More getting ready

Today Wayne and Gene dug about nine holes for poles and anchors.  This went pretty well and tomorrow Gene hopes to stage poles at these locations so that on Saturday when the main team begins work they will be able to hit the ground running.

The team actually arrives tomorrow afternoon and evening.  Two teams are coming to YWAM tomorrow, one of which is our I-TEC team.  I, Gary, will ride along as far as CPR-3 and will stop over there to replace two solar panels that were damaged earlier this year.I will then be picked up when the team arriving in the afternoon is on their way to Saint Marc.  We are praying for their safe arrival and on-time flights.  Most of the team will be transported to Reagan National in the wee hours again for an 8:30 am flight to Fort Lauderdale and then on to Port au Prince.
Today the plywood was also mounted onto the wall where the electrical equipment will get mounted in the generator room.  I also updated the CAD drawing that was created eight months ago to reflect the actual dimensions of the building and generators.  I also created a drawing that shows the accurate location of the electrical apparatus that will be installed.

EDH, the National Power Company of Haiti wanted to charge YWAM $3500 for a 400-amp watthour meter that would cost less than $200 in the US.  It is all about the money and Americans have plenty so why not tap into that?  Wayne went to their office and met with them and in the end they agreed to do this for $800.  What they wanted was to have a few months of electric billing paid ahead.  However, in the past week there has been a total of about 15 minutes of power supplied by EDH, and in the past three weeks there has been no more than six hours total of electric.  In the States we scream when our power is OFF for 15 minutes and it is a catastrophe when it is off for six hours.  This is why we are here.

Steph and Deb spent the day today painting the trusses that will go onto the generator room.  Jay assured me that the roof will be on by end of the day Friday or by Saturday for sure.

I took no photos today but plan to take many tomorrow and there will be many posted as we begin this project.  I will turn this blog over to others from time to time and you will get a perspective that may not be from a tradesman's point of view.  But we are anxiously waiting for out team to be complete and we are looking forward to seeing what might be accomplished here.  Pray for Haiti.