Stories of a Pilgrimage: The Mad Surveying American

My last month and a half in Haiti was spent hiking through the Haitian country-side surveying over 40 miles of water pipes. It was tough work in the extreme heat, climbing mountains, working long days, and often running out of water. The Haitian guys that worked with me were amazing. They worked without complaining, put up with my impatience, and learned how to understand my broken creole. Sometimes we would leave the shop yard at 7 am, hike some 10 miles, and then return home around 8 at night. It was a very difficult and physically exhausting time and is why I was not very diligent at keeping this blog updated. I was just plain tired!

In the midst of this difficulty, God was very active. He kept us safe and free from sickness (although I did get stung by a scorpion one day, but i got better). The strength that he gave the team of guys I worked with and especially the strength he gave to this white-skinned weakling was amazing. Every day I found encouragement and comfort in the verse "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights." It was awesome to reflect on how in-control God was of every circumstance and the ability he gave us to climb the mountains we needed to climb. we also had tons of fun and lots of laughs. Good stories to ask me about: Maiz and cold water, the burning coocnuts, and the slow walkin' Isonell.

Now you may ask "why were they surveying all this pipe?" Well, with the information we collected, we hope to put together a plan of the whole water system. This would allow us to analyze how we can make the system better, how we can bring water to new areas, and what parts of the system have critical issues that need to be fixed. Also, the committees in charge of the system need a records of their system in case something breaks 30 years from now and
everybody who helped installed the system is gone. We have collected all the information to put together the plans, but we are still waiting for the necessary AutoCAD software to finish the work. Please pray that God would supply this very expensive software.