The Great Haitian Bridge Project Continues

These days, when we hear the word, “replicate,” we may think in terms of some crazy virus that is outsmarting antibiotics and seeking to destroy us. Or maybe not. It’s possible I’ve seen too many apocalyptic television shows! No matter. Today, we’re talking about some replicating that isn’t even remotely scary.

You may remember when Allen and Russell made a trip to Haiti last year to head up a bridge project. Yeah, taking their mad bridge building skills on the road was kind of a big deal! But they didn’t build that bridge all by themselves. They were surrounded by other people who were learning some mad bridge building skills of their own.

Since the time of Allen and Russell’s Haitian bridge expedition, missionaries in Haiti have built two more bridges! Trish offered a reminder of why Sowers4Pastors operates in the manner it does when she said, “In all of the work we do, we try to help other people rather than do it all ourselves. It empowers people and helps expand on the available hours we have.”

One of the two new bridges used the exact design Allen and Russell used last year. For the second bridge, the team went out and did some research. In short, they acted like Allen. They studied up on bridges and they consulted an engineer who helped them with plans for a bridge to fit the needs of that particular river crossing.

Trish recounted the years when Allen was teaching himself how to build bridges. She said they couldn’t cross a bridge without Allen getting out to examine it. He taught himself the dynamics of bridge building. Then an engineer, who was in Honduras for a year, helped Allen refine his technique. Allen passed all of that knowledge on to the bridge building missionaries in Haiti.

That’s the sort of replicating you don’t want to stop with an antibiotic! It’s the kind you want infecting the DNA of everyone who comes in contact.

 - posted by Christi

Armed Robbery Attempt at our home in Honduras

I hope you've been enjoying the ministry posts from Christi! Today, it's Trish writing, relating the events of the armed robbery attempt at our home a few weeks ago. We always appreciate your prayers for our safety!

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The dogs had interrupted our sleep multiple times with their barking that cloudy, moonless night. They're often upset by horses and cows wandering into the yard, and they'll bark at those harmless intruders for hours without ceasing. Since I hadn't seen any problems outside when the dogs barked during the earlier hours of the night, I was assuming they were barking at animals, and I was trying to ignore them and get back to sleep, while also wondering if I should just get up and do something, since I wasn't sleeping anyway.

Then I heard the gunshot. We hear a few shots most every night (frequently celebratory shots), the sounds ricocheting over a large area of the mountains and valleys around us - but this gunshot was clearly happening HERE. On our property! At our home!

Before I'd had a chance to think of what to do next, that one shot was followed by an alarming volley of additional firing! I froze . . .without a clue as to what I should do next, since I didn't know what was going on right outside my house!

I crept to the front windows of the bodega/house where I'd been sleeping and peeked out - but everything was just as dark as it had been the whole night, and I couldn't see a thing! We have three buildings on our property, and somewhere out there was my 14 year old son, Ben, and also Helder, one of our workers who had been sleeping at our place to help with security while Allen and Russell were away constructing a bridge in Haiti.

Certain that opening the door and going out to gather more information was a poor plan, I made the odd decision to call Russell, in Haiti. My Spanish is passable, but it would NOT have been sufficient for this situation, especially over the phone. Russell, however, is fluent. After I'd explained the situation to my son in English, he called Helder, to get the story directly from him in Spanish, and then Russell called me back and relayed the info to me.

What was known at that time was that two or three men were outside between our team house and the new home we are constructing. The new house does not yet have doors or windows (it has walls and a roof), and Helder was sleeping inside. The door and window openings were mostly blocked by heavy panels which we use to create forms when we build large things out of cement.

Helder had heard the dogs barking, and then heard the noises the men were making, so he went to investigate, taking along the pistol that he keeps by him at night while he's doing guard duty. Helder looked out the window, saw the men moving toward him, and shot a warning shot into the ground outside the building. The men returned fire, shooting directly at Helder, and Helder shot back at them. The men started to run and our very brave Helder chased them off, away from our buildings and down through the coffee fields - barefoot!

There was no additional excitement that night . . . and there was not much additional sleep, either! Once the light of morning arrived, Ben, Helder and I took some time to look around and collect any clues which could give us additional details as to what had happened.

Here's what we could piece together:

Two or three men came to our property, ready for a confrontational armed robbery - they had a weapon (possibly two, based on the spent and unspent bullets left behind), and apparently were wearing bandannas over their faces (one bandanna was on the ground, after the robbers ran off in the dark). They first tried to break into the small building nearest the driveway. No one was sleeping in that building, and they attempted to force open a door very quietly with a pry bar, and also tried to dislodge the metal bars from in front of a window. When they were unable to gain entry to that building, they removed the mirrors from the motorcycle which was parked in front of that building.

After that, they were heading to the unsecured construction site . . . when they encountered (and were chased off by) Helder. While running away from our valiant watchman, they dropped a flashlight, a bandanna, and one of the motorcycle mirrors, as well as an unspent bullet from a revolver. We saw no indication that anyone was actually injured by the gunfire.

Obviously, after a successful robbery in April and this attempted robbery in May, we are beefing up security even more than previously. It may seem odd, to those of you in the US, that none of us considered calling in the police. Our experience with Honduran police, over the course of our fifteen years in Honduras, hasn't led us to think of them as a source of help in our times of trouble. We've always known that we would be handling these kinds of situations on our own.

Once again, God has protected us from harm, allowing us to continue to live and work another day, sharing His love in the mountains of Western Honduras!

- posted by Trish

Have Bridge (skills), Will Travel . . . to Haiti! - part 2

See pictures of the first part of the project here. 

Once the concrete work was completed, it was time to attach the cables!

The wire cables go around the metal tubes, and the end of
each cable is securely clamped back to itself. The tension of
each cable is adjusted until they hold the bridge in a level position.

Allen oversees . . . everything

Installing the deck of the bridge!

On their final day in Haiti, as Allen and Russell were on their way
 to the airport, there was a surprise ceremony at the bridge. The mayor
and others thanked them and gave them gifts of handcrafted items.

I especially love this panoramic picture! To the left you can see the road to the river,
and where people had to ford the river in the past to get across . . . and to the right,
of course, you see the brand new bridge in use! Click on the photo to see a larger version.

 Within days of the completion of the bridge, Saint Michel experienced heavy
rains and flooding, and the bridge became a safe way to cross very unsafe waters!

Although this project had additional challenges, compared to building a bridge on our "home turf" of Honduras, the menfolk are excited about the possibility of collaborating in future international projects, in other parts of the world. Southeast Asia, Africa and the Himalayas were all mentioned in recent conversations! Do you need a bridge built . . . . anywhere? Contact us and we can talk about it! I'm not even kidding! 

Have Bridge (skills), Will Travel . . . to Haiti! - part 1

*** For new visitors to our blog, we are missionaries living and working in Honduras, but we recently traveled to Haiti to build a bridge there . . . our first international bridge project! 

The project we've been discussing and planning for several years is now completed! We praise God for the cooperative efforts of individuals in the US, Honduras, and Haiti, who have chosen to serve the people of Haiti in this way! 

Jimmy French and Jim Cofer, in Maryland,
collected and crated cable and tools, and shipped
them to Florida by truck. From Miami, these items
traveled by boat to Haiti, and arrived shortly 
before Allen and Russell did!

Brennon Garrett, a missionary to Haiti with the Foundation for
Missions, was in charge of purchasing the tools and supplies which
were available in Haiti, including lumber. Allen and Ed Williams
 constructed this stack of concrete forms from locally purchased lumber.

Brennon also contributed the welding work.
These welded pieces were eventually embedded
inside the concrete ends of the bridge,
and the cables were attached to them.

This was the second time that Allen and Russell have arrived at a bridge site, to build a bridge, without ever having visited the site prior to the start of construction. It is difficult for individuals without bridge building experience to determine what size of bridge is needed, and it's impossible to determine this information from photos . . . so we know to expect the unexpected, when coming in blind to do this kind of project.

In the case of the Haiti project, the bridge required was longer, wider and higher than had been projected. This added significantly to the materials needed, as well as to the total construction time, but these problems were resolved, and two additional work days were added to the schedule - but this also meant that Allen and Russell had to really push their crew of Haitians to work harder and for more hours each day than is their norm. Haitian culture is quite different from what we are used to in the mountains of mainland Honduras, but our time living and working on the island of Guanaja (2001 - 2005) helped the Sowers men work successfully in the Haitian island culture.

Another issue arose when we found that there was no Creole/English translator available to enable Allen and Russell to communicate with their Haitian crew! This was a major problem! After scrambling a bit, they found a man who spoke both Haitian and Spanish, and they hired him for the rest of their stay. Many of the words in his version of Spanish (from the Dominican Republic) were different from the words used in Honduras, so this was a challenge which frequently slowed the progress of the project.

Digging the footers/foundations on each side of the river

Every bridge project starts with good foundations, which
create secure, level bases upon which to build the landings
on each side of the river. You can't really tell, from this photo,
but there are certain spots in this excavation which are 3 or 4
feet deeper than the rest of it. Allen calls these "teeth," and
they help keep the whole structure from shifting.

All of the concrete was mixed on site, and carried to the forms
 in buckets. Concrete mixer trucks are for wimps! (We'd happily
be wimps, if the trucks were available, LOL)

In lieu of a concrete mixer truck . . .

Rods of rebar are added to the wet concrete, to increase strength

Brennon tries his hand at passing buckets of materials. 

Completed footer/foundation . . . ready for the next phase

Here the forms, which Allen previously constructed, are put into
use. The concrete will be poured (by the bucketload) into the
forms, creating the landings and ramps at each end of the bridge.
It takes MANY buckets of concrete!

 Smoothing the surface of the platform and ramp

The new ramp, with the forms removed. Dirt will be added
here at the end, to create a smooth walkway from
the ground, to the concrete ramp, to the bridge

Side of the ramp - you can see, with Allen standing next to it,
the extra height which was added here, to raise the bridge up
so that the part of the bridge over the water wouldn't be
submerged during times of high water and flooding.

View across the river from one of the landings to the other

Russell and Allen (way in back) with some of the Haitian crew

Each landing has two side walls, to which are attached the side-rail
cables of the bridge. Here the men are placing the forms and welded
pieces, prior to pouring the concrete.

The wire cables, which will support the bridge, will go around these metal
pipes, which are firmly attached to the concrete structure by pieces of rebar.
The strength of this concrete structure, and the welded pieces, is essential
to ensuring that the bridge can bear the weight it was designed to bear. The
wooden forms will be removed, of course, before all of this happens. 

Part 2, showing the completion of the bridge, can be found here.