, and only have a second to give an update. Matt & I drove from CWH to Gonaives on Saturday morning, a trip which took us about 2.5 hours. A guy from AMURT hopped in the truck with us and gave us a tour of the disaster area (the whole city). It's horrible, and I'll share pictures later. People are shoveling/scooping mud out of their homes (what's left of them), and dumping into the streets. In some areas, the mud is mounded so high that the roads are impassable.

After our tour, we grabbed lunch at the UN headquarters (cheeseburgers, woo hoo), and then headed to visit another of AMURT's project locations in Sou Chod ('Sue Shode'). It took us 2.5 hours to get there, and it turned out to be the Haitian desert. Who knew Haiti had deserts? Well, they do, full with cacti and all.

Sou Chod is famous for its natural hot springs, in which we did get a chance to take a dip in the hot, hot water (over 100 degrees F). Even though the area is known for the springs, no one goes there because of how far away it is, and how bad the roads are. You can't call these things roads...you just can't. Anyway, we stayed there last night, and in the morning got up and headed for one of AMURT's really neat projects, a salt farm.

Our visit to the salt farm landed up being much crazier than I had ever imagined in that people who weren't hired to do work were shoveling away, and expecting to be paid. They thought they wouldn't get caught actually doing the work because it was a Sunday and they didn't expect anyone from AMURT to show up, but we did. Before we knew it there were 100 people there, and they were not happy :). I don't know where all these people came from, it was all desert as far as I could see, but they continued to emerge from behind cacti. When I say 100 people, it could have been more, because I did a rough count. People got so rowdy and angry that some Haitian fist fights broke out, and people were chasing each other around with machetes. Everyone carries a machete in Haiti, and it's something you just get used to as you walk around. But, this was the first time I've seen them swung at other people.

It seemed as if it was all for show (Haitians LOVE drama...especially out there in the wild west), but one guy did land up grabbing someone else's shovel and started banging it against rocks trying to break it. It didn't break fast enough for him, so he grabbed a machete and just chopped the handle in half. A useless shovel, wonderful...that was probably weeks worth of wages. Personally, I like the woman who grabbed two big rocks in her hands and started going after people. If I had a video camera I could be making money off this stuff :).

Don't worry, I didn't feel like I was in too much danger as Haitians normally don't bother foreigners, well aggressively anyway. Dharma, a guy from AMURT, seemed to get most of the conflicts sorted out, and he seemed pretty happy about the overall outcome.

After driving back to Sou Chod from the salt farm, I landed up playing the drums with a whole bunch of local kids. AMURT had just gotten a whole bunch of handmade Haitian hand drums, and I started playing one with one of the AMURT guys. Before we knew it, there were at least 20 people from the village standing around watching me play the drum with a whole bunch of Haitian kids. It was a lot of fun, and I have a lot of great pictures to show when I get back from this trip.

After the drum session, Matt drove us back to Gonaives, and here I sit at the UN base typing this update. I'm going to see if I can get any food from the cafeteria before we leave for AMURT's rental home in the area.

We leave first thing tomorrow morning for Milot to meet the EWB-NJIT group, I can't wait. I'll update the next chance I get. Toodles.

Hello hello,

Yeah, so I changed a few things around here with the pictures, I hope you don't mind. I just figured that having Ireland photos up while I was in Haiti didn't make much sense (but they were nice pictures, right?).

This post is going to be rather short and sweet today as Matt and I leave for Gonaives early tomorrow morning...and again, it's already way past my bedtime. We have the truck packed up with materials, and I just finished packing my clothes, but I figured that I should leave a quick post as I may not have internet access for the next week or so. I may just have to do one super-post when I get back from Gonaives and Milot :).

This week was great in that I spent the entire time in Filter Technician Training...and I am now an official Filter Technician, woo hoo! Actually, according to my diploma, I'm an official "Teknisyen Filte", being that the course was taught in Creole. I've learned a ton about how to set up and maintain a successful filter project, and that's exactly what Matt and I will be doing on our trip to Milot.

Our graduating class :). Chris & Leslie (the teachers) in the back center.

Yesterday, we (yes, myself & Matt) walked to our friend Ricardo's house who lives about 15 minutes away from CWH. We've been practicing our Creole with Ricardo and his friend Evans a couple days a week after work, and it's been working out great. The deal is, they have to speak English, and we have to speak in Creole, and it's a learning experience for all of us. So, for the first time, we decided to go to Ricardo's house instead of him and Evans coming to CWH. It was really neat to walk through the village and have some one's house to go to, and not just be walking around like a tourist. Plus, Evans was with us, so it was like a free pass to walk in that area. When we met up with Ricardo, he took us for a walk to a nearby lake that was gorgeous, and then we climbed to the top of a mountain just next to lake...again...awesome views.

Ricardo, myself, & Evans...the traditional Oreo cookie (when you're living in Haiti, you can say things like that without them being off-color :) ...right?) View from up top: Pierre Payen, HaitiAlso, I know I've mentioned that Chris shot a rat some time ago, but today he shot a woodpecker with his BB gun :). They are rather nice looking birds, but it turns out that they peck at the coconuts on the property, and ruin perfectly good coconuts. So, Chris kills them when he sees them, and lays them on a rock at the end of the driveway. When little kids walk by, they take the woodpeckers home and eat them...so he's really doing everyone a service...except for the woodpecker.

Chris with his prize...nice shot Chris.Ok, I said this post was going to be short and sweet, but it's no longer short, so I'm hoping it's some variation of sweet. Please say a prayer that our travels go smoothly this week, and I will make another update as soon as I am able.As always, thanks for reading.

Apparently, city power hasn't reached CWH in over two months as a result of hurricanes, so they've been running on a generator that whole time (which costs a lot of money in fuel). Tonight, Chris was telling Matt & I how we're low on power because of all the people that are here (CWH has 8 students this week for a filter technician training course). A few minutes later, we walked outside and saw the indicator light on that let's Chris know that city power is on. We checked the batteries that store power for this place, and sure enough, they were almost fully charged...sweet deal. As I mentioned, there is a Filter Technician Training class this week, which is where all of my time has been going. It teaches people how to successfully launch and maintain a biosand filter project, which is what NJIT's chapter of Engineers Without Borders is about to do, so this is very helpful. It's taught in Creole, which makes it rather difficult, but Leslie and Chris have been helping me out with translation as we go, and I've picked up a handful of words along the way :). I know I've had quite a bit of steel talk in my past posts, and you're probably not interested, but I just wanted to let you know that we got the steel yesterday from the steel puncher in Port-au-Prince, and it's awesome. No plasma cutting or grinding required...just grab some pieces and get welding.

Chris, pleased with his fresh cut batch of steel.I realized that with all of the pictures I've posted, hardly any have been of Chris & Leslie's daughter Olivia, whom entertains us often...and as you can tell...she's adorable. So, here's a shot I snapped today of Olivia sitting on a common Haitian made chair.Too cute, wouldn't you say?Ok, last couple things before I sign off here. Matt & I met a guy from an organization called AMURT (www.amurthaiti.org), and we were invited to visit their operation in which they have quite a few neat projects going on. So, before we head up to Milot on Monday, we're leaving early Saturday morning to head to Gonaives, and will be staying there for the weekend. It will cut some time off our trip to Milot, so it works out nicely in that respect, too. Gonaives is where the hurricanes did some serious damage recently, killing hundreds of people. I know the area is in bad shape, so I guess I'll get to see what it's like first hand.By the way, for those of you that leave comments, I try to comment back on your comments sometimes, so check back to the ones you leave...I may have responded :).Thank you, come again soon.

Well, I already gave you a rundown on Friday's adventure, and the rest of the weekend continued to be rather adventurous. Saturday I got up, ate breakfast (made poached eggs for the first time in my life), read my book for a bit (Paul Polak's Out of Poverty: What works when traditional approaches fail), and then Matt and I got the mopeds out to go and visit a local orphanage.

Being that this would be our first try at the mopeds, it took us a while to find the keys, helmets, figure out how to get them running, etc., but eventually we headed off...and of course had some difficulties. I got about 15 feet on the driveway and my scooter stalled out. I got it started again, and then made it about 30 feet down the road, and it stalled out again. This happened continuously every hundred yards or so, until I asked Matt if he'd switch with me to see if I was just doing something wrong (plus, he owns a motorcycle and if more familiar with motorized bikes).

No, it wasn't me...but now Matt was riding the bad bike :), ha ha. We got about halfway to the orphanage, and we decided to head back because it wasn't worth stopping every so often, and it would take quite a few kick-starts each time to get it going again. We played the stop & go game all the way home, receiving confused Haitian stares all the while. First of all, what are two white kids doing on scooters on Haitian roads...that's too dangerous for them. Plus, why can't they drive more than 100 yards without stopping? Silly blan (white). Yet again, Matt has stalled out on the side of the road.

We made it back to CWH and Chris immediately determined that the air-fuel mixture was out of whack, and made the correct adjustment. So, we were back on our way, to drive by the same confused Haitians the first two times we passed them by :).We finally made it to Canaan (the orphanage), joined them for lunch (perfect timing), and got a grand tour of the place. It was quite an operation in that they have a school, dorm, cafeteria, and chapel, all on-site for the orphans that live there. They also have a pig & rabbit farm where they teach the kids breed the animals, and then they eat them :). One pig just happened to have 13 piglets the day before, so of course I snapped a shot of that.Bacon, pork roll, sausage, ham...should I name each one of them?After our tour of Canaan, Matt and I headed back to CWH for dinner, and then drove the new van back to the orphanage afterward for movie night. All the kids (including myself) crammed into the cafeteria to watch the new "Alvin & the Chipmunks" movie (well, I don't know how new it is, but it's new to me). It felt kind of surreal sitting there with a slew of orphans in Haiti watching Alvin & the Chipmunks be projected onto a screen (I don't know, maybe that's something you do often?)After the movie, four of us foreigners grabbed a deck of cards and played a card game called "Oh, hell" (I had never played it before, but it was pretty cool). Back to CWH...and off to sleep.Sunday morning Matt & I got up early (5:45AM) so we could head out on another moped adventure to a place called Capiat (aka...The Source). Capiat is a place up in the mountains where there is cold freshwater that bubbles out of the ground and forms a bit of a swimming hole. In order to get up there, we drove the scooters up the side of the mountain until we couldn't go any further, chained them to a tree, and then hiked the next half hour up to the spot.Me cruising around Haitian mountains on a moped (a very bumpy ride I might add...so much so that I probably shouldn't call it cruising).Swimming at "the source"...how refreshing :).I know that being white in Haiti draws enough attention in itself...but hiking up to a very central location for a certain community and going swimming there makes it that much worse. It wasn't so bad in the beginning because we got up there so early, but eventually there was a decent swarm of people (mostly kids), just standing around staring at us (and they don't get bored of it). They'll sit there and stare all day if you let them, so eventually we wrapped up our swim due to an uncomfortable feeling that you just can't shake.We hiked back down and the scooters were still there, woo hoo! Before we got there, we were trying to decide if we would have to walk the whole way down because of missing tires...or missing bikes even.We made our way back down the rest of the mountain, drove to Canaan's chapel, changed our clothes, and went to church. We had someone in the back of the chapel translating the service to English for us, which was nice, but there was lots of singing which was pretty fun to watch/listen. I can barely speak Creole...so no, I wasn't singing in Creole...not one word.The church...before it filled up with all the kids and locals...notice the uniform pews :).Ok, I need to wrap this up because it's almost two hours past my bedtime already (11PM).Later on Sunday evening, Chris introduced a British TV series known as "The Young Ones". We watched one episode, and the afterglow had this type of feel to it..."what on flippin' earth did I just watch?" It was 100% British humor, and unfortunately not much of it made sense to me. Matt was in the same boat...so I didn't feel like I was missing out on too much.Last thing: I found the below map on a wall at Canaan, and it's rare to see a good Haitian map, so I figured I would share it. My current location at Clean Water for Haiti is on the central west coast, just south of St. Marc where the number 1 is. Next week, Matt and I will be heading up to Cap Haitien (northern coast), and then down to Milot (about 12 miles south of Cap Haitien).

A decent map of Haiti if you're interested.That's all from me. Thanks for reading...and have a good week.

As I mentioned, it's a holiday weekend here for us (Death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines: former leader of the Haitian Revolution 1806). So, I got to sleep in Friday and relax for a bit (up at 7AM). I slept in today too (6AM). I'm just on that schedule now, so I can't help it...and I like getting up early anyway. By the way, if you were wondering...no, there isn't any night life in Haiti :).

Yesterday, Matt and I decided to go snorkeling. We grabbed our stuff and drove out to a spot about 15-20 minutes away, where we were able to park right next to the water and swim right from the truck. I was expecting the coral to be dead, but to my surprise we saw quite a bit of colorful fish and coral.

While we were still pretty far out, we had a Haitian guy named John swim out to meet us and ask what our names were. We introduced ourselves (in the middle of the ocean) and he tried to spell our names out loud. He spelt Matt's right, and made a mistake on mine, so I helped him along and told him how to spell it. I thought that he was just friendly and practicing his English...but I was wrong, ha ha. As soon as he swam away, Matt remembered hearing a story about a guy who would pull the same stunt and make bracelets with people's names stitched into them and try to sell them.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later (impressive speed I might add) this guy comes swimming out holding the two bracelets above water. First of all, we didn't want to buy anything, and you have to stand your ground when Haitians try to manipulate you, or else it will be a daily occurrence. So Matt says "I've heard about you", and John says "No, no, you heard about George, but I am John" (apparently George=bad and John=good, ha ha). We told him that we were out there snorkeling, not shopping, and that we forgot our money for the coral reef mini-mart (I'm teasing, we didn't really say that, but said something to the affect of "what would you like us to do out here?"). He told us he'd be waiting for us (of course), and we continued our relaxing venture.

About an hour later we headed back and met our new friend John at the truck (I do give him some credit for his craftiness and persistence...but I still wasn't giving in). He told us he hadn't eaten in 2 days and started to give us a hard time. He tied the "OWEN" bracelet on my wrist...and while he was working on Matt I untied it. I didn't want to be forceful or rude with the guy, but I probably should have been a bit more firm. I tried giving it back and he wouldn't take it. He told me he wanted me to have it because it had my name on it. Matt told him that he can't keep pressuring people into this scheme and John agreed...and continued pressuring :).

Long story short, Matt and I get into the truck, and John still wouldn't take my bracelet back. I didn't want to throw it out of the window at him (which Chris said I should have done), so we made it clear that we were going to drive away with the bracelet unless he took it back. But he wouldn't take it, so now it sits on the bulletin board here at CWH as an example for all future visitors.

The merchandiseAfter getting back from snorkeling we went with Chris & Leslie to their friends' house (where we had Canadian Thanksgiving) and we went swimming in the pool for the rest of the day. So, all total, I spent over 5 hours in the water yesterday, and I had a bit of sunburn to prove it (yes I was wearing sunscreen). Later on Matt and I watched the movie Ghosts of Cite Soleil, which is a documentary about significant gang activity in Haiti in 2004, but we found that the water had taken it's toll on us and we both barely watched the end of it through slitted eyelids.I wish you a great weekend.

Hello hello,

So I've been having a bit of trouble trying to update the blog, and I think it's a combination of both the computer I'm using and the internet connection. But, I'll give this a shot and hope it goes through.

This week has been great so far, and tomorrow is a Haitian holiday, so we get the day off :) woo hoo! Monday I worked with AutoCAD again to create another set of drawings pertaining to mold production. This time, Chris was looking into getting a company in Port-au-Prince (capital city about 2 hours away) to cut the steel using a steel punch (just like a hole-puncher...but 12 ft. long) instead of using the plasma cutter as we've been doing.

Tuesday I got to go out into the Artibonite Valley on a filter delivery, which was awesome. This is what all of the work here at the mission is focused on, getting filters to people. Between myself, Matt, and 5 Haitian filter technicians, we installed 36 filters, which is the most that can fit on a truck. One pretty cool thing was that while we were out delivering, we received enough additional orders from people in that area for two more truckloads.

The truck being loaded with filters.

On the truck and ready to be delivered.

The way it works is...we take orders when people show interest, and they have to pay up front ($40 Haitian, or $5 US). The actual filters cost about $40 US each, but it is a subsidized project and the people pay $5. It's important for people to pay for them because then they feel like they had to work for it, and they then show ownership and actually take care of them.

Stopped at first spot to deliver. Loaded on top of the filters is all the sand & gravel in bags to be put into the filters once they are placed.

The experience as a whole was really neat because of the interaction with the communities. I don't think I would be invited into a Haitian home under any other circumstances, so installing filters all day I was able to really see what people live like, inside and out. I did get to take a few pictures of people smiling with their new filters, but you don't get to see much inside the homes, so I'll just tell you: mud floor, mud walls, one bed (sometimes a tin roof, sometimes not). The front door is usually a piece of cloth, and the walls are not always the most sturdy, so I wouldn't lean on them.

Doing my first filter installation :).

The recipients of the filter installation.

The actual installation of filters was a bit more involved than I thought it was going to be, but, I did learn, and I'm feeling pretty confident about it. Plus, besides the physical part of the installation, we also bring an educator to gather the women together and explain how the filters work, how to maintain them, and she also covers the importance of personal hygiene.

Kids just got out of school.

Eating lunch on the back of the truck: Spicy Haitian peanut butter and guava jelly on some bread picked up from the market.

Coming back to the truck after installing some filters. The guys in blue and orange are filter technicians from CWH, the rest are locals...just following us :).

Another happy family to receive their filter.

Did I mention there was a full moon? Just kidding...some kids in the area.

Wednesday, Matt and Chris ran errands in Port-au-Prince, and picked up the new mission vehicle, a Toyota Hiace (CWH's first vehicle with A/C!...very exciting). It's a 15 passenger van, which means that groups of visitors no longer have to ride in the back of the truck when they get picked up from the airport (I think they'll be missing out on the true Haitian experience honestly). It was purchased back in February, and they just got it Oct. 15th, so that should give you an idea of how things work in Haiti :).

Leslie with the new wheels.

Oh, so Matt and Chris also brought the drawings to the engineer's office in Port, and found out that they'll be able to save approximately $75 per mold by getting the steel punched... also very exciting.

To celebrate getting the new van, I offered to take everyone out to dinner, which is something Chris and Leslie only get to do when people take them out (they don't spend mission funds on eating out). It was very nice and relaxing, and the food was delicious. We went to the nicest resort in this area call Club Indigo, and it was overall just a nice night out.

Pool and ocean at Club Indigo.

The Rolling family (and my current host family): Chris, Olivia, and Leslie

Matt & I chowing down at the buffet...that might be plate #3 for both of us :).

Today, Thursday, we got up and found out that there were two flat tires on the vehicles. Yes, one was on the new van, and one was on a truck that had just gotten brand new tires. No one seemed phased by it. The roads are so bad here that flat tires are common. That puts the tally up to 3 flats since I've been here.

The project I worked on all day with Matt included designing a shield for the undercarriage of the new van to protect all of the exposed parts. It's not exactly a low-rider, but it just seems like a way of life down here if you want your vehicles to last.

I'm going to end it here, but if you'd like to read more or see any more pictures, check out Leslie's blog at: http://rollingsinhaiti.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading, come again soon. :)

Hello everyone,

Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted, but the internet was down for a time, and it turned out to be a very busy weekend. Friday I cut a bit of steel with the plasma cutter, and then finished up the AutoCAD drawings I was working on. Not that you care, but I was able to get 10 molds out of 6 sheets of 1/8" and 1.5 sheets of 1/4" steel (I was happy).

Plasma cutting on Friday.

Saturday we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving because it turns out there are quite a few Canadians in Haiti. Why...I'm not so sure, but I think part of it has to do with the fact that some Canadians speak French already, and Creole (Haitian language) is French based. I didn't see much of a difference between Canadian and American Thanksgiving, except the fact that this one was spent with sweat dripping down my face as opposed to everyone being bundled up in sweaters. My stomach was bothering me a little so I didn't go all out on the spread of food (unlike me, ha ha), but everything was very good.

Notice the Canadian flag napkins, ha ha.Canadian Thanksgiving in Haiti. As I mentioned, my stomach was a little off, and I was feeling a bit light-headed, but I was still able to entertain these three children without moving from the couch. I am driving a truck and we are dodging a crater (aka Haitian pothole). No worries, they put their invisible seat belts on before we went anywhere :o). Ok, now here's for the best part. The ride to and from our Thanksgiving dinner was better than any Six Flags roller coaster. As a kid, I always wanted to ride in the back of trucks if I had the chance (as most boys do I think), but it was usually unsafe or illegal. Now, being that the truck is the current transport vehicle, Chris, Leslie, and Olivia sit up in the cab while the boys (Matt and I), stand in the back.

The All-Haitian Scream Machine in the back there (New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure has the All-American Scream Machine...if you were wondering). Now in order to stay aboard this 55 mph ride while it flies down dirt roads and dodges craters, goats, humans, etc..., you need to stand behind the cab and hold onto a red cross-bar (not quite visible in the picture, sorry). Taking pictures is not an option, and sunglasses are mandatory. I tried to take some pictures mid-ride, but I was unsuccessful because my one hand almost lost grip of the truck, and my other hand could barely hold onto the camera. Most importantly are the sunglasses (aka windshield). You need to wear them even if it's dark out, because otherwise you would have eyes full of dirt and bugs. I'm hoping you can see the dirt and bug build-up on my glasses, because it's quite comical. Once I learn how to weld I'm thinking about welding on some extra guards on the top, bottom and sides, ha ha. Oh, and don't fix your hair before this ride, because it will look like this at the end :). Ok, last funny thing before I go to bed. Tonight after dinner I was talking with Matt and Leslie in the house when I noticed Chris grab his BB gun, and do a quick lock & load. He didn't head outside, but headed to the kitchen. He put the sight to his eye, pulled the trigger, and I heard something drop and hit the ground outside. So it turned out there was a big rat on the kitchen counter near the window. There aren't any screens in the windows, so when he shot, it was a direct hit and the thing flew out of the window onto the ground...bulls eye :). Had he missed the bb would have gone straight thru a juice pitcher that the rat was in front of, but, no worries, Chris is apparently a marksman, ha ha. Below are a few shots I took before dinner this evening. There were some Haitians out fishing in the sunset, it was quite pretty. Pase bon nwi. (Good night)

Hello hello,

In order to make these concrete biosand filters I've been talking about, you need a steel mold to pour the concrete into (just like pouring jello into a jello mold, except this mold is a big hunk of steel about 4 feet tall...pictures in previous post). The more molds you have, the more filters you can produce...plus a lot of organizations purchase molds from CWH, so they're always making molds.

This morning, I learned how to cut steel with a plasma cutter so that the pieces could be assembled into a mold. They take a big sheet of steel, then cut all the mold pieces out of it like a cookie cutter, except you want to do it so that there is hardly any waste, because steel is significantly more expensive than leftover cookie dough :) (plus we don't have the capability of balling up the leftovers and rolling it out to make more steel sheets).

But, instead of cutting steel all day, I shifted gears and hopped on the computer to use AutoCAD (drafting software) and figure out a way to minimize waste and the number of cuts made on each sheet. There are quite a few molds to be made, so I figured this would be a better use of my time...and it will save the mission some money :).

It's been years since I've used AutoCAD...I love this program :). That's all for now. I'm going to see if I can go for a swim before dinner is ready.

Up at ten to six this morning, rolled out of bed, and I'm at the beach, and Haiti...sweet deal. Work day starts at 6AM here so all of the Haitian hired labor is here just before 6. Getting up so early is not a big deal at all, and I actually like it. We go to bed early (9:30PM), and I've always liked going to bed early and getting up early, so I'm liking the schedule.

.

The view from the back patio :). I got a little tour of the mission here, met some of the workers and then Leslie made some delicious banana pancakes for breakfast :) (there are banana trees on the property). Afterward I headed off to start working on demolding some of the filters poured yesterday, taking the molds apart, greasing them up, reassembling, and then made new ones. That's the main thing I did over the course of the day, but I also had lunch and ran with Matt to the hardware store to load up 3 pieces of rebar and 66 bags of concrete. Chris made us fresh papaya smoothies :).

Leslie made us fresh bagels with her bread maker :).

Matt is in yellow, and the other guys are painting filters and making new ones. Me (the white one), vibrating the concrete in the mold using a rubber mallet.

The workday ends at 2:30PM, so from then until dinner I'm pretty much free to do what I please. I hung out for a bit on the back patio and rehydrated (it's quite hot here), and then Matt and I went for a swim. The water was extremely warm with a few cool spots, so it was still refreshing. I may even start swimming after work for some exercise :).We had dinner and then watched an episode of MI5, which Chris described as a British version of the American show "24". No, we don't have a TV, which I'm happy about, but Chris is able to download movies off the internet, and we can all sit and watch them on Leslie's laptop for movie nights. Oh, I forgot to mention, there is a time difference between Haiti and Eastern Standard Time....well, only half of the year anyway. They don't do Daylight Savings Time, so while we flip back and forth in the US, they just stay the same all the time. So, right now, we're one hour earlier than E.S.T. It's way passed my bedtime, so I'll leave you this one last picture which I thought was quite pretty. The view from the back porch just before dinner.

Hello everyone,

Thanks to all those who left comments, it's not only encouraging, but it's also nice to sit at the computer and find that someone has been checking up on me to see how I'm doing :).

So, everything went smoothly yesterday for my arrival at Clean Water for Haiti. I had to wait a little longer in Miami for my connecting flight to Haiti because the original plane didn't pass it's routine check-up (some sort of failure in the wings). But, I wasn't too bummed because I'd rather fly the whole way to Haiti rather than making it half way and swimming the rest (I packed my mask and snorkel...but not my flippers).

When I arrived in Port-au-Prince airport, I stood on one of the many long lines to get through customs, only to find out 10 minutes later that this particular line was for families with children. So, I stood with a Haitian family and tried to blend in (just kidding, I had to go to the end of a different line and start over, ha ha). After I got through customs and grabbed my luggage, I exited the airport to find a total mob of people. There are tons of guys with red hats trying to help you with their bags so that you'll give them your money, and then there was one guy who said to me, "There is a guy looking for you, I know where he is, follow me...stand behind me". Being that Chris from CWH was there to pick me up, I thought about believing him for a second, but then my instinct kicked in and blew past him (which means I kept my money). In about three seconds time I heard Chris yell "Owen", and boy was I excited to hear my name. I looked up, saw that little white star in total darkness (i.e. Chris behind a crowd of Haitians), and went to meet him...woo hoo, mission complete!

Chris and I ran a bunch of errands on the way home (stopped at an engineer's office, picked up a new battery for his truck, tried to pick up a water tank that was being repaired but it wasn't ready, etc.). Oh, and every time we stopped, I had to push the truck and Chris would pop the clutch to get it going...hence the reason we purchased a new battery. We came back, I met Leslie and Olivia (Chris' wife and their beautiful adopted Haitian baby girl), got my room-key, drank some water, and relaxed on their patio out back facing the ocean...also beautiful. Leslie made us dinner (steak & potatoes, and salad...tasty), and we chatted for a bit and then I headed back to my room to unpack and settle in a bit. They just built new dorms here at the mission for volunteers and people that are trained in their programs, and I'm sharing a room with a guy named Matt who's visiting for 6 or 7 months, and we are rather compatible, so it's quite nice. He's 24, from Ohio, studied mechanical engineering, plays guitar, has the same taste in music, likes backpacking, traveling, and also likes making clean water in Haiti, ha ha.Anyway, here at CWH they have running showers, flushing toilets, wireless internet, and screens in the dorms windows (therefore no mosquitoes), and great people, what more could I ask for :). So yes, to answer your question, I am here, safe and sound, happy as a lamb.

Hello and welcome to my blog,

I never considered having a blog before, but I have come to a point where I think having one for at least the next month of my life will be useful for myself and others. For one, I like to journal, but rarely make the time to do it. Also, taking this trip to Haiti has a few people worried, so the fact that anyone can check up on me whenever they want, it seems it may be an easy way to keep everyone up to date.

The plans stand at this: I will depart for Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday, October 7th, and will be returning home on Tuesday, November 4th.

The first chunk of my trip will be spent with an organization known as Clean Water for Haiti (CWH), which is located in Pierre Payen, Haiti (you can check them out at http://www.cleanwaterforhaiti.org/). For the week of Oct. 26th, I will be spending my time with the group Engineers Without Borders (EWB) from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

Last year, I travelled to Milot, Haiti for the initial EWB project assessment trip. The group of students visiting this year will be in Milot for one week, and I will be traveling north to work with them during their stay (Milot is located 12 miles south of Cap-Haitian...for you map lovers). With EWB-NJIT, we are working on a project similar to that of CWH's, which involves a clean water technology known as a biosand filter (you can learn all about biosand filters at CWH's website if you are interested).

Please excuse all of the acronyms, I promise, I do not work for the government.

I think that's about all for now. You can check in sometime after Oct. 7th, and I should have some updates for you...letting you know that I'm alive and well. I know I can post pictures too, so I'm hoping they will spice up my posts.

Please say a prayer that my trip down goes smoothly :). Thanks for reading.