Today there were only four of us working here at YWAM. We really sweated today as it seemed hotter than any day we have been here so far. In the morning we all worked together to get a few light fixtures onto some of the poles. We alwo installed one on the Arena above the entrance gate. Later this evening we were happy to see all of the fixtures working. Some of these were installed onto the inverter circuits at various locations. Those fixtures will be lit all night, while others will only light when the generator is running.
The couple who came in from Bellingham, Washington, brought our relays that were needed to get the system working the way we want it to work. Gene H. worked on several leaks on the generator and now has it totally leak-free. He also helped as we had to get some additional wires to the generators for the controls we were installing. We tried to get them into the existing conduits to no avail so we dug in some more "conduits" into the floor and pushed wires through them. I got the controls wired as planned by about 4:45pm, so we waited to make sure the generator would start and produce voltage when the time clock gave it its start command at 5pm. It worked as planned. Then at 9pm, the power dropped and the generator ran an additional 5 minutes to cool down. All of this was done by relays and a time delay relay. The circuit is somewhat complex. One additional time delay relay is needed to complete the system, so this will be bought in the US and brought down by someone coming down within the next week or so. I pre-wired the relay base so it can be up and running in a few minutes.
The heat took a lot out of us today and it did rain right after lunch, which cooled things down for a few minutes. We will continue to work on our punch list for the next few days before heading to our next assignment where we will be changing out a generator end. We are hopeful that the machine cooperates and that we have all the right tools for the job.
I am sorry I have no pictures to post today, but will try to do so tomorrow. The Internet is still down and I am using my modem stick to post this.
Please be in prayer for one young Haitian man who is on staff here. He has cancer and severe liver problems and his prognosis is not good. Wayne told me this evening that only a miracle can save this man. He had to be escorted to the hospital today to have about 1-1/2 gallons of fluid pumped from his stomach. He is very weak. I do not know his name, but the zord does, and this YWAM family is suffering along with him.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Second Sunday
This morning the team sleeping in the men's dorm was awakened to the tune of Arise, My Soul Arise, by the music group Glad. By 6 AM the guys were getting together with the new Haitian friends for final pictures together.
This was somewhat bittersweet as some of us in the photo might only ever see the others in eternity in Heaven.
Next the bus was loaded and nine of our group headed for home while the remaining four of us stayed behind.
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/by the time you read this some of them will be past their final flight and on the ride from Reagan National Airport to the meeting place at Friends In Action, near Middletown, PA. Others have had cancelled flights and will need to overnight in New York. The joys of flying...
Tom, Gene and Gary were picked up by a man from Mission Of Grace in the nearby town of Carries. When we pulled into the destination we were surprised to find we were at a 4 or 5-star resort on the ocean. Haiti certainly is a mixture of rich and poor. Obviously the group with the mission was only staying at this hotel and we were then escorted on a walk across the highway to the "other side of the tracks". The mission is constructing a center that will minister to Haitian men and children and mentor them. They already have an almost finished main building and also a small dormitory for workers to stay in. They need power for the facility and will utilize generators until a more permanent electrical power source is created. The mission has two properties and we at I-TEC may well be involved in both locations. It was good to meet the Manager of the mission, Matt.
Tomorrow the four of us will be working on a Punch-List that we have created to finish the electrical work here at YWAM. We would appreciate your prayers for our safety and that the work will go smoothly. It looks like we may have several days of work.
Internet is very slow here tonight so I will not be able to post other photos. Hopefully tomorrow the base Internet here at YWAM will be back up and things will operate much faster. Anything seems faster than this modem stick I am using right now, but it does work.
As this blog winds down in a little over a week I might do some serious reflecting on all that has happened here and on how God has done far above what any of us can imagine.
Next the bus was loaded and nine of our group headed for home while the remaining four of us stayed behind.
Tom, Gene and Gary were picked up by a man from Mission Of Grace in the nearby town of Carries. When we pulled into the destination we were surprised to find we were at a 4 or 5-star resort on the ocean. Haiti certainly is a mixture of rich and poor. Obviously the group with the mission was only staying at this hotel and we were then escorted on a walk across the highway to the "other side of the tracks". The mission is constructing a center that will minister to Haitian men and children and mentor them. They already have an almost finished main building and also a small dormitory for workers to stay in. They need power for the facility and will utilize generators until a more permanent electrical power source is created. The mission has two properties and we at I-TEC may well be involved in both locations. It was good to meet the Manager of the mission, Matt.
Tomorrow the four of us will be working on a Punch-List that we have created to finish the electrical work here at YWAM. We would appreciate your prayers for our safety and that the work will go smoothly. It looks like we may have several days of work.
Internet is very slow here tonight so I will not be able to post other photos. Hopefully tomorrow the base Internet here at YWAM will be back up and things will operate much faster. Anything seems faster than this modem stick I am using right now, but it does work.
As this blog winds down in a little over a week I might do some serious reflecting on all that has happened here and on how God has done far above what any of us can imagine.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Missed another day
This is Saturday night. The Internet has been out of operation for another 24+ hours and it looks like it will be out until at least Monday when the Natcom service department comes out to investigate what the problem is. Consequently I am using a phone SIM card for Internet access and it is much slower than the compound's Internet. But it at least works.
To bring you up to date on what has happened here, I submit the following. Yesterday, Friday we completed our pole work and all the connections and fired up the generator for some more testing. We discovered that we have an unusual situation here in that we are asking the generator to start and stop at specific times when there is no National power connected. We are using an automatic transfer switch, which works well to start and stop a generator whenever grid power is lost r returned. We had to come up with an ingenious way of controlling the generator shutoff so that the engine can go through a normal cool down period and also not create an electrical brownout each time it shuts off.
I sat down last night to begin to explain this but the Internet went off again in the middle of it and I just ended up going to bed. My cell phone was so low on minutes that I could not even text my wife to let her know what was happening. I left with Wayne yesterday afternoon in the hopes of finding some relays to make this new control scheme work while picking up his parents in Port au Prince. We got to ElMeCo about 20 minutes after they closed and this was my most possible chance for getting the stuff I needed. So I was able to enjoy the time of fellowship with Wayne and his parents, while the rest of the team finished up the day and was treated to a YWAM staff dance routine that they use for local outreach in Saint Marc.
Today I called ElMeCo to see if they had such control relays and was told they did not. So I did not run in to Port again when the van went in to pick up a team coming in for the next few days. Instead I looked up the part numbers I needed from WW Grainger and sent them to Wayne in an email. There is a couple coming to Haiti tomorrow from Washington State and there was a remote possibility they might be able to get to Grainger and pick up these parts.
So far the day was not too bad. But it was about to get interesting. Upon checking power to the Sanctuary we discovered we were misled about how it was fed and that we had instead powered up the swimming pool pump and the Prayer Chapel and AquaCenter. The men kicked it into high gear and figured out a way to get power to the sanctuary. This required an additional run of overhead wire, a new ditch and conduit and wire underground, and a lot of sweat. But the task worked out and we were able to get the power to the building and we were all happy.
The next interesting thing was that the EDH Metering crew showed up and decided that our American watthour metering setup was not the right way for Haiti. Some frantic hours later the interior of the brand new Class 380 meterbase that we had installed was removed, and CT metering was installed. As it turns out the job appears pretty normal when you look at it, but it is not the way we would do it in the states.
After the metering crew left we fired up the generator again and changed the voltage settings to what we wanted them to be. Then we got our team together with some of the YWAM staff and had a Generator Dedication in which we had some discussion and then prayed and committed this unit to the Lord for His service. In the process of all this we received word that the couple in Washington did indeed call Grainger to come in and open their store and they were able to buy the parts I had specified, all except for a battery charger for the generator, which we will ask Freeman to bring back with him from Florida when he returns. This day was a day in which God showed himself true and powerful and we are very grateful to say the least.
After the generator dedication YWAM took some of the team out to a local market for about an hour. Then they took all of us to a home in a nearby town that has ocean access. The Caribbean Sea is so clear and blue it is amazing. J C was able to get his feet and head wet in his first visit to any ocean in his life. He lives in Oklahoma and is far from the Atlantic. Later YWAM took all of our team out to a local restaurant. It was a real treat and the food was very good. We had many different choices, from shrimp to goat to chicken to pork and lobster. It was a highlight of the trip and will be remembered by all.
While we were at the restaurant we received word that the electrical panel in the office was overheating. There were no lights or fans in the dorms and the guys were packing their bags for an early trip to the airport in the morning. So the tools came back out and some main circuit breakers we were going to leave here at YWAM came in handy, as we used one for a temporary fix to the overheat problem. As I write this the guys have their bags ready and are getting their sleep so they can get up by 5 to get ready for leaving here at 6am.
Thank you for your prayers for this team and for the work here in Haiti. Every team member was important in getting done what happened here, and you are important also. Pray for the nine who will be leaving Haiti to return home in the early morning. Pray for those picking each one up at the respective airports. And continue to pray for myself, Tom, Gene H., and Gene F. as we stay on here to mop up and then visit some other sites for surveys and work. I will install those relays after they arrive from Washington and we will have a normally functioning generator doing some things that are unusual.
To bring you up to date on what has happened here, I submit the following. Yesterday, Friday we completed our pole work and all the connections and fired up the generator for some more testing. We discovered that we have an unusual situation here in that we are asking the generator to start and stop at specific times when there is no National power connected. We are using an automatic transfer switch, which works well to start and stop a generator whenever grid power is lost r returned. We had to come up with an ingenious way of controlling the generator shutoff so that the engine can go through a normal cool down period and also not create an electrical brownout each time it shuts off.
I sat down last night to begin to explain this but the Internet went off again in the middle of it and I just ended up going to bed. My cell phone was so low on minutes that I could not even text my wife to let her know what was happening. I left with Wayne yesterday afternoon in the hopes of finding some relays to make this new control scheme work while picking up his parents in Port au Prince. We got to ElMeCo about 20 minutes after they closed and this was my most possible chance for getting the stuff I needed. So I was able to enjoy the time of fellowship with Wayne and his parents, while the rest of the team finished up the day and was treated to a YWAM staff dance routine that they use for local outreach in Saint Marc.
Today I called ElMeCo to see if they had such control relays and was told they did not. So I did not run in to Port again when the van went in to pick up a team coming in for the next few days. Instead I looked up the part numbers I needed from WW Grainger and sent them to Wayne in an email. There is a couple coming to Haiti tomorrow from Washington State and there was a remote possibility they might be able to get to Grainger and pick up these parts.
So far the day was not too bad. But it was about to get interesting. Upon checking power to the Sanctuary we discovered we were misled about how it was fed and that we had instead powered up the swimming pool pump and the Prayer Chapel and AquaCenter. The men kicked it into high gear and figured out a way to get power to the sanctuary. This required an additional run of overhead wire, a new ditch and conduit and wire underground, and a lot of sweat. But the task worked out and we were able to get the power to the building and we were all happy.
The next interesting thing was that the EDH Metering crew showed up and decided that our American watthour metering setup was not the right way for Haiti. Some frantic hours later the interior of the brand new Class 380 meterbase that we had installed was removed, and CT metering was installed. As it turns out the job appears pretty normal when you look at it, but it is not the way we would do it in the states.
After the metering crew left we fired up the generator again and changed the voltage settings to what we wanted them to be. Then we got our team together with some of the YWAM staff and had a Generator Dedication in which we had some discussion and then prayed and committed this unit to the Lord for His service. In the process of all this we received word that the couple in Washington did indeed call Grainger to come in and open their store and they were able to buy the parts I had specified, all except for a battery charger for the generator, which we will ask Freeman to bring back with him from Florida when he returns. This day was a day in which God showed himself true and powerful and we are very grateful to say the least.
After the generator dedication YWAM took some of the team out to a local market for about an hour. Then they took all of us to a home in a nearby town that has ocean access. The Caribbean Sea is so clear and blue it is amazing. J C was able to get his feet and head wet in his first visit to any ocean in his life. He lives in Oklahoma and is far from the Atlantic. Later YWAM took all of our team out to a local restaurant. It was a real treat and the food was very good. We had many different choices, from shrimp to goat to chicken to pork and lobster. It was a highlight of the trip and will be remembered by all.
While we were at the restaurant we received word that the electrical panel in the office was overheating. There were no lights or fans in the dorms and the guys were packing their bags for an early trip to the airport in the morning. So the tools came back out and some main circuit breakers we were going to leave here at YWAM came in handy, as we used one for a temporary fix to the overheat problem. As I write this the guys have their bags ready and are getting their sleep so they can get up by 5 to get ready for leaving here at 6am.
Thank you for your prayers for this team and for the work here in Haiti. Every team member was important in getting done what happened here, and you are important also. Pray for the nine who will be leaving Haiti to return home in the early morning. Pray for those picking each one up at the respective airports. And continue to pray for myself, Tom, Gene H., and Gene F. as we stay on here to mop up and then visit some other sites for surveys and work. I will install those relays after they arrive from Washington and we will have a normally functioning generator doing some things that are unusual.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Hump Day
Today was Hump Day, the middle of our work week. By the end of the day the aerial cables were hanging from all the new and existing poles except for the circuit running to the school.
This was a post I started to write last night until I got booted off the Internet again. At any rate I wanted to let you know we were still working and are continuing to work with little time to spare. But the team has gotten along very well. Only one of us had any illness to speak of and he was able to return to the job shortly after a little rest. could have been something he ate...
The mosquitoes are relentless at times, and we are hopeful that none of us come down with any mosquito-borne illnesses. Please pray for that.
The weather here has also been unseasonably mild and even though it gets hot sometimes during the day, the sky has been overcast most of the time and there has been a good tropical breeze most of the days. We have set up chairs at the depot to rest on from the heat and it has been nice to sit there in the shade. Also, Wayne has seen fit to keep us supplied with ample water and sodas, for which we are very thankful.
I suppose this post might show up as the last one in the series, but as I said, it was started yesterday when there was only a small amount of Internet.
This was a post I started to write last night until I got booted off the Internet again. At any rate I wanted to let you know we were still working and are continuing to work with little time to spare. But the team has gotten along very well. Only one of us had any illness to speak of and he was able to return to the job shortly after a little rest. could have been something he ate...
The mosquitoes are relentless at times, and we are hopeful that none of us come down with any mosquito-borne illnesses. Please pray for that.
The weather here has also been unseasonably mild and even though it gets hot sometimes during the day, the sky has been overcast most of the time and there has been a good tropical breeze most of the days. We have set up chairs at the depot to rest on from the heat and it has been nice to sit there in the shade. Also, Wayne has seen fit to keep us supplied with ample water and sodas, for which we are very thankful.
I suppose this post might show up as the last one in the series, but as I said, it was started yesterday when there was only a small amount of Internet.
First Successful Generator Day
Today is Thursday and it is about 10:30 pm. Internet has been off and on for two days. I tried to post to the blog last night but had no success using my modem stick as the Internet here at YWAM was off. Tonight it miraculously showed up, so here is some catching up.
Today we finished all of the major terminations. Late yesterday we started the new generator for the first time, but today we did it using the controls we installed for the first time. We checked loads and verified all of the campus circuits around 4:45PM. We were very happy to find everything worked up to expectations. Then after testing the system we waited around for it to turn on automatically at 5PM and it did so right on the second. The clock was set to turn the generator on at 5PM and off at 9PM today. Doug and I went up tp the generator building right before 9PM and it shut off on the second as programmed. This is the culmination of a whole lot of work. We still have one circuit to terminate to the school and this will be done early tomorrow, Lord willing.
We are now also doing some other jobs around campus as we have men or women available. The photos today are from the last few days and we felt that we wanted to get some shots of the women at work, as they have been an integral part of the team. Some of the team will be installing the L.E.D. light fixtures we sent down here onto some of the poles that have been set. Other L.E.D. fixtures will be installed on buildings. We have a solar array to relocate and this will be done tomorrow as well.
We have had good production with no major problems to this point. Today, Freeman (Head of Maintenance here at YWAM) rode an extension ladder down from the second floor of the Depot and the base of the ladder also injured one of the Haitian helpers here. Fortunately Freeman was able to get up with no visible injuries, but he will likely feel it tomorrow. He is heading to Florida for two weeks of meetings, so we will not see him while we are in Haiti any more. It has been such a blessing to work with him and all of the Haitian workers. God has some real family here!
Today we finished all of the major terminations. Late yesterday we started the new generator for the first time, but today we did it using the controls we installed for the first time. We checked loads and verified all of the campus circuits around 4:45PM. We were very happy to find everything worked up to expectations. Then after testing the system we waited around for it to turn on automatically at 5PM and it did so right on the second. The clock was set to turn the generator on at 5PM and off at 9PM today. Doug and I went up tp the generator building right before 9PM and it shut off on the second as programmed. This is the culmination of a whole lot of work. We still have one circuit to terminate to the school and this will be done early tomorrow, Lord willing.
We are now also doing some other jobs around campus as we have men or women available. The photos today are from the last few days and we felt that we wanted to get some shots of the women at work, as they have been an integral part of the team. Some of the team will be installing the L.E.D. light fixtures we sent down here onto some of the poles that have been set. Other L.E.D. fixtures will be installed on buildings. We have a solar array to relocate and this will be done tomorrow as well.
We have had good production with no major problems to this point. Today, Freeman (Head of Maintenance here at YWAM) rode an extension ladder down from the second floor of the Depot and the base of the ladder also injured one of the Haitian helpers here. Fortunately Freeman was able to get up with no visible injuries, but he will likely feel it tomorrow. He is heading to Florida for two weeks of meetings, so we will not see him while we are in Haiti any more. It has been such a blessing to work with him and all of the Haitian workers. God has some real family here!
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Tuesday in Haiti - Getting closer
Today was Tuesday and the teams made great progress. Once Tom got back to the compound from ElMeco Supply in Port au Prince, we had enough wire to complete all of our long runs out to the main service pole. These wire pulls were made easy by use of the fine equipment available to us here at YWAM.
The rope was attached to a skid loader and I was able to back up the entire distance, keeping an eye on the guys feeding the wires into the conduit.
The Linemen did their work of setting poles with the help of a nice JCB Telehandler.
We installed a ChemRod ground rod system, which should do well for grounding the electrical system.
Tomorrow we hope to make the connections on all of the wires we pulled today. We will move on from that to helping hang some of the triplex wiring that will feed the other areas. An existing Solar/Inverter system in operation at the school will likely be relocated to the new shop building.
We feel we are right on schedule with the project an we are hoping the generators cooperate with us in that they start without any issues.
The Linemen did their work of setting poles with the help of a nice JCB Telehandler.
We feel we are right on schedule with the project an we are hoping the generators cooperate with us in that they start without any issues.
Monday, November 3, 2014
A Great Monday
Today the team began a new week of work. We were assured that EDH would come and cut off the power to YWAM until we are finished with our work. This was supposed to be at 8 AM. We got up and had breakfast and a devotional time and headed out to the project around 8. Guess what! EDH came through with their promise and our linemen were then able to proceed on making the changes to the high voltage system that is a big part of this project. All of the poles were set and the high voltage wiring was dead-ended at the new Service Pole across from the Generator Building. This was a real answer to our prayers and maybe for yours as well. Thanks for praying that this would happen.
We also finished our underground conduits and by the end of the day the ditch was covered and unless you were told where it is you would not notice it. We did have one glitch today, though.
In our shipment of wire to the jobsite here in Haiti, we were short one roll of large wire. This appeared to be a mistake by the supplier that was missed on delivery to I-TEC back in June. We made some calls and found this wire is available at a large electrical distributor in Port au Prince. We will be going there very early tomorrow to pick this up so that we can continue our work here. It would have been a catastrophe to come up 1000' short on 2700' of wire and not be able to get replacement wire before the team heads back to the US later this week. But the Lord knew all about this ahead of time and He made sure there was a roll on the shelf at ElMeCo Supply.
Anyway, as the linemen prepare the overhead feeds to the rest of the campus the electricians will be
pulling in the remaining wires and making terminations in the generator room. By the end of tomorrow, Tuesday, we might be starting to think about running the generators, at least for a test.
We also finished our underground conduits and by the end of the day the ditch was covered and unless you were told where it is you would not notice it. We did have one glitch today, though.
In our shipment of wire to the jobsite here in Haiti, we were short one roll of large wire. This appeared to be a mistake by the supplier that was missed on delivery to I-TEC back in June. We made some calls and found this wire is available at a large electrical distributor in Port au Prince. We will be going there very early tomorrow to pick this up so that we can continue our work here. It would have been a catastrophe to come up 1000' short on 2700' of wire and not be able to get replacement wire before the team heads back to the US later this week. But the Lord knew all about this ahead of time and He made sure there was a roll on the shelf at ElMeCo Supply.
Anyway, as the linemen prepare the overhead feeds to the rest of the campus the electricians will be
pulling in the remaining wires and making terminations in the generator room. By the end of tomorrow, Tuesday, we might be starting to think about running the generators, at least for a test.
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