September

Most people have certain months of the year that they love, whether it’s the beauty of fall foliage as trees shed their leaves for winter, or the early spring months as new life springs forth from the ground. Maybe it’s the heat of summer, or the brisk cold of the winter months. No matter what it is, most people have certain months that they enjoy and look forward to. On the other hand, most people also have months that they would rather do without, whether it’s the scorching heat of August or the icy cold of January, its not uncommon to have months that you just like. I’m the same way, but not for any of the reasons I already mentioned. As August has been winding down, I have been feeling an increasing sadness, uneasiness in the pit of my stomach about the coming month of September.

September in itself isn’t such a bad month. Depending on what part of the country you’re in, it marks the last gasp of summer and the first hint of fall. Schools are back in session and around the country, parents breathe a sigh of relief. Thoughts turn from summer to fall, and the inevitable coming of winter.

For me, however, September is a month chock full of pain and grief, a month of anniversaries of deaths of family that died much too young, birthdays of those that have that have passed on, never to be celebrated again. I am haunted by visions of family I have loved and lost, and while in some cases it has been years since their passing, and while I know one day we will all be together again, the pain is still all to fresh, still cuts me to my core, and affects me in ways that I wish it didn't. I can’t help but relive terrible days, can’t help but feel the guilt of things that maybe I should have done, maybe I could have done. I anguish over the things I should have said but never did, and am guilt ridden by things I did say. I have recurring nightmares where I relive the past, and while part of me knows the hurt that’s coming, I’m doomed to experience the pain, again and again.

With each death, with each part of my heart that has died, I struggle with the toll it has taken on me. How would my life have been different in each case if those who are gone, simply were still here. Where would I be? Would they be proud of the man I am trying to be? Or much like myself, would they be disappointed by all my failings. Would they be ashamed to call me son, to call me brother, to call me father? Have I ever, can I ever do enough good to make up for the bad I have done in my past? The feeling of love that I never felt in life, can I somehow feel it in death? Will the pain ever lessen? One day, will I remember the good, without the agony of loss? Or am I doomed to face this depression, this pain every September. To withdraw into myself, to hide the pain from those around me with a wink and a joke, all the while praying just to make it through, for the month to end.

Maybe if I was stronger, these pains of old wouldn't haunt me so much. Maybe if I were a better man I wouldn't let the pain alter my life every year, I wouldn't struggle through the month, just praying for the strength to come out on the other side. Or maybe I bring it all on myself. Maybe because I feel like I have failed so many of my lost family that I feel the need to suffer every year, to pay penance for past wrongs. Maybe I hold the pain close to me, so I don’t ever feel like I’m forgetting them. I don’t know the answers to why I feel like I do, why September and what it represents affects me on such a deep, dark level, but it does. All I can do is smile my way through it, try not to let my pain affect those around me, and pray for October.

The Difference between "Clean" and "Safe"

While I was home in May, I was able to spend a few days in Colorado being trained on the SunSpring, a really amazing and innovative water purification system that we have been blessed with at several of our campuses in Haiti.

First, let me back up a little. When I first came to Haiti, I was given a brief tour of the campus and shown this 8 foot tall, silver cylinder with a solar panel mounted on top and several water lines running to and from it. I was told it was a water purification system, and was now part of my responsibility to keep it up and running. When I asked for more information, I was handed a manual. That’s it.

So, as you can tell, this picture is sideways and wont load the correct way,
but the inside of the SunSpring looks pretty scary, right?

So, feeling a little overwhelmed, I set about trying to figure out how this thing worked and what to do with it. I tried to read the manual, but I’m a much better hands on learner, so I opened the service hatch and was REALLY overwhelmed. I was clearly in over my head, but luckily I did get contact information for the company in the states that built the SunSpring, as well as for the Haitian service tech, located in Port au Prince. With their help, I was able to muddle through and keep the system running for that first year, but I knew I wasn’t taking care of the system as it needed, and I really wasn’t comfortable with my lack of understanding of what the system could do and how it worked. I started trying to make plans to try and get some training for the system while I was home for the holidays in 2012, but unfortunately I couldn’t get it worked out.

The whole package is built super tough and pleasing to the eye, too!

So, this spring, when I came out for the month of May, I knew I had to carve out some time to visit Colorado and learn more about the SunSpring. So I made plans, bought the plane tickets and although my time in the states was brief, I had time to travel out to Colorado (Rocky Ford to be exact) and visit the folks at Innovative Water Technologies, Inc (www.innovativeh2o.com), the brains and heart behind the SunSpring.

Upon walking into their facility, I was immediately struck by how serious they took their water, and over the next couple days I learned just how much time, money, and expertise they put into designing the SunSpring, and the reason they do it.

The SunSpring is completely designed from the ground up, even down to the crate it is shipped in, to be used to provide safe water to third world countries, where it is needed most. The SunSpring is completely self-contained, solar powered, and engineered so that from the time it is delivered to an installation site, within 2-3 hours safe water is available. The only requirement it needs is sun for power (which, side note, the newest models are also being fitted with wind turbines), a water source (whether it be from a pipe, a well in the ground, or even a pond of murky water) and a technician trained to set the system up. That’s it. The system is designed to be fairly self-sufficient, forcing the dirty water through hundreds of thousands of microscopic filters, filtering out everything bigger than .02 microns (which is pretty small). Once up and running, it can produce around 5000 gallons of safe water every day, and it even is self cleaning, to maintain the highest level of purity for the water. Absolutely everything about this system has been ruggedly designed, built and tested to be sent out to the middle of nowhere and provide one of the most needed and important resources, safe water.

The enormity of this undertaking is quite frankly astonishing, but you only need to visit the company and see their walls covered with pictures from around the world, pictures of children and people, some perhaps having their first drinks of safe water in their lives. You only need to take a few minutes and listen to the stories of the systems they installed here soon after the earthquake in 2010, how they worked tirelessly to provide safe water to drink, as well as for hospitals treating the injured. It doesn’t take very long to see the depth of their heart and passion for those who are needy and suffering throughout the world, and I count myself better for knowing them and being in some small way a part of their team.

After 2 days of training, I was able to successfully pass the written and practical tests and became a certified installer and trainer for the SunSpring, and I returned to Haiti armed with the knowledge of how to keep the system running at top efficiency, and with several ideas of how to better use this safe water!

Me, trying to be artistic.
I really liked the way the shadow of the SunSpring and
the cross from our railings came together.
(If only Blogger would out the picture the right way!!!)

 Now you may have noticed emphasis on the word safe. As I quickly learned during my time in Colorado, making clean water is a relatively easy process, and while you may remove a lot of what smells, tastes and even can be harmful, most systems that just clean the water can leave a lot of harmful elements behind. The SunSpring system safely removes parasites, bacteria and viruses. Things like Salmonella, E-Coli, Hepatitis, Rotovirus, Poliovirus and Giardia are stripped away, leaving safe water to drink, to cook with and even to wash wounds. Safe water should be such an easy thing to have access to, but in most parts of the world it’s just not possible. But companies like SunSpring are putting their effort and resources to providing this invaluable resource throughout the world!