Oddly, just one hour from Miami, but the mountain, Mon Bouton, or "Morne Bouton," is a world away. Below, teacher assistants lead eager students are for a hands-on mathematics experience.  No pencils, no paper - but thinking, planning, learning.

Please read about how we're working together to get water, jobs, and education to the people of Mon Bouton. On-the-job training for folks who help maintain the solar-powered pump system!

See more photos from Mon Bouton

Mountain News: Latest Updates - Just below From the Blog, Haiti Next Door

My Colleagues working  with me on the Water Project

From July, 2011: Here's  some history, if you are interested.  How we got started with solar energy and bringing water up some 500 feet.  Collaborating all the way with our colleagues in Mon Bouton doing some preliminary planning. And here is the link (historic) to the nuts, bolts and final implementation!

http://www.slideshare.net/Randy1128/haiti-water-ieee-2014

WHERE WE ARE

Our mountain, Mon Bouton, is in the "Zoranje zone." southeastern Haiti,  in the 10th Communal Section of Leogane;  it is a good hike down to Darbonne (Dabon) and then on to Leogane. Darbonne, at the base of the mountains, is about 50-60 kms from Port-au-Prince; the drive can take up to 4 hours though, depending on the time of day and traffic. LaTournelle/Mon Bouton is at an elevation of maybe 900 meters.

You will not find Mon Bouton, or La Tournelle on any maps (yet).  We are not a village.  There is no there there; homes dot the hillsides along paths that churn up and down and wind around and around.  But if you get to Dabon and take the road out towards the river (Grand Riviere), and cross the river to get over to Fayette (which IS on Google maps)  you then cross the river again going back to the other side and hike straight up for, oh, about 3 hours if you are a blan, 2 hours if you are Haitian - less if you start at 5 a.m. or so.

Here's our latitude and longitude coordinates, followed by those coordinates for the Jan. 12 earthquake:

La Tournelle @18.425548,-72.526932

Epicenter was 18.457, - 72.533

Yes, we are right at about the center, or epicenter of things.

ABOUT OUR HILLSIDE COMMUNITY

There is no basic infrastructure in the area: people have no access to roads, drinkable water, health care, education, electricity, financial services or technical assistance for agricultural activities.  Nowadays, cell phones have become popular and a way of charging them posed  a challenge swiftly met by local ingenuity:  our associate and project co-founder, on the hillside, Elisee Abraham ("Toma"), uses a car battery connected  to solar panels.  Cell phones can then be charged with the car battery! I find this astounding, but then, I still wonder at how light bulbs work.