Learning and Teaching
Last weekend I had an opportunity to help with a large installation of solar panels. Pastor Mike Leland of Good Shepherd Orphanage got a generous gift of solar panels and everything else necessary to provide electricity all day every day for his orphanage. A couple of guys from Washington State, the owners of ecotechenergy.com came down here to do the installation. I have been waiting patiently for this ever since I heard that it was going to happen. We put up 15 240 watt solar modules. They were connected to an Outback inverter and charge controller and there was a bank of 16 large 6 volt batteries to store the power for the night.
Dana and John, from Ecotech Energy, were great. They answered any question that I could come up with and they gave me many new ideas for things that could work down here. He also pointed out many things with his installation that identified problems with my small system at my house.
Next month, I am going to a village in the North West of Haiti to teach a three day seminar on solar power. I hope that I get all of the tools and supplies delivered in time! We are going to build some small solar panels and charge controllers for charging cell phones. We will discuss theory and have practical experience by building these small panels. I am nervous about this, but I am sure that it will be ok.
Tomorrow, I am going back to Bayonais with one of my students. He is from that area and he will introduce me to his family and friends around there. This is one area of interest for me…possibly a place where I will build my professional school. I have met with the mayor of the area a couple of times and there is a lot of interest already. I want to meet with more of the community and see more of the area. It is a beautiful place in the mountains with trees, small rivers and lots of hillside agriculture. They don’t have much in the area of infrastructure. No power, no paved roads…none of the services that Americans take for granted.
An area like this has nothing but opportunity. My imagination goes wild with possibilities to solve problems with new solutions. We aren’t trapped in any current method of doing things because there is no current way of doing it. Also, solutions can be imagined without worrying about rules, regulations, zoning laws, etc. We are truly able to think outside the box and start from the beginning with possibilities.
I am also going to bring one of the Safe Water International Ministries chlorine generator kits. I was introduced to this community by my friend Frantz Pierre while he was working with a non governmental organization to help communities with safe water. I talked about this kit a while back, now I finally get to try to get it into service!
Our session of English is nearing completion, we have already begun to accept new students for the next session that starts on November 11. Our Friday afternoon English club is working out well…I sang a song for them this afternoon – several students were recording it on their phones, so video of my performance might just appear on the web sometime soon!
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. Like I said before…I couldn’t do this without all of you.
God Bless you all!
Scott