http://rohan.com/blog Stories and random thoughts by Rohan Mahy Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:56:29 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today I helped Inveneo bring decent Internet access to NGOs in Leogane by climbing up a 60m tower to adjust an antenna. Mark and I setup the matching antenna in Leogane at the Hands-On Disaster Response base there. About to head up the tower. Nice view! I am happy that it ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/670 More than half the words in Creole are borrowed from French. However it is useful and kinda fun to understand how certain sounds shifted during the transition. It makes it easy to guess words if you know the word in French already. First of all you change the spelling to be ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/661 Monday it was already six months since the earthquake. Still in Port-au-Prince, fewer than 5% of the condemned buildings have been demolished and cleared. Unfortunately there are some perverse incentives that help keep it that way. Most people in P-au-P rent their home. The convention for rentals here is that ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/660 A friend and former boss asked me how he could help in Benin or Haiti. How silly of me not to write this up earlier! Benin Peace Corps Benin - Kate Puzey Girls’ Camp Commemorative Fund [donations] One of the best and most important programs run by Peace Corps volunteers in Benin are ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/659 In Port-au-Prince there are several canals that carry storm runoff to the sea. This is one of the bigger ones and drains the whole Ravine Bois de Chêne. After a big rain, any garbage lying in the roads or in the ravine gets swept downstream. The heavy stuff usually stops ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/658 At this point I am pretty used to finding and removing critters (cockroaches, mice, rats, lizards, even birds). However last night was a bit exceptional. I came home last night and put down my bag. I saw something move in the dim light and thought, "this can only be one ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/653 Below is a photo taken a few weeks ago inside the main office of the (fixed line) telephone company in Leogane. Note the date on the calendar. There are roughly 60,000 land lines for a country of almost 10 million people. No wonder everyone has a cell phone. http://rohan.com/blog/archives/607 An Unqualified Sermon I rode in a minivan this afternoon from Port-au-Prince to Tonmgato where the guy sitting immediately next to me started giving an impromptu sermon at the top of his lungs right next to me. Everyone else ignored him as I tried to, until he said that according to ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/605 The dominant form of transport in Haiti is the tap-tap. It is a shared, usually crowded, truck or bus that runs a regular route and will pickup and drop off anywhere along the way (space permitting). Many of them are decorated in bright colors. The larger ones in Port-au-Prince are ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/601 Lots of people have asked me what it is like here in Haiti and at my "post" at the University of Fondwa. Where's Fondwa? Fondwa (Fonds d'Oie in French or "Goose Bottom" in English) is the 10th section of the commune of Leogane in the "Oueste" (West) department. The University main campus ... http://rohan.com/blog/archives/604