Last week I went to Haiti to dig water wells and got stuck in the worst catastrophe in Western Hemisphere history. Since we’ve gotten back, myself and a team of three others, Chris Browne, Dave Hornish and my co- leader Melanie Brooks, we’ve seen an enormous amount of interest in our adventure, from the collapse of the building we'd stayed in, to our trip back home with only the clothes on our backs and no passports.
Actually our adventure started about four years ago when the Clear Blue Project was born. Our pastor, Brenda Young, made a passionate pitch for money at Cornerstone Free Methodist Church. She shared stories of the terrible water crises in Africa and Haiti and pleaded with the congregation to finance the installation of wells to desperate locations already located by Free Methodist missionaries. The hope at Cornerstone was that we would get enough money to do one well that day. Within three months, the church had funded eight wells. Since that original plea, Cornerstone has drilled 80 wells and raised nearly $300,000.
Sometimes it’s hard to describe the importance of water in these areas. There is water, but the water you do see is nasty. It’s polluted. They are cesspools often with oil floating on the top. In as little as a half day, a well can be dug and a village has a new source of fresh clean water. The Haitian wells are generally easier, and cheaper, to drill than the ones in Africa.
When I say cheaper, it really is cheap. For as little as $1500 a well can be dug. We see individuals, companies, organizations, clubs and groups collectively staking claim to a well. If that is something you’d like to do, or if you just want to talk about it, e-mail me at "bruceoberlin@aol.com or call me direct at 330-644-3937.
The day of the earthquake, we were on a fairly routine drill run about 45 miles outside Port-au-Prince. We had planned to spend the whole week helping in the fields drilling wells.
In a truck’s flatbed, the earthquake felt like a giant grabbing the back of the truck, shaking it violently, and it rolled backward. The ground had rolled like a wave. It wasn’t long before we headed back toward the FOHO building, where we had stayed Monday night, expecting everything to be fine. Within 10 minutes of heading back toward Port-au-Prince, we started to realize the enormity of the event seeing casualties in truck beds and along the roads..
When we got back, FOHO had collapsed, people we had met were missing. It was dark. We used some of the tools we had on the truck, including headlamps to start looking for survivors.
Two Americans we’d met were pinned inside the rubble. There was a point where all of us had to make a decision to help someone; we were going to die standing around or we were going to die trying to help. So we climbed in a narrow gap, maybe the size of under your desk, and each took hour shifts. We climbed back in about 100 feet, and tried to free Jack who had two broken legs. We knew we could die from an aftershock-created collapse. Unbelievable there was a space to get at him. We chiseled and prayed.
After about six hours we freed him. That night we slept, very little, in an alley. The night was full of racket from dogs to roosters. Children were singing church songs to try to soothe themselves. That gave us the sense God was there. Haiti really is a good, christian nation.
The next day we made the decision to bury an individual whose body we recovered that morning. And about 36 hours after the quake, we were told to get to the U.S. Embassy, and that we were drillers, not rescuers. The people that told us were accustomed to natural disasters and the violence and unrest from desperation that comes after an event occurs. We said “but, but,..” wanting to continue to help. However, the decision was very authoritative. We drove and walked some, to the U.S. Embassy, a fortified building. Only Americans were let in. It was sad to see the desperate Haitians who wanted help.
When it was our time to fly out, armored embassy vehicle with bulletproof windows took us to the airport where we saw media, including CNN’s Anderson Cooper. After waiting, a Coast Guard C-130 flew us to the Dominican Republic where we stayed for a night before finally flying to JFK, then home Friday.
But after all the earthquake rubble is cleaned up there will even be a greater need for wells that provide clean water. We estimated that we could build a well a day for the next 10 years in Haiti and still not have enough wells. As it is now, it's a catch 22--they are force to drink polluted water that ultimately leads to their death. Die if you drink; die if you don’t drink. If you could see the smiles on the Haitians faces after they get clean water it would just amaze you. It's a celebration. So this is really important.
If you’d like to get more information or help, contact me or visit www.clearblueproject.com. Also mark your calendars for Global Water Day March 22.
